Fire Brand in Pawtucket: Baldelli “feeling pretty good”

Considering Rocco Baldelli last played in a baseball game on April 20, after straining his left hamstring muscle, he was pleased with his performance in the first game of a rehab assignment on Monday night for the Pawtucket Red Sox in an International League game against the Toledo Mud Hens.

“This is the first time I’ve played since I hurt my hamstring so I was going to go out there aware of it and be sure of myself, and make sure it feels good before I get on it real hard,” Baldelli said. “It felt fine.

“I got to see some pitching which I was happy about and I came away feeling pretty good.”

Travis Denker excited to be with Sox, Bard biding time

“I’m just looking for a home,” said Denker who last season played 24 games with the San Francisco Giants and hit .243. “But I never thought I’d come to (the Red Sox’ organization).

“From what I’ve heard this is a great place to play. The fans are amazing. Even in California some of my friends have Red Sox tattoos. That’s something we’ll have a good laugh over now.”

One post-mortem on Daniel Bard’s near mind-boggling performance against Rochester on Wednesday (he fanned the top three batters in the order on nine pitches in the ninth inning): Ron Johnson expressed the opinion that if the Red Sox brass had been at the game they might have taken Bard with him.

Kris Johnson stymies Northeastern

Yesterday, left-hander Kris Johnson, 24, drew the start against Northeastern University, my alma mater. Johnson turned in a solid year in 2008, starting 27 games for the Portland Sea Dogs and putting up an ERA of 3.63.

He whiffed three NU batters (one of which is my former roommate), walked none and gave up one hit in two innings.

My former roommate had this to say about Johnson: “Really fluid. Ball snuck up on me really quickly.”

SOX ON DECK: Sea Dogs can’t escape rain

Whether they
document.getElementById(”post-3215-blankimage”).onload();

SOX ON DECK: Kris Johnson pitches Portland to victory

Chalk up Thursday night
document.getElementById(”post-2933-blankimage”).onload();

Sox Draft Forecast Looking Cloudy

The 2007 MLB First Year Player Draft will go down in history as a banner year for the event. For the first time since its inception, the draft will [...]

Minor Storylines

We
document.getElementById(”post-1547-blankimage”).onload();

2006 Minor League All-Stars

Over the last three years, I have written an exhaustive review of nearly every single player in the Red Sox’s minor leagues. I called them the “Organizational Depth Charts.” While [...]