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.

Red Sox claim Travis Denker

The Red Sox claimed second baseman Travis Denker off waivers from the San Diego Padres; the Padres nabbed him from the San Francisco Giants last year.

Denker, 23, has a .243/.333/.486 line in 37 at-bats with the Padres this year. It was his major league debut, and TSN.ca says he is “a true gamer with some pop in his bat, decent speed and pretty good plate discipline. Has solid gap power.”

His flaws are that he “needs to improve with the glove if he has any chance of becoming an everyday player.”

He is a career .276/.375/.455 minor league hitter. I would expect him to replace Gil Velazquez as the backup infielder.