Your Center Fielder of Tomorrow (and not today)
Jacoby Ellsbury has been sent back to Pawtuckett now that the Sox have Coco back and are on the road. He did not make the trip with the team. This will probably be the last time we saw him, batting last night in the 8th inning, until the September call ups. He was only on the team to fill in for Coco while he was ailing, mostly because Wily Mo Pena continues to strike out like Pedro Cerrano. Hit straight ball very far… but no hit curve ball.
Speaking of major league, the guy they are bringing up to replace Ellsbury (and play first base) is Rube Baker. OK - that’s not actually his name, but he is pretty much that character from Major League 2. His real name is Jeff Bailey, and he was a catcher coming up through the minor leagues. Check out Jeff Bailey’s profile on Sox Prospects. He is 29 years old and has been in the Red Sox organization since 2004. Before that, he was with Montreal and the Marlins. He was a catcher until he suffered a “mental block” in 2005 and couldn’t get the ball back to the pitcher anymore. Now he is a DH/1B and will probably be playing first with the Sox tonight.
He is going strikeout and walk a lot and is pretty slow on the base paths. There is a reason he was still in AAA - but we’ll see if he can provide some hits in his time with the team.
Stumble it!