Jacoby Ellsbury News

If free agency were like a high-school dance, then Alex Gonzalez was the sweet, friendly, reliable girl in the corner, and the Red Sox were the confident gent scanning the room for the flashiest partner.

Anyone who was at Fenway Park the night of April 26 will remember the flash of white uniform dashing down the third-base line.

What spoke loudest about the job DeMarlo Hale did in his four years as the Red Sox's third-base coach is that nobody noticed him.

An interesting question was raised to Jim Rice at Friday's Granite State Baseball Dinner.

One of the greatest pleasures Ron Johnson has enjoyed in his five years managing in Pawtucket has been serving as the messenger.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia Are the Only Returning Red Sox Starting Players Under the Age of 30 ... And to Celebrate that Fact, Ellsbury Is Switching His Number from 46 to 2 Speaking of 46 Going on 36, How's Mike Lowell Looking as Your Power-Hitting Third Baseman for Another Year? Another Kick in the Dentures: MLB Blows Off Fenway 100 and ...

Jason Bay is a good baseball player ... at some things. For other things, he's a bad baseball player.

Lars Anderson, last year's consensus #1, has likely fallen. Who will take over in his place? via View full size photo>> It's that time of year again, folks.

The show, currently benched for November sweeps, returns Dec. 4. That "Keeping up With the Kardashians" babe Kim Kardashian has cancelled her appearance at tomorrow's Gypsy Bar anniversary bash due to a filming conflict.

Red Sox GM Theo Epstein says he bought low on a player with considerable promise when he acquired Jeremy Hermida .

In the Nation, we tend to get impatient...a lot. This tends to escalate in offseasons following disappointing campaigns, but then again, our version of disappointing would make about 80 percent of the rest of baseball angry considering the Red Sox's run of success over the past decade.

The Red Sox retained one of the key members of their minor league system yesterday when director of player development Mike Hazen declined to join the San Diego Padres as assistant general manager.

It's not even the hot stove yet, but damn it, don't tell that to Bill James! After the jump is a sneak peak at what the Bill James Handbook has to offer for the 2010 Boston Red Sox .

Well, this took me a little longer than I expected, but oh well. Continuing in the player-by-player breakdown of who we had in 2009 and what they are to the team in 2010, I give you the batters.

Jacoby Ellsbury moving to left field? For the heck of it? There are days where you have to incur the statheads' wrath.

It's the Big Apple vs. the City of Brotherly Love as the Fall Classic is ready to treat baseball fans everywhere with a memorable World Series matchup.

Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald wrote yesterday that he thinks the Red Sox should trade for the Met's center fielder Carlos Beltran to improve their outfield defense.

So what does this have to do with the 2010 Red Sox? While they see Ellsbury maturing into an excellent center fielder, they also have mulled moving him to left field, where they believe he would be outstanding.

Boston has been to the playoffs five times, winning two championships and coming just one win short of reaching two additional World Series.

But given that Bay and the Red Sox already have had plenty of opportunities to work out a contract extension for the outfielder, how meaningful will those next five weeks be? ``It's very unusual for a player not to take the opportunity to at least listen, if he's come this far, to what other teams have to say,'' general manager Theo Epstein said ...