Bay State Sports Blog

            The August first trade deadline has come and gone... and oh boy this team responded. The Boston Red Sox throughout the month of August have gone 13-15, going from 2.5 games out of the wild card on July 31st to now here on August 31st, 6.5 games out. Going into the August 1st trade deadline the Boston Red Sox front office informed the team and the fans that their big acquisitions at the trade deadline would be the return of players currently on the roster coming off of injury. Those being Chris Sale, Trevor Story, Garret Whitlock, and Tanner Houck. 3 of 4 of the players were starting pitchers in the rotation and the 4th was the defensive glove at short stop and versatile bat the club signed from Coors Field Colorado in free agency.  To be noted Chaim did make a minor move trading for Luis Urias who has been a decent glove in the infield and brought in 2 grand slams. He has been solid but it has not been enough to address the g...

            Yes I have been teasing this post for what feels like every single Patriots blog this off season. The New England Patriots Offensive Line... In 2022 they were ranked 11th overall by Pro Football Focus which felt generous when looking at the product on the field. Mac Jones is a traditional statue pocket passing quarterback. His strengths are his accuracy and ability to read the defense and take what they give. A lot like a similar player that was the prior QB for the club. Mac Jones is not going to be at his best rolling out of the pocket throwing under pressure and taking sacks.      In the 7 games going into the Patriots Jets matchup on November 20th 2023 Mac Jones had been sacked 21 times. Whereas in his rookie season in total he was at 28 sacks total. Ranking Jones at 34 out of 35 quarterbacks last season taking hits and being sacked by opposing defenses. The devils advocate side that boosts this line to rank at 11th overa...

          Round 1 of this gauntlet stretch for the Boston Red Sox is complete... The Red Sox just concluded their 4 game series with the Houston Astros down in Minute Maid Park located in Houston Texas. The drama coming from this series was incredible, it had highs it had lows it looked like the Boston Red Sox season was over. That they died yet in the 2nd two games the Sox came back in a massive way with a gritty win in game 3 and straight obliteration in game 4.      We will get the first half of this series out of the way first. Game 1 the Red Sox left 10 runners on base and at the point were 8 for 23 with runners in scoring position over their last 10 games. They tacked on more egregious errors from Rafael Devers who looked to be in his own head forcing plays on defense and on offense. In the 8th inning the Red Sox had 1 out and were only down 3 runs, they had a real shot late in this game. Devers had ball 4 he swung t...

            The third domino has officially fallen for the championship era Boston Bruins. Zdeno Chara in 2022, Patrice Bergeron in late July and now David Krejci has officially joined the old folks in retirement now in mid august of 2023. David Krejci was a core pillar for the he played 16 season with the Boston Bruins. Krejci was a member of the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup Champion team. David Krejci had 3 Stanley Cup finalist appearances in 2011 when he won, along with 2013 and 2019, where the bruins would fall to the Blackhawks and Blues. David Krejci had lead the NHL in Playoff points in 2011 and 2013 being one of the greatest  offensive playmakers in this era for the Boston Bruins.       Fans of the Boston Bruins definitely saw this retirement happening, as I mentioned in the Bay State Sports Podcast following the Bergeron retirement, it definitely looked like David Krejci was in the game for retirement. David Krejc...

          The New England Patriots have completed their first pre season game against the Houston Texans... it wasn't pretty. It was a good shot for 2nd & 3rd stringers to show off their stuff and show coach Belichick the depth the Patriots possess. Long story short the depth is miniscule. The one bright spot was the potential of the likes of a Malik Cunningham who had flashes of greatness in his NFL debut, which will be a whole other post. Off of what we saw the running back depth was tested and it... failed. Pierre Strong on 6 carries had 21 yards against the Houston's backups. Kevin Harris on 8 carries had 10 yards. Pretty abysmal performance from the two backs. There are definite arguments regarding the offensive line which indeed will be another whole post regarding the Patriots. The line looks like it could be one of the worst in the entire league. But essentially against the Houston Texans backups, being the lowest bar the Patriots could rea...

          After long waiting the New England Patriots are finally back! Tonight at 7pm the Patriots host their first pre-season matchup against the CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans. The biggest narratives to watch unfold going into this pre season is, the wide receiver room, the offensive line and will Mac Jones play in the pre season?     Starting with our first pilar is the wide receiver room. The Patriots brought in Juju Smith-Schuster as their Jakobi Meyers replacement, who brings more yards after carry but less conversions in the end zone. Not the worst look if the Patriots are banking on using Bourne and Stevenson to secure those touchdowns. Not only this but it looks like the tight ends will be the primary weapons for the offense. To really keen in on the room there is an intense competition in Patriots training camp and pre season right now between 3 young revivers for 2 spots on the roster. Tyquan Thornton, Demario Douglas,...

            Going into the august 1st trade deadline the Boston Red Sox had been the hottest team in baseball during the month of July, They went 15-8 over the month with the highlight of the season sweeping the Atlanta Braves. They went on this run and kept the team afloat with only two starting pitchers. The Red Sox bullpen had put out an all out effort starting with openers and full pen performances for 3 out of every 5 games in the Sox rotation. That pen did great, highlighting performances came from Nick Pivetta who recorded 13K's most by a reliever in Baseball history. Bernadino, Murphy had held down the team in critical spots, Chris Martin was another reliever that really stepped up in a big way when the Red Sox needed help. Jansen for the most part had been a rock as well. Winckowski had been solid in the early months of the season but the load looked to start to wear on Josh and his performance would start to slip.     Going into the...

      Mere days after my latest Celtics Blog titled "Jaylen Brown will sign the supermax extension" just that happened. Jaylen Brown is maxed out on a new extension over the next 5 years worth in total of 304 million dollars guaranteed. Yes no question this was going to happen. That is just the way the cap is headed and with such an asset as Brown, who can create, drive, score, shoot and defend, locking him up for the duration of his prime is huge for the Celtics going forward. They took a risk on the kid when they drafted Brown. He was extremely physical and he could jump out of the gym he was a great defender. All of the scoring and creation came much later into his career after years of developing his game. With the strides you see Jaylen make every year there's no question he can make further steps to adjust his game to what is needed for the club.      Jaylen Brown is one of the cornerstones of the franchise he has to develop his game now for...