I usually see this type of post here, So added it.

So glad to have in Boston Jason Bay Hope you to see you get a ring or two.

I Like this: "G'day, Bay. May I say, play the way for pay, that any Ray or Yankee'd slay! I pray!
Posted by B.Muller July 31, 08 09:06 PM on from Globe's sox page."

Having seen him play Live for the Pirates I for one am glad he is here.
If this was Nov and Manny signed with LA and we traded for Bay all would be in good Cheer. I look at it that way. Let's go get the Divison now!!!

I am excited to see what Jason Bay offers this team since I haven't been able to see him play much at all except for AS and WBC coverage. All I have on him are his stats but he seems to have a personality somewhere between Drew and Youks from what NL people are saying about him as a person. I am also excited to see what this does for the clubhouse guys and overall team atmosphere. Welcome Mr. Bay to the Bay State...maybe it was meant to be.

Welcome to Boston Jason Bay! Go out and tear it up!

I have it from reliable sources that Jason Bay hates all things New York….I like him already!


I'm interested to see of he ponies up the cash.

Somewhere between Drew and Youks? So, he'll stoically throw the Gatorade cooler against the wall?

High hopes also for Jason Bay.

It will be so nice to have a LF who isnt distracting the team, who runs hard, who doesnt sit against hard throwers, who is just happy to be here, who actually wants to be in Boston, who appreciates playing in Fenway, who appreciates the fans and their adoration, who doesnt harm the elderly, who plays some defense, who doesnt let every ball hit in front of him drop, who doesnt high five fans during a play, who doesnt call out management, who doesnt embarass the uniform, who doesnt piss in the Green Monster, whose name belongs among the greats to patrol this ballpark's LF, who respects the game of baseball, who wont undercut his manager, who will play down the stretch, who wont have phantom knee injuries, who wont have any phantom injuries, who only has two grandmothers, who will take out the second baseman or shortstop to break up a double play instead of peeling off to the outfield, who wont be a little b****.

Welcome from the bottom of my heart, Mr. Bay. Its a shame you didnt get here sooner.

Bay says he will wear #44. I guess he doesn't care for charity after all!

Not that I was ever against HIM, but Bay has won me over with this press conference. He seems like a great guy. Granted it's just one press conference, but I like what I'm seeing so far. Plus he's wearing my number.

For those out of towners stuck in work, what did he have to say?

haha...thanks for the laugh Malzone. Very well played. I would say he is more towards the Drew end of the spectrum. I didn't leave much room for restriction there did I, picking the two complete opposite polarity personalities on the team. I have a feeling that he is going to beat out a DP ball at some point tonight or this weekend and the crowd is going to go nuts.

He said he was happy to be here. Growing up in British Columbia, his dad was a "die-hard Red Sox fan", and Jason had a Red Sox onesie as a little kid. He and his friend Xavier Nady talked about their inevitable rivalry and he seemed excited about. He was very articulate and respectful during his fairly brief conference.

Basically how excited he is to play for the Sox and how he can't wait to play tonight. That's all I needed to hear. Also, his father idolized Jim Rice and Yaz. He has historical appreciation for the Sox franchise so I am pretty sure we won't have to hear these words again..."the Red Sox don't deserve me"...thank the lord.

...Just ahhhhhh!

Source

I was hoping for #3 or #2.

No offense to Henry Aaron or Reggie Jackson, but #44 is not sexy. It seems like a burly 4th OF number.

Agree 100%. He came across as a very candid, articulate and confident guy. Now let's see him back that up at the plate!!

Nice ovation and a pretty good start to his Sox career.

I don't know why I care so much, but I wanted him to wear #2... I like single digits. ...

Anyway, he's a bum trade him after the season! Two whiffs!!!!!?!?!?! Unbelieveable!! He's a glorified AAA player!!!!

/just kidding. Go Bay!

Gabe Kapler?


It was terrific to see the standing ovation. Better to see him score our only two runs. Welcome to Boston.

Great start to his Boston career:

1-3 2 walks, HBP, triple, 2 RS.

Great game by Bay including the great catch and good wall defense.

Loved the standing ovation, and he seems to handle pressure well so far.

Here's to more success down the road for him...

Well, that was a pretty good first game for him. Almost had a walk-off in the 12th, legged a triple, and scored the winning run. On-base 4 times? Welcome to Fenway, Jason.

Maybe Tito will have him batting cleanup tommorrow. Earned it tonight. And maybe time to switch Drew and Ortiz in the lineup? You also want to see Lowrie playing every day.

Just a note about that last at bat for Bay. Manny would have been on second at the most. He would have been busy staring at the ball admiring the ball hitting the wall. Lowrie's ball would have moved him to third and Varitek would have grounded out and sent the game to the next inning. Not to harp on Manny now that he is gone but I just had to mention it.

With Lowell likely out for a bit, I think it goes Ortiz, Bay, Drew at 3-4-5.

Maybe if he didn't gawk at his moon shot in the 12th he would've had an inside the park homer instead of just a triple...







Kidding.

I wonder why Bay didn't seem to get many good pitches to hit tonight. I mean, he was walked twice, hit and on his two strikeouts he reached on a couple.

Seems like they would go right after a guy who has gone 24 hours without much sleep and who flew to Boston yesterday.

In any case, I hate to see the strikeouts since that's the rap on Bay, but it was nice to see he's pretty selective at the plate and he's more than capable of driving a pitch.

Agree. They are the three impact bats in our lineup and this is how it should be. Lowell should be 6th when he returns.

He got a triple against Alan Embree, who is left-handed? But he was bad against left-handers in 84 ABs this year.

Welcome to Boston, Jay Bay.

That also keeps it nice and LRLR through the meat of the order so the opposing manager can't try to get too cute without burning through relief pitchers.

Guy is pretty fast on the basepaths. Faster than I thought. I was expecting JD Drew style solid fast... Bay looks more athletic. He was burning going around second. Definitely faster than Drew.

Maybe he stopped for a split second but can you really blame him, I thought he had hit a walk off his first day in boston.

Also though it would not have even been there if Manny was still out there after Bay saved a run with a great out field catch to keep it at 1-0

I disagree. Bay flails more so he looks like he may be faster, but I'd put money on Drew on a footrace with Bay every time. In fact, when Bay was running out the triple, I thought of the old saw 'he runs a long time in the same place'. That's a gross exaggeration, but JD is definitely faster. How we gonna solve this? The NFL has published 40 yard, etc. times. Baseball not.

I think it's more that Bay is a great baserunner and has good baseball instincts that he's a fast runner. For a guy his size, he's not a slowpoke by any means, but certainly better on the basepaths than Manny, no question about that. I'm happy for the guy. As he gets more familiar with the caroms off the Monster, he's going to be great in LF.... already did pretty well holding that wallball to a single. And the triple aside, the bottom line is getting on base, and he did that well.

Welcome to the Sox, Mr. Bay.

He has a rep as one of the best baserunners in the NL, so I'm sure that he isn't slow.

Remind me again, what number did Orlando Cabrera take when the Sox made that huge Nomar trade in 2004???

Well I enjoyed that 3 run shot about 2 minutes ago by Bay, he can stand and admire that.

Oh I know it was 44, let's hope the same karma happens!!

That's two games in a row Bay has gotten the big hit which made the difference in the game.
That shows he has the ability to step up in key situations.

That one he hit out yesterday was like a foot outside and high... I dunno how to feel about that. On one hand he must be really strong to hit that one out... on the other hand, why was he swinging at that in the first place?

He is certainly off to a nice start and seems real excited to be on the Sox. Hopefully that excitement and lack of a daily Manny situation will get this team on a roll. right now the trade looks good for the Dodgers and the Sox.

And I knew that you knew that I knew that you knew that I posted it for karma as well.

Great article from THT about how the Sox are a better team on the field with Bay rather than Manny:







http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...-a-better-team/

They also have a video breakdown of Bay, as well as discussion of his stuggles and knee injuries last season. Good read.

Interesting how Bay has been impressive thus far and ForbesK is nowhere to be seen? What a coincidence! Must be working on new wacky nicknames for him.

And the 44 karma never fails...except in the case of Gabe Kapler.

I doubt we'll see ForbesK again for awhile. He had gone 10 months without posting before all the Manny stuff started. Hopefully he won't be back.

Hopefully he WILL be back, with a receipt for a $100 donation to the Jimmy Fund.

I think he just got tired of trolling... as far as I can see he'd have plenty of ammo left considering how well #99 is doing. Not that having a logical basis was ever all that important to his arguments...

I stand corrected.

Next time throw in something like $1 extra for each point over the goal. (ex. .395 would have made him owe $120)

I'm not counting any chickens yet. I look at it like this: Over the 53 games he'll have with the Sox, at 4.5 PA/G (which might be a bit high, given off days) he'll have 238.5 plate appearances. For me to win the bet I need him to get on base 89+, or 90 times.

Of course, he's at 13 already. That leaves 77, in 48 games. Using my 4.5 PA/G, he'll need an OBP of .356 the rest of the way.

Wow. Didn't realize it was looking that good.

Anyway, it's funny that I thought he'd sit right around his career average (and 2008 average through July 31) of .375 but if pressed I'd have taken the under. (Remember, it was the 2-1 odds that enticed me to take the bet.) I thought that all things being equal there would be a slight adjustment period, and that'd be enough to keep him around .370. Of course, I hadn't looked at the park factors at that point, which would make his .375 at PNC translate to something much, much higher at Fenway.

It's been quite the transformation for me. At first I thought we were getting a slight downgrade from Manny. Then I convinced myself we were getting his equal. Now I really do think we improved the team on the field (and obviously his hot start has helped that thought process along).

I just hope he hits a lot of HRs so I can bust out the "CASNADIAN DESTROYER" joke in game threads.

This is probably the wrong place for it, but Canada wasn't always called Canada. It used to be called "Cnd". Then Cndians were asked how to spell it and they would say "C-ay-N-ay-D-ay"

Trust me, it's funnier if you say it instead of read it.

Bay is very surprising with the stick. Wristy power is a wondrous thing to watch. I'm sure another #44 Henry Aaron would like Bay's swing.

Not if you looked at his career numbers and knew he was playing hurt last year.