Paxton Crawford. Is he still pitching anywhere? He went from one of our starters, to injured at Pawtucket to released in a big hurry.

rsb

He hanging on in baseball by a thread, was pitching for Nashua in 2003

http://www.nashuapride.com/roster/player5.asp

It's really a shame that Paxton hurt himself. He really showed some serious promise. Imagine a world in which Crawford and Juan Pena developed into the AL version of Kerry Wood/Mark Prior? We'd be in the catbird seat for sure.

Oh, to dream.

-MALC, taking a break from the DD wars

No question we've been absolutely killed by freak injuries to some young pitching prospects. Pena and Crawford just to name a few. Who was the one guy, Yount? Who crushed a glass with his hand and severed the tendons...ruining his career. He threw in the mid to upper 90's as I recall. Hell, Chris Reistma is another. He is finally recovered and throwing well for the Reds, but we let him go because his arm exploded at one point.

Its certainly not an organizational or instructional problem, as many of them have been freak incidents...not related to programs.

rsb

I actually saw Crawford pitch on July 4, 1996 in Battle Creek, Michigan in A ball. He certainly looked good coming through the system, and in his brief outings here.

Once he's out of the game for good it will be interesting to hear the REAL story about him falling out of bed and onto the drinking glass. That one never really sounded legit.

Is that what happened to him???? I couldn't understand in '01 (I think) when they called him up, he went 3-0 and the next thing I knew, he was down in Pawtucket. I don't ever remember hearing why, and for the life of me, I can't remember the names of the over-the-hill scrubs that they had pitching that year (kills me cause me roomie loved some guy, and I hated him...sho nuff, he imploded in the second half)

Yet another example of why minor leaguers, barring immediate overwhelming talent on the superstar level, are nothing more than lottery tickets and trade bait.

Hoping the minor leaguers will bloom isn't worth it unless they're clear superstars in the making. The Sox, having traded Fossum, are starting to get this.

A-men to that. All the gnashing of teeth and tearing of hairshirts when minor leaguers were traded for Schilling made me laugh. The people freaking about throwing in John Lester on an ARod deal make me laugh. Yeah, you get the occassional Bagwell and A.N. Other for Larry Andersen deals, but mostly you get Pavano and Armas for Pedro.... And except for not having Alyssa Milano in the stands, you cant complain about that deal. IMHO

The story behind Crawfords injury is that he got into an argument with a prostitute (or as I was told, "lady of the night" in a motel room and during the ensuing scuffle he fell and landed on the drinking glass. Thats the story that I read at the time, it was, for obvious reasons never filed in an official report, unfortuantel I cant seem to find it anywhere on the net.

The "hooker" story is accurate from sources that I trust. It came down to a dispute over US$ vs CAN $

A footnote, I saw the 1999 Trenton AA team often, and in talking to the Trenton beat writers (they actually have 2 papers covering team) they all thought that Eckstein was the best player on that team. Crawford they didn't like. Adam Everett also was considered over rated.

Remember the 1999 Trenton Thunder was suppoosed to be the Sox team for a decade.

See that is what you get for messing around with stuff like that Paxton!!! I wonder how many other stories are out there about stuff like that we never find out about. Sometimes you just don't want to know...

He was one of many that we all had great hopes for. Do you remember Reggie Harris from years ago. He was another.

This is just testimony to another one of those poisonous baseball words that is batted around so much but doesn't really have any value or meaning... "STUFF." See "Tools," and/or "Intangibles," "stuff" as in a pitcher's "stuff" doesn't mean anything unless they can put it all together, i.e. with "control" and "results." The way Paxton Crawfors "stuff" somehow was compared to Pedro's reminds me of the days when Jeff Sellers' "stuff" was inexplicably linked to Clemens'.

Remember how great Frankie Rodriguez was supposed to be?

For what it's worth - I saw Crawford pitch in Nashua last year and he wasn't even the best pitcher on THEIR STAFF. He may have been supremely disinterested but if he truly had the drive to get back to the show you'd think he might do everything he could to dominate the batters in the Atlantic League.

Andy Yount was the guy who smashed the glass in his hand. He squeezed it, and the official story was that it was upon hearing about the death of someone he was close to. He was a head case though with some serious emotional problems. Severed the tendons and he couldn't grip the ball after that. He actually tried to make a comeback as an outfielder, I think in the Tigers system, but I think he's given up on that.

Didn't Dustin Hermanson have some sort of freak injury during his rehab (put his elbow down on the corner of a counter, some rumored it was an infection from a steriod injection). He pitched in the yankees series with the injury to his elbow, then later admitted there was something wrong with it.

Didn't we also have a guy who fell out of bed and hurt his shoulder? Was that years ago? Was it Bruce Hurst?

God, what wouldn't you give for a Bruce Hurst to round out this rotation right now?

Is it me or is this thread really depressing?

What about Robinson Checo? The list of sour prospects could go on forever

Its nice to look back sometimes..

How about that fellow we kept on the roster for a year in the 80's but hardly pitched. We claimed him from the EXPOS.. Was it John Trautwein... He was one for the future

Pat Dobson? What happened tp Rick Asoordian?

Boy there has been a ton of busts over the years huh?

Kevin Morton, Phil Plantier

I suppose none worse than Todd Van Poppel and Brien Taylor

I remember as a kid pulling a Brien Taylor card from a pack and being so excited, I think it was a Topps Gold card, and at the time was worth some big bucks - for a kid anyhow, ....

Did he even pitch a ML game? I don't think so ....

remember Bob Zupzic?

just a side note on Brien Taylor....he ended his career by putting his hand through a window at a bar in Albany, NY. never fully recovered from the bar fight. i saw him pitch for the Albany-Colonie Yankees and he was the real deal. just a little too hot headed.

"Pat Dobson? What happened tp Rick Asoordian?"

Pat Dobson was a 20 game winner for the Orioles in the 70's. Perhaps you mean John Dopson (was a starter here for a few years in the 80's) or Pat Dodson (first baseman who had a few cups of coffee around the same time)?

I'm sure he meant Pat Dodson.

As for players with loads of potential who didn't do jack, how about (forgive me the semi-blasphemy) Sam Horn? He was a stunningly huge man, but never did anything. Too bad. But he lives on in perpetuity in the Web site that has taken his name.

-MALC

Pat Dodson was who I meant indeed. I always thought Phil Plantier would be a good player, but in the end he was a poor man's Kevin Maas. Remeber him? He made a huge splash when he burst onto the scene hitting bomb after bomb

I always wanted to know what happend to Brian Rose. I remember him being traded to the Rockies, then he was with the Mets, than he was gone. It makes you wonder what would've happend if we kept Pavano and gave up Rose instead.

John Marzano was our future all star catcher

Didnt a load of players come up from Pawtucket at the time, Burks,Horn,Benzinger,Marzano,Ellsworth,Jody reed. I thought we were set for 10 years with these guys

Didn't Rose go to the O's for a bit?

One guy I always feel bad for is Montalbano...I met his sister at a wedding in Newport a few years ago...that poor bastard just can't catch a break.

"...Ellsworth..."

Ah yes, Steve Ellsworth - son of former Sox hurler Dick. Possibly the best seats that have ever existed in a baseball park were at Tiger Stadium; those being the second-deck overhang near home plate. I was in those seats when Ellsworth won his only major league game, and remember saying - joking, I thought - to a friend that maybe we were seeing the only win of his career. True story.

I remember watching Sox/Yanks opening day at Yankee Stadium, probably in '92? Horn and Plantier, I believe, went back-to-back in the first inning. Even sitting in box seats, only a few rows back from the dugout, I though I was going to get killed, rooting for the Sox alone.

Not only was that perhaps a career highlight for both, I think we lost, too.

Brian Rose - last I heard of him, he was with the Mets. I think he was on their spring training roster, and I don't know if he made the team.
He was pitching one night at Yankee Stadium in 2000, and my group and I were in the front row of the upper deck WAY out in left field. In honor of the occasion, I bought a dozen roses that afternoon, and brought them in to the Stadium. Rose got knocked out in the fourth inning, but he had three strikeouts, and for each strikeout, I taped a rose to the facade...
Tek homered off El Duque, and Boston won.

(I gave the rest of the roses to my wife)

is michael coleman still around? torre didnt like him. i know that much.

All the gnashing of teeth over Murton makes this quote particularly interesting. I totally agree with this.

I saw Michael Coleman play (and homer for) the Newark Bears earlier in the season. I don't know if he is still there, but I would assume he is.

What about Jin-Ho Cho or whatever his name was? I remember that people were saying that he, Tomo Okha and Sang-Hoon Lee (or Sun-Woo Kim?) were going to make the Red Sox one of the most marketable franchises for Asian players. Well, I don't think that entirely worked out. BK isn't really what I would call 'marketable' to Asian players. These guy were supposed to be the Nomo and Park combo in LA. Anyone know what happened to him? Lee (or Kim) is still in Montreal I assume. And Okha is ovbiously pitching for the Expos.

Kevin Maas was a poor man's Kevin Maas.

Hey man, Marzano will always be an all star...

Anyone know if Troy O'Leary is still playing anywhere this year? I thought I remembered him in a Cubs uniform briefly last year, but man did THAT guy fall out of the picture in a hurry...

I remember the early 90's when Luis Ortiz was the future of the Red Sox. That one didn't turn out so well. Jeff McNeely was another bust in the early 90's. In my opinion the late 80's through the mid 90's produced the most overhyped prospects that I can remember.

Brian Rose missed most of last season recouperating from Tommy John surgery, but this season he's pitching well as a starter for Cincinnatti's AA team; the same team features Paxton Crawford getting knocked around in middle relief.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/Stats...Asthn_cha.shtml

Jin Ho Cho went back to Korea.

What's Juan Pena's deal? He and Paxton Crawford were once our Wood and Prior. Alas, what might have been.

-MALC

Pena blew out his elbow twice, had Tommy John Surgury, and never regained his form. Sad times.

I knew what happened to him, but was more wondering if he was still hanging on somewhere. Oh well. Not like he's going to pop up and win 18 for us anytime soon.

This thread is great..Steve Curry, Steve Ellsworth, Steve Lomansey, Cole Liniak, and future ace Rob Woodward..yessiree hold onto them Red Sox prospects! lord knows how many of these future stars are selling insurance or running gas stations somewhere, ah it just goes to show what a crapshoot prospects are.

Some players don't know when to quit

up in Nashua

Dante Bichette
Henry Rodriguez

A few years from now, I'll revive this thread and add Murton to the list. What about guys like Dana Kieker, not a prospect but as savior to be. On an aside: I remember one of my friends used to say "I'm boltin'" as in "I'm leaving." So I used to take it as "Bolton" and say "I'm Leister."

Bichette happens.

Where's Bryant Nelson?

I remember his 2-0 start a few years back, w/ one of the two an impresssive one vs. the Yankees.

Cruel, cruel, word.

Dewayne Hosey, LaShelle Tarver...

No...who's he?

Steve F. Lomansey...

Perhaps Peabody High's most legendary QB/FS...

...that freak absolutely drilled me on back-to-back safety blitzes one Friday night under the lights in Peabody...put his helmet right on my throwing elbow. I had a family wedding the next day and I had a tough time getting my suit on over my elbow, which had swollen to the size of a melon...

Anyone else humming *Glory Days?*