Joel Laflamme

So this is a guy who, you know, having people around him that he trusts and knows well is really, really important.

I think he's been more impacted by the firings than a lot of others with this new coaching staff and everything else.

Yeah, and this joyless season at Fenway, he's been kind of the only guy to consistently bring the good vibes with the Red Sox.

And you see that on a daily basis.

You know, anytime I feel like those of us covering the beat need a positive story or a positive spin, he's an easy place to look.

There's not many of those, as I've said.

So, you know, Jay's fans haven't watched him.

Obviously, he's going to be on the other side.

But he's a guy who's very, very fun to watch, as you mentioned.

This year, they've kind of changed his arsenal a little bit, or at least his attack plan to –

Last year, as he was coming, he was drafted in 2024, did not pitch professionally, started last year at single A or high A, and ended up debuting in his first professional season on Labor Day weekend.

There were ups and downs.

He struck out a bunch against the Pirates in his debut, struggled in a couple outings, and a lot of that was he didn't have the secondary pitches, the...

change up the breaking ball, totally dialed in.

This year, they're just basically telling him, throw hard all the time, you know, throw the cutter a lot, beat people with the four-seamer, and just overpower, overpower, mix and match a little bit, but just overpower, and it's really worked.

You know, as a guy who did not start the year on the big league team, he had a month in AAA, pitched pretty well, got called up when they had some injuries, and has really been, you know, outside of a couple iffy starts, excellent, you know, the ERA, I believe,

In the low twos, he's a guy that, you know, when he gets going, the body language on the mound, the crowd feeds off of it.

It can kind of become an event, especially at Fenway.

And to me, you know, there's guys who have had really good years.

We talked about a lot of them in Contreras and Rafaela and some of the others.