The Pawtucket Red Sox are in need of a new pitching coach. On Thursday the Boston Red Sox announced that PawSox pitching coach Kevin Walker was joining their staff as the assistant pitching coach.

Walker who has been the pitching coach in Pawtucket for the past two seasons will work alongside Dave Bush in Boston. Bush was announced officially as the new pitching coach on Thursday. No word on who will fill Walker’s spot in Pawtucket.

The #RedSox today announced the following updates to the major league coaching staff: pic.twitter.com/tLOXSf61q9— Red Sox (@RedSox) October 31, 2019

Walker, 43-years-old, has been a key cog in the Boston pitching department after completing his 11th season in the system in 2019. Prior to joining Pawtucket’s ranks, Walker served as the pitching coach in Double-A Portland for three seasons. Prior to that, he had pitching coach stints in High-A Salem, Low-A Greenville, and short-season Lowell. A true work the way up the system story.

During Walker’s time in Pawtucket, he had the tough task of managing rehabs of pitchers and helping feed Boston’s pitching staff. That meant a lot of balancing and tweaking to keep pitchers on track and available to the Major League club. Not an easy task given all the roster movements in the past year.

Prior to his coaching career, Walker was a pitcher himself having spent six seasons in the Major Leagues with the Padres, Giants, and White Sox with 122 big league games.
The post PawSox Pitching Coach Kevin Walker Added to Boston Staff appeared first on Trifecta Sports.

The Boston Celtics trailed by 19 at one point Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, but they stormed back to grab their third straight win led by the likes of Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart.
In the latest edition of the “NESN Celtics Podcast,” NESN.com’s Chris Grenham and Adam London discuss Smart’s defensive matchup with reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, Walker’s 32-point outing and what it means going forward for the Boston. The guys also discuss some news and notes around the NBA, in addition to the Celtics’ leaked City Edition uniforms.
Listen to the full episode in the player below, on iTunes or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner is turning heads across the United States. On Thursday the United States Men’s National Team announced that Turner has been called up for a pre-camp.

This pre-camp is ahead of the team’s two Concacaf Nations League Group A matches that USMNT has in November. This is the first International Call-up in Turner’s career and comes after an MLS season where he started the year as the clubs third-string keeper. The 25-year-old kept his head up all season though and developed into a franchise keeper earning a multi-year contract extension with New England.

Since signing as an undrafted college player back in 2016 Tuner has posted a 16-14-16 record with 170 saves and 10 shutouts. After he took the helm as the starting keeper in this season he posted an 8-4-7 record picking up 87 saves and posting five shutouts. His stretch as a starter was a big reason for New England’s ability to make the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2015.

Whenever I think of Matt Turner I think back to a comment that former Revolution Head Coach Brad Friedel made of the New Jersey native.

“As long as he stays grounded, humble, and focused, his potential is really high,” said Friedel in May of 2018. “There’s not too many American goalkeepers that are better than him, anywhere in the world.”

Friedel was adamant that if Turner could keep up his work ethic he would earn a national team look. That has come to fruition after Turner worked from being the number three goalkeeper to start 2019 to the number one to end it.
The post Revolution Goalkeeper Matt Turner Called to USMNT appeared first on Trifecta Sports.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid had quite the Wednesday night.
The two bigs went at it when the Minnesota Timberwolves took on the Philadelphia 76ers, causing NBA Twitter to nearly explode. The brawl led to both centers getting ejected, but in classic NBA fashion, it resulted in some internet jabs after the two teams left Wells Fargo Center.

The NSFW twitter back-and-forth led Washington Wizards point guard and former Boston Celtic Isaiah Thomas to call both players out the morning after.
“Man @JoelEmbiid and @KarlTowns y’all might as well get the gloves and figure this out,” Thomas tweeted. “All this internet (expletive) ain’t it.”
(You can see the tweet here.)
The NBA has begun its investigation into the fight, with both teams taking the sides of their respective participants.
We have a feeling the NBA wouldn’t be thrilled if Towns and Embiid took Thomas’ suggestion.

The Boston Red Sox seemingly are World Series contenders as they enter one of the most pivotal offseasons in recent memory.
ESPN’s David Schoenfield pegged the Red Sox at No. 6 in his “way too early” power rankings for the 2020 Major League Baseball season. Boston’s lofty place on Schoenfield’s list belies its 84-78 2019 record, suggesting the senior writer at the Worldwide Leader believes better times at Fenway Park are just over the horizon.

“They just hired Chaim Bloom away from the Rays to run baseball operations, and the immediate question he’ll face is whether to trade Mookie Betts in his final season before free agency,” Schoenfield writes. “The likely answer: Forget about it. I get that the farm system is barren and you’re always looking for an infusion of young talent and Betts could bring some good prospects in return. J.D. Martinez also has an opt-out clause on the remaining three years of his contract (three years, $66 million).
“Still, this is a loaded roster that is capable of doing big things in 2020 if they keep one of the best all-around players in the game and Martinez stays. Obviously, a lot will ride on the health of the very expensive rotation. Chris Sale, David Price and Nathan Eovaldi made just 59 starts and went a combined 15-17 with a 4.69 ERA. If those three are, indeed, damaged goods, Martinez walks and Betts is traded, this ranking could look a little silly.”
Eight teams that won as many or more games than the Red Sox in 2019 ranked below Boston on Schoenfield’s list, including the newly minted World Series champions, the Washington Nationals. Perhaps he’s banking on Martinez returning, Betts staying and the aforementioned trio of pitchers returning to good health and peak form.
Nevertheless, this list came out hours into the MLB offseason, and whatever happens in the hot stove over the next few months undoubtedly will change baseball’s perceived and real-life pecking orders.

Tom Brady is back to full health for the New England Patriots.
After being limited in practice Wednesday with a right shoulder injury, the 42-year-old quarterback was removed from the injury report Thursday.

While Brady, who has not missed a game due to injury since 2008, participated fully in Thursday’s practice, seven other players remained limited:
RB Rex Burkhead, Foot
S Patrick Chung, Heel/Chest
WR Julian Edelman, Chest/Shoulder
TE Ryan Izzo, Concussion
TE Matt LaCosse, Knee
G Shaq Mason, Ankle
WR Gunner Olszewski, Ankle/Hamstring
The Patriots will hold one additional practice Friday before heading to Baltimore for a Sunday night matchup with the Ravens.

Over the past few weeks, all of the talk surrounding Trent Williams was tied to his holdout and potential trade rumors. That drastically changed Thursday afternoon.
In a lengthy press conference, Williams told reporters that he was diagnosed with cancer on his scalp earlier this year, causing him to fear for his life, per The Washington Post. Washington Redskins team doctors previously told Williams that he need not worry about the growth on his head when it initially formed six years ago.

“I almost lost my life,” Williams told reporters, per The Washington Post. “I mean, I guess nobody took the time to see what was going on there. Football was more important, and to me it was more important, too. I was told it was something minor, so I didn’t really question them. But I mean, the lump continued to grow over the years, it was concerning but there was no pain involved, and if I’m being told by the very people I put my career in the hands of, people are telling me I’m fine, [then] I’m fine. That’s how I looked at it.”
Williams went on to add that he no longer trusts the Redskins organization, and honestly, who can blame him?
The offensive lineman ended his holdout after the NFL’s trade deadline came and went without a deal, but it was then reported that he failed the physical due to helmet discomfort. It’s now very clear why that was, and the Redskins seemingly have some questions to answer.

Antonio Brown is enjoying life away from the gridiron, apparently.
The embattled receiver, who’s been out of the NFL since the New England Patriots released him in September, posted a video of himself and DJ Khaled to Instagram on Thursday. It’s a shirt clip, but one that nevertheless features two of the most egotistical individuals on planet Earth.

Take a look:

View this post on Instagram

Bless Up
A post shared by Boomin (@ab) on Oct 31, 2019 at 12:50pm PDT

Yes, “bless up” indeed.
Brown has remained adamant that he wants to return to the field sometime this season. He even has suggested he’d be open to a reunion with the Patriots.

Jackie MacMullan revealed in piece published Tuesday on ESPN.com that Kyrie Irving told Danny Ainge he was leaving the Celtics during his exit interview following Boston’s second-round playoff loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
On Thursday, Ainge was asked on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich” whether that timeline was accurate, prompting the Celtics president of basketball operations to add some context regarding his end-of-season discussion with Irving, who ultimately signed with the Brooklyn Nets in free agency.

“Talking about last year’s team is getting about as boring to me as talking about the 2016 presidential election. So I think that I’d rather not address those issues, but I will say that I have said before that Kyrie was forthright,” Ainge explained. “His version and my version might be a little bit different, but it’s pretty close and I think that I hold no grudges against Kyrie. Kyrie, he didn’t slam the door on a potential return, but he did let me know that he would prefer to go home. Those were the words that he used and so we for sure had an inkling, but he didn’t slam the door on the possibility of returning to Boston.”
Irving famously said before last season he planned to re-sign with Boston. The All-Star point guard obviously didn’t fulfill that promise, even insisting last week it was an “easy decision” to sign with Brooklyn.
Things worked out for the Celtics, as they subsequently signed Kemba Walker and no longer have to deal with the headaches that accompany Irving, whose leadership was questioned ad nauseam throughout Boston’s underwhelming 2018-19 campaign. Plus, Irving’s tenure with the Nets isn’t exactly off to the smoothest start.
No wonder Ainge doesn’t hold any grudges. The Celtics might be better off in the long run thanks to Irving’s departure, however abrupt it was or wasn’t.