It’s OK. You can sleep at night.
Boston Red Sox first round draft pick Jason Groome made his pro debut on Monday for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox. Yes, it was his pro debut despite being on the team for roughly a month-and-a-half.
So! How did it go!? Well, wouldn’t you like to know? Probably why you clicked on the article in the first place. It went like this:
Groome threw two innings of one-hit ball against the GCL Rays (Tampa Bay Rays affiliate) and while he did not walk anyone, he struck out three men. Dare we say, the next Nolan Ryan? Two innings against 18 year olds that I didn’t see in-person? Yes, I am in position to make such a judgement.
Certainly an impressive debut for Groome. But it’s not as impressive as this:
Not to put Groome down, but nothing could top that. Not even this:
The GCL Red Sox season goes until September 1, so it seems likely he would probably only throw one more time again this season, a season that did not go as fully expected for him.
The initial plan seemed to be he would join the Lowell Spinners at some point. But it’s late August and he has one outing of Gulf Coast League action on his resume — and it wasn’t even a full start. So the chances of that happening are slim: slimmer than your slimmest friend/enemy/acquaintance.
Next year, however, he could skip over Lowell completely. That’s what Trey Ball did three years ago and he was another Red Sox first round draft pick. He started his first full season with the Greenville Drive and seeing how Groome is more developed than Ball was coming out of high school, Groome would probably have less difficulty with the jump as well. After all, he spent some time at IMG Academy down in Bradenton, Florida — an $80,000 a year “school”.