NESN Diary: Diving Into Chaim Bloom’s First Red Sox Selection (And Other Random Thoughts)

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is famous for selecting players on draft night that many others may never have imagined or even heard of.

Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom may have taken a page out of Belichick’s playbook Wednesday, and not necessarily in a bad way.

Bloom and the Red Sox selected Nick Yorke with the organization’s first-round pick of the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft at No. 17 overall. Yorke was ranked No. 139 by MLB Pipeline, while Baseball America included him as a top 10 sleeper pick.

One MLB analyst, ESPN’s Eduardo Perez, made an interesting point following the selection, though.

“Chaim Bloom, this is what he was brought in for, trying to find that gem that not a lot of people are looking for,” Perez said Wednesday on ESPN.

Finding a gem that nobody is looking for?

That’s exactly the Belichick mindset. I mean, do you have to look further than New England’s selection of Division II safety Kyle Duggar in April? Or standing in the rain and working out a player at Middle Tennessee? Belichick puts in the work and it’s why he always will stand by his decision.

Bloom did much of the same Wednesday. He seems very confident about his first-ever pick as a member of the Red Sox brass.

“We love this kid’s bat,” Bloom said, per The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. “We think he has a chance to be a special bat. … We feel if the spring had gotten a chance to play out the public perception of him would be a lot different.”

Bloom, according to The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham, added another interesting nugget about said public perception. If you make decisions based on that, and not the work done by scouts, personnel, etc., it could lead to trouble.

So, let’s see how this plays out.

Here are some other notes from Wednesday’s day in sports:

— The boys were back in town.

Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand set social media on fire on Wednesday when he posted a photo of him and teammate Patrice Bergeron on the ice at Warrior Ice Arena. (You can check out the photo here.)

NHL teams were allowed to reopen practice facilities earlier this week, after being off since March 12 due to the coronavirus.

The Bruins tweeted a video showcasing Marchand and Bergeron, too, which you can watch here.

— Kudos to NASCAR.

NASCAR on Wednesday revealed they would forbid displaying the Confederate flag at events, which African American driver Bubba Wallace had asked for Tuesday.

Following NASCAR’s statement which said it was “contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans,” Wallace applauded the decision.

— Could the Patriots offense be better without Tom Brady? Well, Rob Ninkovich doesn’t think so.

“It’s hard for me to think the Patriots are going to be better without Tom Brady. You talk about running the football. Yeah, if you’re not playing from ahead and you don’t have the lead, you can’t just run the football over and over and over again,” Ninkovich told ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

The Patriots, of course, do have among the best running back groups in the NFL, which Brandon Bolden had a hilarious comparison for.

Tweet of the Day
The Red Sox clearly are committed to change.

Video of the Day
Let’s go, Perk!

Stat of the Day
The longevity of Omar Vizquel, Ted Williams, Willie McCovey and Rickey Henderson was unreal.

More: Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots Congratulate 2020 Class In Virtual Commencement