Continuing with his re-shaping and re-vamping of the cash-poor, Boston Herald’s sports section, Hank Hryniewicz confirmed to Scott’s Shots on Monday afternoon that Lawrence Eagle Tribune writer John Tomase will be joining the Herald staff in the ensuing days.

“Right now we will be using him on our Patriots beat and he will be working with Michael Felger,” Hank Herald, the paper’s top sports editor, confirmed via email.

Tomase, predominantly a Sox writer for the EagTrib, caused a bit of an uproar in late spring when he penned a column critical of Manny Ramirez. The fallout that ensued (see: Scott’s Shots, June 20) from that piece put Tomase in the local spotlight for several days. In retrospect, he was probably a bit ahead of the curve in his Manny-bashing, but he had chosen an odd time for the piece and it enraged the masses. He even wound up extending the story a bit with a follow up that Shots commented on here.

“John has demonstrated strong reporting skills in his previous role covering the Red Sox and we look forward to having him help us give our readers the best Patriots coverage in New England,” Hank Herald said.

Tomase did not immediately return a Shots email request regarding the considerable step up.

The move comes at a precarious stage of the Herald’s existence. Recent layoffs and buyouts in addition to an ever-unsteady newspaper industry have left many at One Herald Square walking on eggshells. Hank Herald has gone a long way in his brief tenure to easing some of those concerns. A dyed-in-the-wool newspaper man, he has adopted some modern-day techniques for increasing and broadening his talent’s appeal and reach. The Red Sox Clubhouse Insider blog – despite being the most overused title for any media segment/column – has allowed writers like Tony Mazz, Steve Buckley and Howard Bryant to spread their writing wings a bit. It has also created a bit of a blog war with the Globe. That type of maneuvering is both necessary and commendable in the current sports marketplace known as Boston, Title Town.

Hank Herald has also opened up the pages to a worthwhile Fantasy Football column by Patrick Hanrahan; a regular poker feature on Sunday and some more use of Polls to interact with readers and users. His regime has also seen an increased use of “charticles” in an effort to combine creative design (by the sports desk’s two-person design team) with solid information (see Felger’s recent Insider columns as one example.)

The Tomase hire is also encouraging because as recently as the middle of last month, it looked as though there would be no new hires at the Herald, per order of the beancounters. This addition in manpower could signify a tiny loosening of the purse strings to aid the Yellow Boxers’ woefully under-staffed sports desk (especially compared to the main competitor, Boston Globe).

It is reasonable to expect Tomase to contribute a Patriots Blog, something the Herald has not had at its site since Mike Reiss left the family for Globe duties a month ago. He has since made his boston.com Pats blog, “Reiss’s Pieces,” a must-read.

Some Googling of Tomase’s name indicates he has been at the EagTrib since at least 2002 and Shots also believes he used to work with Herald’s Deputy Sports Editor Dog, Mark Murphy at the breeding ground known as the MetroWest Daily News.

Tomase’s role on Fox Sports New England, where is a regular guest on the casino-sponsored New England Sports Tonight (NEST), is likely to be even bigger with his new gig. For now though, FSNE spokesman Skip Perham said: “(John) has a pretty big presence on the (nightly) show now and that will continue going forward.”

Tomase, another of the region’s vast pool of young, rising talents, recently took home third-place honors for the Northern New England Chapter of the Associated Press’s 2005 Writing Contest. That honor was for a piece titled: “Red Sox Put Ghosts to Rest.” He was beaten by two entries from the Burlington free Press in that division. He has also has had several national AP writing awards’ Top 5 finishes.

We’ll hope to have more on the Tomase addition for this week’s regularly scheduled Shots on Friday. But check back on Wednesday for some leftovers from the Bill Simmons interview and another of Shots’ world famous, PodShots.