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  1. #31
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    I like this.
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  2. #32
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    How will Ortiz do?

    BOSTON -- David Ortiz’s checklist of things to pack for spring training:

    -- Bling
    -- Shades
    -- More bling
    -- His son D’Angelo
    -- Advil. Lots of Advil

    Ortiz had hoped to leave the pills at home. It’s the reason he gave for lobbying so vigorously for a contract extension last summer, saying he wanted to avoid the headaches of coming into this season having to deal with constant speculation that this would be his last year in a Red Sox uniform, like he did in 2010.

    No such luck. The Sox never offered an extension, though they did pick up his $12.5 million option for 2011, which, given the market conditions for aging designated hitters, could be viewed as an act of exceeding generosity.
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  3. #33
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    I see the Rangers repeating as AL Champs. Great young hitting with some veterans and a great young pitching staff.

  4. #34
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    Francona: Sox haven't earned praise yet


    BOSTON -- Terry Francona is flattered that Brian Cashman thinks so highly of the Boston Red Sox. He would much rather people say kind words about his club than criticize it. To be honest, Francona thinks he has a pretty good club too.

    The Yankees' GM had previously said that the Red Sox were the best team in baseball. He even dubbed them the team to beat.

    The funny thing about compliments though, is that they count for nothing in terms of wins, runs, web gems or clutch performances. When it comes down to it, the only thing that matters is what you do on the field.

    So it's understandable that Francona kindly accepted, and then dismissed Cashman's compliments

    "That's not gonna help us win a lot of games," Francona said with a friendly laugh. "I love Cash[man] but I don't think that statement will get us any extra runs or anything. When people say that, it means that our ownership and our front office had a really good winter.

    "We haven't been good yet," Francona said, indicating that his team, while good on paper, hadn't even started their season let alone accomplished anything, and was therefore not worthy of such an annointing.

    With pitchers and catchers set to report in just a few weeks, however, Francona's Sox are likely to be receiving plenty of praise, as well as expectations.
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  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sandpig View Post
    How will Ortiz do?

    BOSTON -- David Ortiz’s checklist of things to pack for spring training:

    -- Bling
    -- Shades
    -- More bling
    -- His son D’Angelo
    -- Advil. Lots of Advil

    Ortiz had hoped to leave the pills at home. It’s the reason he gave for lobbying so vigorously for a contract extension last summer, saying he wanted to avoid the headaches of coming into this season having to deal with constant speculation that this would be his last year in a Red Sox uniform, like he did in 2010.

    No such luck. The Sox never offered an extension, though they did pick up his $12.5 million option for 2011, which, given the market conditions for aging designated hitters, could be viewed as an act of exceeding generosity.
    They could offered him a new contract. The Yankees gave one to a declining Jeter. I hope he has a big year and ends up in the Bronx!!!!

  6. #36
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    Making pitches for Red Sox relief roles

    A few weeks ago, during the annual Hot Stove Cool Music roundtable at Fenway Park , Red Sox left-hander Rich Hill recalled former teammate Greg Maddux’ occasional tendency to build a false sense of confidence among rival sluggers by intentionally allowing them to hit home runs in spring training.

    “That’s not recommended this year,” general manager Theo Epstein said, prompting audience laughter.

    Seriously, though, results will matter for Hill this spring.

    After a transformative offseason that has earned them the mantra of Hot Stove League champions, the Red Sox will head to Fort Myers with few job openings. Barring injury, the most substantial competition will be among a handful of relief pitchers for the final two seats in the bullpen.

    By virtue of their contracts and incumbent status, right-hander Scott Atchison and lefty Hideki Okajima may be slight favorites. But the field also includes right-hander Matt Albers, Hill and perhaps fellow lefties Andrew Miller and Felix Doubront, each of who represent intriguing options.

    Albers, a free agent addition from the Baltimore Orioles with a penchant for getting ground balls, may push Atchison, nothing new for a 34-year-old who returned last year from two seasons in Japan and made an Opening Day roster for the first time last spring. And while Okajima’s numbers have declined each year since 2007, the Red Sox re-signed him for $1.5 million because they lack proven in-house lefty alternatives.

    Doubront, 23, made both his major league debut and an eye-opening conversion to the bullpen last season with 13 strikeouts in 92⁄3 innings. But there is a feeling within the organization he will get greater long-term benefit from being a starter in Triple A than facing mostly left-handed hitters as a reliever in the majors.

    Then there are Hill and Miller, both seeking a return to the majors at different stages in their careers.

    Two years removed from shoulder surgery and still armed with a knees-knocking curveball, Hill struck out three batters, including New York Yankees slugger Mark Teixeira, in four scoreless innings late last season. It was a promising audition for the 30-year-old Milton native and South Boston resident.

    But the Red Sox wanted a more extended look. Rather than tendering a contract that would have required they go through the arbitration process, they made Hill a free agent, re-signed him to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. If Hill pitches well enough to make the team, his salary will rise to $580,000.

    The Red Sox made a similar move with Miller, who never has fulfilled his potential as a former first-round pick and top prospect. Last season, the Florida Marlins even shipped him back to the minors to rebuild both his mechanics and his confidence.

    But Miller won’t turn 26 until March, so the Red Sox traded for him in November, non-tendered him and signed him to a minor league deal, all the while believing he is a reclamation project well worth their time. Miller recently came to town to work with new pitching coach Curt Young, who will continue to pay close attention this spring.

    Miller won’t be rushed, though. Once he’s added to the 25-man roster, he can’t be sent to the minors without being exposed to waivers. So, if he doesn’t progress enough in spring training to inspire the Red Sox’ faith, he will open the season in Triple A and continue working.

    Regardless, Miller, Hill and the other on-the-bubble relievers will find that their performance in spring training will be a factor in determining their fate.

    “We have some competition for jobs,” Francona said recently. “We have some left-handers, guys like Rich Hill and Andrew Miller, that want to show what they can do, and we have a need. It’ll be interesting. I’m looking forward to it.”
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  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Goodfellas View Post
    Crazy hes young and has alot of years left.
    He's an average pitcher though.

  8. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Goodfellas View Post
    who are they runnning out there besides lester beckett, dice k, lackey? Please.
    Dice k will not be on the sox by end of year. Bad investment.

  9. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by bulldog08 View Post
    He's an average pitcher though.
    who isnt these days.

  10. #40
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    Sox just want Beckett to be Beckett

    During each of his offseason communications with Josh Beckett [stats], Red Sox [team stats] manager Terry Francona has tried to impart a simple message to explain what he expects from the right-hander this season:

    Be yourself.

    Beckett’s 2010 season was an unmitigated disaster in every possible way. He went 6-6, his lowest win total since 2002; he missed nine weeks with a back injury after slipping on a wet mound at Yankee Stadium; he finished with a 5.78 ERA and 1.535 walks/hits per innings pitched, both career-worsts; opponents batted .292 against him with an .848 on-base/slugging percentage.


    It all has prompted questions about whether Beckett, who turns 31 in May, is capable of turning things around without reinventing the way he pitches. Francona believes Beckett can. In fact, Francona partially attributed Beckett’s problems last season to making too many changes.

    “I think he had time to sit when he was hurt, and he was watching (left-hander Jon) Lester and (righty Clay) Buchholz throwing those cutters. All of a sudden, he started doing that,” Francona said last night before a NESN-televised, town hall-style meeting with fans. “He’d throw one good one, then he’d throw three bad ones.”

    Overall, Beckett threw his cut fastball 15.3 percent of the time, according to the statistical database FanGraphs.com. His previous high was 5.1 percent in 2009. As a result, he threw his curveball only 18.2 percent of the time last season, down from 25.5 percent in 2009 and 23.7 percent in 2008.

    General manager Theo Epstein said last night that Beckett has been “attacking the offseason.” Beckett hired a personal trainer, altered his workout routine near his Texas home, and based on a recent visit from athletic trainer Mike Reinold, the Red Sox have received positive reports on the pitcher’s progress.

    “He’s raring to go,” Epstein said.

    Just like Epstein and Francona expected.

    After last season, Epstein and Francona were sure Beckett would be on a mission once again.

    “If I called him with a pep talk, he’d panic,” Francona said. “He knows that I trust him. Work ethic has never been an issue. It was hard for him last year. We can either penalize him or try to show confidence in a guy and hope he bounces back.”

    In two weeks, when pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Fort Myers, the Red Sox will begin to get a better idea of whether Beckett can in fact bounce back.
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  11. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Goodfellas View Post
    who isnt these days.
    True. Seems like a lot of pitchers have a great year, here and there and the other years they're just avg.
    There are a few exceptions though.
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  12. #42
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    Yeah then they get the big contracts and pitch terrible.

  13. #43
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    After Legendary Start for UNC in College World Series, Daniel Bard Finds Groove as a Reliever

    Daniel Bard's performance in the Cape Cod League during the summer of 2005 put him on the watch list for just about every accolade imaginable. He was preseason everything, from All-American to a candidate for the Roger Clemens Award, given annually to the top pitcher in the country.
    Despite a very solid season, which included a 9-4 record and a 3.64 ERA, Bard fell shy of those honors. He was also overshadowed in a big way by teammate Andrew Miller, who did win the Roger Clemens Award as well as the Baseball America National Player of the Year Award.
    It was Bard, however, who nearly stole the show in the end.
    Given the ball in the third and deciding game of the championship round of the College World Series against Oregon State, Bard scripted a story that will be told for years to come on the Chapel Hill campus.
    "He saved the best outing of his UNC career, in my opinion, for his last game," said Tar Heels head coach Mike Fox. "The national championship game in 2006 was one of the most dominating performances I'll probably ever watch, especially on that kind of stage."
    The fact that UNC lost a 3-2 heartbreaker to Oregon State will not take away from what Bard did that day in Omaha, Neb., where he emptied the tank with over 100 fastballs, including 42 in a row at one point.
    Bard gave up two runs on a base hit in the fourth inning, the first frame that saw him throw anything off-speed.
    "Only four breaking balls in that game," Fox said. "I wish he hadn't thrown those four. Two of them they got base hits and that was the difference in the game. If we had started that game and said, 'Daniel, you throw fastballs the entire game,' and I'm not sure they would've gotten a base runner.
    "I've never seen an outing where a kid was throwing that hard and sustaining that kind of velocity deep into the game and just pounding it. He was ahead of every hitter. And really, I think Oregon State coach Pat Casey will tell you, his hitters didn't have much of a chance against his fastball."
    The fact that nobody could touch Bard's fastball on the biggest stage college baseball had to offer showed one thing -- it was a dominant pitch. The fact that the very few times he threw anything other than the fastball reinforced the reputation that would follow Bard from North Carolina into the Red Sox system -- he needed to master a secondary pitch.
    This much was obvious in 2007, his first season after signing with Boston, which took Bard 28th overall in the 2006 draft. Struggling to find the strike zone while working on refining his off-speed stuff, the right-hander was 3-7 with a 7.08 ERA in 22 starts split between Single-A stops Greenville and Lancaster, working through an elbow strain along the way. There were even uglier portions of the stat line -- in 75 innings, Bard walked 78 batters while recording only 47 strikeouts.
    When Bard signed with the Red Sox in August 2006, he said that there were "certain things that point to [both starting and relieving as] being a good role for me" and that he could see himself "succeeding either way."
    However, soon after the organization made the decision to convert Bard into a reliever and send him to Hawaii to get his feet wet in a fall league, it became clear that the bullpen was his path to success.
    Although control problems persisted (15 walks in 16 2/3 innings), Bard yielded only two runs on eight hits while serving as a reliever in Hawaii. The small sample was just enough for the Red Sox to make a call; Bard would stay in the bullpen in 2008. Once he found out for sure, it was all systems go.
    "The biggest thing was becoming a reliever, which is something I found out in spring training," Bard said during the summer of 2008. "It's obviously a lot different mentality than starting, a little more in your face. You have to come in and be aggressive, and that's what I've tried to do this year, and it's what I think I've done."
    It really didn't take much thinking to determine that Bard was reborn. In 15 games at Greenville he had a phenomenal 43 strikeouts against four walks in 28 innings, and then went 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA at Double-A Portland. Much of his success was attributable to an improving and sometimes biting slider, the secondary offering that Sox officials were hoping to see someday.
    Bard's 2008 campaign had earned him Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors. Just a year after he walked more men than innings pitched over the course of 22 ugly starts, he had rocketed up the organizational depth chart and placed himself on the precipice of major league stardom.

    IMO, he should be the Sox closer now. Fuck Papelbon.
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  14. #44
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    Sox sign four, invite 20 to spring training

    The Red Sox Wednesday announced the signing of four players to minor-league contracts, and invited 20 non-roster players to spring training.

    The Sox also received some disappointing news when veteran infielder Felipe Lopez, whom they'd acquired last September, signed a minor-league contract with the Rays. The disappointment stemmed from the fact that because Lopez signed a minor-league, and not a major-league, deal, the Sox -- who offered salary arbitration to Lopez in the hope of receiving a compensatory draft pick when he signed elsewhere -- will not receive a draft choice for him.

    Still, Boston will have four selections -- Nos. 19, 26, 36 and 40 -- in the top 40 of next year's draft. They received the extra picks as compensation for the losses of Type A free agents Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre.

    The minor-league signees were pitcher Matt Fox (acquired by the Sox last September but released in January), pitcher Tony Pena Jr., catcher Paul Hoover and infielder Hector Luna. All have prior major-league experience, though Pena was shifted from the infield to the mound in 2009 and has not yet pitched in the big leagues.

    The non-roster invitees to spring training:

    Left-handed pitchers Rich Hill, Andrew Miller and Randy Williams; right-handed pitchers Fox, Pena, Jason Bergmann, Brandon Duckworth, Jason Rice, Clevelan Santeliz, Kyle Weiland and Alex Wilson; catchers Hoover, Tim Federowicz and Ryan Lavarnway; infielders Luna, Brent Dlugach, Nate Spears and Drew Sutton, and outfielders Che-Hsuan Lin and Juan Carlos Linares.
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  15. #45
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    Lester a source of inspiration for all
    Boston lefty triumphantly rebounded from cancer diagnosis


    Although he's a young man at 26 years old, Boston southpaw Jon Lester already has a remarkable list of accomplishments under his belt.

    He was the winning pitcher in the final game of the 2007 World Series. He threw a no-hitter the following season.

    And, of course, he beat cancer.

    Before notching those milestone moments and becoming a key member of the Red Sox rotation, Lester faced a huge scare when he was diagnosed with lymphoma late in the 2006 season.

    But the budding ace met his challenge head-on, undergoing chemotherapy treatments in the offseason to attack the dreaded disease and reclaim his health. When he returned to a big league mound in the second half of '07, he was better than ever.

    Lester realizes that his success story not only worked out well for Red Sox Nation, it also serves as a source of inspiration for anyone facing tough times.

    "You can't deem yourself a leader," said Lester. "I think that's something that people give you that responsibility. I work hard and try to do my best, and if people consider that being a leader, then that's great, I'm just going to continue to do that."

    Given what he's conquered to emerge as a great pitcher and voice for perseverance, it's clear the "leader" label rests as comfortably on his shoulders as a Boston uniform.
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