| 30 March 2009
Brad Wilkerson has opted out of his minor league contract with the Red Sox to pursue other opportunities. Wilks was competing (sort of) for a spot on the major league roster with Jeff Bailey and Chris Carter, but Wilkerson was hitting .119 with 18 strikeouts when he left.
A week ago, Jeff Bailey appeared to be the front runner for the "Kotsay spot" but Chris Carter has been on fire as of late. Carter is currently hitting .359 with 6 ding dongs, 4 doubles and 10 RBI... Bailey is hitting .356 with a homer, 6 doubles and 8 RBI.
Daisuke Matsuzaka will make his first start of spring training today. The Providence Journal says Matsuzaka has "big changes" planned for 2009:
"In the end, it would be great to have the same kinds of numbers and results as I did last year. But in terms of the content of my pitching, there are some big changes I would like to make," he said.
Pressed on what those are, Matsuzaka demurred.
"Probably the same as what everybody has been suggesting to me all along," he said. Presumably, that means put fewer men on base, attack the strike zone more, and get more first-pitch strikes.
Many Red Sox fans and analysts are concerned that Matsuzaka's time in the WBC will hurt him in 2009, but Francona says he actually reported to camp stronger than he did in years past and despite a sloppy bullpen session last week, he looks healthy and stretched out:
"That's the good news. All the strength tests were improved over last year. Obviously he's done some work over the winter," Francona said.
Matsuzaka has had shoulder issues in his brief American career, and the team wants to make sure that those problems don't send him to the disabled list this season.
"Last year we had to shut him down for a couple weeks. Obviously you'd like to not do that. He did show up with his shoulder stronger, which is good. Even already pitching, a lot, his strength was increased, which is good," Francona said.
The Red Sox made one and half pitching decisions this weekend. Justin Masterson was told he will start the season in the bullpen... and Clay Buchholz was told that he is still in the running for the 5th starter position until Brad Penny can prove that he is ready.
Bucky has been left waiting all spring despite a stellar 0.46 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 5 starts (19.2 IP), but Francona says that it would be foolish to make any premature decisions while Penny continues to work his way back from a shoulder injury:
"You don't want to rush into something because there's an arbitrary date," Francona said. "We need a pitcher, but we don't want to make a mistake, either. [Penny has] been great about buying into everything. We'll continue to talk to him and see how he's progressing."
"We can't tell guys stuff we don't know," Francona said. "Whatever the decision ends up being on Clay won't diminish how we feel about him. That's for sure."
A reporter suggested to Francona that, reading between the lines, it appeared Buchholz would be the fifth starter, at least at the outset of the season, if Penny is not ready. "I don't blame you for reading between the lines," Francona said. "I'm probably not going to talk between the lines."
Game Notes
Brad Penny looked good in his second starts of the spring lasting 4 innings against the Twins and allowing just two runs in the first and four hits overall.
"I felt alright," Penny said. "I went in with a different mind frame. The first time, I went out to let it go, test myself. Today I went out to pitch a little bit, mix up my pitches."
Penny got some help from the offense in the thrid when the Red Sox posted SEVEN runs. Rocco Baldelli, who has been struggling this spring (.188, 6 for 32), got the party started with three-run blast to left. Then David Ortiz went deep with Pedroia on first to make it 5-2. And Jason Bay smashed a home run to left with Mike Lowell on board before Francisco Liriano finally ended the inning.
Jon Lester walked four batters on Sunday, but looked sharp overall, fanning five and allowing just one run on six hits through 5 innings of work. Lester has been nasty this spring posting a 1.72 ERA and a team-high 16 strikeouts, despite only throwing 15.2 innings.
Jacoby Ellsbury and Chris Carter went deep in the game and Carter was the only Red Sox player with multiple hits in the game.
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