Written by Rob Munstis | 04 April 2011

After a terrible start to the 2011 season, I'll looking for the positive during this off day.

1. Josh Beckett takes the mound tomorrow in Cleveland. He looked very sharp in his final spring start and allowed 3 hits and 1 runs while fanning 8 through 8 innings the last time he faced the Indians (8/3/10). Also... it's the Indians.

2. David Ortiz is 4 for 12 (.333) with 2 homers and 4 RBI in his first 3 games. He didn't hit his first homer until 4/23 last season and didn't break the .200 mark until 5/12.

3. Carl Crawford actually made contact with the ball on Sunday. Let's hope those two hits leade to better things.

4. Jacoby Ellsbury is working the count at the top of the order. He's currently 4th in the AL, seeing 4.86 pitches per plate appearance. Brett Gardner lead the AL at 4.61 P/PA in 2010. This won't last, but if there's one thing people want to see Ellsbury improve, it's his plate discipline, and seeing almost 5 pitches per PA and holding a .940 OPS is a good sign.

5. Adrian Gonzalez has looked great. He makes hitting to all fields look easy and has already made some nice plays at first. I haven't been this excited about a Red Sox player in a long time...

6. Basebal is back. This weekend sucked, but the games count and we've got 159 more of 'em.

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