Red Sox MVP
Jed Lowrie, SS: 74 PA, .343/.400/.657, 17.3 Runs Created
Red Sox Cy Young
Clay Buchholz, SP: 25.0 IP, 2.52 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 4.8 K/BB
AL MVP
Mark Teahen, 2B KC: 65 PA, .433/.477/.883, 25.3 Runs Created
AL Cy Young
Kevin Slowey, SP MIN: 25.3 IP, 2.13 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 7.3 K/BB
NL MVP
Ryan Howard, 1B PHI: 87 PA, .333/.420/.760, 24.3 Runs Created
NL Cy Young
Joe Blanton, SP PHI: 27.0 IP, 2.67 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 7.0 K/BB
Bay: 0-3
Ellsbury: 0-3
Pedroia: 2-3, double
Youkilis: 1-3
Reddick: 0-2
Lowrie: 1-2, triple
Bard: 0-3, looked a bit shaky behind the plate
Ramon Ramirez was the pitching stud, striking out two in his one inning while showing off his nasty change-up that acts like a splitter.
In the 1pm split squad exhibition game against Boston College the Red Sox won 7-1.
Junichi Tazawa got the win and the only run allowed was off a bloop single allowed by Kris Johnson.
Chris Carter had a 3-R double and Yamaico Navarro drove in two with an RBI double and a deep solo home run.
Tonight the Grapefruit League officially opens with the other half of the split squad facing the Minnesota Twins.
Figures with five interesting pitchers going, NESN gets Wakefield. Miserable.
At least we will see Josh Bard catching him.
—
| Wednesday | vs. Boston College | Josh Beckett | |
| Wednesday | at Minnesota | Tim Wakefield | NESN, WRKO radio |
| Thursday | vs. Pittsburgh | Jon Lester | |
| Friday | at Tampa Bay | Michael Bowden | |
| Saturday | vs. Northeastern | Kris Johnson | WRKO radio |
| Saturday | vs. Cincinnati | Clay Buchholz | WRKO radio |
Yesterday the Red Sox released the broadcast schedule for their spring training games. Some additional games may be picked up by ESPN.
———
| Wednesday, February 25 | vs. Minnesota at 7:05 p.m. | NESN, WRKO Radio |
| Saturday, February 28 | vs. Northeastern (SS) at 1:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Saturday, February 28 | vs. Cincinnati (SS) at 7:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Sunday, March 1 | vs. Minnesota at 1:05 p.m. | NESN, WRKO Radio |
| Saturday, March 7 | vs. Tampa Bay at 1:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Sunday, March 8 | vs. Tampa Bay at 1:05 p.m. | NESN, WRKO Radio |
| Friday, March 13 | vs. N.Y. Yankees at 7:05 p.m. | WKRO Radio |
| Saturday, March 14 | vs. Baltimore at 1:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Sunday, March 15 | vs. Baltimore at 1:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Tuesday, March 17 | vs. Minnesota at 1:05 p.m. | NESN |
| Thursday, March 19 | vs. Cincinnati at 7:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Saturday, March 21 | vs. Florida at 1:05 p.m. | NESN, WRKO Radio |
| Sunday, March 22 | vs. Philadelphia at 1:05 p.m. | WKRO Radio |
| Tuesday, March 24 | vs. N.Y. Yankees at 7:05 p.m. | NESN, WRKO Radio |
| Saturday, March 28 | vs. Minnesota at 1:05 p.m. | NESN, WRKO Radio |
| Sunday, March 29 | vs. Philadelphia at 1:05 p.m. | WRKO Radio |
| Friday, April 3 | at N.Y. Mets at 6:10 p.m. | NESN |
Just watched Jon Lester’s outing on MLB TV. Wow. He looked good.
He was getting first pitch strikes, spotting his pitches well and getting his bendy curve over for called strikes. His slider was the dominate pitch of the day, burying it down and under the hands of righties.
His only walk was given up to Jose Reyes on a 3-2 pitch after a long battle. His control today was definitely a good sign.
Final line: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 5 K, 1 BB
The first rule of spring training: The stats don’t mean shit for a veteran player
The second rule of spring training: The stats don’t mean shit for a prospect
The third rule of spring training: The only things that do matter is avoiding injuries and seeing how a prospect carries himself
That said, let’s take a peek some stats (WARNING SMALL SAMPLE SIZE [but that's all we have]).
On redsoxstats.com I am posting daily updates of spring training stats just as I do during the regular season. The only change I have to make is substituting Runs Created for BaseRuns, since the BaseRuns formula needs some stats that aren’t readily available in the spring. Other than that, everything is included.
I find it amusing that with one of the main media topics this spring being the catching in the system after Jason Varitek, the two hottest hitters out of the gate have been George Kottaras and Dusty Brown. Kot has a 2.083 OPS in 8 plate appearances, with Dusty right on his heals at 1.667 after 9. It’s too bad we can’t morph Brown’s defense and arm with Kottaras’ batting eye and overall approach; that way we wouldn’t have to worry about handing Varitek a multiyear contract to get the privilege of watching him completely fall apart.
In the not-so-good department, Jacoby Ellsbury is giving a new meaning to the word ‘suck’. After 17 plate appearances he is hitting .063/.158/.125, an unbelievable .283 OPS. Not the slump to want to start your season off with, spring training or not. But at least he is playing, Coco Crisp has been in the trainers room more than he has been in trade rumors this spring and that’s not what we need.
Glancing at the pitching, 9 of the 25 pitchers we have used have a WHIP over 2.00 and 9 have a WHIP of 1.00 or under. Of course no one has thrown more than 6 innings. The good news is that only notable players that have been letting on such an obscene numbers of base runners are Jon Lester and Craig Hansen, both of whom are no stranger to pitching with men on base.
One of my first posts in this blog was about the acquisition of David Aardsma and he is having a nice spring so far. 3IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 2 K, 0 BB. He is pitching again today and I’m hoping he throws well again. Since he is out of options he needs to win a spot on our roster or he is up for grabs. With his type of arm, I say you let him pitch himself off the team before you allow him to get away without seeing what John Farrell can do with him.
