Lindy's: Angels/Phillies WS; Red Sox 3rd In East

Lindy's pre-season baseball magazine is on newsstands. Here are some of its predictions:

American League 
East        Central     West
Yankees     Tigers      Angels
Rays        Cleveland   Rangers
Red Sox     Royals      Mariners
Blue Jays   White Sox   Athletics
Orioles     Twins

Manager  - Ned Yost, Royals
MVP      - Albert Pujols, Angels
Cy Young - Jered Weaver, Angels
Rookie   - Matt Moore, Rays

AL Wild Card - Rangers
AL Pennant   - Angels
NL Divisions - Phillies, Reds, Giants
NL Wild Card - Diamondbacks
NL Pennant   - Phillies

The editors say that Boston's offense will keep the team in the race all season, but that beyond Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, the starting pitching is "sketchy".

Beckett: "What Goes On In The Clubhouse Should Stay In The Clubhouse"

Josh Beckett, MLB Network's "Intentional Talk":

I think the biggest key is what Lester said to the end that, we stunk on the field and that was the bottom line. If we would have pitched better, none of that stuff would have even been an issue. ... I'm not saying we don't make mistakes in the clubhouse. [Millar] will definitely respond to that because, hell, they were drinking Jack Daniels and they won the World Series. It's just what goes on in the clubhouse, it's supposed to stay in the clubhouse. ...

Beckett added that "the team that we have right now is so talented".

Jacoby Ellsbury, Portland Tribune:

We just didn't win games at the end. We started the season off cold, were one of the best teams in baseball through the middle of the season, then fell off at the end. I don't think you can pinpoint one specific thing as a reason, but it was disappointing to all of us that it happened. ... I liked Tito. But sometimes when you don't win, changes are made. Managers get fired. Players can get traded at any time, too. You have to go about your business and be a professional about it. ... We already have a solid group of starters. I'm not sure what management has in store, but we have a pretty good team right now. There's a lot of motivation to get things done after what happened last season.

Yankees News: Cashanova recently signed Manny Delcarmen to a minor league contract. ... Mark Teixeira wants to bunt more often. ... Curt Schilling picks the Yankees to win the East.

Lester May Be In CampThis Weekend

Jon Lester may arrive at the Red Sox's spring training camp in Fort Myers, Florida, this weekend, with probable closer Andrew Bailey close behind. Manager Bobby Valentine is due to arrive on Sunday, February 12, aka Truck Day in Boston. The reporting date for pitchers and catchers is the 19th. (Photo found here.)

Valentine:

I like what we have. I don't think it's anything like a finished product. ... We have some questions to answer. Hopefully we'll get some of those answers in spring training. We may not get all of them answered in spring training. We may have more work to do as we get into the season, evaluate and see how guys respond.

Valentine said he wouldn't mind teams having expanded rosters in April as the season begins:

My overall philosophy on that is I wish the roster were extended through April so we could have real competition under the lights and real atmosphere, and not in this sunny park morning baseball/afternoon baseball atmosphere. But I think it's always good for guys to feel they have a chance to work and to make the team, so they work a little harder because the more you work and practice, the better foundation you have to last the entire season. ... I'm looking forward to seeing how it's going to play out. If I had a preconceived notion about what would really happen, then why would we even go to spring training? I've never seen any of the guys ever play other than Punto, or other than on television or in the booth.

Cubs president Theo Epstein praised Cherington for his "creative" work this winter:

[He] did a great job executing a strategy of acquiring a couple cost-control, impact pieces for their bullpen in Bailey and Melancon. That frees them up to experiment with Bard as a starter and maybe see what Aceves can do there as well, given they didn't really like the options in the free-agent starting pitching market. The position player group is really solid and with some of the creativity they've shown in building the bullpen it will all come down to the starting pitching ...

Edwin Jackson Heads To Natstown

Edwin Jackson has agreed to a one-year contract with the Nationals. The deal is in the range of $8-12 million.

More 2012 Sims

Another simulation of the 2012 season, run by SG over at RLYW. If I recall, he runs either 1,000 or 10,000 seasons and this is the average.

Matsuzaka Throws Bullpen Session

Interesting news from the Mainichi Daily News (via WEEI). Daisuke Matsuzaka threw off a mound first time since having Tommy John surgery last June.

In the team's spring training complex in Florida, Matsuzaka threw his first 11 pitches with the catcher standing in front of home plate and 10 more pitches after the catcher crouched.

"Today is like a warm-up," Matsuzaka said. "I think I'll throw harder next week."

[Matsuzaka] is scheduled to long toss on Wednesday and throw in the bullpen again on Friday ...

Over at SoSH, posters are looking at other pitchers' recovery from TJ - Edinson Volquez, Jordan Zimmerman, and Stephen Strasburg being the last three starters to have the surgery before Dice - and attempting to get a rough estimate of when Dice might return to the rotation. Looking at the rehab schedule of those three "yields a potential return date range of between May 23 and June 16".

Perhaps Ben Cherington is in no rush to panic and sign either Roy Oswalt or Edwin Jackson to a deal he'll soon regret because he believes the Red Sox can get through the first two months of the season, filling the #5 spot with a variety of arms, trial and error to see who can help during the dog days, and then welcome a (hopefully) well-tuned Matsuzaka back into the fold in June. Anything close to Dice's combined 2007-08 stats (126 ERA+) would be a godsend