Papelbon: "My Arm Felt Outstanding"

After a couple of relief appearances, Jonathan Papelbon made his first start of the spring on Saturday. His numbers against Cincinnati may not look good -- 3.2-5-2-1-5 and a HBP on 72 pitches -- but he was thrilled with how everything went:

I fell way behind too many hitters. For me, it's going to be important to get that game started on a good foot, establishing that strike zone, getting ahead and pounding that strike zone. ... My body felt outstanding, my arm felt outstanding. Everything physically felt really good, and that's a big, big plus for me. Getting my body into that stamina I need to get. Everything building up to becoming a guy that can go 7-8 innings.

In the same game, Joel Pineiro allowed two hits but no runs in 1.1 innings. ... In a minor league game, Tim Wakefield pitched five scoreless innings (5-2-0-0-4) while Brendan Donnelly allowed five runs in only .2 of an inning.

Jon Lester will probably start the season in Pawtucket. ... Dustin Pedroia was hit by a pitch below the knuckle of his left pinkie finger; x-rays were negative. He missed a month last year when he was hit in a similar spot on his right hand.

Mike Timlin played catch for 10 minutes (tossing from up to 90 feet) on both Friday and Saturday and reported no soreness or stiffness. He won't throw off a mound for another three or four days. Since the team is adamant about not rushing him back, he'll most likely begin the season on the DL.

Hideki Okajima, on the team's St. Patrick's Day jerseys: "The green uniform made me feel like an inchworm." Earlier this spring, when asked about toiling in Daisuke Matsuzaka's shadow: "I don't mind being a hero in the dark."

Dice Walks, Scores, Throws 111 Pitches

Daisuke Matsuzaka got one plate appearance against the Dodgers on Friday. The opposing pitcher, catcher and umpire all knew Dice was under strict orders not to swing the bat.

Called strike. Called strike. Ball. Ball. Ball. Ball. ... Then Jacoby Ellsbury was hit by a pitch and Eric Hinske hit a three-run homer. (The walk would have been more amusing if Matsuzaka had not brought a bat to the plate.)

On the mound, Matsuzaka had a 2-3-1-0-3 line on 34 pitches before the game was rained out with Boston up 5-1. Dice threw 77 more pitches in five simulated innings in the batting cage.

Coco Crisp is batting .179 this spring (5-for-28, with four singles), but he says his left index finger is fine. ... Jon Lester pitched two innings yesterday for Pawtucket. He faced six Rochester batters, allowing one hit, striking out two, and throwing 20 pitches.

Both Fay Vincent and John Dowd say Pete Rose's admission that he bet on the Reds to win every night is not true. When either Mario Soto or Bill Gullickson was on the hill, Rose did not bet. Vincent: "He didn't think they were going to win." ... Cincinnati native Kevin Youkilis offers his thoughts on Rose.

Everybody Loves A Contest IV

Predict the Red Sox's final W-L record and win big prizes*!

All you need to do is send me an email with your:

Name/nickname
Red Sox W-L record
Matsuzaka's ERA (in case of a tie)

Entries can be sent any time before noon on Sunday, April 1.

* I'm not sure what the prize(s) will be yet.

Rob Bradford Q&A At YF/SF

Bradford:

Anybody who said that the game is being reported the same now as it was a few years ago isn't correct. ... In terms of reacting to the web, I think reporters have become better overall because of the pressure put on by those who don't have credentials. More and more people are analyzing and dissecting the game for public consumption, which wasn't the case until recently. There are more checks and balances than ever before, and in the end that is a good thing ...

Rob does not believe the Sox will pick up Manny Ramirez's option for 2009.

Top 9

NESN wants you to vote for your Top 9 Moments in Red Sox History.

As is the case with most of these kinds of polls/surveys, very recent events are overly emphasized. More than one-third of the choices -- 8 of 22 -- are from the last eight years. Only six are before 1967 -- and three of those involve Ted Williams.

Craig Hansen is working on reclaiming his slider. After watching hours of video, pitching coach John Farrell thinks Hansen was positioned too far towards the third-base side of the rubber.

What that caused him to do was really open his front side too early in his delivery, giving the hitter a much longer look at his arm swing, and track the ball. By going to the first-base side, it allows his lead shoulder to stay closed longer, which is a primary goal in his delivery. That's going to allow him to create that shape and depth to the slider.

Matthew Whipps at MVN gives us his Top 10 prospects.

Slappy to NY: Love Me Or Goodbye (Maybe)

Alex Rodriguez, yesterday afternoon, on WFAN:

At some point either New York is going to say, 'I've had enough of this guy, get him the hell out of here,' and we have an option, or New York is going to say, 'Hey you know what, we won a world championship, you had a big year, you're a part of it, we want you back,'. I also want to make sure that from the fans [and] management that I'm wanted here.

Slappy backtracked a few hours later:

Those questions were an absolute dog fight for 15 minutes. I was basically doing the best I could for 15 minutes. They were pretty crazy questions. I felt like I was under the gun. The bottom line is I want to be in New York 100 percent. ... The last thing I'm going to do is run away from New York and say New York is too tough and I'm going to go.

Rodriguez is due $27 million per season from the Yankees in 2008, 2009 and 2010, but he has the option of becoming a free agent after this season.

Slappy should really take a page from The Book of Manny -- and keep his yap closed.

Red Sox 7, Yankees 5

Bottom of the 7th. Tie game, 4-4. Runners at 1st and 3rd. None out. David Ortiz at the plate.

Even in the middle of March, Flo gets it done.

After falling behind 1-2, he worked the count full before hitting a long fly ball to right center than brought Julio Lugo in with the go-ahead run. Two more Sox crossed in that inning and Javier Lopez and Craig Hansen shut the door.

Yankees - 300 100 010 - 5 12 1
Red Sox - 020 002 30x - 7 11 0

... Working As An Usher at Fenway?

San Francisco Chronicle:

Most recently, the bullpen-depleted Red Sox were said to have inquired about [Armando] Benitez ...

He hasn't done anything since 2004, blew his share of games even when he was supposedly good, and is owed $7.6 million this season.

If Theo thinks he needs some shitty relievers who have been hurt for two years, I think he can get them cheaper than this.

Dispatching Falsehood And Cowardice

Daisuke Matsuzaka may have allowed four runs yesterday, but baseball columnists are not backing off in their praise. The Globe's Bob Ryan:

Daisuke is the pitching master! His Ultimate Galactic Dragon Gyroball Pitch Power Explosion breaks three feet inside before cutting sharply toward the dugout, where falsehood and cowardice are forced to shrink before it!

Peter Gammons:

Sources say [he] descended into the Underworld to spit in the flaming eye of the Lord of Hell and steal the secret power of the Onikaze, or 'demon-storm' pitch, which tails away nicely from both lefties and righties.

From the man himself:

In the American League East, every team has a very strong batting order, and I'm aware of it. This being a team in our same division that we're going to face many times, I thought I'd take the opportunity to experiment [with the strike zone] a little bit. ... Judging from what I experienced, throwing high fastballs and high sliders can tend to be a little bit dangerous. ... I was hoping I could face a lot of the everyday players. When I saw the lineup card, I was very excited.

Starters Brian Roberts, Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada and Jay Gibbons went a combined 1-for-8 with three strikeouts. Mora fanned twice:

He's not from this planet. He's coming from somewhere else. He's awesome. Nasty. Fastball is nasty. Breaking pitch, nasty. Splitter, nasty. Everything, good. ... I think I know everything he has now. But I don’t know if I’m going to be able to hit it.

Jason Dubois, on Dice's windup:

You don't see that much in the states. It's funky and it takes some getting used to. If you're not careful, you might drop your hands a little too quick and then you'll hit a lot of fly balls, swing under the ball ...

Matsuzaka faces the Dodgers on Friday.

Jon Lester pitched two innings (37 pitches, 20 strikes) in a simulated game. He'll pitch in a minor league game on Friday.

It's not a matter of patience, it's a matter of what I can and can't do right now. There's no way I can go out there and pitch against big-league hitters right now. ... The goal is to get to four to five innings [per outing] by the end of camp.

Manny Ramirez had two hits and a walk yesterday and has reached base in nine of his last 11 PA -- four hits, four walks, one HBP. He's hitting .364. Does anyone know is that lazy bum going to start trying?

Tonight at 7 PM: Carl Pavano v. Tim Wakefield. ... Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez will not make the trip to Fort Myers. Francona plans to start everyone in the regular lineup except Jason Varitek. The first regular season battle is April 20.

O's Slap Dice, Drop Sox

Daisuke Matsuzaka got roughed up a bit by Baltimore this afternoon: 4-6-4-0-3.

He allowed two home runs: a solo shot by Jon Knott in the third and a 2-run blast by Jason Dubois in the 4th. Three of the 4 runs were earned (Dice committed a throwing error).

Youkilis, Lowell and Manny each had two hits for the Sox, who lost 5-3. Julian Tavarez faced 11 batters in 2 hitless innings; he walked four. Joel Pineiro threw 2 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits.

Spring Stats

They don't mean much, but here are some numbers (as of this morning):

           PA   AVG   OBP   SLG
Lugo       22  .300  .364  .400
Youkilis   23  .421  .522  .632
Ortiz      20  .263  .300  .474
Ramirez    16  .222  .579  .222
Drew       15  .462  .533  .769
Lowell     20  .105  .150  .263
Varitek    16  .143  .250  .143
Crisp      20  .211  .238  .263
Pedroia    25  .143  .269  .190

(PA = AB + BB)

Drew is hitting (3 singles, 2 doubles, 1 triple), as is Youkilis (4 singles, 4 doubles). Yook and Eric Hinske lead the team with 12 total bases.

Manny is only 2-for-9, but he's also walked 7 times.

             IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO
Schilling   9.1  6  2   2   2   3
Beckett     6.2  7  5   2   1   3
Matsuzaka   3.0  2  0   0   1   3
Wakefield   5.0  7  2   1   1   5
Papelbon    5.0  1  0   0   1   8
  
Okajima     5.2  5  2   2   2   6
Tavarez     5.2  6  4   3   1   4
Corey       5.0  1  0   0   0   3
Delcarmen   4.2  7  5   5   2   3
Donnelly    4.2  6  5   5   3   6
Lopez       4.2  2  0   0   2   1
Romero      4.2  3  1   0   2   3
Pineiro     4.1  7  5   4   3   1
Synder      4.1  6  2   2   2   5
Hansen      1.0  3  2   2   1   0

Astros' outfielder (and NRI) Hunter Pense is 14-or-19 (.737/.773/1.368)!

Opening Day is 22 days away!

Sheffield Wanted To Play For Sox

Gary Sheffield's first choice of where to play in 2007 was Boston. But rather than let him go as a free agent, the Yankees picked up his option and traded him to Detroit. Sheffield then signed a 2/28 contract extension.

[Boston] was where I wanted to go. I know most of the guys over there. I played with [Terry Francona] in Milwaukee and I thought it was the kind of atmosphere I could thrive in. ... It was something I really wanted. I thought it was the perfect situation for me and the perfect park for me.

I am glad this did not happen. Sheffield's skills are on the wane:

           OBP   SLG  OPS+
2003 ATL  .419  .604  167
2004 NYY  .393  .534  143
2005 NYY  .379  .512  132
2006 NYY  .355  .450  112

And he's 38 years old. And although I do not know the man personally, from all I see and read, he's an obnoxious jerk.

Craig Hansen made his spring debut on Friday, pitching one inning and allowing three doubles, one walk and two runs. His next outing will be Monday against the Yankees. Hideki Matsui will get a chance to chat with his former Yomiuri Giants teammate, Hideki Okajima.

While the other starters are up to about 60 pitches per start, Jonathan Papelbon will throw roughly 50 pitches in a simulated game on Monday. Could Paplebon throw 200 innings this season? Francona: "I don't want to say no." ... It would be a huge leap. He pitched only 68.1 innings last year.

Mike Timlin may begin the season on the disabled list, which would give the team a better chance to sort out the other arms in the bullpen.

Manny Ramirez has the 3rd highest Red Sox all-time OPS -- 1.026 -- behind only Ted Williams (1.115) and Jimmie Foxx (1.034). ... Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury could be the first major league player of Navajo descent.

Pupdate: David Ortiz's 2-month-old Yorkshire terrier Mikey is being treated for ringworm.

MLB Calculates The Price Of Fan Loyalty

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports (my emphasis):

Besides being hell bent on infuriating its best fans and having less people watch its games, Major League Baseball would also prefer if you stop calling to complain. ...

"I hope that those fans who have been directing their concerns to us over the last several weeks will now encourage their cable carriers to in fact enlist for this package," [MLB President Bob] DuPuy told the Associated Press. ...

The nearly completed exclusivity would cut the availability of Extra Innings from 82 percent of U.S. households to 16 percent. ...

Last year over half a million people subscribed to Extra Innings and MLB just sold them out for $2 a head, per team per year. So there's the price of fan loyalty, a small Coke at the stadium. ...

MLB is selling its fans out for the price of a utility infielder, which is pretty stupid. Although not as stupid as Selig and DuPuy think you are.

MLB Meets With In Demand Re EI

R. Thomas Umstead, Multichannel News:

MLB met Friday with executives from In Demand Networks to try to strike a deal for distribution of MLB's Extra Innings live-game package on cable systems. ...

The catch: Cable and Dish have to [place] the games on the operators' most widely available tier of programming and taking a stake in the league's baseball network when it launches in 2009. ...

While the industry is willing to match DirecTV's price for Extra Innings, it wants to offer the new baseball channel on a premium sports tier rather than part of its basic digital offering. Cable-operator executives close to the negotiations said MLB spurned the industry's guarantee to more than match DirecTV's 15 million-subscriber commitment by the time the network launches.

"Major League Baseball has chosen to cut a de facto exclusive deal -- including conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet -- with one satellite operator and disenfranchise baseball fans in the 75 million multichannel households who do not subscribe to DirecTV," In Demand CEO Robert Jacobson said in a prepared statement.

In a blog post, Umstead states that the

whole dustup between baseball and cable boils down to the same simple issue that has plagued negotiations between content distributors and cable operators since the first cable lines were rolled out into the home more than two decades ago. Baseball wants to secure distribution on the basic analog tier for its soon-to-be-launched 24-hour channel.

And cable operators said no.

DirecTV purchased a minority interest in the Baseball Channel -- which is expected to offer vintage games, as well as live games -- and will put that network on a tier that reaches all of its 15 million subscribers. Cable has already countered by saying that it would guarantee that the baseball network would be in front of at least 15 million subscribers via $5-per-month sports tiers.

But baseball wants basic carriage from cable. The industry said it would not open an analog slot for The Baseball Channel.

Timlin Shut Down For A Week

Mike Timlin will not be pitching tomorrow.

Terry Francona:

He's going to be [shut down for] one week, no throwing. The tenderness he felt [strained side muscle] ... is in a smaller area, which I think is good. But he still feels it, and we don't want this to turn into a season-long fiasco, where he feels OK, the next week he feels a little worse, and two weeks later he's worse. ...

I'm disappointed it got to this point. The doctors still kind of reassure us that he is getting better. But he felt something ...

Gordon Edes says Timlin -- who turns 41 tomorrow -- had another MRI yesterday.

MLB, DirecTV Finalize Deal

MLB and DirecTV have finalized their seven-year, $700 million agreement, but it will not be exclusive. Not literally, anyway.

Other cable providers can carry the "Extra Innings" package if they

enter into an agreement with MLB based on the terms agreed to by DirecTV, which would include the same rates and carriage requirements.

According to the Associated Press, however, the president of iN Demand, Robert Jacobson, said the agreement would be impossible for his company, calling it a "de facto exclusive deal."

Bud Selig -- displaying those superlative people skills for which he is reknown -- was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying the controversy over the deal is "ridiculous".

Ridiculous. There are thousands of Red Sox fans outside of New England that, for whatever reason, cannot get DirecTV. They will not be able to watch their team this summer. And the commissioner of baseball thinks their concern about that is "ridiculous".

The Times also reported that

a recent counteroffer by In Demand — the cable pay package provider that shared the rights to Extra Innings for the last five seasons — plus one by satellite provider EchoStar, which owns Dish Network, "came too late in the game." ...

According to a company spokesperson, the In Demand offer matched or exceeded DirecTV's offer, including financial terms of the deal as well as distribution of the new Baseball Channel, scheduled to be launched in 2009. Distribution of this channel is believed to be the crux of the issue for MLB.

Robert Jacobson, president and chief executive of In Demand, said the proposed MLB deal "is stunning in its disregard for baseball fans."

We have MLB saying two things: any matching offers must be received by the end of March and a matching offer from early March came in "too late".

Again, I have to ask: What is the REAL reason MLB is turning down more money while limiting the number of fans that can watch games?

Call: 212-931-7800

Just got off the phone with MLB. The person listening to complaints confirmed that other cable companies do indeed have until the end of the month to match DirecTV's offer, but was "unaware" of the LA Times story mentioning the In Demand offer that was rejected as "too late".

Updated: Richard Sandomir's article in the New York Times mentions MLB is giving cable operators and Dish Network until March 31 to match the deal.

Baseball is trying to put [InDemand and Dish] on the defensive, telling them they can choose to be good guys or bad guys depending on their decisions. Baseball wants to shed the image that it was guilty of making Extra Innings less available to its fans, so it is bringing InDemand and Dish back for a final lightning round.

And it wants Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, off its back, and the F.C.C., which is looking into the deal, to go away quickly.

This, quite clearly, is not over.

I believe the deal also has to be approved by the owners, so pressure could be put on them as well.

Schilling Goes Four Innings, 60 Pitches

Curt Schilling threw 60 pitches yesterday, finishing with a 4-2-1-1-2 line against the Twins.

Minnesota scored one run off Schilling in the first inning and won the game 1-0. Devern Hansack followed Schilling with two shutout innings (one walk, two hits). Kevin Youkilis had two of Boston's three hits.

Yet Another Red Sox Blog!

Curt Schilling has begun his own blog: 38pitches.

I've done it. I've caved and am actually taking the blog plunge. ...

I've been called everything from outspoken to blowhard to much, much worse. I believe those labels spring out of the fact that I care about the things people ask me as much as any other cause. I've never been a yes/no kind of guy, which probably hasn't been received well by some. I don't know that I'll be changing my style, but I do know that getting ripped for something I say here will be getting ripped for something I actually said -- with the entire contents of my comments included.

This should be a great read.

During 2004 -- Schilling's first season in Boston -- he was a regular commenter on the Sons of Sam Horn message board. Indeed, for the first few months of that season, he offered lengthy posts after each start -- detailing the good and the bad, sometimes pitch by pitch -- often only a few hours after the final out.

Schilling knew that having those posts reappear in print was a risk. He made repeated requests that his comments were for the board only, adding that anyone in the media could ask him in person about his posts -- he wasn't that hard to find -- but they should honor his wish to not use them verbatim.

Can you guess what happened next?

A Boston sportswriter (a hint: his name rhymes with Phony Nazzalotti) helped himself to some of Schilling's comments, using them without permission in one of his columns. ... Shortly thereafter, Curt plugged the plug.

Since word of 38pitches will spread, I'm hopeful that Schilling will resurrect those types of posts for 2007.

Papelbon Goes Three Against Mets

Jonathan Papelbon threw three scoreless innings against the Mets yesterday, allowing one hit and one walk, while striking out four.

I'm getting my routine set, getting comfortable with everything ... seeing hitters a couple of times, sitting in the dugout between innings. ... When you come off a successful season, it's hard to see yourself as something else. It's hard for [teammates and others] to see me doing something different. Hopefully, that will disappear soon.

Sean McAdam believes there are "subtle indications" that the Red Sox may be considering Mike Timlin as the team's closer. He might be right, but he offers absolutely no evidence in his article. McAdam points out that Joel Pineiro has struggled this spring (3.1 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 ER) and Timlin is usually better when he begins an inning as opposed to coming in with men already on base. That's it.

Timlin threw a 40-pitch live BP session yesterday and should see action against the Tigers on Saturday.

Curt Schilling on his developing changeup:

I think it's good enough to be my No. 2 pitch on some nights. ... It's a pitch that I strike people out with. ... It's a pitch that brings pitch counts down. You get more contact, get quicker outs if you can command it and throw it in the strike zone.

Gyro Mystery

Gaylord Perry on Daisuke Matsuzaka:

I was watching him on TV when he pitched against Boston College. And I saw some of his appearance against the Marlins. He's got it all figured it out. ... Make 'em think you can throw five or six pitches when you can only throw three or four pitches. That way, you always have everyone guessing. ...

It's all about getting in their heads. Sometimes, the day before a start, I'd put a little bit of Vaseline on my hands and shake hands with the guys on the other team. And when I was on the mound, I wouldn't do anything until the batter was looking at me. Then I'd do my act. ... It sounds to me like Matsuzaka is already getting into guys' heads.

Two Marlins -- Jason Stokes and Jeremy Hermida -- said they saw the gyroball on Tuesday.

Stokes:

He threw four different pitches to me -- a fastball, slider, gyro and curve. [On the gyro] He threw it up and in. I could see it was obviously a ball right away. I'm thinking 'Get out of the way.' It kind of backs up on you.

Hermida:

It looks like a split, but it's slower. It didn't have the same spin as a split. It had its own unique character. It's got a good, hard and downward break but comes out with more speed than a changeup.

Francona: "If they're seeing it, that's probably good." Pitching coach John Farrell said what they saw was Matsuzaka's changeup. Dice said it was a cut fastball.