Lazy Spring Days

By popular request, here's a new thread.

We don't have much to report (and neither do the press, apparently). I for one am still tired from covering the election last night.

But here are some discussion possibilities:

• Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima working on new pitches
• Bartolo Colon actually looking good this spring
• Dustin Pedroia looking awful without a shirt on
• Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester at least not pitching like Noah Lowry

Comments

[LocklandSF]

Dustin Pedroia looked like he hadn't been in a gym in his entire life, let alone just the off season. What's up with that?

[Lar]

He's gutsy!

[LocklandSF]

He's got moxie!

[Dirty Water]

Let me the first (or second, third...) to say that if old fatboy can reach 90-91mph he will be a factor.

[LocklandSF]

Well, the word is he was able to hit 90, so he's there, or so it would seem.

If he's got it back, he could be the sleeper pickup of the season.

[sam-YF]

what about the sox lowballing Papelbon with his contract? Thats a good spring topic for discussion...

[Paul SF]

Yeah, I shoulda mentioned the Papelbon scenario.

I'm with the Sox on this one. Them's the rules. If they give him $700,000, that's a great paycheck for a guy with his experience.

What's up with young stars complaining about their pre-arb contracts lately? They'll get theirs in arbitration, soon enough.

[Lar]

Ya, I was wondering about that, in general. Well, Howard was screwed by the Phillies playing behind Thome though, so I'll give him that one..

[sam-YF]

I dunno I see both sides of it.
On one hand, the Sox are acting within the rules and want to maximize the pre-arb years. Its a good strategy and all teams employ it.
On the other hand, whats another 200K to the sox to keep one of the key components of their team happy? They gave $50 mil just to talk to Dice K, I think a little extra recognition to Papelbon to keep him happy would be worth it.

Either way, their is a whole lot of griping about this subject this spring. Much more than I remember from the past. This always makes the players look bad. I wish I made $700,000 to play a game!

[Paul SF]

To Papelbon's credit, he's taking more of a high road than Hamels ("low blow" to get $100,000 raise with 1 year of experience) or Fielder ("not happy at all" with $250,000 raise). His displeasure has mainly been couched more in terms of he and the club "not seeing eye to eye" and whatnot.

[pastorsteve]

Dustin Pedroia looking awful without a shirt on

"We're not athletes, we're baseball players!"
Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck) in Mr. Baseball

I see both sides of the Papelbon issue as well and I don't think the club should balk at 700k for the year.

BUT....

I do take issue with Paps talking to the press about it, I realize he was probably asked a direct question, but I would have preferred him to simply say that discussions were ongoing and leave it at that.

[Atheose]

I do take issue with Paps talking to the press about it, I realize he was probably asked a direct question, but I would have preferred him to simply say that discussions were ongoing and leave it at that.

He did it in a very classy manner though, saying "we don't see eye-to-eye". That's a lot better than how Howard and Fielder reacted to the press, as Paul says above.

I'm excited about Okajima learning a new pitch. Daisuke, not so much. Daisuke already has 6 or 7 pitches, and I would prefer he focus on his control of those rather than learning another one.

If Colon's hitting 90, I'm excited as hell. His one huge problem has been his velocity's disappearance, so I'm starting to get optimistic.

What's worse than Pedroia's lack of shirt was the way he was dancing. Puts white boys across the country to shame.

[Paul SF]

Some folks are wondering whether the Players Assn. is pressuring young guys to take these concerns public in an effort to push for higher salaries earlier. If so, that's pretty pathetic.

[Atheose]

I have zero respect for the Player's Association.

[Paul SF]

Jon Lester was much better today: 1 ER in 3 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 K.

I don't see right off how many pitches he threw, which to me is a big indicator. If he threw 40-50 pitches, that's a good start. If it took him 60+, then it's the same old Lester.

[Paul SF]

Looks like he threw at last 50, thanks to a 34-pitch second. Yuck.

[LocklandSF]

The box score or today's game lists Lopez as pitching one inning, giving up 4 hits and 5 runs, but none of them earned?

Huwauh?

Is that even possible?

[LocklandSF]

Forget it, I figured it out.

[AndrewYF]

Not to start a pissing match, but how much more likeable, as a person, can Joba really get?

On Tuesday, the Yankees renewed Chamberlain's contract for the major-league minimum, $390,000. That might seem like a lot to most of us, but you know how athletes are.

Actually, it seems like a lot to Chamberlain, too. "I don't play the game to get paid," he said. "I play the game to enjoy it and love it. The paycheck's a bonus. What do I have to complain about?"

He may try to knock the imaginary yarmulke off of certain squatting ballplayers heads from time to time, but so far his attitude is undeniably great. Despite my best efforts - Cano has been my favorite Yankee since 2005 - Joba is starting to rival him at the top of the list.

[CT ball fan -SF]

The Red Sox have been set up to look like gold by the Orioles, who renewed Markakis at around $450,000. I'd argue the value of Markakis to that franchise is similar to Paps to the Sox, maybe even more so since they need to rebuild around him. Lots of expectation-setting going on with the young stars. But ownership would never engage in collusion...

[LocklandSF]

Andrew, what is Joba supposed to say? He has 24 MLB innings under his belt, it's easy for him to say that now, he doesn't really have a choice. If he continues to hold that mantra for the remainder of his career, let me know.

[SF]

I appreciate Joba's love for the game. He's eminently likeable and really, what more could one ask for in a young player?

Not to be a cynic, but I imagine his stance will change once his leverage changes.

That said, he seems like a great kid.

[LocklandSF]

In other news...

"Had a chance to see Bartolo throw again today and I was blown away. He looks incredible," Schilling said on his blog, 38pitches. com. "Could be a huge steal, not sure how other teams passed on him. He looked awesome."

I'm getting pretty excited about the positive news we keep hearing about this guy, can't wait to see him in some game action, which right now is slated for the 15th I think.

[A YF]

And I'm getting really excited about the Yanks spanking that Colon again! :)

On Joba: Even Abraham said they could have thrown him a few more dollars. He rightly pointed out they make more than $390k selling Joba t-shirts. But here's hoping Joba doesn't change one bit.

[LocklandSF]

Welcome to spring training Jacoby, first hist of spring off DLowe deep to right center, GRD.

[LocklandSF]

Dusty cranks a double, driving in two.

[LocklandSF]

Fun fact, pre-season physical for Pedroia last year, doc at MGH said he had the best eye sight of anyone he had ever tested.

[Chris]

Sean McAdam at the ProJo writes that Paps' contract squabble might be the work of the MLBPA. If that's true, that's crap. It was the MLBPA that agreed to this contract structure to begin with. Now it wants to play games.
Paps isn't even arbitration eligible.
When you look at what they'll eventually pay Paps, there's no way I give in. Why would you give up your leverage?
I love Paps and his free spirit, but I suspect his yokelish ways set him up to get played here and he drank the Kool-Aid.

[soxfan9]

I went to the Dodgers game yesterday and the Sox bats were a little slow. Hopefully, they will pick it up soon. I did see a funny shirt at the game. It said Damon Doesn't Have A Pair on the front then it had a couple of World Series rings on the back. It was getting some laughs. It had a website on the back of the shirt damondoesnthaveapair.com. I think I might get one. Other than that, the game could have been much better.