SOX CLAIM FIRST GPL WIN

The Red Sox got the win, but the big news was Josh Beckett's less than amazing start. He went 3 innings, allowing 5 runs. He gave up a pair of solo HRs, 5 hits, and threw a wild pitch. He walked one and struck out two. The word from Fort Myers is that he was throwing mostly fastballs and the D-Rays were sitting on them.

Craig Breslow had another good outing, he pitched a perfect inning and struck out a batter. Craig Hansen got the win with an inning of scoreless releif. Youkilis fell back into his slump with an 0 for 3 performance. 8 of the Red Sox 10 hits and all 8 of their RBI came from players that probably won't make the 25 man roster.

The Red Sox host the Orioles tomorrow afternoon.

YOU KILL AUStralia

Kevin Youkilis broke out of his short slump that began Spring Training with a 2 run homer that helped the Red Sox to a 3-0 victory over team Australia last night in Fort Myers. Australia was just one of 5 teams that played MLB clubs yesterday before beginning the WBC this week. The US beat the Giants, Houston lost to the Dominican, the mets fell to Puerto Rico, and the Braves beat the Netherlands.

David Ortiz saw his first action of the Spring in the Dominican Republics 12-8 exhibition win over the NL Champion Houston Astros. Not surprisingly, the homerun came in a critical moment in the 6th inning and broke a 5-5 tie. It also began a 3rd run inning for the Dominicans. Ortiz went 1 for 2 with the solo shot, and he walked twice. He played the DH for the DR with Albert Pujols and Pedro Feliz splitting time at first base. Ortiz probably won't see too much time in the field but it hasn't been ruled out completely.

Julian Tavarez pitched in the game in relief of starter Francisco Liriano. Julian did not impress. In 1 inning of work, he allowed an earned run off 2 hits and 2 walks. He also recorded a strikeout and threw a wild pitch.

Jason Varitek helped Team USA beat the San Francisco Giants 11-7. He went 2 for 2 with a pair of singles. He knocked in a run and scored a run. Tek was also hit by a pitch.

Mike Timlin played in the game, as well. He didn't do as well as Varitek. He pitched one inning in releif of Al Leiter who came in for Roger Clemens. Timlin allowed an earned run off two hits in his first action of the Spring.

Former Red Sox defensive Ace Pokey Reese is in the news. Reese was released by the Marlins after a 2 to 3 day unexcused absence. No-one knows where Reese went or why. He might be the type of player the Red Sox might think about scooping up if everything is OK. He can play great defense at short-stop and second base and would give some speed to the bench. It worked out pretty well the last time he was on the team.

In the first great game of the World Baseball Classic, Korea edged Japan 3-2 in the Tokyo Dome in front of over 40,000 fans. A game like this is what the WBC should be all about. Two all-star teams playing the best baseball in the world. Hopefully there will be more games that are as good as this one. Tuesday's first game, the Dominican Republic against Venezuela, should be a good one.

This was the Red Sox third Spring Training victory, but they are still winless against Grapefruit League squads. They play Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg Monday afternoon.

Sources and Resources for this post:
Yahoo! MLB Photos
MLB.com
Astros.com
World Baseball Classic Home Page

FIRST ACC TOURNAMENT FOR BOSTON COLLEGE

There have been 52 ACC championship men's basketball tournaments in the past. Boston College is now officially a part of that long and storied history. BC received a 3rd seed for their first ever ACC tournament, behind only powerhouses Duke and North Carolina in the regular season standings. BC will face the winner of Thursday's game between 6th seeded Maryland and 11th seeded Georgia Tech. Here's a bracket (you gotta click on it):



The Eagles are rolling, having won 8 of their last 9 games, and 13 of their last 15. Whoever their opponent is, it should prove to be an interesting match-up. Maryland beat BC in College Park 73-71. The Eagles split their season series with Georgie Tech with a 66-64 win and a 60-58 loss. However, both the loss to Maryland and the loss to Georgia Tech took place in the early part of the season when the Eagles were struggling.

The BC hockey team will also be a 3rd seed for the upcoming Hockey East tournament. However, the Eagles had been on top of the Hockey East standings before their weekend games against UNH. Boston University claimed the top spot, with Maine moving into 2nd. UNH finished 4th, Providence College 5th, Vermont 6th, UMass-Lowell 7th, and UMass-Amherst 8th. Northeastern and Merrimack College finished 9th and 10th and did not qualify for the tournament. The tournament also begins on March 9th. Here are the pairings for the first-round, which is a best of 3 series played at the better seeds' rink:

#8 UMass - Amherst @ #1 Boston University

#7 UMass - Lowell @ #2 Maine

#6 Vermont @ #3 Boston College

# 5 Providence College @ #4 New Hampshire

Speaking of amateur hockey, if you're interested in Massachusetts high school hockey and the Super 8 tournament, you might find this Quick Shot on Boston.com interesting

Sources and Resources for this post:
TheACC.com
ESPN.com's BC basketball clubhouse
Boston.com's high school sports page
Hockey East Online

Thanks to PicTiger for providing Free Image Hosting.

WELLS WILLING TO STAY

According to RedSox.com, David Wells has reversed his stance on being traded. Those are the words used by RedSox.com. If you ask me, if you reversed your stance on being traded, that means you don't want to be traded and are hoping not to be traded. It seems like Wells is simply accepting that he might not be traded. I think Wells has realized that there is very little market value for an aging player coming off knee surgery. He also said that the Red Sox look to be a better team than they were last season and he doesn't mind going out on top.

I don't see much space on this roster for Wells. We've got Schilling and Beckett, practically assured of spots in the rotation. Then we've got Wakefield, Arroyo, Clement, and Papelbon. That's 6 potential starters as it is. The bullpen doesn't have much room either. Foulke, although his health is questionable, will hopefully be the closer. Riske, Timlin, Tavarez, and Seanez will be out there along with the 6th man out of the rotation (probably Arroyo or Papelbon, although Wakefield is definitely a possibility). That's 11 pitchers right there. The Red Sox could decide to carry 12 for a while, but that means forfeiting position player depth, which we could theoretically do considering the versatility of guys like Cora and Graffanino. But then we couldn't have dedicated backup outfielders because the other two bench spots would be occupied by Youkilis/Snow and whoever the backup catcher is. Unfortunately, the Red Sox don't have much depth in the outfield. Cora and Graffanino have combined to play 4 total games in the outfield in their careers (all in left field). I think the Red Sox need to have a dedicated 4th outfielder, 2 replacement infielders, a spot for either Youkilis or Snow - whoever isn't playing - and a backup catcher. Five bench players means, 11 pitchers.

I guess Wells could go into the rotation and Papelbon and Arroyo could move to the pen, and a player like Seanez could not make the 25 man roster. I guess Wells could pitch out of the pen as a lefty specialist. Of course, if Foulke doesn't start the season on the roster, then there is room for Wells. But then again, there'd also be room for guys like Manny Delcarmen, Abe Alvarez, and Craig Hansen.

The Red Sox lost their 3rd Grapefruit League game in a row, this time to the Twins again. The good news was that Wakefield was good in his first outing of the Spring, going 2 no-hit innings with 2 strikeouts. However, he did walk 3. It will be interesting to see how Wakefield adjusts to not having trustworthy Doug Mirabelli catching him this season. Wake also made this tag out after throwing a wild pitch:



More of the positive news, Manny Delcarmen pitched a perfect inning, striking out 1 batter. Trot Nixon, Mike Lowell, and J.T. Snow all went 1 for 3.

Now the bad news. David Riske and Rudy Seanez continued their struggles combining for 3 innings, 5 earned runs, 7 hits and 2 walks. As a team, the Red Sox only managed 6 hits and 1 run. And this wasn't against Johann Santana like last time against the Twins.

I'm not too worried, though. The Red Sox offense is playing without Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Mark Loretta, and Jason Varitek. Granted, these guys would only have 2 at-bats per game, but that is 8 at-bats from top players compared to 8 at-bats from backups. That's usually a quarter or a fifth of a game's at-bats for an offense right there.

The Red Sox are in the midst of playing team Australia. I'll have notes concerning that game later tonight.

SOX STILL CAN'T BEAT PROFESSIONALS

The Red Sox lost to the Pirates 7-6 behind a bad Bronson Arroyo outing. Arroyo went 1 and two thirds innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 earned runs, and 2 walks. Abe Alvarez releived him and pitched nicely, going 2.1 innings, allowing only a hit, a walk, and striking out 2. Craig Hansen saw some action but didn't pitch stellarly. He went a scoreless inning but gave up a hit and 2 walks.

Willie Harris started in center again going 1 for 3. David Murphy continues to sruggle, he went 0 for 2. Mark Loretta continued to excel going 2 for 2. Trot Nixon went 1 for 2. Mike Lowell was 0 for 1. Youkilis is still struggling, he went 0 for 2. Alex Gonzalez made his first Spring start, going 0 for 1.

Gonzalez is apparently pissed at Venezuela manager Luis Sojo. Apparently, Sojo told Gonzalez he was definately going to be on the 30 man roster. Then Gonzalez showed up and while asleep, Sojo called his cel phone and left a voice mail informing he was cut from the roster in favor of another pitcher. I can't blame Gonzalez for being upset. If you're going to cut a player, do it before he shows up. Failing that, do it in person, man to man.

Speaking of the World Baseball Classic, the New York Yankees did something hilarious. George Steinbrenner, as we all know, is very much against the WBC because it is taking players from his team, which is a huge investment for him, and putting them in competetive yet somewhat meaningless games. Outside of the Yankees Spring Training facility, before a game, was a notice to fans apologizing for the absence of players like Bernie Williams and Alex Rodriguez. Classic.

Boston College will be the third seed in the ACC tournament thanks to UNC's upset over Duke last night.

SOX SWEEP COLLEGE DOUBLEHEADER

Curt Schilling went against the BC Eagles and threw 4 innings allowing only 1 hit. He struck out 3. James Vermileya and Jimmy Serrano pitched the final 3 innings of the 7 inning exhibition game combining for 1 hit and 5 Ks. Willie Harris saw his first action, playing in center field and leading off. He went 1 for 2 with a double and a run scored and a pair of RBI. Mark Loretta also had his Spring debutgoing 1 for 1 with a double and an RBI. Trot Nixon went 0 for 1, Mike Lowell went 1 for 2, Youkilis continued to struggle going 0 for 1, and potential backup catcher Josh Bard went 1 for 2. The Red Sox got 10 runs off 14 hits and won 10-0.

Matt Clement started the night game against the Northeastern Huskies. He went 2 innings allowing a hit (which was a solo HR), an earned run, and striking out 4. Coco Crisp played in his second game of the Spring, going 1 for 2 with a run and an RBI. Tony Graffanino went 2 for 2 with a homer, a run and an RBI. J.T. Snow made his debut going 1 for 1. David Murphy continued his short slump, going 0 for 2. John Flaherty went 0 for 1, and Enrique Wilson went 1 for 2 with a run scored. Overall, the Red Sox had 9 runs off 11 hits and won 9-2.

GONZALEZ POSSIBLY CUT FROM VENEZUELA'S ROSTER
Red Sox newly acquired short-stop Alex Gonzalez returned to Red Sox camp after spending the day in Clearwater with team Venezuela. Venezuela does have Ozzie Guillen and Omar Vizquel at short-stop. Gonzalez was the hero of the Carribiean World Series for Venezuela, batting over .300 and scoring the winning run of the final game. I can't say I'm upset that Alex Gonzalez will have 3 weeks in Sox camp turning double plays with Mark Loretta. Actually, I'm happy.

SCHILLING REMARKS AFTER FIRST SPRING START
''If I thought about how I felt last year in my best start and ranked it, today was in a different stratosphere from a physical standpoint -- as far as how I felt -- compared to any time, at any point last year,"

''I think I can be better than I was in 2004 simply because I have 2004 to use as an experience," he said. ''I'm a year smarter on the hitters in this league, a year smarter on the rigors of pitching in the American League as opposed to the National League, so I don't go into any situation looking to duplicate something I've already done. I'm trying to do something I've never done before."

''The two big things that come out of this game today for me, that I wanted from an approach standpoint, were how I felt and my velocity,"

Schilling estimated that his fastballs were between 92-94 MPH consistently. He seems pretty upbeat, but then again, he always seems upbeat. Time will tell. But if he's healthy, watch out.

PAPELBON IS OK...PHEW!
According to Papelbon and the Red Sox training staff, Papelbon did not receive a major injury when hit by a batted ball in between the heel and the ankle. The ball came just below the ankle which Papelbon was thankful for. Had it hit the ankle, it could have been serious. Papelbon remarked: ''Hopefully, the Big Man above was watching out for me." I think he's talking about Jason Varitek.

FOULKE'S INJECTIONS
It is still unknown as to what substance Keith Foulke has had injected into his knees. Rumor has it that it is a chemical that replaces the fluid surrounding the knee with healthier fluid.

JAPAN DOMINATES CHINAS IN WBC
The Asian group in this competition was somewhat of a joke. Japan, one of the top baseball countries in the world, home to Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, and Hideki Matsui, has dominated their competition and clinched a spot in the elimination round. Japan beat China 18-2, and Chinese Tapei 14-3. Korea was less impressive with their 2 wins, beating Tapei 2-0 and China 10-1. When I first heard that China was in the competition, it was somewhat confusing. Then when I saw that they were in a group with Japan and Korea, I knew they had little to no chance to even win a game.

Today, the Red Sox play the Pirates in Grapefruit League play, Boston College finishes their first ACC regular season at home against Virginia Tech, and the Bruins play the Sabres.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC

The first ever WBC began with Korea beating Chinese Tapei 2-0. Korea and Tapei are just two of the 16 teams that were selected to compete for the title of best baseball country. This whole thing has caused some controversy, some questioning, and some anticipation.

First of all, the concept of a baseball World Cup is a good one, if you ask me. Baseball is more than just an American sport. It is played in South America, Central America, North America, the Carribean, Asia, Australia, and in small pockets in Europe. Many of these countries have great amount of pride in their athletes. Orlando Cabrera, a good but not great MLB short-stop is a hero in Columbia, for example. International competitions such as soccer's World Cup, and Olympic hockey are very fun to watch because national pride is on the line, and the team's are usually All-Star calbre teams.

As far as business decisions go, the WBC is a good one. It is a chance to have a few games on ESPN, sell a few tickets to games, sell some merchandise, and more importantly grow the brand of baseball across the world. Countries like Australia have small but growing groups of fans that spend money on baseball, watch the games on satelite TV, and some eventually become baseball players. Beleive it or not, there are dozens of pro Australian born players in the minor leagues. Australia is just one of the markets across the world that baseball can use to make some money and expand the game of baseball.

Unfortunately, the WBC has been poorly planned out. The timing of it is all wrong. If you want to have a huge event, you don't time it to coincide with the NCAA tournament. If you want to have an event that measures the best of the best in baseball, don't have it during Spring Training when the best of the best are supposed to be getting into baseball shape and pitchers aren't supposed to throw that much. And if you want to have it be the best of the best, don't select the competitors, the competing teams should have to earn their spots. Every team in the soccer World Cup except the host team has to qualify from their region. The qualifiers for Olympic hockey are based on results in previous international competitions. Arbitrarily selecting 16 teams to be in the competition just doesn't hold with the concept the WBC claims to hold to.

Another thing the competition claims to be about is national pride. That doesn't make sense because Mike Piazza and Lenny Dinardo are not Italian, they're Americans with Italian ancestry. And do you think Andruw Jones would go around and call himself Dutch? No. He's Aruban and Aruba happens to be a territory controlled by the Netherlands. Under these standards, Puerto Rico shouldn't have a team because it is a territory controlled by the United States. Yet Puerto Rico has its own team, but Aruba is part of the Dutch team.

Let's look at the venues for the games. Tokyo, and San Juan are both baseball hotbeds. But Orlando, and Phoenix are not. It is screwy that the event is taking place in the US, Puerto Rico, and Japan. That's just weird. It should all be in one country or a region of countries like the World Cup of soccer. And it should be played during the summer so that baseball hotbeds like Chicago, Boston, New York, St. Louis, Seattle, Baltimore, and other MLB cities could be used. Don't you think that places like Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Yankee Stadium should be where the best baseball teams in the world play?

A PROPOSAL
It is too late to save the 2006 WBC, but let's think about what to do for the next one. I'm thinking it should be played entirely in the US, during the summer, and played only in MLB ballparks. The MLB season would stop, just like the NHL season stops for the Olympics. The regular season would start a week earlier and end a week or two later in order to accomodate this. Because it would be played in the middle of the season, pitchers could go deep into games and players would not be seperated from their teams while their teams were still playing and training.

Instead of simply selecting 16 teams, teams would qualify form their own regions. North America, South America, Central America, the Carribean, Asia & Australia, and Europe & Africa would have qualifying rounds to determine the best teams from each region. Like the soccer World Cup, the amount of teams per region would depend on how good those regions are at baseball and how many good teams they can send to the competition. Asia, for example, would be able to field more good teams than North America so Asia would get more slots in the competition.

There'd be a group stage with teams from different regions, not four teams from the same region. This would create more interesting games in the earlier rounds. The top two teams from four groups would move on to elimination series, not one game elimination. Baseball, as we all know, is not a game that can truly be played over 1 game. Series test depth of pitching staffs.

This is just some stuff that has been floating around in my head. It's pretty dull, but I think the WBC has potential to be a great thing and it has been ruined by some of the idiots at Major League Baseball.

COCO IS CRISP, SOX AREN'T

Coco Crisp went 3 for 3 in his first game in a Red Sox uniform, falling a homerun shy of the cycle. He was the Red Sox offense for the first half of the game, which the Sox lost 6-3 to the crosstown Twins. Crisp's performance was almost a response to Johnny Damon's 2 for 3 outing with the Yankees in their 6-3 loss to the Phillies. Crisp will be facing a lot of comparisons between he and Johnny Damon for the next 7 and hopefully 8 months. Crisp also had the first RBI of the game for the Sox. He then got knocked in to score the 2nd Sox run of the game.

The news wasn't all good out of Fort Myers. Jonathan Papelbon got hit with a liner in the foot early in the game. He stayed in there but his pitching was less than stellar. He faced 9 men in an inning and two thirds, giving up 4 hits, one of which was a homer, 2 earned runs, and walking a batter. He only struck out one Twin. The outing wasn't God aweful, though, and that's really the only thing that would be worrisome in the first game or any early Spring Training game. It didn't seem like the liner to the foot was bugging him too much, but he may or may not be feeling it all too well tomorrow. One good note on Papelbon, he induced 4 ground ball outs and 0 fly ball outs so when he kept the ball down, he was doing very well. His problem was keeping it down.

How much might it hurt guys like Papelbon, Delcarmen, Alvarez, and Hansen that Varitek is out of camp for the WBC?

None of the other potential Sox regulars did very well at the plate. Graffanino, who thinks he will be traded, went 0 for 3 with a K, but he did knock in a run. Youkilis went 0 for 3, grounded into a double play, and left a runner in scoring position with 2 outs. John Flaherty went 0 for 2, with 2 LOB, and had a throwing error trying to throw out a base stealer. Twenty-five year old David Murphy got the most playing time and also had probably the worst day. He played in left and center field, and went 0 for 4 at the plate with 4 strikeouts.

As usual, the players that had good days were the ones fighting to stay on the roster. The Red Sox had 9 hits, 6 of which came from players that probably won't be on the 25 man roster on Opening Day. The other 3, of course, came from Coco Crisp. Dustin Pedroia got a chance to pinch hit and play some short-stop. He went 0 for 1 with a strikeout. Luke Allen has a solid day, going 1 for 2 at the plate and recording an outfield assist.

Rudy Seanez did not astound me. He pitched an inning, giving up a pair of solo homeruns. Another newcomer, David Riske, followed him and gave up 2 hits and another run. Delcarmen pitched a scoreless 5th, allowing only a basehit. Hansen pitched a perfect 6th, recording one strikeout. Twenty-six year old Craig Breslow releived Papelbon in the 2nd with 2 outs. He walked a man to load the bases, but he was able to get out of the jam unscathed.

Tomorrow, the Red Sox have split-squad games against Boston College and Northeastern. Curt Schilling will start in the BC afternoon game, and Matt Clement will go in the Northeastern night game.

BRUINS HOLD ON FOR WIN

PJ Axelsson was welcomed back to Boston with a ceremony just for him and his Olympic gold medal. Marco Sturm, fresh from Torino and team Germany, scored the game winner with less than 3 minutes before the end of regulation. Every point is precious for the Bruins now with only 22 games remaining in the regular season. The Bruins are still 4 points behind Montreal for the last playoff spot. Montreal also has 2 games in hand. This was also a big win because the Bruins and Thrashers are now tied for 9th behind the Canadiens. The Bruins have 4 games against Montreal in March and April. Each game will be vital if the Bruins want to make the playoffs.

NFL AND NFLPA EXTEND FREE AGENT DEADLINE
The beginning of the free agent signing period will be pushed back by three days so the League and the Union can have some time to "cool off" so they can reconvene probably sometime next week. If they hadn't pushed back this deadline, many teams would have purged their rosters in an effort to get under the cap. This whole thing could wind up being a big mess.

# 12 BOSTON COLLEGE CLINCHES BYE IN ACC TOURNAMENT
The Eagles beat Wake Forest the other night to move into 3rd in the ACC standings and clinch at least a 4th seed and a first round bye in their first ever ACC tournament. If BC beats Virginia Tech at the Conte Forum on Saturday and #15 UNC loses to #1 Duke at Cameron Indoor, the Eagles will move into 2nd in the ACC and get a much better path through the ACC tournament. If they get the 2 seed, they won't face Duke until the finals if both teams make it that far. BC is on the verge of getting a really good seed in the NCAA tournament. They are currently projected by ESPN.com as being a 4th seed. If they can win two games in the ACC tournament, they will make a big impression on the selection committee and might get a good 3 seed.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC BEGINS IN TOKYO
South Korea and Chinese Tapei kicked off the first ever international competition of the best baseball players in the world. None of the Red Sox players are in the Asian Group that is the first group to begin play. However, players have left Fort Myers to join their teams. The first game in North America will be March 7th at 1:00 PM when the Dominican Republic faces Venezuela. More on the WBC in a later post.