RIP, CURT GOWDY

Curt Gowdy passed away in Palm Beach, Florida from leukimia according to the Red Sox. Gowdy was the voice of the Red Sox from 1951 to 1965. He then went on to become a legend in sports broadcasting, announcing 16 World Series, 9 Super Bowls, 14 Rose Bowls, 24 Final Fours and 8 Olympics. He was how thousands of Red Sox fans received information on the team for over a decade. He was and is a legend.

MANNY IS IN ITALY?

According to David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez will be going to Italy for a vacation starting today. Ortiz said "He probably was just kidding." Manny is supposed to report by Wednesday, but he doesn't HAVE to report until the 28th, which is the mandatory MLB day. Manny is also going to be playing for the Dominican in the WBC. I think he should be in Florida right now with the team getting some training in, and getting to know the new players. And there are a lot of new players.

David Wells reported to Spring Training on time but is behind schedule with his throwing. The other pitchers are throwing off mounds but Wells is still throwing indoors. This isn't a big deal considering Wells' age and the fact that he had knee surgery over the off-season. Wells really doesn't have a place on this team and the Red Sox have been looking to deal him for months. However, there have been few takers for the 43 year old coming off of surgery. The Sox probably won't get very much for him considering his age, physical condition, and the fact that everyone and their mother knows we're desperate to trade him.

Curt Schilling seems to be pumped and ready to play. At least according to him he is. His goals for this season are 35 starts and 245 innings. That might be asking a bit much from the 39 year old, especially with several younger arms available for the Sox and a bullpen that appears to be much more reliable than last season's patchwork. We've got guys like Beckett, Papelbon, Arroyo, and maybe even Jon Lester that can take some of the pressure off Schilling. Hopefully Francona won't obey Schilling's commands to let him pitch 245 innings because I think that is simply too much. We need him to save those extra 45 innings for the post-season. Hopefully.

Something to watch this Spring will be Keith Foulke. But don't watch his stat lines. He didn't pitch well at all in 2004 Spring Training and looked what happened in the regular season. The important thing to watch is his changeup and his fastball. Does his changeup fool good hitters in combination with his fastball? If the answer is "yes" then he is probably going to be set for baseball in 2006. If not, it could be a long season.

Foulke claims to not be a fan of baseball. I'm not going to get on his case for this one. I know a lot of athletes at my school that play their sport, love their sport, but don't follow their sport on a professional level. I can understand this. I play poker a lot and usually don't watch it on television. Why? Because I'm not playing it.

Speaking of poker, I have a poker blog you should check out if you're interested in, well, poker.

Some interesting results on a fanpoll run by Boston.com. According to the poll, 62% of fans voting feel that Josh Beckett should be the #1 starter this season over Curt Schilling. This may change as Spring progresses, but it is very interesting. I think Schilling should be the #1, but I don't think Beckett would be a bad choice for #1 starter. Frankly, it doesn't mean that much.

82% of fans say they'd rather have Coco Crisp in center-field now and in the future as opposed to Johnny Damon. This has got to be the Yankee effect. I think a case can be made that Crisp is a cheaper, younger option. But Damon was a big part of our lineup. Crisp had solid numbers last season but it will be interesting to see if he can reproduce them under pressure in Boston.

86% of people don't think the Red Sox should trade Ramirez before the season. I agree with the majority. If we could get equal value and not have to pay a large amount of his salary, then we could consider it. However, I don't think we can get equal value and it appears as though we're stuck with a great hitter who may or may not be in Italy.

86% of fans felt that the combination of Youkilis and Snow will be better than Millar and Olerud. I have to agree with this one. I think Youkilis should have been used more last season and was benched because of his youth, not his talent. Millar shouldn't have had more than 200 ABs last season with how poorly he was producing. I think Snow and Youkilis give us a lefty/righty combo that can get on base and help keep the offense going. Not a whole lot of power, but they should combine for more HRs than Millar and Olerud did last season.

70% of fans think Mark Loretta should be starting at 2nd base over Tony Graffanino. I'm one of the 70%. Graffanino had a solid end to the season alst year, but Loretta is a good defnsive 2nd baseman and he ha proven himself more over the long run of a season. However, I think Graffanino should be given plenty of opportunities to play multiple games per week and maybe even in a row.

73% of fans would rather have Bill Mueller at 3rd base over Mike Lowell this season. I'm in the minority on this one. I think Lowell is going to have a very good season. Mueller was solid as a rock at 3rd base, but Lowell will bring more pop to the lineup. Mueller was also getting slowed down by cosntant knee problems.

71% of fans would rather see Alex Gonzalez at short-stop as opposed to Edgar Renteria. Renteria was simply terrible with us. He'd show signs of coming out of his slumps and then go right back into them. His defense was subpar. Alex Gonzalez isn't going to hit very well, but he will give us consistent defense. He also won't complain about the infield grass.

69% of fans think the Red Sox new infield is better than the old one. I agree. First base is improved, 2nd base is improved, 3rd base might be a wash, and short-stop is about the same only with more consistent defense.

93% of fans would rather see Doug Mirabelli be the backup catcher over John Flaherty. I'm one of them. However, we got a starting 2nd baseman for a backup catcher. Then we got a solid backup catcher. That's a good thing. I will miss Mirabelli, though.

55% of fans think the 2006 lineup is better than last season's. I think it will be about the same. I think a lot depends on Manny and Ortiz producing like they have the past 3 seasons. That isn't a given, folks.

Here's a close one. 52% of fans think David Wells would be most valuable to the Sox as part of a trade, while 48% think he will be best as part of the rotation. I think we don't need Wells and he is a big question mark. I think he'd be best in a trade. He doesn't want to pitch here, anyway.

47% of fans think Arroyo should go to the bullpen if it comes down to Clement, Papelbon, and Arroyo to fill out the last two spots in the rotation. I think Arroyo has proven himself to be an excellent bullpen pitcher and I think he is somewhat inconsistent as a starter having lengthy hot stretches and cold stretches. Clement has been a starter for most of his career and I don't think he would adjust easily to bullpen work. Papelbon excelled as a releiver last season, but I want to see what the kid can do as a starter.

93% of fans think our projected rotation this season (Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield, Papelbon, Clement) will be better than last season's rotation. If everyone is healthy, then they are right.

53% of fans are unsure as to which Keith Foulke will show up this season, the 2004 version or the 2005 version. 39% are positive, as am I, and think the 2004 version will pitch for us in 2006.

84% of fans think the Red Sox bullpen is improved compared to last season. 13% of fans are complete morons and think the bullpen is about the same as last season's. 3% of fans should be banished from Red Sox Nation for being so dumb as to think that last season's bullpen is better than this season's.

Most of the fans seem to think that the 2006 Red Sox are better than the 2005 Red Sox. I tend to agree with them. However, we have huge question marks. One is worth $20M and may or not be in Italy. One is worth $2.5 M and may or may not be traded. One is worth $7 M and may or may not be healthy enough to be a closer.

We'll just have to see what happens.

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT, MOSTLY

Curt looks in much better shape than he did at this time last year. This is great news. We're gonna need him to come through for us if we have a chance this season. Timline, Wake, and Schilling all reported to Fort Myers early. Coco Crisp, Kevin Youkilis and Tony Graffanino are among the position players who have reported early. David Wells has technically reported in the sense that he is within the state of Florida according to Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. Wells, however, is not at the Red Sox facility in Fort Myers, however. In 12 days, the Red Sox will begin their Spring Training schedule against their Mayor's Cup Rival, the Minnesota Twins who also play in Fort Myers. The Red Sox first home ST games will be a split-squad doubleheader against Boston College and Northeastern on March 3rd. Nine of the Red Sox Spring games will be on NESN, and a few will even be on ESPN or ESPN 2. I'm pretty sure WEEI will broadcast most Spring Training games.

SPRING IS COMING

Yesterday afternoon, the Red Sox equipment truck was loaded outside of Fenway Park and started its journey south to Fort Myers. Pitchers and catchers report on Saturday the 18th and full workouts begin on the 23rd. The games begin on March 2nd against the Twins. The first televised game (according to RedSox.com's schedule) will be on Saturday the 4th against the Pirates. The Red Sox will play in the Grapefruit League once again but will also play split-squad games against Boston College, Northeastern, and the Australian national team. Spring training will end on the weekend of April 1 and 2 in Philadelphia against the Phillies.

The season begins on April 3 in Arlington, TX at 2:05 and will be televised nationally on ESPN 2.

The World Baseball Classic will be drawing some Sox players away from the club to play for their national teams. Alex Cora will be playing for Puerto Rico, Lenny Dinardo for Italy, Alex Gonzalez for Venezuela, David Ortiz for the Dominican Republic, Manny Ramirez for the Dominican Republic, Adam Stern for Canada, Julian Tavarez for the Dominican Republic, Mike Timlin for the USA, and Jason Varitek for the USA.

RED SOX TO MAKE A SERIOUS BID FOR ROGER CLEMENS

Roger Clemens has stated, essentially, that he has five choices. He will play for Houston, the Rangers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, or he won't play at all. The Red Sox seem poised to make a big move to sign Roger Clemens. According to Gerry Callahan, they've prepared a video presentation for Clemens that includes Sox fans imploring him to return to Boston. What the Red Sox need to do, and the video is part of this, is to make it clear to Roger that if he comes back here, he will be treated properly. They need to make clear that the reign of Dan Duquette is long since over. They need to make it clear that most of the fans here will love him if he returns. They need to make it clear that he will be paid a proper salary.

If we get Roger Clemens, we're definately contenders to win it all. The Red Sox should spare no expense in bringing him here. He would complete our rotation. We'd have him, Schilling, Clement, Wakefield, and Beckett. That is a very good rotation. Furthermore, we could move Arroyo to the pen or keep Papelbon in there.

This is ludicrous, but maybe we should even retire the number 21 just to show him that we want him on this team.

SOX STILL TRYING TO TRADE MANNY

According to this article in the Hartford Courant, the Red Sox talked to the Angels last week about a possible deal involving the slugger. The deal would have brought Ervin Santana and Chone Figgins to the Sox along with some prospects. The negotiations didn't go anywhere, however, possibly because the Red Sox wanted the Angels to assume all of Manny's remaining contract. I think this was just Theo testing the waters, as he has been known to do.

THE BRUINS ARE COMING BACK

Since a January 12th loss to the LA Kings, the Bruins have been on a run. They got a point in 8 of their 9 games since then. They have gone 6-1-2 in those games. They just pounded the first place Ottawa Senators 5-0 the other night, beating them for the 3rd time this season. Tim Thomas stopped all 44 shots he saw. The Bruins will have 6 games in 10 days in the month of February before the season is put on hold for the Olympics.

The Bruins aren't sending too many players to the Olympics this season. Marco Sturm will play for Germany, Alexei Zhamnov will play for Russia, PJ Axellson will play for Sweden, and that's it. This means that most of the Bruins will be pretty well rested when the season resumes in March.

At the moment, the Bruins have crawled out of the cellar of the Northeast Division into a tie for 4th with Montreal. They are only 3 points behind Toronto for 3rd place in the division, and more importantly, the 8th most points in the Conference. If they can continue this run and continue to rack up points, they will soon be in the playoff picture.

SOX GET ANOTHER FORMER MARLIN

The Red Sox have reportedly signed free agent defensive short-stop Alex Gonzalez to a one year deal worth $3 million according to the Boston Herald. Gonzalez will not hit much over .250 and his minimal power, but he has a good glove and will bat 9th. Although the Red Sox may have lost something offensively this off-season, their defense is much improved. Loretta, Gonzalez, and Crisp are all solid fielders. Mike Lowell, JT Snow, and Varitek are all Gold Glove winners.

Is it me, or do we get an overwhelming amount of players from the Marlin organization? Lowell, Beckett, Clement and Gonzalez are all former Marlins. Former Sox players Edgar Renteria, Kevin Millar, Matt Mantei, and others were all Marlins. This is the second time this season that the Red Sox have gotten talent from the Marlin organization. Let's hope Lowell, Beckett, and Gonzalez fare better than Renteria and Millar.

Red Sox projected lineup:
CF Crisp
RF Nixon
DH Ortiz
LF Ramirez
C Varitek
3B Lowell
1B Youkilis/Snow
2B Harris/Graffanino/Loretta
SS Gonzalez