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

DAMON TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLUBHOUSE CHEMISTRY

David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Kevin Millar, Manny Ramirez, Orlando Cabrera, Trot Nixon, Mark Bellhorn, Jason Varitek, Bill Mueller, Curt Schilling, Terry Francona, Gabe Kapler, Mike Timlin, Allan Embree, Pokey Reese, Doug Mirabelli, Dave Roberts, Tim Wakefield, Kevin Youkilis, Bronson Arroyo, Derek Lowe, Keith Foulke, and the rest of the 2004 World Series Champion Red Sox had little to do with having such great clubhouse chemistry that allowed them to win the World Series 2 years ago. It was all Johnny Damon. That's according to Johnny.

This is from the Eagle Tribune:

"'I remember my first day with the Red Sox and I could not believe how boring the team was, how boring the clubhouse was and how miserable everybody was,' said Damon. 'I like to think that I helped change how fans looked at the team, how the media looked at the team and how the team got together and it was different. How the players stopped being afraid of failing, which I think was why we were able to accomplish something that hadn't been done in a very long time. Now I want to bring that attitude to New York. You must win and you must have confidence, because if you don't have that in this city it will definitely eat you up.'"

Everytime he is photographed or quoted, it becomes easier and easier to not like him.

SOX GET CRISP, FANS GET AGGRAVATED IN VIRTUAL WAITING ROOMS

I didn't even bother this year. I didn't go to the virtual waiting rooms to wait for hours while someone else bought tickets. Hopefully the Sox will offer some deals for members of the Nation and I intend on going to Toronto and maybe Baltimore and New York to see the Sox play.

The bigger news is that the Red Sox got center-fielder Coco Crisp. They had to rework the deal, adding cash considerations along with a player to be named later or more cash considerations. The important thing is that we have a solid center-fielder. Not only that, David Riske is a decent releiver.

This deal really takes the pressure off the whole short-stop situation. Most teams don't have really good offensive short-stops so even if we don't get a new one, we won't be interrible shape.

Here's what our lineup currently/potentially looks like:

1. CF Crisp
2. RF Trot Nixon
3. DH David Ortiz
4. LF Manny Ramirez
5. C Jason Varitek
6. 3B Mike Lowell
7. 1B Kevin Youkilis/JT Snow
8. 2B Mark Loretta
9. SS Alex Cora

Not as great as 2003-2005, but still not that bad.