Red Sox Spring Storylines
Spring Training is in full swing for the Red Sox down in Fort Myers, but the vibe this year is different from past seasons.
Since spring storylines have traditionally revolved around Manny Ramirez this decade, the lack of all things Manny has cast a calm over camp.
If you recall, Spring Training 2008 was brief and full of headlines. The Red Sox were defending champions and preparing for the Japan trip. This spring it’s pretty much the opposite. A year after kicking off the regular season historically early (March 25), Opening Day ’09 will not come until April 6 because of the World Baseball Classic.
Additionally, with five key players (Dice-K, David Ortiz, Jason Bay, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia) participating in the WBC for four different countries, Fort Myers is missing many familiar faces.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t issues warranting close monitoring. Be sure to keep an eye on the following storylines, in Florida and around the world, as the new season approaches.
The health of J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell It’s not worth mincing words: the Red Sox offense cannot survive another pair of injury-plagued and thus underperformed seasons from Drew and Lowell. Last year the two missed a combined 102 games, but their losses were mitigated by Manny’s production and career years from Pedroia and Youkilis. With Manny gone and it being unrealistic to project Pedroia and Youk to match their production from a year ago, the team is staking the middle of the lineup on two guys with health concerns. How Drew responds to a cortisonal shot in his lower back and how Lowell recovers from offseason hip surgery are issues of great concern. Let’s put it this way: if come June, Terry Francona’s lineup card has a six-through-nine of Rocco Baldelli/Brad Wilkerson, Mark Kotsay, Jason Varitek and Julio Lugo/Jed Lowrie, the Red Sox will be in serious trouble.
The Papelbon setup crew The only thing resembling a closer controversy Francona has dealt with in recent past is when and how often to summon his stopper. Ever since a shoulder injury forced the team to shut Papelbon down at the end of the 2006 season, the goal was to reduce the amount and length of his appearances. The problem last year was Tito didn’t have a go-to guy in the eighth inning until Justin Masterson emerged late in the season. Manny Delcarmen was constantly battling himself and Hideki Okajima finally started getting figured out by the opposition. With Ramon Ramirez (2.64 ERA, .222 BAA in 2008) and Takashi Saito (career 1.95 ERA and .182 BAA) on board to bolster an already strong bullpen, Francona should be able to shave about 10 appearances off the 67 Papelbon logged in ’08.
Josh Beckett’s body language Beckett has far too much pride to ever let on about an injury, which is why he took so much heat down the stretch last year amid a sustained stretch of mediocrity. The guy simply won’t admit to being hurt (which he was). The best indicator of how he’s feeling is to watch him on the mound and in the clubhouse. When he’s wearing that understated scowl and breaking off biting curves to complement his gas, then colorfully and curtly addressing reporters after outings, that’s when you know Beckett is right. All signs point to him being healthy and ready to replicate his dominant 2007 season. That’s what the Sox need.
David Ortiz’s WBC performance If Drew and Lowell are vital to the success of the offense, Ortiz is paramount. Something in the neighborhood of a .300/35/115 season is necessary from Big Papi in order for the top-heavy Boston lineup to push across enough runs to consistently win ballgames. He reported to Spring Training in great shape and 
was talking the talk. He’ll be playing first base in the WBC for the Dominican Republic, which will give him an opportunity to showcase what he claims to be a healthy knee. Yet obviously the focus will be on his left wrist and how — if at all — it will impact his swing at the plate. After the least productive and most injury-riddled year of his career with the Red Sox, Ortiz wants to make a statement. Over the next four weeks, as he dons the colors of his country, Big Papi should provide a clear picture of what he’ll be toting into the batters box in ’09.
Keeping Smoltz in perspective Patience, everyone. Yes, John Smoltz as a Red Sox is a tantalizing prospect. His presence early in the season is by no means integral to the identity of the team, however. The Sox have six viable starters (Beckett, Dice-K, Lester, Wakefield, Penny, Masterson) entering the campaign, and as much as everyone wants to see Smoltz firing away from the Fenway rubber, there’s no reason to rush things. If the last five years have taught us anything, it’s that the Red Sox are perennial contenders and must accordingly have the big picture in mind. Smoltz’s 15 postseason wins and 2.65 career postseason ERA are all one needs when taking into account the end game of winning a title. For the time being it’s best to view Smoltz as a guaranteed midseason acquistion.
blows to Boston’s chances of a repeat, I see a pair of blessings in disguise — reinforced by a recurring sense of déjà vu.
unrelenting with its venom-injected headlines and protracted condemnations of the man they once deemed “Starbury”.
its derivatives. He was irked by the passivity displayed by Williams and the rest of the field during the competition and apparently only had one way to communicate it. Between Miller’s ad nauseam droppage of the word and the overall bore of the event, most viewers probably wanted nothing more than to “nonchalantly” pull out their hair by the end.
the west will shake out, only time will tell as the Jazz, Blazers, Rockets, Hornets and Mavericks are all separated by just two and a half games. Expect seven of the eight Western playoff teams to reach the 50-win plateau.
Finals and meet Cleveland or Boston — two of the best defensive and most physical teams in the league — that they will be ruing the day Bynum went down. Again.
tangible or relevant definition of the term. It has been up to the professional leagues, teams, writers and fans to determine what has constituted a dynasty over the years.
In the 80s, the San Francisco 49ers gave a solid encore performance to the Steel Curtain. Behind the innovative and groundbreaking West coast offense instituted by Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice’s 49ers snagged four Super Bowls in a nine-year span (1982-1990). Included in that run was a back-to-back in ’89 and ’90, which solidified the Niner dynasty.
Boston’s three and two of the three head-to-head showdowns), there’s no doubt that Magic isn’t Magic without Bird and vice versa. Same goes for their teams. The iconic franchises fed off one another, spawned a fervent bicoastal fan base and permanently embedded the sport in American culture. For that reason the 80s Celtics are the only team to warrant the dynasty tag despite a failure to repeat (they won three of six from ’81 to ’86 and appeared in five Finals during that span).
publication, 
On a few occasions I have made reference to the fact that the 18-0 (and 18-1) Patriots simply weren’t comparable to the three-time champion Patriots. Were they prolific and dominant? Absolutely. But therein lay the problem. Their offensive supremacy covered up what was an aging defense that had seen its best days pass. More importantly, Brady and the offense rendered the defense a subsidiary part of the team for the majority of the season, and when it came time for the unit to step up, it was as if it suddenly couldn’t handle the pressure and stage it had once lived for.
up 14-3 and 28-17. They thrashed Carolina. And in the NFC Championship it was 24-6 before the Eagles knew what hit them.
Sure, they have experienced peaks and valleys that are atypical of a team defending a title. The peak was an 18-game winning streak. The valley — a stretch during which they dropped seven of nine, including four straight — had many asserting the Celtics were suddenly not just mortal, but beatable.
afforded any breaks from the schedule makers, which makes their current body of work all the more remarkable.
Super Bowl. The Panthers were 10-point favorites, and even more striking, had moneylines ranging up to minus-500 (meaning a bettor had to lay $500 to win $100).
3. We didn’t realize that Carolina’s finish was not as impressive at it seemed. The Panthers went 3-1 in December, starting with the “bandwagon” Monday night game against Tampa Bay. You know, the game they ran all over a 9-3 Bucs team on a national stage, and everyone (including yours truly) hopped on the bandwagon, unaware that Tampa was terrible. That was followed by a 30-10 spanking of a Denver team we found out was in the midst of the worst collapse in league history. After that was the flexed Sunday night showdown with the Giants, a contest in which the Panthers blew an 11-point lead and lost in overtime. In their season finale against the Saints they watched a 23-3 lead evaporate and had to scramble in the final minute to pull out a 33-31 victory that preserved the NFC’s second seed. That’s what you call writing on the wall.
An argument could be made that the Cardinals were actually peaking going into that contest (they were 5-2 over their last seven, losing only to Carolina and the Giants). The Eagles sprung out to 21-0 lead and never looked back. Donovan McNabb threw for 260 yards and four touchdowns and Brian Westbrook scored four times (twice on the ground).
The Ravens defense, traditionally stout, did a lot of bending against Kerry Collins, giving up 391 total yards. It made up for it by inducing three Tennessee turnovers in the red zone. The Baltimore D knows that if it allows the Steelers to move the ball like it did the Titans, Pittsburgh will turn those possessions into points.
With their 23-17 overtime win over the Colts, the Chargers joined the Patriots as the only team to down Peyton Manning twice in the playoffs. It’s no secret that San Diego has taken a page from New England’s 2003-04 defensive schematic. By masking coverages and blitz packages through constant movement and interchanging parts at the line of scrimmage, the Chargers have been able to flummox Manning to the degree that he loses his rhythm and starts making mistakes. That’s why they’ve had success against Indy.
The circumstances are different this time around. If the Chargers are to have any hope of opening up their passing game it’s imperative that they get something from their ground attack. Even in a perfect world that’s already the tallest of orders against Pittsburgh’s second-ranked run defense.
that manage the game and minimize mistakes (Kerry Collins threw only seven interceptions all year; Joe Flacco tossed 12), and defenses that live for winning time.
Eagles beat the Giants in a 2006 wild-card game, 23-20).
yards on the ground and frustrated Eli Manning, who was just 13-for-27 with 123 yards.
Everything is so up in the air that even the big boys out west are tentative. Considering every road team is between a one and three point favorite, Vegas sportsbooks — as opposed to last year 
and helped Atlanta shed the moniker of “suspect road team”. However, it must be pointed out that Ryan was just 13-for-24 with 134 yards and a touchdown in that game. Turner finished with a decent day’s work: 19 carries, 70 yards, one touchdown. It was really the Vikings who beat themselves, losing four fumbles.
pieces around him. Tony Dungy is an exceptional coach with a ring. Done and done, right? Not so fast. The Chargers are peaking at the right time for the second year in a row. Their offense has averaged over 37 points per game during a four-game winning streak to close the season. The defense allowed just 18.5 points per game since Ron Rivera was inserted in place of Ted Cottrell. And bear in mind that if Jake Delhomme doesn’t complete a miraculous touchdown pass with no time on the clock in Week 1 and Ed Hochuli doesn’t blow the call vs. Denver in Week 2, the Chargers are a much more appealing 10-6.