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Friday's 7:00 PM game is televised on NESN. Did anybody see anything of today's game? Anything interesting to report?

There is nothing minor about concussion. I think there will be entire generations of players and their families that will end up eternally grateful for the post concussion processes now in place. Wish it were around when I played. I can not remember entirely all of the times I got carted off either a football field or a baseball field with no more follow up than "how many fingers am I holding up". If nothing else, the extensive nature of the current processes show us a good deal about how damaging and debilitating concussion can be.

The Drew brothers are not the same ballplayer and Steven's situation this year is not what JD's was for the bulk of his Sox career.

I think it is a bit of an overstatement to call the ownership of an MLB franchise a hobby because it suggests they will run the organization that way. If the principle owners actually ran an MLB franchise or any business that way, it would be an absolute fiasco. They only way you can manage your operational personnel is to set standards for them. Too some extent those standards will be predicated on how they utilize the assets of the organization. If you treat your business, whatever it is, like a hobby, you will not be able to manage your operational personnel and your shop will turn into a sandbox. So I just don't think we want to take that next step and say that the owners would "treat" it like a hobby. I think they have been organizationally sloppy and have allowed people to have too much influence over Baseball Operations as an example of that.

Anything short of a middle of the order power bat should simply not sniff $20M.....part of the insanity of the Crawford signing and the very thing that became the issue with regard to paying AGons. I don't think things will change so much that guys that are not truly power hitters will be getting that kinda' money in the out-years. In fact, if you look at recent CBA negotiations, the PA is beginning to understand that its previous negotiating posture "a rising tide floats all boats" sorta' does not work. More of the money has got to find its way to the "other" 90% of the ballplayers that make it to the ML instead of the cream of the crop just gobbling up bigger shares of the pie. I don't think the top salaries will continue to rise at their recent rates. However I do think that the money will be spread at least a bit more thinly over all of the ML players and I also think that future CBA's will continue in that vein. There is literally no other reason for the PA to have accepted some of the terms in the new CBA.

I don't think A Manager or The Manager could have saved the 2012 Sox from themselves either. They seemed intent on completing the painting they had started in 2011 and boy did they ever. The difference, the thing about the Bobby V hiring is that it turned the whole thing into a total three ring circus. He turned what would very likely have been a failed season into an undignified kindergarden mess. A food fight is better organized. At the very least he exacerbated a bad situation in the way that adding gasoline will change a fire. In one sense V was perfect. He was the manager that team and that organization deserved. The fact that he was the guy that LL, TW and JH wanted speaks volumes for the detachment of JH and the intentions of LL and TW. The willingness that the latter two have for doing just about anything for marketing sizzle regardless of the impact on the team's ability to progress as a baseball team combined with JH's detachment is in a word, SCARY.

I should have added that I do not think the Sox should take the hit by bringing up Bradley now. They have no idea how he will perform when facing regular season ML pitching. ST provides no indication for the regular season especially for a kid that would be in his first ML April. Its too much risk for too little potential reward.....the same sort of choice that everybody running a for profit business must make.

It is not a cash strapped team but neither are the Yankees. Since the new CBA, it is hard to predict what teams will and will not do. However it is safe to say that whatever it is, it will not likely be the same thing that they did before the new CBA. I would think that the two most relevant items regarding spending are in fact the new CBA on the one hand and the number of new cable TV contracts that some teams have signed on the other. The guys that have the job of reviewing the new CBA and understanding it at a level of financial risk have the responsibility. I can only guess but I suspect a thorough review of the new CBA when bounced off the insane amount of money some players are making, particularly FA's suggests more financial caution is in order for organizations with the exception of those making decisions based on the windfall represented by a new TV contract. The Yanks have grown used to their TV revenues as have the Sox. We have seen more teams exercise caution and fewer exercise financial freedom with the exception of those with newly acquired income streams that are in some cases astronomical. When that is combined with a plan to generate fan support at the ticket window via player payroll (ala' the Dodgers) then we have seen more spending freedom. At any rate, I think the jury is way out especially with regard to teams like the Yanks and the Sox as far as how they spend, if they spend and when they spend.

You are right Pal....it is a 22% of service time calculation not 22% of a season. I just did not remember how those numbers are used. Anyway it was 17% and is now 22%. The date will change year to year. It should be close to what it was last year though. So maybe late June turns into early July or something like that.

As I recall, the old Super 2 deadline was set at 17% of the season or 27 games. I think it is now 22% in the new CBA or 35 games. Based on 17% it would be 4/27. Based on 35 games it would be 5/6 I think.

The 4 hole is not just any old lineup spot. If Farrell puts Gomez there in a Spring game, he might just want to see how he responds to the 4 hole, especially with a runner or runners on. Does he choke on it, flail away three times and sit down? Does he handle it well?

This is a new hitting stroke for Iggy. I like it and I think that he will be more successful using it than the two strokes I saw him using last year. It is enough different that I bet he still has to think about it when he is hitting. So even it is right and I think it is, it will probably be awhile before he gets any results. That still may not be enough. In any event, I think it would take an injury to see Iggy up some time in 2013. However IMO he has got to start to impress the Sox brass with his hitting regardless of where he is playing. He has got B's climbing up his butt. So his youth is not going to help him much longer at least not in this organization. I think he has got this year to impress. 22 years old is just out of teens. 23 is mid-twenties-ish and if he continues to be unable to cross the Mendoza line, the Sox brass may not have patience that extends beyond this year.

Farrell seemed unwilling to throw the Sox Med Staff under the bus as he would not comment on whether the heel injury is in fact a compensation injury. However I have no idea how anybody could miss how unnatural Ortiz gait has been. I have been reporting it here for at least two weeks. I would be more inclined to think that nobody walked up to David and talked to him about it than that nobody saw it. They must have somebody from Med monitoring his every move during workouts. I suppose there is a chance that somebody did talk to Ortiz about the risk he was taking with that gait at 250 lbs and he ignored the warning....anything is possible.

Closer could actually be an interesting thing for the Sox to try with Rubby. He might be the kind of guy that will muster the focus needed to really be effective if the innings count is low and the the immediacy level is high as in .....closing. That might really be worth trying with him at some point. They might have a fireballing closer in the rough sitting there right under their noses. Not something I would rush into but at least IMO definitely worth considering at some point.

Overbay has actually looked "older" than I thought he would and I don't mean grey hairs either.

I really wish they had shortened Iggy's stroke earlier than this. He definitely looks better swinging the bat than I have ever seen him but he is not really getting anything for it. I don't think he really has more than this year to impress with B's right on his tail. I still think he will eventually play for somebody....less and less likely that it will be the Sox.

I can see why so many experts see Rubby's upside as a reliever and not a starter. I have already commented several times regarding his inconsistency. If I had to guess, Rubby pre-injury had lived off his stuff for too long. He seems so disinterested on the mound, like his expectation is that he can turn it on anytime he wants to and just blow people away whenever he feels like it. The truth is you can almost get all the way to the ML doing that kinda' s*** if your stuff is good enough. However if a pitcher has that kind of head attached to that kind or arm, he often ends up getting in his own way too much to truly learn how to become a pitcher instead of a thrower. I would love to know how Rubby handles bad outings. Is he willing to look in the mirror and tell himself he really stank up the place today or does he have every excuse under the sun ready. The home plate ump screwed me. The wind was blowing out. Stupid left fielder dropped the ball etc etc.

Fine, we are supposedly after "everybody" that becomes a FA. But that is not the point. Fine, I have little doubt that Texas would have made inquiries just like we make inquires. Take that to its logical conclusion assuming Texas could come to terms with Ortiz. They would have forced Ortiz to take the same physical that Berkman had to take. Ortiz would not have passed and that would have been the end of that. That has been the point all along. Ortiz was 37 year old damaged goods. Nobody was going to offer Ortiz what he got from Boston for all the reasons I am too tired to repeat a third time here. The Berkman deal is not relevant because Ortiz could not have passed the physical that Berkman was forced to take and that Ortiz would surely have been forced to take had Texas taken their interest in Ortiz to a conclusion. It is like folks want to forget the crux of the argument. Ortiz is/ was damaged goods....ergo can't pass physical.

That is such total ********. Some of the posters here were absolutely dead nuts on in their low expectations for the 2012 Sox, were roasted alive for it when they offered those expectations, having their fandom questioned of all things just like this year. When they turned out to be exactly dead nuts on they never once offered an I told ya' so. Then again most of their detractors were not around to recognize that because they scurried off to the hills or some other forum I guess for fear of the apparently awesome power of the "Internet I told ya' so". And ya' need to get your stories straight. We can't be overly critical with low expectations and be overly critical with unrealistically high expectations at the same time! Unbelievable. If I had to guess, for some of you, you are just lashing out because the same people that had low expectations for the 2012 team and had it called exactly right, are now expressing a similar view of the 2013 team and you just cannot handle the possibility that they will have called it exactly right once again. At least be consistent for crying out loud and don't scurry off this year like a bunch of scared little children if you turn out to be on the wrong side of the discussion. For the record this is a discussion forum carrying "Talksox" at its banner head, not "WorshipSox". If you cannot separate your opinions in discussion from your fandom, grow up and come back when you can. For the record, the most embarrassingly subpar performances by this organization that i have witnessed in my entire 50 years as a fan have taken place the last two years....not fifty years ago. You don't have to have much of a memory to go back and find this organization's worst moments.....like hiring Bobby V to manage $179M in player salary assets....now they was a stroke of brilliance for ya'.

That is such total ********. Some of the posters here were absolutely dead nuts on in their low expectations for the 2012 Sox, were roasted alive for it when they offered those expectations, having their fandom questioned of all things just like this year. When they turned out to be exactly dead nuts on they never once offered an I told ya' so. Then again most of their detractors were not around to recognize that because they scurried off to the hills or some other forum I guess for fear of the apparently awesome power of the "Internet I told ya' so". And ya' need to get your stories straight. We can't be overly critical with low expectations and be overly critical with unrealistically high expectations at the same time! Unbelievable. If I had to guess, for some of you, you are just lashing out because the same people that had low expectations for the 2012 team and had it called exactly right, are now expressing a similar view of the 2013 team and you just cannot handle the possibility that they will have called it exactly right once again. At least be consistent for crying out loud and don't scurry off this year like a bunch of scared little children if you turn out to be on the wrong side of the discussion. For the record this is a discussion forum carrying "Talksox" at its banner head, not "WorshipSox". If you cannot separate your opinions in discussion from your fandom, grow up and come back when you can. For the record, the most embarrassingly subpar performances by this organization that i have witnessed in my entire 50 years as a fan have taken place the last two years....not fifty years ago. You don't have to have much of a memory to go back and find this organization's worst moments.....like hiring Bobby V to manage $179M in player salary assets....now they was a stroke of brilliance for ya'.

I read the article.That is just terrific news for Red Sox fans. You have just got to be kidding. How does the article contradict anything I wrote? I have said that the term healed is used rather loosely and that he will be at an increased risk for what remains of his baseball career. I did not read anything that contradicted that. It really does not matter. We will be able to tally up the games he plays soon enough and then we will know. By the way, I would not discount the possibility that protecting the Achilles is causing Ortiz issues elsewhere. Have you seen what his efforts to "run" look like? Does that look like a natural stride to you.

"Healed" is a rather loosely used term. Ortiz will not end up with the same Achilles he once had. He is going to be at an elevated risk level for continued Achilles damage and discomfort for the rest of whatever his career turns out to be. Berkman had to pass a physical to get his money....a physical that Ortiz could surely not have passed either now or at any time since his re-injury. I don't see how you could use Berkman's Texas deal as an example of a team that would have signed Ortiz when Ortiz could not have passed the physical.

Look out folks...here comes the knuckler that at least so far, does not knuckle.

That 12/6 curve to Gomez from Inman was just plain unfair. No idea how a hitter gets to that this early in the spring.

The pitchers are way ahead of the hitters at this point. In several of these games, the hitters have not even been able to put many balls in play...either side. Anything off speed or breaking is really hard for the hitters to handle at this point in the spring.