Today the Boston Red Sox will take on the Baltimore Orioles in Grapefruit League action. The Red Sox are winding down their Florida portion of spring training as they have just 5 games left including today before they embark on their journey to the Far East.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the bump today and he will be followed by Jonathan Papelbon and Mike Timlin. The regulars are expected to be in the lineup and even Julio Lugo may return to action as well. There is no television or radio coverage of the game so once we again we rely on the mainstream media blogs for our updates.

One of the big stories from yesterday was the release of Doug Mirabelii. Boy wonder Theo Epstein commented on the timing of Mirabelli’s release.

“I think the timing, in part, was out of respect to Doug. This was a debate early in camp and once it reached a point where defensively, especially, [Kevin] Cash was the backup that would give our team the best chance to win, we wanted to do it now, rather than the day before we went to Japan. We didn’t think that was fair to Doug or his family. Now it gives him a chance to go find another job.

“[Cash's] defensive execution is really good. I think we knew a lot about that, but to see him here in spring training continue to call a good game, continue to receive well, throw well, block well, be very into the advance scouting part of the game, working with the pitching staff, he’s impressed the coaching staff with the ability to do those things. You never want to evaluate in spring training, but everything counts, from the first day of drills to the games. You don’t want to make an evaluation based on one play or one game, but it’s just, especially with players well into their 30s, you just try to look and evaluate and make sure their skills are still there. In this camp, the evaluation was that Cash was doing a lot of things right defensively and could handle Wakefield. It was a tough decision, but the right choice for the club overall was Cash.

“Last year’s injury gave us a window to see what it would be like with Cash catching Wakefield, how those two would get along – 60 feet, 6 inches apart and otherwise. I think Wakefield, especially the first couple times out, performed really well with Cash back there. We’re confident he can do the job.”

The Red Sox and Rays players took the news about Rocco Baldelli pretty hard.

Another big story was Bartolo Colon making his Red Sox spring debut. Boy wonder once again had some comments, this time about Colon’s outing.

“I’ll be honest with you, he had more arm strength than we expected. He was 90-94 with his fastball. He hit 92-93 a lot. That’s more velocity than we expected out of him. Obviously, he was a little rusty. He was up a lot early and left a pitch over the middle in the second inning, but he was impressive. He had good two-seam life, the ability to spin the ball with his slider, threw the changeup. For his first time out, we were really impressed. It’s nice to see him respond to a real game situation. The two-seamer was more 89-91. The four-seamer 92-94.

“[The two seamer,] that’s his bread and butter. He throws a two-seamer with real good lateral life. He can really manipulate the ball with his grip. He used to be a pure power guy way back with Cleveland. One playoff game, he didn’t throw a fastball under 98, a long time ago. But in his most recent incarnation as a successful pitcher, it’s been relying heavily on the two-seam fastball and showed a decent one today.

“We thought even if he never showed plus-velocity again – and apparently, if today is a launching point, he may show it again – even if he didn’t , we thought he would have the ability to manipulate the ball both ways, cut the ball in and change speeds down in the zone. He has smarts and guts out there to be serviceable, even if the arm strength never came back. It was a roll of the dice without any guaranteed money. The hope is that his arm strength gets to the point where he can combine some power with the two-seam action and the ability to locate and change speeds and who knows what we have. We know he’s not going to be intimidated. That’s for sure. We’re pretty sure he’ll throw strikes.”

I said this yesterday, I think this is a two-horse race between Colon and Clay Buchholz. Obviously the biggest question will be how he feels when he gets to the ballpark today. Colon is expected to make his next start against the New York Yankees on St. Patrick’s Day.

Terry Francona and Epstein had a nice chat with Coco Crisp.

For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.