It’s been a relatively quiet spring training for the Boston Red Sox so far in Ft. Myers as the only really big news to come out is Big Papi’s involvement with ARod’s trainer. Other than that, there’s not much happening. Sure there’s the nagging injury or two but that’s to be expected.
After talking about his involvement with Angel Presinal on Friday night with Comcast SportsNet New England, Big Papi met with the assembled masses to reiterate what he said then.
“We had this facility, five minutes away from my house, and he’s one of the guys that trains everybody,” said Ortiz. “That’s what everybody does. It’s in the center of the city, right in the middle where everybody lives, like an Olympics place where everybody goes to work out, do hitting, running, and other stuff.”
“I only see him when I’m down there working out, like everyone else,” said Ortiz. “It’s not his facility but he knows how to train people and teaches us how to do exercise and things like that. But, like I said, you are the owner of your own decision. It’s sad that he’s involved in things like this.”
As long as ARoid is still involved, this story involving Big Papi and Presinal won’t go away. Big Papi did the right thing in talking about it immediately because this is a case of guilty by association.
Yesterday we learned who will be starting the first six games for the Red Sox in the exhibition games that are set to start on Wednesday. Here’s how it shapes up:
Wednesday vs. Boston College: Josh Beckett
Wednesday at Minnesota: Tim Wakefield
Thursday vs. Pittsburgh: Jon Lester
Friday at Tampa Bay: Michael Bowden
Saturday vs. Northeastern: Kris Johnson
Saturday vs. Cincinnati: Clay Buchholz
Remember folks, we won’t see Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch during spring training until probably the end of March. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see John Smoltz pitch during spring training either but I do expect we’ll see Brad Penny.
The Red Sox will be busy today as it’s the annual picture day [Extra Bases]
Ortiz talks about trainer [Boston Globe]
Michael Bowden’s debut didn’t please all [Boston Herald]
Daniel Bard blows away Sox with dominating BP session [Providence Journal]
Asset freeze isn’t that chilling for Ellsbury [Boston Globe]
New arms have Red Sox stacked in ‘pen [redsox.com]
Lowell progressing [Projo Sox Blog]
Concerns about the Sox Future ST Digs [Spring Training ’09]
