Papelbon Pitches Scoreless Inning

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Video from redsox.mlb.com

During his second outing in Spring Training, Papelbon pitched to his expectation. He pitched a scoreless frame which you can watch in the video above. This is Papelbon's make or break year. If he pitches like he did in 2007 and 2008 he might get resigned by the Red Sox or by another team for 14+ million per season. If he pitches like last year or worse he will probably not resign with the Sox next off season. This past off season, the Red Sox offered Mariano Rivera a pretty good contract to take Papelbon's job and trade him elsewhere. They also thought they might be able to sign Rafael Soriano and trade him away but didn't due to the low interest in him. There is not so much interest in Papelbon because he has not pitched well recently and his is salary is too high for many teams to afford. Although they did sign Bobby Jenks (closer of the White Sox) for two years who can replace Papelbon if he moves after the season and the Red Sox also think they have closer stuff in Daniel Bard who is a talented young flame thrower. This means whether or not Papelbon moves during or after the season, or if he starts to slip, the Red Sox have good solutions for the closing role.

Beckett Shows Good Signs after Mild Concussion

After sustaining a mild concussion a few days ago Beckett showed signs of recovery Friday. This happened when he got hit with a hard line drive in the temple. He had trouble walking off the field, but slowly got better. He missed his start on Thursday vs the Phillies. But instead, pitched a three inning simulated game on Friday. During this simulated game, he pitched 40 good pitches and showed no signs of injury. When asked about how he fells, he said,"I'm actually good," said Beckett. "I'm really sore on the left side of my head, my jaw, and stuff like that. I think I'm pretty much back to normal." That is a very reassuring sign for all of New England.

Starting Jobs

With Spring Training under way, the Red Sox have great starters at all positions after a great off-season where they acquired Adrian Gonzalez and sign Carl Crawford along with other moves. The only two uncertain positions  for the Red Sox are shortstop and catcher. At shortstop they will most likely have Marco Scutaro starting. He came to Boston last off season on a two year deal. In his first year of the deal, he hit decently with reasonable average and good defense. Another option at short is Jed Lowrie. He has had a lot of injuries over the last couple of seasons preventing him from getting a starting job but at the end of last season, he showed great power, and good average. If he does well enough this Spring, he might win the starting job. Catching, the Red Sox have Jarrod Saltalamachia as well as long time veteran, Jason Varitek. The Red Sox acquired Jarrod in a mid-season trade. He has always had great offense, but his defense and injury history has kept him in the minors. He will most likely start the season as the catcher with Varitek as the backup. So what do you think?