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Colon update

Pitcher Bartolo Colon made his Red Sox spring debut today and looked good during his two-inning, 26-pitch outing. He allowed one run on two hits, including a solo home run to the Rays' Jon Weber.

The Sox signed him to a minor-league contract at the start of spring training and the club feels he could be a diamond in the rough.

Colon loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first inning, but retired the next three batters to end the inning unscathed.

“I feel very good,” he said. “My control was good and it was what I was looking for, and I felt really strong out there today.”

Colon said he was pleased with his velocity.

“I’m thrilled with the way my arm has been responding,” he said. “I don’t know how hard I was throwing, but it felt very good.”

Even though he feels strong and confident, he doesn’t want to place a target date on a return, he’ll let the Red Sox make that decision.

“I feel great and the trainers have done a great job with me,” he said. “I’ve seen a great improvement from where I began [spring training] to where I am right now.”

The one-time Cy Young winner (2005 for the Angels) has battled injuries the last few seasons, but he's hoping he can return to form in 2008.

“The past two years have been tough,” he said. “But it’s that more gratifying to see the results finally starting to pay out. More than anything it’s great to be able to go out on the mound, even for a brief stint, and have some success. It’s very rewarding and shows that the hard work is paying off.”

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 2:25 PM | Permalink

Colon finished

Bartolo Colon just completed his first outing with the Red Sox and looked good. The right-hander threw 26 pitches (18 strikes) and allowed one run (solo homer) on two hits with one walk and one strikeout.

He retired the first two batters he faced in the second inning before surrendering a solo homer to the Rays' Jon Weber, who crushed the first offering over the right-center field wall. Tampa leads 1-0.

Kyle Snyder will replace Colon in the third.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 1:26 PM | Permalink

Colon makes Red Sox debut

Right-hander Bartlolo Colon just completed his first of two innings of scheduled work for the Red Sox. He threw 20 pitches (13 strikes) in the first inning, looked good and threw hard. After allowing a lead-off single to the Rays' Akinori Iwamura, Jason Bartlett reached on an error by Sox shortstop Alex Cora.

Colon then walked Carlos Pena before striking out B.J. Upton. Colon got Jonny Gomes to pop out to catcher Dusty Brown and then Colon showed his range when he covered first on a ground ball to the right side and recorded the final out of the inning on John Rodriguez.

Colon will work one more inning.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 1:05 PM | Permalink

Mirabelli released

The Red Sox have placed catcher Doug Mirabelli on unconditional release waivers.

Tony Massarotti reported on his blog earlier that he saw Mirabelli leaving City of Palms Park in street clothes. The Journal has just confirmed the veteran receiver has been placed on waivers. Tim Wakefield's personal catcher was originally in today's lineup to catch Bartolo Colon.

That leaves George Kottaras, Kevin Cash and Dusty Brown backing up Jason Varitek in camp. Cash was called up from Pawtucket last season when Mirabelli was placed on the DL and proved he can handle the backup role.

Cash, 30, can catch the knuckleball and manager Terry Francona has always liked him. In fact, Cash crushed a three-run homer Wednesday against the Twins. He has worked with minor-league knucklers Charlie Zink and John Barnes. Cash has 126 games of major-league experience with Toronto, Tampa and Boston.

Cash also caught Wakefield last August when he tossed 22 consecutive scoreless innings.

Brown, 25, can also catch the dancing doozy and has also impressed management this spring.

It doesn't appear the Red Sox are in the midst of making a trade for a backup at this point.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 12:29 PM | Permalink

More roster moves for the Red Sox

The Red Sox made a few more transactions this morning. Right-hander Devern Hansack and outfielder Jonathan Van Every were optioned to Pawtucket.

The club assigned right-hander Lee Gronkiewicz and left-handers Jon Switzer and Michael Tejera to the minor-league camp.

Just in case you missed it earlier today, Curt Schilling was placed on the 60-day DL. And, the Sox signed right-hander Lincoln Holdzkom to a major-league contract and placed him on the 40-man roster.

With all of today's moves, Boston has 40 players in major league camp.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 12:25 PM | Permalink

Where's Mirabelli?

Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald just reported on his blog that backup catcher Doug Mirabelli just left City of Palms Park in street clothes. He was originally scheduled to play today. . . We'll have more as it becomes available.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 12:20 PM | Permalink

Today's lineups

TAMPA
Akinori Iwamura, 2b
Jason Bartlett, ss
Carlos Pena, 1b
B.J. Upton, cf
Jonny Gomes, DH
John Rodriguez, rf
Evan Longoria, 3b
Dioner Navarro, c
Jon Weber, lf
Matt Garza, SP

BOSTON
Jacoby Ellsbury, cf
Dustin Pedroia, 2b
David Ortiz, DH
Manny Ramirez, lf
Mike Lowell, 3b
J.D. Drew, rf
Sean Casey, 1b
Doug Mirabelli, c
Alex Cora, ss
Bartolo Colon, SP

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 11:45 AM | Permalink

Talk Red Sox baseball tomorrow with Joe McDonald

Joe McDonald will be online from Fort Myers on Friday to take your questions about the team as it gets ready to depart for Japan and the early start to the regular season. Joe will be online from noon to 1 p.m.

You can send in your questions now: go to projo.com/chat, click launch chat, choose a display name (you don't need a password) and enter the red sox chat room. Remember not to press enter or click send until you have finished typing your question. Questions will display to the room as Joe answers them tomorrow.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:30 AM | Permalink

Buchholz' new Pet

The Boston Herald's Inside Track has the details -- first spilled on WZLX Radio by Buchholz' father -- that Clay Buccholz is, as they say, keeping time with Penthouse Pet of the Year Erica Ellyson.

Get all the details here.

Posted by Art Martone  at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Schilling placed on DL

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Not surprisingly, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has been placed on the 60-day DL today with an arm injury. The veteran right-hander has been rehabbing at the club’s spring training facility here early in the mornings and then leaves.

As a result of Schilling's departure from the active roster, the Red Sox signed right-hander Lincoln Holdzkom and placed him on the 40-man roster. He split time between Portland and Pawtucket last season. He was a six-year free agent at the end of last season, and was picked up by the Phillies in the Rule V draft. Philadelphia then offered him back to Boston, and because of that, he had the option to become a free agent. He decided to sign with the Red Sox.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 10:24 AM | Permalink

Baseball Today: Thursday, March 13

AP Photo

THE REAL WORLD: Every so often reality intrudes on the fantasy land of sports, and yesterday it barged in with a sobering thud. Rhode Island's Rocco Baldelli told the Tampa media in a morning press conference he would be sidelined indefinitely because of a rare, and as-yet untreated, condition called metabolic and/or mitochondrial abnormalities, which causes severe fatigue and muscle cramping and has been at the root at his constant string of injuries over the last three years. Later he had a phone conversation with Joe McDonald in which he elaborated on the topic.

Interestingly, Baldelli said it was his interview with McDonald on Saturday -- recounted in this Sunday story -- that prompted him to go public in far more detail yesterday. The unburdening, he said, was a relief. "When I wake up [today], I’m going to feel a lot better than I did [yesterday],'' he told McDonald. But there's still no conclusive diagnosis (and thus no real treatment), and when asked if the condition was life-threatening, Baldelli said, "It’s difficult for me to comment on that. I’m not worried about it being extremely serious and I don’t like to use the term [life threatening]. Doctors are fairly certain this is not serious to that point. It’s a problem, a serious problem, but not something I’m worried about.''

It's so rare for an athlete this young to be facing a condition this dire that few can process it. I think the St. Petersburg Times' Gary Shelton has an excellent column in which he acknowledges that most people, because of his long string of idleness, ''are no longer able to feel [Baldelli's] pain.'' That point of view can be summed up pretty succinctly: The Rays have been without Baldelli for a long time now, they have plenty of other good young outfielders, they're a team on the rise, and if they have to rise without him . . . well, so be it. If the Rays were the Red Sox, and the outfielder was from, say, Montana and not Rhode Island, we'd probably feel the same way around here. And it's somehow symbolic of that lack of empathy and understanding that the Baldelli news in the Tampa area got trampled by the Rays-Yankees nonsense (more on this below).

But Shelton's point is that the conclusion to Baldelli's saga -- and that's what yesterday felt like -- ''should not come without a trace of sorrow.'' More than a trace, in this view.

Godspeed, Rocco. Get well soon.

BACK TO BASEBALL: As for the on-field news yesterday, Clay Buchholz pitched well as the Sox won the Mayor's Cup with a 12-7 victory over the Twins. The up-and-down saga of Josh Beckett was up yesterday, though there's still no word as to whether or not he'll make the trip to Japan. And Curt Schilling, while seen, continues not to be heard from in the Sox camp. (All stories from McDonald on projo.com)

THE GLOBAL VILLAGE: Little did we know the misfortune that befell McDonald's laptop the other day in Port St. Lucie would be chronicled by a sports celebrity gossip site and Deadspin.

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND: The blog River Ave. Blues -- don't really have to tell you where they're coming from, do I? -- is chortling about the Red Sox' trip to Japan.

REDUCED SPEED: Scouts sat Francisco Liriano's velocity, once as high as 95 mph, is in the 88 mph range these days. (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

AND AWAY WE GO: Questions about whether there'd be a carryover from last Saturday's Rays-Yankees unpleasantries were answered pretty quickly yesterday. Shelley Duncan's Kamikaze slide into second base -- his "I was trying to knock the ball out of the glove" defense rings pretty hollow when you view the picture at right -- was the Yanks', or at least his, attempt to pay Tampa Bay back for the broken wrist suffered by minor-league catcher Francisco Cervelli as the result of a hard hit at the plate by the Rays' Elliot Johnson. The bench-clearing hoo-hah that followed was predictable, as were the postgame spins: The Yankees claiming Duncan's play was simply "a hard aggressive slide" (LoHud Yankees Blog) and the Rays calling it borderline criminal. (Tampa Tribune) Read all about it from the New York Daily News, the New York Post and the St. Pete Times. You can get columnists' takes from Bill Madden of the Daily News, Joel Sherman of the Post and Martin Fennelly of the Tribune.

AP Photo

To me, the most interesting part of the whole thing was the reaction of Yankee fans. They long chafed under the Yanks' refusal, under Joe Torre, to retaliate when their batters would be hit by pitches, particularly against the Red Sox. So after Duncan's play -- probably the best description would be a direct, if politically incorrect, phrase used by Bill James in a different context: "A Zulu warrior stunt to avenge the paisan" -- I jumped to Peter Abraham's blog to see what the fans were saying. Most of them loved it. ("This is awesome, so sick of the Torre era turning the other cheek. Time for some payback.'' . . . "The 77 and 78 Yankees would be proud" . . . "At least we know its not a turn-the-other-cheek team this year. That’s a positive.") It's not surprising, since most fan bases, including Boston's, would react exactly the same way. But Abraham jumped into the comment section a couple of times and tried to tell them that baseball isn't that kind of sport and they were being foolish; very few listened and a few shouted him down. In the end, Abraham made another blog post, titled Let's Try Not To Get Carried Away, in which he laid out the reasons why this incident shouldn't be regarded as a call to arms by The New Yanks.

Whether it actually is or not, only time will tell. But it sure livened up spring training.

THE REAL NEWS . . . is that Andy Pettitte had to miss a start because of a cranky elbow. (New York Daily News) The Yanks say it's nothing serious. Over at The Replacement Level Yankees Weblog, SG takes a look at how Pettitte likely will perform in 2008.

'DESIGNATED HEBREW': That's how Billy Crystal, who'll actually play for the Yanks against the Pirates today, is describing himself. (New York Post)

NOTHING BREWING: The Associated Press reports that, since MLB hasn't even talked to any of the players mentioned, suspensions for individuals mentioned in the Mitchell Report are unlikely, at least before Opening Day. (projo.com)

HERE WE COME: In its season preview of the team, Fox Sports says the Blue Jays have a sense of optimism for 2008. But that optimism may have been tempered a bit by yesterday's news that Casey Janssen will miss the 2008 season. (Toronto Globe and Mail) The Tao of Steib, however, isn't ''freaking about this nearly as much as we might have imagined''.

THERE THEY GO: Over on Baseball Analysts, Rob Neyer and Joe Posnanski look at the A.L. Central.

I'VE HAD IT: The Baltimore Sun's Peter Schmuck is giving up on Daniel Cabrera.

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES: A South Coast League team in Georgia is planning to hold a Elliot Spitzer Night on June 13, in which anyone named Eliot, Spitzer or Kristen, the alleged call girl, will get $1 off admission. The team also plans to give out a one-night stay at Washington, D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel, where Spitzer's alleged misdeeds are said to have happened, and -- since Spitzer was described as "Client No. 9" in FBI documents -- the ninth fan will get a prize. So will the 871st fan to buy a ticket, because that's supposed to have been Spitzer's Mayflower Hotel room number. (AP via wfrv.com)

Now that's a minor-league operator.

HERE AND THERE: Rotoworld.com points out that by not non-tendering Horacio Ramirez, whom they released yesterday, last December, it cost the Mariners $460,000 . . . The Indians are taking care of Juan Lara, the relief pitcher who was critically injured in a November car crash. (AP via projo.com)

OLD FRIENDS: Keith Foulke made his exhibition debut for the A's, allowing a run (rotoworld.com) . . . The Marlins' Hanley Ramirez is hitting .394 this spring. (rotoworld.com)

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:28 AM | Permalink