When the Red Sox acquired Adrian Gonzalez three months ago, he was recovering from shoulder surgery and wasn't a lock to be ready for Opening Day. Yesterday, having not experienced any setbacks, Gonzalez played in his first game of the spring, a strong sign that his rehab has been a success. Speaking to reporters today, the slugger suggested he doesn't expect his health to be an issue this season. In fact, he wants to play in all 162 games, writes Alex Speier of WEEI.com.
"I'm a first baseman," said Gonzalez. "How much energy do you really put out there? I don't steal bases. I don’t run fast. I play first base. As long as my legs can take it, I'm good."
More Sox-related links:
- In a separate column for WEEI, Speier looks back at the other trade involving Gonzalez, one that helped the Marlins win the 2003 World Series.
- John Buck was keeping an eye on Victor Martinez and the Red Sox this winter, according to Speier. Alhough contract talks with the Sox never got serious, Buck was intrigued by the possibility of replacing V-Mart behind the plate in Boston: "Who doesn’t want to play for the Red Sox? Being a kind of historian of baseball, regardless of all the money and all that other stuff, it would just be a cool place to play."
- The Red Sox are making changes to Daisuke Matsuzaka's throwing routine in hopes of turning his spring around, says Tim Britton of the Providence Journal. Yesterday, Theo Epstein shot down a report that Boston was open to trade offers for Dice-K and others.
- The starting rotation in Boston is becoming clearer, writes Britton in another ProJo blog entry.
This would be extremely funny if AGon couldn’t play till July or later. The Friars are good at getting great returns for injured guys.
How funny would it be if he had a serious injury? Would you LOL? Or just walk around grinning?
I wouldn’t count on it.
That’a a great quote from A-Gon. You know Boras wrote that down for Fielder’s free agency!
Haha!
amen to that
I really hate that I’m going to have to see gonzalez 18 this year.. It really sucks, because he is awesome
18 times**
You and me both, brotha.
That makes me happy.
Changing Daisuke’s throwing routine? So they’re finally mixing some STRIKES into the mix? About time.
Woah woah woah. Let’s not get crazy here; no one said anything about throwing strikes…
I think they are just going to try and get him to breathe through his eyelids.
They are going to have him pitch left-handed. They expect some improvement in walks.
Did I miss something? It seems to me that the last link far from clarifies Boston’s starting rotation — indeed, it muddies it with talk of stretching out Aceves, and Francona’s “really liking him”. I was more confident that I knew what the rotation would be (Lester 1st, Buchholz 2nd is hardly a surprise) before that article than I am now.
I want to see Dice BB throw that mysterious gyro ball that was supposed to get him 10 no hitters in his career, where is that gyro ball Dice BB?