Red Sox Spring Training 2019: "It's Our Turn Now"

DeadlySplitter

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2019/02/04/red-sox-rotation-already-present-working-fort-myers/TeSQ79WNBl8Kw1JcaYSokO/story.html

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Super Bowl-champion Patriots had not yet returned from Atlanta on Monday when a dozen Red Sox players gathered at JetBlue Park for an informal workout.

Back in Boston, the vaunted Sox equipment truck left Fenway Park headed this way.

“It’s our turn now,” Chris Sale said.
The article from Pete is mostly comments from Eovaldi, including his decision to sign early. Pitchers & catchers must report by next Monday, but our entire rotation has already reported.

Along with Eovaldi and Sale, Matt Barnes, Colten Brewer, a trimmer Rafael Devers, Tzu-Wei Lin, Austin Maddox, Rick Porcello, David Price, Eduardo Rodriguez, Sam Travis, and Marcus Walden were at the complex on Monday.

More players are expected in Tuesday. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who is recovering from two surgeries on his left knee, should arrive on or around Feb. 16.
The first game that counts is March 28 at Seattle (we'll go to Arizona to see the Cubs in a spring training finale on the way, the Cubs came to JetBlue last year just before we started @TB and Cubs started @MIA - nice mutual arrangement two years in a row!). Seattle and Oakland will have already played two games that count in Japan a week prior.
 

brandonchristensen

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Man, this team really is something special.

"It's our turn now", joining up for an informal workout? These guys are embracing this place. I wonder how much of it stems from JD. He and Betts. Sale is like a new man now, seemingly after Eovaldi's World Series performance.

There's a fire in their bellies.
 

JoePoulson

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Goosebumps! We are SO lucky as fans. Need some "It's our turn now" shirts for this upcoming season.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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It’s odd that a 108-win championship team could be more fired up than resting on its collective laurels, but there is a large number of Sox players for whom that could be true. Key guys in contract years, returning from injury, still seeking to breakout. If Sale, X, Pedroia, Devers, any of the catchers can all stay healthy, motivated and productive... man, this could be fun again (until our bullpen blows it all up, of course - ducking).
 

OurF'ingCity

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One of the benefits of essentially running back the same team that won last year is that there is already so much built-in chemistry/camaraderie from the playoff run. I know chemistry probably matters less in baseball but hopefully those relationships, memories of Eovaldi's WS performance, etc. will serve them well this year when they start to go on a losing streak, have a bad series against the Yankees, or whatever.
 

Reverend

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Man, this team really is something special.

"It's our turn now", joining up for an informal workout? These guys are embracing this place. I wonder how much of it stems from JD. He and Betts. Sale is like a new man now, seemingly after Eovaldi's World Series performance.

There's a fire in their bellies.
Right? I almost want to return my "Damage Done" sweatshirt--they're not done.
 

Detts

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One of the benefits of essentially running back the same team that won last year is that there is already so much built-in chemistry/camaraderie from the playoff run. I know chemistry probably matters less in baseball but hopefully those relationships, memories of Eovaldi's WS performance, etc. will serve them well this year when they start to go on a losing streak, have a bad series against the Yankees, or whatever.
Feb to Oct: Chemistry is one of the most important things to a baseball team IMHO.
 

BoSoxLady

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Truck Day Fenway South is tomorrow. [emoji4]
 

BoSoxLady

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It was Thursday morning at 6:30AM but it’s not open to the public. I have security clearance for the viewing. [emoji106]
 

Reverend

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Bonus points for Cora acknowledging the cliché and then using it anyway.
I am telling you people: Cora is a ninja*. He can do anything. He can do this.


* @Hyde's Pryde has informed me that Cora can't be a ninja, as he is Puerto Rican. I contend that's the kinda shit a ninja does to confuse us.
 

pokey_reese

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Today is one of the best damn days of the year. It was a cold couple of weeks between the Super Bowl and now, I don't know how fans of bad NFL teams make is so long. Sox play the Huskies on the 22nd, let's do this!
 

drbretto

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I'm still high on the Super Bowl and I'm already getting hyped for the Sawx. The deeper we get into the post season, the smaller the off-seasons get. I say lets just go right out and do 'em both again.
 

Reverend

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I'm still high on the Super Bowl and I'm already getting hyped for the Sawx. The deeper we get into the post season, the smaller the off-seasons get. I say lets just go right out and do 'em both again.
There's a lot of pressure on the Celtics and Bruins now, isn't there?
 

drbretto

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I've always wanted to see the Sports Town Grand Slam. I don't know if that one's on the table or not, but I am pretty sure no region has ever had two teams win in the same season in back to back years before, so I'd kinda like to see that future trivia question get written in 11 months. There's a real shot.
 

DeadlySplitter

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David Price spoke with media for first time this calendar year. Some quotes from Shaughnessy and Buckley.

Fans quickly cracked the code after Price issued the challenge Thursday morning. No. 10 is an homage to Price’s young son Xavier. X equals 10. Price confirmed the theory to the Globe’s Peter Abraham.
“Fans, I love you guys,’’ Price said as he stared into a row of TV cameras. “I have no problem with you. I get asked about you all the time. I’m sorry. I love you guys.’’
And about that charm: The man was giddy and receptive to just about every question posed to him. Even WBZ’s solid-as-a-rock-after-an-offeason-health-scare Jonny Miller couldn’t unnerve Price when he opened the session by asking if feels the “monkey is off his back.”

“I do, yeah,” said Price, as though he had been asked if he was planning to do a side session on Friday.
If you want to read the tea leaves and surmise that the real reason Price didn’t opt out of his Red Sox deal last fall is because he knows no other team is going to pay him in excess of $31 million for each of the next four years, you go right ahead and do that. In fact, Price pretty much said that on Thursday. Asked why he opted in, Price said, “You’ve seen this free agent market? It wasn’t very hard.”
 

santadevil

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Pedroia says he wouldn't have had cartilage restoration if he knew everything he knows now

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26003870/red-sox-2b-dustin-pedroia-had-knee-surgery-2017-season

"It's a complicated surgery," he said. "The cartilage in my knee is great now, but the graft is the thing. You're putting somebody else's bone in your body. To get that to incorporate fully, there are so many things that, going into it, I didn't know all that stuff. I thought, 'They were like, you tore this, we can fix it. Great.'"
 

Saints Rest

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I've always wanted to see the Sports Town Grand Slam. I don't know if that one's on the table or not, but I am pretty sure no region has ever had two teams win in the same season in back to back years before, so I'd kinda like to see that future trivia question get written in 11 months. There's a real shot.
Without Googling (next step), my sense is that the closest was if you take Pennsylvania as a whole, circa late 70's, with the Steelers, Pirates, Flyers, 76ers.

EDIT (post-Wiki): 1979+80.
MLB: 79 - Pirates; 80 - Phillies
NFL: 79 - Steelers; 80 - Steelers
NBA: 80 -- 76ers lose in The Finals (to Lakers)
NHL: 80 - Flyers lose in the Stanley Cup Finals (to Islanders)
 

drbretto

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Without Googling (next step), my sense is that the closest was if you take Pennsylvania as a whole, circa late 70's, with the Steelers, Pirates, Flyers, 76ers.
I sort of misspoke, what I originally was basing that on was just Super Bowl and World Series in the same year, which has only happened about 5 times give or take, with the Sox and Pats being the only team that did it twice. But, I ended up accidentally including the other sports in my post. I honestly don't know the answer there. I know almost nothing about hockey and very little about basketball.

I'm curious now, though!
 

Ale Xander

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Nice experience at the JetBlue Open House. The ushers and security were very nice and helpful, much nicer than the Fenway ones. Unfortunately the players signing were Poyner, Big BJ, Brasier, and Walden, so Ale did not wait in line for the minimum 45 minutes it required (for each pair).

I liked how the Green Monster is set up there, with your regular 3 rows set up much lower to the field, and then a 4th row up top high with a huge SRO sections behind it.

It was mostly an event for kids though it seemed, with face painting and inflatables and the like. You did get to go on the dirt in the IF, and on the OF grass, and take pictures in the dugouts and outfield walls etc. The line to get pictures of the 2018 trophy was long too, but not as long as the auto line. And I believe also will be around for games.
 

Brand Name

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Moving the Line
I am pretty sure no region has ever had two teams win in the same season in back to back years before
Yes, by calendar years, in 1927-1928, for New York, albeit not the same two teams. Yankees and football Giants for the former; the latter is comprised of the Rangers and Yankees.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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But it will be a thing to start the season, right? I’m just curious who those few 6th guy starts will go to until they move back to a regular rotation.
Looks like just once to start. It will be whoever has the best Spring.
In fact, as the team opens up on the west coast Cora has said he plans on using a six-man rotation on the first turn of the year before going back to a tradition five-man.
https://www.overthemonster.com/2018/12/27/18157387/red-sox-rotation-depth-alex-cora-rest-sale-eovaldi-price-porcello
 

snowmanny

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That’s too bad because I had just plotted out the six-man rotation through the ASB and was coming here to post.
 

bosockboy

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Wouldn’t be a new season without 6 man rotation speculation.

Regarding Wright, if healthy this partially explains DD not exploring the free agency market. A 3-6 out guy in the 7th-8th is really valuable.
 

Ale Xander

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Interesting "open practice" for Red Sox today. Exciting and boring at the same time, that is other than Pedro's presence. Dewey (and Tek) also there. Cora, Leon, and Pedro signed a lot of autographs but Ale had no luck trying to get pedro even though he (Pedro) was very gracious and patient with everyone. Sorry, no pics. There was also some kind of youth team from Puerto Rico there.

Vasquez was probably the best of the 6 catchers in BP.
Swihart attempted some bunts.
 

Reverend

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That’s too bad because I had just plotted out the six-man rotation through the ASB and was coming here to post.
Wouldn’t be a new season without 6 man rotation speculation.

Regarding Wright, if healthy this partially explains DD not exploring the free agency market. A 3-6 out guy in the 7th-8th is really valuable.
Mid February and Cora has already thrown all expectations in to disarray. :)
 

Ale Xander

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Spring Training practices are really like zoos

wire fence = wire fence
security and coaches = zookeepers
fans = guests at the zoo
cameras/photos = cameras/photos
attempting to get autograph = attempting to pet/contact
players = animals
players walking through gauntlet = animals running away from scary humans
driving/parking on dirt and grass = acceptable
 

The Gray Eagle

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Chad Jennings' spring training report in the Athletic suggests that Pedroia and Wright could possibly start the season on the DL. It's just some sportswriter's guess, not anything from the team, but breaking them in slowly would make sense.

"One other thought on Pedroia and Steven Wright, who’s in a similar boat in his own recovery from knee surgery: The Red Sox keep saying they’re hopeful both will be ready for Opening Day, but I’m thinking it’s smarter to open the season with both on the disabled list. The Red Sox don’t have a lot of up-and-down flexibility because so many of their players are out of options. To carry an extra pitcher early in the season, and to keep a guy or two who can be sent up and down based on day-to-day need, it might be best to put both Pedroia and Wright on the disabled list – sorry, injured list – for the first two weeks or so, especially if they can make it retroactive so that they can be activated for the opening homestand (which starts 12 days into the season). Opening with 11 straight games without an off-day isn’t the best way to ease in one guy, much less two, who are even slightly limited from the lingering effects of knee surgery. Not saying Pedroia and Wright can’t be valuable players this season, just thinking – for their own health and for the flexibility of the entire team — it might be more valuable to wait a week and a half to actually put them on the active roster."

From that same article:
"It’s become a running joke that baseball players report to spring training “in the best shape of their lives.” This time of year, coaches and managers routinely use optimistic language to talk about how sharp pitchers look in the bullpen and what hard contact they’re making in the cage. Most of it is easy enough to ignore. But on Tuesday, Cora announced pitching coach Dana LeVangie’s assessment of Rick Porcello’s most recent bullpen session: “Dana said that was his best bullpen since Rick’s been here. Location. Delivery. Action on the pitches.” That kind of over-the-top assessment, coming unprovoked about a guy who won a Cy Young award not so long ago was pretty hard to ignore. Maybe it was meaningless, more of the same old overly optimistic spring training nonsense, but it was a notable statement."

And speaking of springtime optimism and more guys "in the best shape of their lives," Jennings engages in plenty of that himself:
"Facing live pitching on Thursday, Jackie Bradley Jr.’s first swing on the first pitch he saw was positively crushed over the right field wall. The rest of the session didn’t go as well – there were some swings and misses – but Bradley does seem to be driving the ball, and that home run was a glimmer of the optimism surrounding Bradley’s effort to add offensive consistency. In the second half of last season, Bradley began working with J.D. Martinez’s hitting gurus and seemed to find something. He was a legitimately good hitter in the second half, and this spring, there’s notable buzz that we could see more of the same going forward....
Speaking of rotation hype, oh man, is it ever building up around Eduardo Rodriguez. He’s long been the subject of near breathless comments about his raw stuff and potential, and every time Rodriguez has touched a baseball this spring, it seems Cora goes out of his way to talk about how great he looked. It happened again on Friday, when most of the rotation threw bullpens, but Cora singled out Rodriguez. “Another good one for Eddy,” he said. “It’s pretty cool to see him doing the things he’s doing out there in live BP.” Sounds like Rodriguez will likely make his first spring start on Friday. He’s the clear No. 5 in this rotation, but the other starters love him, and Cora can’t stop talking him up. We’ll see...
I focused on infield drills for two days and thought Rafael Devers looked awesome at third base. Charging the ball. Throws on target. Making scoops without errors. Looked sharp...
If most of these observations seem overly positive, what can I say? It’s early spring training. Unless someone is hurt or fat, things always seem optimistic this time of year. Have to see if that optimism fades as the spring drags."