Wily Mo a go-go
Feb 16th, 2007 by Rob Bradford
Wily Mo Pena has agreed to a one-year contract with the Red Sox, making the trip of assistant general manager Jed Hoyer and Director of Baseball Operations Brian O’Halloran to sit in on a potential arbitration hearing unnecessary. Pena was asking for $2.2 million while the club was offering $1.725. It keeps Theo Epstein’s mark of never having the team go to arbitration perfect since taking over as general manager.
Epstein, Terry Francona, and pitching coach John Farrell all sat on a bench, put on a microphone and answered questions for a short while. Here are some of the highlights:
– Epstein and Francona said bullpen was biggest issue facing them.
– Four names who are in the mix for closer role right now are Brendan Donnelly, Joel Piniero, Mike Timlin, Julian Tavarez.
– Epstein was asked about potential free agent-to-be Mariano Rivera coming to Boston. “I’m not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole,” he said.
– Will have one-on-one meetings with pitchers tomorrow (which is something new).
– Manny Ramirez has been in touch with Red Sox medical people. Francona said he is all set.
– Once again, reiterated that medical people think Jonathan Papelbon is better served pitching once every five days.
– About Keith Foulke, who announced his retirement today, Francona said, “We don’t win without him in 2004.”
– David Ortiz is evidently in very good shape, having lost some weight.
– Nothing on the horizon regarding possible trades.
– Farrell talked quite a bit about Matsuzaka and how he will relate to him. Has been taking Japanese lessons, along with downloading instruction onto his IPod. Will most likely carry a cheat-sheet out to the mound just in case. (Just in case you didn’t know, Farrell pointed out that Japanese is an object-verb, rules-oriented language, making it much different than English.)
Keep any questions coming. Will do one more post tonight where I will supply whatever answers possible …
6 reader comments to “Wily Mo a go-go”
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1Michael said:
So Theo and Terry didn’t mention Davern Hansack as a possible candidate for the closer position? That’s too bad.
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2T-Bone said:
as all can see, the team continues to have a high turnover. what’s the feeling among the mainstays, such as wakefield and varitek about continuing to lost more guys like Nixon? Must feel wierd not having him around.
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3Anonymous said:
Rob I love your new blog. You do a great job filling in all the little details it seems like others miss.
I was wondering who you think would make the best closer for the team. Who would be the best setup man?
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4Anonymous said:
Robbo,
It seems a little strange that Tavarez, who had some success late in the season as a starter, and foundered consistently in the bull pen, is under consideration as the Sox’ closer. That’s gotta be a typical Theobfuscation, right? There’s not way they’re really looking at Tavarez as the closer. Also, would the Sox ever think of a six-man rotation, as it seems is the custom in Japan? Sounds odd, and I’m sure many would say there’s no way that could work in the big leagues but, really, why couldn’t that work? Wouldn’t that ultimately be better for everyone’s arms? (And, yes, I realize that premise presumes the Sox would have six quality starters … quite a leap of faith, but since we’re just chatting …) -
5Anonymous said:
Rob,
There doesn’t seem to be many openings on this team. The starting nine are in place, the bench is in place, the rotation is full… it’s all about the bullpen battle.
Looking at the roster, I guess my questions would be…
1. How does Pedroia look? I heard he dropped over 20 pounds. I know he’s probably not there yet, but certainly a storyline to file away until he shows up.
2. Have you heard anything about the Sox getting something done with Schilling for 2008?
3. Being a prospect junkie, I’d love to hear any tidbits you come accross on the “new” guys in camp, like Edgar Martinez, George Kottaras, Jacoby Ellsbury, David Murphy (added 15 pounds?), and Brandon Moss.
4. Oh yeah, do you think this Helton deal will come up again soon.. and do you think it will get done?
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6Anonymous said:
I don’t care what anyone says. It’s too early to get excited about Matsuzaka. He’s not thrown a major league pitch. All we know is that he’s done well in Japan, which is at best a triple-A level league.
