Eagle-Tribune Blogs: Burt Talks Sports

Starting tomorrow actual baseballs will be thrown by actual baseball players. Edison Avenue is alive with excitement … OK, I’m being a little dramatic. Seriously, there is something special about watching the public cheer every player’s move. And even better than that is watching the new players’ reaction to being cheered in such a usually tepid early spring training atmosphere.

Before I answer another round of really good questions, I found this interesting after talking to one Japanese reporter today — there hasn’t been a knuckleball pitcher to pitch in the Japanese League in quite some time. This year, however, former Red Sox farmhand Jared Fernandez, and knuckleballer, will be playing for the Hiroshima Carp. The explanation given by the reporter for the previous lack of knuckleballers in Japan is the country’s disdain for any inability to hold runners on and any kind of lack of structure when it comes to approaching hitters.

For the record, Hideki Matsui is just 6 for 38 against Tim Wakefield, while Ichiro Suzuki is 4 for 18. This, of course, all stems from Daisuke Matsuzaka’s mention of trying to learn the knuckleball the other day.

On to the questions …

This is not so much a question about baseball but something I have always been interested in finding out. Where do the players stay when they are at spring training? Do they all rent a place down there for a month or do they all just stay in hotels? Do they bring their families with them?

It varies. Most of the established major leaguers rent out houses or condos, which allows them to bring their families with them. This is a change from a decade ago when the majority of players stayed in a hotel. Minor leaguers still usually stay in a hotel. My advice to anybody staying in Fort Myers for an extended period during spring training is to rent a condo or house with somebody else. During this time Fort Myers’ hotels are among the most expensive in the state, but condos can often be rented out for week-long periods.

Any reason why Pena would settle for only a $150K or 8 percent raise when he was looking for much more? Was he and his agent not confident in winning the hearing? BTW, who is Pena’s agent?

I really think the Red Sox had a strong case (I know they were very confident). If I had to guess, Pena’s side must have had second-thoughts as to their ability to top Boston’s arbitration firepower. I’ve talked to other organizations who had similar scenarios, coming to an agreement at the last minute, and while they are always happy to have it settled, there is an inkling of regret they weren’t able to put all their hard work to the test. Remember, the Red Sox brass hasn’t been this close since Theo Epstein took over as GM and having that experience of presenting case I’m sure intrigued Jed Hoyer and Brian O’Halloran. Pena’s agent is Josh Zeide, whom I know little about other than a Google search pops up a Josh Zeide who is a member of the Georgia State Squash Club.

Farrell mentioned today that the closer role is looking to go to one of the four veteran right-handers. Do you believe this true or a way to motivate Hansen and Hansack? (If it’s motivation, I already like Farrell A LOT!)

I think that they identified Brendan Donnelly, Mike Timlin, Joel Pineiro, and Julian Tavarez because they have to start from somewhere. I still think that somebody could emerge by the end of spring training. Again, I think the goal is to find somebody with the kind upside who can go the duration, but history tells us that it wouldn’t be surprising if the closer in September is different than the one in April. So even though I don’t believe this is a motivational tool, you should still like Farrell. I think he is going to be one of the Sox’s best offseason acquisitions.

Theo talked about being in the unfortunate situation last year of having Sept. and Oct. to offseason gameplan. In terms of execution of that offseason game plan, how do you think he would grade himself (judging from all of his offseason remarks)? A, B, C, etc.?

I can’t speak for Theo, but judging by what they wanted to get done and what transpired I would imagine grading out with a ‘B’ would be fair. Most importantly, they got the player they wanted to base their offseason strategy around, Matsuzaka. And while some think they over-paid for J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo, it’s easy to classify both as upgrades and solid pieces to the project which was lenghtening the lineup. Of course there is the closer issue, which is a big one, but it is more plausible that you can find a closer out of the shadows than you can find a top of the rotation starter. If there is a hint that a pitcher could be a rotation’s top guy, a bidding war probably isn’t far behind.

I think a bit of news from the Red Sox front this past week that slipped under the radar screen was the loss of Lenny DiNardo this past week to waivers (Oakland picked him up). You made quick mention of this in a Thursday post. He seemed to deal with injury quite often during his time with Boston, so I don’t blame the team for unloading him.

Would you expand your thoughts on his potential to be an effective middle reliever or even a fifth starter in Major League Baseball? Somehow I don’t think that this will be seen in the same way down the road as when the team traded Sparky Lyle for Danny Cater; you point out that his numbers don’t buoy him as a lefty specialist. Still, do you have any final thoughts on his future as he moves to the Left Coast?

For a team to claim Dinardo and put him on its 40-man roster says something about the pitcher. It says that there is value there. Let’s look back at a year ago, when the Red Sox traded Bronson Arroyo. Dinardo had shown enough that I thought Boston believed somewhat that the lefty could fill that sixth starter/long relief role which was slated for Arroyo, and there wouldn’t be that much of a drop-off. In eight games in ‘05 with the Sox he gave up just three earned runs in 14 2/3 innings while striking out a surprising 15 batters. I just think that the Red Sox felt they had better options in the spots reserved for Dinardo. I’m very anxious to see Kyle Snyder this spring training. As I mentioned before, he went into his month at Athletes Performance Institute healthy for the first time and appears to be in great shape. But Lenny is a great guy and I know he has a lot of people pulling for him from the Boston contingent.

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