Eagle-Tribune Blogs: Burt Talks Sports

And the winner is … Travis Hughes. With a time of 10:09, the 6-foot-5, 28-year-old out-ran the rest of the Red Sox pitchers in the group’s mandatory 1 1/2-mile run. Craig Breslow had the second-best time. It was strongly suggested that all participants finish the jaunt in 12 minutes or under. Let’s just say that unlike Charles Barkley, some of the runners might have actually been beaten by 67-year-old ref Dick Bavetta.

In other news:
- It appears as though Daisuke Matsuzaka will be making his debut in the Red Sox’s March 2 game against Boston College.
- Curt Schilling has gone to great lengths to learn Japanese, which he busted out a bit in his press conference with the Japanese media. By the way, Schilling played in Japan during a Major League Baseball tour in 1997.
- Schilling will continue to talk about a contract extension, although gave no other details. He also isn’t ruling out pitching past next season (although it should be noted that he makes it clear making a decision on that isn’t a priority).
- Josh Beckett and owner John Henry were both in attendance at the Daytona 500.

Family is coming into town shortly so will have to answer questions now (my 4-year-old doesn’t quite grasp the concept of Daddy choosing blogging over swim-time) …

Did you watch all the new conditioning stuff they did yesterday? If so, who stood out (good or bad)?

They did do some body composition tests and the like inside behind closed doors, but the outside stuff I checked out. A guy like Kyle Jackson and some of the others eager to please did really well in the running drills, and, as mentioned, Wakefield more than held his own. But I want to reiterate, one of the things that has jumped out at me about those in attendance is that the guys who needed to get in shape have done that. Julian Tavarez had a bit of a knot in his foot, but it isn’t a big deal. So far, so good. Oh, one of the things I did garner from the conditioning tests was that Daisuke can throw a mean medicine ball.

My question is concerning Manny Delcarmen. His save/behind splits are extremely favorable to the save situations (I remember Mazz’s Baseball by Numbers having it at somewhere between 3.5-4 earned run difference), so why wouldn’t the Sox be grooming him to be the next Timlin, or even as closer? Sticking him in middle mop-up is only going to hurt a kid who has a game-plan to get it done when it’s on the line.

It’s just very curious to me why I haven’t heard more from the organization on him. Kid had as good a stretch in June and July as anyone, and just when you though the 12-6 curve was here to stay he went down with the thumb growth.

I think Delcarmen could emerge as a key member of this bullpen this year, although I don’t see it in the closer’s role. Besides the organization not being ready to put too much pressure on him, there might be other reasons Delcarmen isn’t being identified right now as a closer candidate. Two things they look for in a closer is fastball command and a dominating pitch that can be resorted to in the game’s final out. Opponent’s hit .286 against his fastball last year, and while he wasn’t too wild (17 walks in 53 1/3 innings), his command is a work in progress.

In terms of pin-pointing a potential solution, Delcarmen told me today that the one adjustment he will be making is keeping his back leg straight during his delivery. He felt by bending it before it was making his fastball sail a bit. Little things can sometimes go a long way.

Reading about Matsuzaka noticed a comment that Japanese pro league never plays on Monday. If true it would mean Dice-K actually pitched every seventh day, not six.

I talked to Arizona scout Jerry DiPoto about this at the GM Meetings since he had scouted Matsuzaka extensively. The best answer I got was that it isn’t unlike a college pitcher, who is slated for a day of the week. I’m going to give you more of a definitive answer after talking to Jon Deeble tomorrow.

You noted that Snyder showed up at Athletes Performance Institute, and Youk has also been going there too. I recall a piece on the place last year. Just wondering what you know about the program, and do the Sox encourage players to go there or is this on their own.

Evidently API is a pretty incredible place, and gets solid results (see both Youkilis and Pedroia). One player told me it costs about $1,000 per week to attend, although evidently there are cases where API turns down some athletes, per their judgement of the player’s motivation. There are other places in Arizona which are similiar, but API has kind of set the standard. Ironically, Mark Verstegen, the founder of API, was the strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech when Jason Varitek was there. While Varitek executes most of his offseason workouts in Georgia, he is often aided by a guideline supplied by Verstegen. And as far as the Red Sox’s encouragement … whatever works is what they encourage.

Thanks for all the questions. Will be back tomorrow morning so if you have any more questions please post them so I can track them down if need be.

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