Eagle-Tribune Blogs: Burt Talks Sports

Matt Clement talked to the media for 41 minutes just now. Some highlights:

- Posted a football card of Drew Brees on his son’s wall for motivation. It was referenced more than once that Brees had a similar surgery as Clement and obviously came through it in good shape.

- Plans on throwing for the first time sometime in the first week of March. Original plan had that event taking place in early April.

- One of goals is pitching at some point this year. He understands it might be in the bullpen, but expects to be a starter no matter what next year.

- Rehab was seven days a week. Only missed one day, the day he flew to Fort Myers.

- Surgery by Dr. James Andrews was a scope (not cut open), making six holes in his right shoulder.

- Starts days before 7 in the morning. Actual rehab time is 2-3 hours per day.

- Said he is at peace with what happened. “Things could be worse.”

- Prime motivation is having his two sons, who are four- and two-years-old, watch their dad and remember him as a major league pitcher.

- Not bitter toward Red Sox, even though he said Dr. Andrews said he shouldn’t have been doing anything during the time before the surgery when he was often playing long-toss and throwing bullpen sessions. He said there was no sign of how serious damage was (to labrum and rotator cuff), with Clement passing his strength tests all the way up until the surgery.

Elsewhere, Terry Francona wasn’t available today, still fighting off the flu. Pitching coach John Farrell took his spot answering questions after the workout. Farrell relayed what the spring training pitching schedule will be:
Wednesday: Curt Schilling
Thursday: Kason Gabbard (early); Josh Beckett (Northeastern)
Friday: Kyle Snyder (early); Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston College)
Saturday: Tim Wakefield followed by Jonathan Papelbon
First appearances will include two innings, with a 35-pitch target

Matsuzaka will throw batting practice tomorrow, going for 10 minutes or 40 pitches after a warm-up session.

Tracked down Jon Deeble to ask him the injury history of Japanese pitchers. The question stemmed from Matsuzaka’s 103-pitch bullpen session yesterday. He said that there are very few injuries among Japanese pitchers. “There’s hardly anyone in the training room during spring training there,” Deeble said. It should be noted that Matsuzaka has been gearing up for Japanese spring training, which starts two weeks before MLB spring training.

Farrell also offered an interesting analogy later in the clubhouse when asked the injury history question. He said Matsuzaka’s situation will be kind of like a starter going to being a closer. He will have to understand that it might be able to amp it up a bit more over the course of a game because seven innings of work will be the workload any given day.

Alex Ochoa was the unlucky one today … he took batting practice in the group consisting of David Ortiz and Wily Mo Pena. Ortiz and Pena put on unworldly performances, making Ochoa’s showing seem a bit less impressive. Ortiz looks in good shape, having taken up a little running for the first time.

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