Sportsfrog.com

…about the only way that Ron Washington should still be manager of the Texas Rangers is if his explanation for the cocaine use was that he walked into the clubhouse and saw Josh Hamilton about to do a line and threw himself in front of Hamilton and did it instead to keep Hamilton away from it.

Because I can.

First time starting today against Milwaukee, a leadoff homerun to Rickie Weeks, and then not much of anything off of him. His line:

3 IP 1 hit 1 R 5 Ks 1 BB.

45 pitches, 29 for strikes. He touched 100 on the gun again, and was sitting at 98 generally. Nasty slider apparently.

Reds fans? Probably giddy. I know I am. The fun continues for a little while longer this spring…

Things that catch the eye as we wait to find out who dances come Thursday in the NCAA:

—If you have already drafted Brian Roberts, time to worry. If your fantasy baseball draft is still to come, time to monitor and adjust draft rankings at 2b accordingly. Because that bad back for Roberts is getting no better. And he has left Orioles camp to see a back specialist. He has not played in a game yet this spring, but still says he will be ready to go by opening day. Nothing like a bad back on a 32-year-old whose game has been speed-based to raise a warning flag…

—Ervin Santana says he’s back to where he was in 2008, and thinks he can be better.

—Daisuke Matsuzaka still hasn’t thrown a pitch in a game this spring, and the latest set-back was a stiff neck that scratched his latest batting practice session. Tim Wakefield, you may be up again.

—Ryan Howard is working hard to improve at the plate. In his case, that means mores consistent contact and fewer strikeouts. As it is, he’s pretty damn good.

—Erik Bedard, coming off of shoulder surgery, threw pain-free yesterday and is still hoping to be ready for the Seattle rotation by June. If he can get even halfway back to where he was, then that rotation with King Felix and Cliff Lee at the top will be stout.

—Could Francisco Liriano move from the rotation to the vacated closer’s role in Minnesota? There’s a chance.

—And now your obligatory Chapman update from this Reds zealot. More goodness on Friday including back-to-back Ks of Matt Kemp and Casey Blake. The K on Blake was looking at a 3-2 change up that slid in at 83. He dialed it up to 100 in the Kemp at bat. The only hits he allowed were two infield singles. Through four innings this spring he has yet to have an out recorded in the outfield, all outs coming on Ks or infield pops or ground outs. The Reds continue to insist they won’t rush him, but they sure are not ruling out bringing him north. If he keeps throwing like this, it is hard to see the Reds holding him in the minors much past June 1, regardless. Absolutely easy gas, a good change-up and very good slider, and has showed enough command to put some lie to the initial scouting reports. I am kinda giddy.

(This is the first of what I hope to be 30 previews of 30 teams on the front page. Lofty? Sure, but hey, we shoot high around here. First up: EdRomero)

March is a wonderful month for Red Sox fans.  Peter Gammons tell us that every Sox veteran is in the best shape of their lives, every Sox youngster now finally “gets it,” and every newcomer is a perfect fit for Fenway and the city of Boston.  And I’ve fallen for it again.  Yes, an already great Yankees team improved their roster and the Rays still look dangerous, but this year’s Red Sox is a well constructed team.

Starting Pitching
The signing of John Lackey gives the Red Sox a third top of rotation type starter to go along with Jon Jester and Josh Beckett.  There has been a lot of chatter saying Beckett will soon sign a contract extension, so he’ll either be a very happy pitcher or a pitcher chasing a contract – the always motivated Beckett will do well in either situation as long as he stays healthy.  Lester appears to be entering his prime and Lackey looks to be solid if he can adjust to pitching at Fenway (and also that staying healthy issue).

For the bottom half of the rotation, the Red Sox hope Daiskuke Matsuzaka’s off year was a fluke and Clay Bucholz’s promising season was not a fluke.  If it’s the other way around, the Sox could be fluked.  If either pitcher does falter, 2009 All Star, Tim Wakefield is still around.  As he will for probably the next ten seasons, Wakefield will have a stretch of some tremendous games and then end the season terribly.  After Wakefield, Boof Bonser, Michael Bowden, and Junicha Tazawa can step in to eat some innings and help protect the bullpen with some long relief.

Bullpen
The bullpen was a strength for the 2009 Red Sox in the beginning of the season.  However, when 3/5 of the starting rotation can only pitch into the 5th inning, a good bullpen can quickly become bad.  Jonathon Papelbon has turned from one of the biggest strengths of the teams to one of the biggest question marks.  Last year, many of his save chances became adventures as he refused to throw the split fingered fastball and started walking batters.  The choice Papelbon seems stuck with is should he do what’s best for getting batters out or what’s best for his arm (and his next contract).  He says he’ll be using the split more often this year; if he doesn’t, expect some “leaked” stories about Papelbon saying or doing something stupid followed by a trade.

As for the rest, Daniel Bard is being touted as the next closer, but it’s still too early to tell. The rest are a bunch of solid veterans who should be fine unless they’re overworked.

Lineup
Gone is the power of Jason Bay and most likely Mike Lowell, but also gone are the automatic inning-enders at the catcher and shortstop positions.  As long as Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew, and Victor Martinez remain healthy, the Sox will have a good lineup, but that may not be enough even with improved pitching and defense.  They’ll need something more.
•Can Jacoby Ellsbury improve his OBP and maybe hit with more power? He’s hit some Damonesque homeruns in spring training and showed more patience at the end of last year.  But much like his pink hat fans flirting for free drinks, this could be just a tease
•Can Ortiz have a better season? I’m not expecting a repeat of last year’s disastrous start, but I’m also expecting him to get beat by good pitching while building his stats against poor pitching.
•What will Marco Scutaro, Mike Cameron, and Adrian Beltre do?  Scutaro’s coming off a career year and those usually aren’t repeated, but a disappointing Scutaro with his plate discipline will be better than last year’s assortment of shortstops .  Cameron and Beltre may bring some homeruns to Fenway, but will those makeup for the strikeouts and will Beltre stay healthy?  Even if they do disappoint, at least they can field.

Fielding
Last year, I probably didn’t even list this as a category, but Theo Epstein and Gammons have now taught me how important it is.  The 2009 Red Sox – with a calcified catcher who can’t throw baserunners out, shortstops making untimely errors, a left fielder with no range, and a third baseman unable to move – must have taught Theo that defense matters.  Or the Red Sox decided that with the available free agents, improving defense made more sense than improving the offense.

Whatever the reasons, the Red Sox now have their best fielding outfield in my 35-year lifetime (with maybe the exception of the 2008 Drew, Ellsbury, Coco Crisp outfield that occasionally played).  They also have a strong infield with gold glove caliber players at first, second, and third and a consistent shortstop.  Rounding out the defense, is the average fielding Victor Martinez, who will be playing catcher much more than he has in the recent past.

Bench
Jason Varitek as a starter was liability on the field and the plate. As a backup this year, he’s like the rest of the subpar backups in baseball and having more days off will possibly help him be better in his reduced role.  Mike Lowell will probably be traded away (again), but the Sox may want to hold onto him if they sense Ortiz’s decline is rapidly continuing .  Even though he can’t field anywhere close to how he used to, Mike Lowell can still hit (and take 40 seconds to get to first base after hitting a line drive).  If Terry Francona can massage the egos, an Ortiz/Lowell platoon should be better than anything the Red Sox can get in a Mike Lowell trade.

As for the non-elderly members of the bench, Jeremy Hermida has some potential to have a surprise season if one of the starters falters.  In 2006, Bill Hall has 35 homeruns; in 2008 Jed Lowrie was a promising prospect.  Also in 2006 and 2008, all of the Golden Girls were alive and Toyota’s were considered safe cars.

Don’t expect much help from the minors, as most of the Sox top prospects still looks to be a few years away from hitting the majors.  Last year’s favorite prospect, first baseman Lars Anderson is coming off a poor season.  Great things are being projected for this year’s favorite prospect, the slick fielding shortstop Jose Iglesias.  However, since he was born in the nineties, the Sox may need to wait a few years.

Miscellaneous
Money and a good farm system has allowed the Red Sox to make helpful midseason trades over the last few seasons.  This year, with the short term deals of Scutaro, Cameron, and Beltre along with the position flexibility of Youkilis, Martinez, and Scutaro, Theo Epstein will have a variety of options to try to improve the team. Let the Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Joe Mauer trade rumors begin!

Prediction: World Series Champions
Granted, this has been my Red Sox prediction for the last 30 years, and, for the Sox to beat the Yankees, something probably needs to go wrong in New York and two or three starters on the Red Sox will need to get very hot just in time for the playoffs.  All of this will happen: pitching, fielding, and lineup depth will lead the Red Sox to 100 wins and a World Series; Ellsbury and Bucholz finally “get it”; Ortiz has never felt better; Boston is the perfect place for Cameron, Beltre, and Scutaro; and Peter Gammons will have more good news about the Red Sox tomorrow.  All of this will happen because it’s the wonderful month of March.

Fun fact: Lester, Lackey, and Beckett all won deciding World Series Games before turning 25.

Check out the Reds’ dugout in the picture below:

Whatever “it” is, Aroldis Chapman is rocking it as Reds camp unfolds. Joe Posnanski with some words that make this Reds fan giggle. Hey, let me enjoy it now, before something inevitably goes wrong…(insert your own damn wry Dusty-Baker-and-young-arms-pithiness here as it suits you).

Things of note while waiting to see if Joe Nathan remains the top reliever in fantasy baseball drafts as the month unwinds:

—Goose Gossage, he’s got opinions. And he all too happy to share them. And thinks Phil Hughes is for starting and Joba Chamberlain is for relieving. He’s also grumpy about those weenies nowadays with their one inning saves. I’m paraphrasing that. But it is the subtext.

—Brandon Webb says his shoulder feels “stagnant”? Oof. That’s not what you want to hear from your ace coming off of shoulder surgery. Starting the season on the DL appears assured, especially in light of this quote:

“If we get 30 starts from him, great,” General Manager Josh Byrnes said Friday. “If we get 20, that’s great. We just need to get it right.”

Indeed. And unless I get him for $1 at auction, not great.

—If it’s spring, the Yankees front office must be grumpy at Alex Rodriguez. This time around, for the whole you-didn’t-tell-us-about-ties-to-the-Canadian-blood-doctor thing. Oh no. How will they ever get beyond this? (add sarcastic tone as it suits)

—The hope in Minnesota is that the pain in Joe Nathan’s elbow is simply scar tissue breaking loose from his elbow surgery to remove bone chips last October. The hope of early fantasy drafters hangs the balance. Oh, and Twins fans.

—Gil Meche says his back and shoulder problems are much better now. If only the Royals’ anemic offense were also better now, they might be of interest. As it stands, it will remain a is-Grienke-pitching-tonight kind of season in KC, I would suspect.

—From Roy Halladay to Shawn Marcum? Happy Opening Day 2010, Jays fans. I guess.

—The Cubs’ Angel Guzman is indeed done for awhile. At least four to six weeks. But likely much longer. Torn ligament in pitching shoulder seems less than ideal.

I know, I was surprised too. But for reasons that are beyond me, I opened the “Five Pressing Issues Facing the Red Sox” on si.com piece that he wrote, and skimmed it. In my defense, fantasy baseball drafts are on the way. At any rate, improved defense, good pitching, where is the offense going to come from etc. etc., pretty much what you would expect in a Red Sox season preview. Until I came to his words on Jacob Ellsbury, which went a little something like this:

Getting ready for his third full season in the bigs, the flossy outfielder is coming off a season in which he hit .301 with 70 stolen bases. Ellsbury is only 26-years-old and it’s all in front of him, but in order to accommodate Cameron the Sox are moving Ellsbury to leftfield for the foreseeable future. It’s a mistake.

Well, I disagree, I think the upgrade defensively (letting Jason Bay walk) will be notable and Cameron is no slouch with the stick and…

Wait a minute. “The flossy outfielder”? What the eff? What the hell does that mean? That he’s white and stringy? Flavored like a mint? That Shaughnessy likes putting Ellsbury between his teeth? A quick google search of flossy as an adjective doesn’t help much, unless, maybe, Shaughnessy was using Bay Area hip hop slang and saying that Ellsbury is a phony. Also, according to urban dictionary, it could mean someone who makes one horny, so perhaps Shaughnessy is slyly expressing his deep and abiding manlove for Ellsbury. Or, quite possible, I am overthinking this. Or not.

I have decided not.

Stuff of note as Tuesday crawls toward Wednesday and exhibition games creep closer:

—Let the sorting of the young talent in terms of money continue…Justin Upton and the D-backs close on a six-year $50 million dollar deal. He would still be hitting free agency at just 28.

—The Nationals appear dead set on sending Stephen Strasburg to the minors to start the season. Probably good for his development, long term, I suppose, but sucks for the 14 or so Nationals fans.

—The Angels appear to be heading toward a time-share at catcher again, with the good hitting Mike Napoli yielding significant time to the good hitting in October only Jeff Mathis.

—What’s a lonely and borderline thankless job? Agent for Joe Beimel, charged with spinning his continued availability on the free agent market.

Beimel’s agent, Joe Sroba, told 1050 ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand that the Mets are not the only team interested in the southpaw set-up man, but declined to name the other teams. “It is not a one-horse race,” Sroba said.

If you say so, dude.

—Perhaps Sroba should place a call to the Cubs, who are a bit desperate for bullpen help, apparently, and are not ruling out fast-tracking 2008 first round draft choice Andrew Cashner to the big league club come April.

—David Wright says he was hurting last year, but that wasn’t why he hit only a few more homeruns than Willy Taveras. I think Mets fans would rather hear that WAS the reason for the power outage, frankly.

—Barry Zito wants to be thought of as a #1 starter again. Which begs the question as to when he was ever thought of that way. Was he ever ahead of Hudson and Mulder? At any rate, he wants to return to those make believe days. Or something. Four years left on that $126 million dollar monstrosity of a contract.

—The Rangers want Julio Borbon to claim CF. Note to self, look up Julio Borbon ahead of fantasy drafts. Ah, there he is. .312/.376/.414 for a .790 OPS and 19 stolen bases in 157 at-bats? Oh. Not half bad. I miss stuff like this at the end of baseball seasons on a regular basis.

—Josh Hamilton nursing an injury? Shocking.

—The Dodgers are ready to take some more of the training wheels off of Clayton Kershaw and let him work later into games. Adjust your pitcher lists accordingly.

Some odds and ends on a Sunday just a few short days ahead of spring training baseball getting underway:

—I am sucker for articles where the writer talks to an annoymous scout and gets their take on this and that, and a few other things. Works in football, works in basketball, and it works in baseball, where Gene Wojciechowski at espn.com has a really good read from that genre. What do I have in common with that annoymous scout? Glad you asked. We would both pay to watch Tim Lincecum pitch.

—Jake Peavy, no fool, would like the White Sox to reunite him with Adrian Gonzalez.

—Jair Jurrjens is ready to test his throwing arm from the mound. The Braves appear ready to let him. I remain ready to leave him several places down my fantasy draft list.

—When the Brewers get around to making an conract offer to Prince Fielder, it won’t be for show, it will be meant to genuinely reflect their love and devotion.

—Brad Bergesen’s road back from his how-stupid-can-you-be injuring of himself throwing during the filming of a promo for Orioles tickets in December takes a good turn, as he has moved up to throwing off the mound.

—Grady Sizemore will no longer be leading off for Cleveland, instead moving to second in the order behind Asdrubal Cabrera, in the hope that his power will lead to more RBI opportunities in that slot.

—And, no link, just a general note from this Reds zealot, the hype on Aroldis Chapman might have some legit to it. He’s been damn good early in camp. The velocity has been as advertised, the command better than advertised, and the slider and change way above average. I still think he starts in AA, but with a good spring, would not be surprised to see him in Cincinnati around June 1.