Good morning my friends and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all. Will partake of a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner later today, courtesy of Mrs. POTPP (Deb), but no Bushmills in my coffee today. Join DC, Ritt and myself today at 2 PM EDT live on YouTube for our latest edition of The Pesky Podcast where we take questions from fans and talk baseball and all things Boston Red Sox. So grab your coffee, have a seat and enjoy my latest offering.
Red Sox
The Sox caught a break this week when Lucas Giolito had his much anticipated elbow surgery. The good news is that he did not require “Tommy John” surgery which requires a much more lengthy and rigorous recovery period. Instead, he had a bracing procedure similar to the one Trevor Story had in 2023. This means that the right-hander will be ready to go next February when 2025 spring training begins. It doesn’t ease the frustration of fans with regard to his injury. Considering that is was somewhat freakish in that he had never had these types of issues, this is the best outcome possible. He has already gone on record as saying he will be working hard on his rehab and will come back more than ready to compete.
Rob Refsnyder, the lefty killing bench outfielder for the Sox, suffered a freak injury when he was hit by a pitch off his foot during a spring training game on Tuesday. It was reported that he broke his pinky toe and that it would be at least a month before he would return. If you’ve ever had the “pleasure” of breaking a toe, you know how painful and restrictive it can be, now add to that being a professional baseball player and you can truly appreciate his situation. The injury probably guarantees Ceddanne Rafaela will open the season on the roster in center field.
Reports out of camp seem to indicate that Chris Martin will be fine and that he will be ready to go opening day and will throw live BP this weekend. This, coupled with Kenley Jansen’s return to the mound Friday night, which was what you would expect for a first outing late in spring training, a lot of rust and working on stuff, despite delivering two bombs to the Twins, he is a professional and will be ready to go in Seattle. This is good news for the team and the back end of the bullpen.
With Bello, Pivetta and Crawford, now slated to be the 1-2-3 in the starting rotation, each day that passes strengthens my feeling that Tanner Houck occupies the 4th slot. He’s pitched fairly well and looks eager to take on the challenge.
The battle for the #5 slot in the rotation appears to be shifting in a very positive way to Garrett Whitlock over Josh Winckowski. Garrett has pitched slightly better than Josh and looks to be winner of the battle at this point. Whomever goes to the pen will be successful there and has a track record to prove the assignment.
Trevor Story has started to deliver at the plate. This is a good sign for the team as he tries to recover his offensive production capabilities after a miserable 2023 campaign.
The Spring Breakout Idea is a win for MLB. It’s nice to watch the top prospects in action all playing together and get a feel for what is coming to Boston down the line. As someone who has seen some great talent come through Portland in the last couple of years, I love to see what is coming up from the lower minors to Double-A.
As for the Red Sox - Braves Spring Breakout game, Ceddanne Rafaela smacked another bomb and made a terrific throw to catch a runner for a double play, Kyle Teel showed some of what is to be expected from him, Mayer showed off his defense as did Meidroth and Nick Yorke had a great day at the plate. Nice outtings from Wikelman Gonzales, Richard Fitts and Luis Guererro. Mission accomplished.
MLB Notes
The news out of New York regarding Gerit Cole’s elbow was encouraging. He will not need surgery and is expected to miss 10-12 weeks of action when the season opens. I understand that fans are happy Cole is not on the mound for the Yankees to open the season, and that should have a negative impact on the our rivals to the south. What I don’t get is the absolute glee some fans online took with the fact that one of the premier pitchers in baseball was injured. Be happy that he won’t be contributing to the Yankees for a while? Absolutely!!! Rooting for any player to be injured just doesn’t fly with me, and is an ultra-hard NO! Grow up folks!
Speaking of the Yankees, the team approached Marcus Strohman to take Cole’s place and be the opening day starter, as he is a veteran, it is an honor to be the chosen pitcher, and as a major pickup for the Yankee and their rotation this past off season. Strohman’s response was no, the reason was that he didn’t want to mess with his routine and where he has been pitching in the spring rotation. It says a lot about him as a team player and is in keeping with the knock on him as being a me-first, team second type.
Old friend Adam Duvall signs with the Braves again for $3 million. Happy that he landed in Atlanta again. If he stays healthy, he can and should be a consistent contributor on a winning team. “Touch ‘em all Duvall” was fun to watch in 2023!
The Dylan Cease trade. Padres general manager A.J. Preller is not afraid to be bold. In an effort add another front line starter, he landed the right-hander in a blockbuster trade literally just before the team headed to Seoul, South Korea for the opening week series there, Wednesday night. The deal as constructed sent Cease west to the Padres and the White Sox got three of the Padres top ten prospects RHP Drew Thorpe (MLB Pipeline's No. 85 prospect; San Diego No. 5), OF Samuel Zavala (San Diego No. 7), RHP Jairo Iriarte (San Diego No. 8), and major league ready RHP Steven Wilson. It’s a high price for a pitcher with 2 years left before free agency. Let’s see if this deal makes a difference in the fortunes of the Padres.
Celtics
No St. Patrick’s Day would be complete without a discussion of the Boston Celtics. After grinding the Warriors to a pulp, they then lost a close one to the Cavs and lost to the defending champion Nuggets. As many casual fans started to clamor about the team “peaking too soon”, the team, woke up again, and is in the middle of a four game win streak and is back to normal. They still own the best record in the league and as of last night owned a 9.5 game lead in the Eastern Conference over the Bucks.
One of the things to look for over the next 2-3 weeks is a hard look at how deep the bench will be as the playoffs approach. Starters should see less minutes so that they are a bit fresher when the playoffs begin.
Bruins
The Bruins made some small moves at the deadline adding Pat Maroon and Andrew Peek. Going into last nights game against the Flyers they had the second most points in the Eastern Conference and the NHL as a whole. When you consider that not much expected from this team at the beginning of the season, their situation is a testament to determination and hard work. I am hopeful that they get further than last season in the playoffs and erase the ugly memory of last spring. Whatever happens they are playing well, and in my opinion, playing with house money.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection
It’s March Madness time of year! Today at 6 PM EDT the NCAA Tournament Selection show will establish the field of teams playing in the big dance. It’s a time of surprises, who’s in - who’s out, seeding arguments and the time of year where pseudo-scientists in the field of Bracketology expound on what they think will happen. Then the games begin!
Whatever happens, it is always fun, entertaining and every once in a while delivers a classic upset and a clutch moment. As for POTPP….. he’s thinking UConn.