No Japan trip for Beckett, Dice-K will start opener

It’s official: Josh Beckett will not be making the season opening trip to Japan.

Said Terry Francona:

Beckett threw off the mound yesterday for the first time since injuring his back, and by all accounts the exercise was a success.

Dice-K Matsuzaka, whose wife gave birth to a baby boy on Saturday, now has clearance to travel to Japan and will pitch in the opener vs. the Athletics.

Lester will start game 2.

It should be a pretty special day for Matsuzaka, as he’ll be throwing in front of his countrymen for the first time since defecting to the Major Leagues last year. 

Inching towards the panic button

If you had asked me one month ago to name the strongest component of the 2008 Red Sox, I wouldn’t have given it a second’s thought. The rotation, you idiot. We’s gots teh Buchholz and we’s gots teh Lester, we don’t need no stinking Santana!

Contrast that winter optimism to today, where if you asked me what the team’s strong point was, I’d say, “we have a strong point?”

Before you rush to any judgments on my character, let me clarify by saying that I pride myself in being a rational baseball fan 95% of the time. I rarely get caught up in media hype, I hate Tim McCarver, and I never panic during a losing skid (unless that losing skid comes in the first or last week of the season, or during the playoffs). So I do know that I’m being irrational right now, which in many ways is worse than not knowing it.

I feel like Edward Norton when he’s going to fight club for the first time. He knows that he’s about to do something that will cause him a tremendous amount of pain, but can’t stop himself so he just does it anyway. That’s me right now.

Let me give you an example of how messed up I am about this:

Last night I actually caught myself thinking, “I really hope Colon has a great outing this week because we need him.”

The logical part of my brain is telling me that it’s too early to be in panic mode. It’s telling me that spring training performance isn’t much of an indicator of anything, that we see more pitchers per 9 innings than we do in an All-Star game. But damnit, the regular season starts in two short weeks, our rotation is not looking good, and it’s never too early to be worried.

For the sake of making myself crazy(er), let’s go over what’s happened to our rotation since the start of spring training:

1. We learned that Schilling may never pitch again.

2. Lester, Buchholz and Matsuzaka look like they’re fighting for the final spot on the Boston College team the Red Sox pummeled last week.

3. Beckett hurt his back (Francona did say today that the injury is muscular in nature, which is good, but does nothing to extinguish my fears).

The lone bright spot at the moment is Tim Wakefield.

Now, I love Wake as much as anybody else, but when the best thing you can say about the present state of your rotation is that your 41-year-old knuckleballer is looking pretty solid in spring training, that isn’t exactly the highest level of flattery that you can bestow.

We’re going to be fine. Seriously. Beckett will be back within the week, Lester and Buchholz will get it together, and Dice-K will get his head on straight once the baby comes.

I want to believe.

Lester is ready to go

When Jon Lester showed up to spring training last year, he was down to 190 pounds after losing a considerable amount of weight during his chemo treatments and cancer recovery.

Though it was an inspiration to have him back in a Red Sox uniform, his fastball lacked its usual pop, and it was clear from the outset that he still had a ways to go in his physical recovery. The Sox put him on a special program to ease him back into the game, and he spent most of the season in the minors.

Lester worked hard to build up his strength over the season, and his efforts were rewarded with a victory in the clinching game of the World Series.

He continued his hard work into the offseason, and he’s now back to his normal weight of 225 pounds, and ready to play some baseball.

Though pitchers and catchers aren’t due at the Red Sox spring training facility until February 14th, Lester is already there, continuing his training, and preparing for the start of the season.

He says that his fastball has finally returned to form, and that should help him considerably. He struggled to get ahead of hitters in 2007, when gave up a walk every two innings. If he can use his revamped fastball to get ahead in the count, his numbers should show significant improvement.

“Last year was uphill for the first half of the season, just trying to get physically back to where I was the year before or even the year before that. This year, I don’t have those hills to overcome.

“I come in at at my normal weight and just go out and pitch. I don’t have to worry about being in a special program or anything like that.”

It’s rare to find a young ballplayer with the drive that Lester has, and the further removed I get from the Santana saga, the happier I am that he wasn’t sent to Minnesota as a trade chip.

Lester is glad to remain in Boston as well.

“I don’t want to leave Boston. It’s a great place. I’m just glad I’m staying here. There’s no other place like it.”

It’ll be nice to have him back.

Red Sox include Ellsbury in offer for Santana

The Red Sox have decided to include Jacoby Ellsbury in their offer to the Twins for Johan Santana.

Interestingly, the Red Sox removed Jon Lester from their offer when they added Ellsbury. If the proposal is accepted and Santana joins the club, Boston would have 7 quality starters slotted in their rotation, providing Theo with plenty of ammo to make another big acquisition.

The current proposal probably looks something like this: Ellsbury/Masterson/Lowrie

If Ellsbury goes to Minnesota, Crisp would likely remain in Boston next season.

The Yankees have reportedly given the Twins until the end of the day tomorrow to make a decision.