Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Spring Training - Week 5

Spring Training Report 2014
Week 5 – March 24th through March 30th

RECORD – 3 – 1

TEAM RISP – 7 for 28 (.250)
TEAM LOB – 26

Batting

Majors

Last week of Spring Training!  Thank god!!!  I’m so ready for some real games.  There will be no prospects review as this week the starters pretty much played the entire game.

Grady Sizemore finished off his storybook spring with a .400 week, hitting his first homer and also driving in 2.  He walked twice and also hit a double.  He’s made the team as the starting centerfielder and let’s hope this is just the start of a fairy tale season and comeback player of the year.

Dustin Pedroia hit .300 and Mike Napoli went .364 with an RBI, 4 runs, 3 walks, a double and another homer.

Xander Bogaerts continued his hot hitting, batting .417 with a homer, double, 3 RBI and a run scored.  Looking forward to seeing a full season from the X-man.

Will Middlebrooks also continued his ridiculously hot spring, batting an insane .636 with 2 homers, 3 RBI, 2 runs scored, a walk, a double and a triple.  More importantly he didn’t strike out in 12 plate appearances and has only struck out a handful of times this offseason.  Let’s hope that continues into the regular season because a healthy Middlebrooks is important to this offense.

THE BAD

David Ortiz missed most of the week with an injury but seems to be ready for opening day.  He did not have a great spring and went 0 for 2 during the week with a strikeout.

Shane Victorino pulled up lame in his lone game on Friday and will hit the DL before opening day.  This will likely bring Jackie Bradley Jr. back into the fold.  I love the Flying Hawaiian but man does he get hurt a lot.

Speaking of Jackie Bradley Jr., he continued to have a bad spring going 0 for 9 with 3 strikeouts and 9 men left on base for the week.  He’ll be up for opening day but man did he struggle this spring.

Jonny Gomes went hitless during the week (0 for 8) and Mike Carp batted .250 with 4 strikeouts.

Hitting with runners in scoring position still scares me as they weren’t very good all spring.  Let’s hope they turn in around during the season.

Pitching

Majors

Felix Doubront pitched 5 innings giving up 0 runs on 7 hits with 7 strikeouts.  It was a nice tune-up and hopefully he’s over the mid-spring struggles we witnessed.

John Lackey was downright filthy in his last spring outing going 6 and 1/3 innings, giving up 0 runs on only 4 hits while striking out 6 and only walking 1.

Clay Buchholz was good as well in his final tune-up, going 6 innings, giving up just 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 5 and walking 2.

Koji Uehara was vintage tossing 2 innings of 0 runs and 0 hits while striking out 4 and walking none.  Tazawa was equally as good going 2 innings and giving up 0 runs and 0 hits while striking out 3.

Brandon Workman pitched 1 inning giving up nothing but striking out 1.  He’s going to start the season in the bullpen.  Burke Badenhop gave up 0 hits and 0 runs in 2 innings of work.

The pitching seems to be coming along nicely given the workloads experienced last year.  I fully expect them to be outstanding again this year.

THE BAD

Allen Webster didn’t fare all that well in his last game of spring training, going 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 11 hits.  He struck out 3 and walked 2 while giving up yet another homer.  He just doesn’t look major league ready as this point.  He’ll start off in Pawtucket.

Edward Mujica had a rough week giving up 1 run on 3 hits in only 1 and 2/3 innings.  He had a decent spring so let’s just hope it’s one bad outing.

OVERALL

The last week of spring went pretty well for the Sox and they have 2 or 3 really hot hitters right now.  They’ll be in Baltimore for 3 to start things off.  See you then!

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