Spring is Here!

Photo Credit CBS Boston

At least for baseball it is.

Yesterday was the official report day for pitchers and catchers and manager Terry Francona updated us on some pressing issues.

On Jacoby Ellsbury’s Health

“He’s healthy now. He says he’s doing everything without being limited, which is good because that had been a while. It’ll be fun to watch Ells. A year ago this time we’re talking about him playing left field, being our leadoff hitter and being a game-changer. Now we have the game-changer in left field (in Carl Crawford) and can move Ells back over to center and hopefully allow him to continue his development.”

On a Potential Closer Controversy

“I don’t think this is as much of an issue for Paps as maybe it was for people talking about Paps. He knows where I stand on this. I don’t think it’s much of an issue.”

On the Catching Situation

“We have Tek and Salty and I think we’re pretty comfortable with that, maybe more than people realize. Salty’s had a tremendous winter. This guy’s potentially a power-hitting, switch-hitting catcher. If that doesn’t come to fruition right away, that’s not the end of the world. We love the way he wants to run the game and he aspires to the run the game. And Tek’s in a good spot. He feels good about where he is and that makes us feel better.”

Positional players are due to report Friday with the first full workout coming Saturday.

Daniel Bard a Starter?

Photo credit Associated Press

Daniel Bard was asked yesterday if he views himself as a starter or a reliever? Being a reliever, you’d think that would be his response but it wasn’t. Here is what Bard said…

“I see myself as a pitcher.”

Bard went on to say that he would like to try starting some day.

“I kind of would like to try it. It’s something I would like to do. It would kind of challenge myself. You’ve never proven yourself, but I know I can do the reliever thing for myself, just as a personal challenge, [starting] would be cool.”

The last time Bard started was back in college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With the acquisitions of Bobby Jenks and Dan Wheeler this could be real possibility but Bard is best fit to be the heir apparent to Jonathan Papelbon.

Do you think the Sox should test out Bard in the starting rotation? Vote in the poll or leave a comment…