The much anticipated wait for the opening of the 2007 baseball season is only hours away with the Red Sox opener in Kansas City slated for tomorrow afternoon. As the Red Sox closed their spring with a Daisuke Matsuzaka start against the Philadelphia Phillies in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon, it felt like a good time to recap what felt like years in Fort Myers and look forward to the upcoming affair with the Olde Town team.

Rolling in after another exciting hot stove season with the posting, then courting, then signing of Matsuzaka, the departure of old friends like Trot Nixon and Keith Foulke, the soap opera that is Manny Ramirez, and the arrival of Julio Lugo, J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox had New England’s eyes focused on the Fort.

While New England focused its gaze on the Red Sox, the rest of the nation and a second nation to boot focused their gaze on a young twenty six year old rookie from Japan, Daisuke Matsuzaka. Could he possibly be worth the $103 million dollars the Red Sox invested in him between the posting fee and the subsequent contract? How would he react to facing Major League batters on a regular basis? How would he handle the swarms of media coverage expected to follow his every move? Outside of some control problems in his final two appearances of the spring (11 walks in total), a 2-1 record with a 2.91 ERA and 26 Ks in 21.2 innings proved that Matsuzaka should be a force to be reckoned with. After each appearance opposing hitters were left commenting on pitchers array of weapons at his disposal on the mound.

“He’s definitely got the ability to be a dominant pitcher. He’s got the stuff, he’s got the command. He has done it in Japan, and there’s no reason he couldn’t do it here.” - Florida Marlins 2B, Dan Uggla

While Matsuzaka impressed crowds this spring, the rest of the starting rotation for 2007 wasn’t to be outdone. From Curt Schilling, who made as much noise with the launch of his blog and the lack of a contract for 2008 after recanting his potential retirement as he did with his 1.71 ERA and his new change up, to Josh Beckett and his 24/2 K/BB ratio leading the way to a 3.04 ERA, the Red Sox rotation looked sharp. But it would be the starter that wasn’t, Jonathan Papelbon, that would dominate headlines as the spring rounded the corner into the home stretch to Opening Day.

With a revamped bullpen being the major question mark and closer auditions a major focus of the spring, every outing by Joel Pineiro, Brendan Donnelly, Mike Timlin, Hideki Okajima, Julian Tavarez, Kyle Snyder, J.C. Romero, Craig Hansen, Manny Delcarmen, and on and on, would be looked at by Red Sox faithful as either a vote of confidence for or indictment against their ability to fill the shoes of last years closer Jonathan Papelbon. Pineiro was the early favorite to take the role based on nothing more than the structure of his contract. But early troubles quickly shot that idea out of the sky. Pineiro would go on to have some success as the spring came to a close and could be an important part of the late innings this year still. For those of you (15% of our poll results at the time) who didn’t think Pineiro would hold the job out of spring training, touche.

While Mike Timlin would spend more time in the spring training version of the disabled list called the sidelines, the youngsters, Delcarmen and Hansen, would struggle enough that their futures would start back in Pawtucket instead of with the big club. With Donnelly, Okajima, and Romero slated more for the set up roles, a hole at the end of the pen continued to be the Red Sox largest question mark. That is until Curt Schilling broke the news (well…actually ESPN’s Erin Andrews) that Jonathan Papelbon would move back from the rotation to reassume the role that he excelled at last season turning the Red Sox biggest weakness into one of it’s greatest strengths.

“Papelbon, who had seemingly fully embraced his transition to a starter in preparation for this season, admitted that he wasn’t able to sleep at night “because there’s been that feeling deep down in my heart that I wanted to close.”

Of course Papelbon’s move from the heart of the rotation to the end of the pen left a spot in the starting five open. After his seemingly positive audition for a starter’s role at the end of last season, the Red Sox announced that they would be turning to Julian Tavarez to fill that role; at least until Jon Lester was prepared to come off the disabled list after his successful bought against cancer this offseason.

Lester would prove to be the best story of the Red Sox spring of 2007. While the attention and media frenzy was focused elsewhere, Lester’s work off the mound strengthening himself for a return to baseball this season was truly heartwarming. Not to mention that it was in part his availability that allowed the Red Sox to consider moving Papelbon back to the bullpen.

“It’s great. Just to get back and be normal again is awesome. Just to get back on the mound and throw the baseball and not worry about other things. So it’s good and I enjoyed it and, hopefully, we just build from here.” - Jon Lester after his first spring training appearance

Not all the news from Fort Myers stemmed from the pitchers’ mound.  With three new regulars in the everyday starting lineup, including J.D. Drew, Julio Lugo, and Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox fans were eager to get their first looks at the 2007 starters as well as welcome back their returning heroes.  Of particular note this spring at the plate were the solid performances of Kevin Youkilis (.368) and J.D. Drew (.356) and the lingering question marks around Jason Varitek and Coco Crisp.

This spring was also an opportunity to continue to get to know the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury and David Murphy as they progress through the minor league system.
So now that spring is over and the season starts for some tomorrow and in full swing on Monday, it’s time to seal the envelope with my predictions for the 2007 season. Without further adieu…

AL East: 1. Red Sox (96-66) 2. Yankees (Wild Card) 3. Blue Jays 4. Devil Rays 5. Orioles

AL Central: 1. Indians 2. White Sox 3. Twins 4. Tigers 5. Kansas City

AL West: 1. Angels 2. A’s 3. Rangers 4. Mariners

NL East: 1. Mets 2. Phillies (Wild Card) 3. Marlins 4. Braves 5. Nationals

NL Central: 1. Brewers 2. Cardinals 3. Astros 4. Reds 5. Cubs 6. Pirates

NL West: 1. Dodgers 2. Diamondbacks 3. Padres 4. Giants 5. Rockies

ALDS: Red Sox over Indians, Angels over Yankees

NLDS: Mets over Brewers, Phillies over Dodgers

ALCS: Red Sox over Angels

NLCS: Mets over Phillies

World Series: Red Sox over Mets

AL MVP: Grady Sizemore

NL MVP: Albert Pujols

AL Cy Young: Johan Santana

NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb

Count me now ready for Schilling’s first pitch tomorrow!  Good luck 2007 Boston Red Sox and enjoy!

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