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Tomorrow marks the first day of Spring Baseball as both the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues have a handful of games scheduled for the afternoon. The Red Sox begin their spring with a split squad, first playing the Boston College Eagles at 1:05 at City of Palms Park, then they head across town to play the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium at 7:05.

The Sox have their early spring rotation set, as Josh Beckett gets the ball against BC, Tim Wakefield has his go against the Twins, Jon Lester throws to the Pirates on Thursday,  Michael Bowdin climbs the mound on Friday to face the

Josh Beckett looks to improve on a 12-10 record from a year ago.

Tampa Bay Rays, lefty Kris Johnson will throw against Northeastern University with a split squad on Saturday, then Clay Bucholz is on the bump for the nightcap against the Reds. 

Brad Penny is expected to pitch March 5th, but that isn’t yet set in stone.

Of semi-related news, the World Baseball Classic begins play on Thursday, March 5 at 4:30AM EST.

Julio Lugo got $36 Million for 4 years before the 2007 season. He knows it's time to give something back.

Julio Lugo, probably the worst signing in the American League in the past few seasons. Signed in the 2006 offseason to the tone of $36 Million for four years, Lugo hasn’t given much back to the team that won him his first ring. He hit just .237 in 2007, although he did have a good second half that year, hitting .280. In 2008 Lugo was looking to bouce back, and did get off to a decent start, but he suffered an injury midway through the season and only got 82 games in.

This opened the door for rookie Jed Lowrie, who more than erased the memory of Lugo constantly hitting into rally-killing double plays. Now Lugo and Lowrie will compete for the starting job, though many fans are calling it pointless and they already view Lowrie as the everyday starter.

However, Terry Francona is hinting that Lugo is the front runner, and I can’t blame him. While Lugo has struggled, he is still a proven veteran compared to the 2nd year Lowrie. Plus, the Red Sox never addressed the loss of utilityman Alex Cora, and are now left without a backup at 2nd Base. Lowrie can fill that position fine, but can you really see Lugo at 2nd Base? He struggled as LA’s utility man three years ago after being dealt by the Devil Rays at the trade deadline.

Anyway, Lugo believes this is the year he finally shows his worth. “I’m ready to do it now,” Lugo said. “I’m ready to get back to the level I was at. I’m hungry every day. That’s why I get paid so much money — to do well. That’s what I’m going to do.”

Well any way you look at it, Boston is stuck with him for another two years, so he may as well give us something to cheer about during this time.

Hey all, my name is Wes and I just got approved to blog for my hometown Boston Red Sox, so here’s what you can expect. First off, I’d like to thank Jeff for this opportunity. To clarify, the Red Sox position was filled much earlier, but whoever the blogger was supposed to be hasn’t been active, so Jeff gave it to me. Second, as you can expect I will post game recaps and just about everything else that goes with the Red Sox. Obviously I can’t stand the Yankees, but I will try to keep the bias out of posts (although as a Mets fan, Jeff did say some “light” Yankee hazing would be accepted). I look forward to more blogging in the future and I hope you all enjoy my posts.

Ok everyone, this big dude has got a point. Seriously, if you take away the random factor of testing, we can at least be somewhat confident that this glorious game will have some serious meaning going forward.

I mean picture it, you have some serious young talent belting home runs left and right, wouldn’t it be nice to know that they are all legit? It would be a dream come true for my children, and my childrens children to once again revert back to having trust in the game we love so much.

Test everyone, if EVERYONE has NOTHING to hide, then test them ALL! Imagine that, a list of players who aren;t on steroids! What a world! Anyways, here’s what the big man said…

Clearly apprehensive about the issue of the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said that he is willing to see measures done, in whatever way possible, to protect the game he loves.
Ortiz said that he is favor for the suspension of any player who is found using the said substance for the entire season. Current suspension is at 50 games on first offense which gradually goes up to 100 games for the second offense. He also added that all players should undergo such testing, rather than that of the proposed random testing.
“I would suggest that everybody get tested, and not randomly,” Ortiz said. “You go team by team and you test everybody, three, four times a year, and that’s about it. You do what you’ve got to do … ban them for the whole year [if they test positive]. You’re going to get respect from the players when they know they’re going to get tested. Let’s test the whole team, three or four times a year. I know they can do that. Believe me, if someone was using steroids, it would show up. Because the way they test you, it’s not a joke.”

Ortiz also added that he does not want to see players getting summoned by the court of law due to their substance use before the testing officially started in 2004.

“There have been a lot of players who have been in federal court and being judged like they just killed somebody or they robbed somebody,” Ortiz said. “I don’t think all that is supposed to be happening. If you admitted that you’ve used stuff [in the past], boom, don’t use it anymore. It’s not good for you. You know it’s not good for the game. Let’s move on, you know what I mean?

“All the drama of bringing guys to court and acting like they are serious criminals, it doesn’t look good for the game. What is happening right now is about something that happened in the past. It’s not something that is happening right now. Everything was banned in, what, 2004?”

Ortiz respected the decision of his close friend Alex Rodriguez, who openly told the press about his past with the said performance enhancing drugs which he tested positive in 2003.

“I think the A-Rod situation, it was a little tough for the game, because you’re talking about the best player all the way around,” Ortiz said. “At the same time, people have to give the guy credit, because he came out and said what he said at the point of his career where he had done it all. On top of that, that was what, six years ago? The guy has put up numbers his whole career.

“It was one thing that he said that caught my attention a lot and it was that he was young, and at the time, that was [happening] all around the league. When you’re young and somebody comes to you with an idea of improving your production and things like that, sometimes you make a wrong decision like he did. But he’s been playing clean and still producing, and he’s still been the best player in the game. If I’m a fan and I had to judge a guy, I would put that in the past and move forward. The guy, he works hard, man. He’s still doing his thing. He still has nine more years on his contract, and he’s definitely going to do some damage.”

He also added that he thinks that fans are losing trust to the game they are watching, and love at the same time.
“Like I said, man, this game has been hurt a lot already,” Ortiz said. “This is not a players’ game or a team’s game. This is a family game. We have a lot of families that live off this game. We have a lot of families that enjoy this game, that bring their kids to watch these games, and I don’t think that this game can take anymore.

“Whatever happened in the past … I guarantee you that more than 80 or 90 percent of the players are playing clean,” Ortiz said. “We’re going through a tough situation all the way around. The economy, our soldiers fighting in Iraq and all this stuff, and this game is a distraction for people, for the American families. I would like to see some things. I would like people to leave this game alone and just let us play the game. I would do whatever it takes to make this game get better, but not everybody is on the same page. The game has changed a lot. There’s a lot of pressure. This game, it’s been getting a lot of heat lately. Let’s just play the game. The game is tough enough. People need to hear something different.”

Ortiz takes much pride to the sacrifices he made to climb up to his superstar status, and is sometimes worried that he is going to a victim of guilt by association.

“I just want to go out there and make sure that people aren’t looking at me like, ‘This guy, he’s big. What’s going on?’ There’s a lot of guys here, they work, they work hard,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said that he is willing to undergo blood tests even to growth hormones, which up to now, is undetectable using urine samples.

“They can figure out a way to test for anything, I’m telling you that right now,” Ortiz said. “Like I said, man, this game needs a breather. It needs to go back to what it was. People come to have fun and watch guys with natural ability playing the game. I guarantee you one thing — nobody is going to take a risk right now. The way they’re testing and the way they’re doing things, you’re not going to hear from anybody testing positive for any kind of steroid.”