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Today's photos from spring training

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Jacoby Ellsbury

Jacoby Ellsbury

David Ortiz

Red Sox chairman Tom Werner

Dustin Pedroia with Jimmy Fund chairman Mike Andrews

Daisuke Matsuzaka

J.D. Drew

Fans watch practice through a fence

Julian Tavarez

Kevin Youkilis

Dustin Pedroia

Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew

J.D. Drew

Kevin Youkilis

Joe Cahaly, Tom Cahaly and Elizabeth Cahaly of Wellesley, Mass.

Kayla Beaupre of Southington, Conn., gets an autograph from Kyle Snyder

Daisuke Matsuzaka

Jonathan Papelbon

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments 1

Perez signs with Washington

VIERA, Fla. (AP) - Left-hander Odalis Perez agreed to a non-guaranteed, minor league contract with the Washington Nationals on Tuesday that will pay him $850,000 if he makes the major league club.

Perez was reportedly also considering an offer from the Red Sox.

Perez went 8-11 with a 5.57 ERA in 26 starts for the Kansas City Royals last season. He threw 137 1-3 innings in 2007, more than all but one Nationals pitcher.

"He will be given an opportunity to make the team's starting rotation," general manager Jim Bowden said. "He gives us depth to protect us against injuries and depth to allow us to not have to rush a young starting pitcher who is not ready for the major leagues."

An All-Star in 2002, Perez is 66-70 with a 4.47 ERA over nine seasons with the Royals, Dodgers and Braves.

The 31-year-old Perez would give Washington a veteran in a mostly unproven rotation.
His contract includes incentives beginning at 20 games started.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 3:45 PM | Permalink

Projo SoxTalk with Sean McAdam

In our first edition of SoxTalk for the 2008 season, Sean discusses the handicap the Red Sox already face with Curt Schilling injured, just how much the team is paying attention to the Mitchell fallout, the Terry Francona contract talks and what is in store for the rest of this week. Click the play button below to hear and see the show.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 1:30 PM to Projo SoxTalk with Sean McAdam | Permalink | Comments 1

Multimedia: Today's sights and sounds from spring training

Today's file, which was yesterday in Fort Myers, features the sound of infield practice, and the excitement of young fans as Dustin Pedroia signs autographs. Click the play botton below to see and hear the show.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 1:27 PM to Sights and sounds of spring training | Permalink

Quiet morning

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Jacoby Ellsbury meets reporters this morning.

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Not a lot of news to report from The Fort this morning.

David Ortiz checked in, but doesn't plan to work out or talk to the media until tomorrow. J.D. Drew, who reported yesterday, is taking some swings on Field 1 despite suffering from a bad head cold.

Chairman Tom Werner made his first appearance in camp a while ago. Werner took part in a negotiating session with Terry Francona Monday night.

Jacoby Ellsbury spoke about his busy offseason and sudden celebrity status and was asked about his job his job competition with Coco Crisp.

''I have the utmost respect for him,'' said Ellsbury. ''He's definitely a great teammate. We're all fighting for jobs. It's the best players in the world and you just have to be ready (for the competition).''

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Washington Post: Sox make an offer to pitcher Odalis Perez

Click here to read the story on the Post's Nationals blog, which states that the veteran left-hander is weighing competing offers from Boston and Washington.

The 30-year-old pitcher from the Dominican Republic was 8-11 with a 5.57 E.R.A. pitching for Kansas City last season. For his career, he is 66-70 with a 4.47 E.R.A.; his best season was 2002, when he won 15 games and had a 3.00 E.R.A. with the Dodgers.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 10:39 AM | Permalink

Baseball Today: Tuesday, February 19

STAND UP AND SPEAK: If there's one man emerging from baseball's drug scandal with his reputation enhanced, it's Andy Pettitte. He quickly admitted to his involvement after the Mitchell Report was released, told Congressional investigators that what Brian McNamee said about him was true, and yesterday talked to the media for nearly an hour about the whole affair. (New York Daily News) He's become a rare, refreshing beacon of candor and openness in this squalid mess, deserving of the support he's received from both his long-time teammates and Yankee management. Not everyone thinks he did it for solely unselfish reasons -- the Daily News' Mike Lupica lays out that case -- but compared to virtually everyone else who was caught with his hands in the PED jar, Pettitte stands alone.

ESPECIALLY COMPARED TO . . . A man whom Pettitte admits may now be a former friend, Roger Clemens. (New York Post) Pettitte was careful not to say anything negative about Clemens yesterday, nor make any comment whatsoever about the wildly divergent stories the two men are telling. SI.com's Jon Heyman thinks Clemens -- a ''one-megalomaniac wrecking crew'' -- put Pettitte on the spot, rather than the other way around. That strain may get greater in the weeks ahead, since Brian McNamee may call Pettitte as a defense witness in Clemens' libel suit against him. (Daily News) The daily News' John Harper wants to know why Congress didn't bring in Pettitte as a witness last week.

THE REACTION: The Houston Chronicle's Richard Justice says Pettitte is a true role model, but Peter Abraham says no matter how nice a guy he is and how many kudos he deserves for standing up and admitting what he did, he's still a cheater (LoHud Yankees Blog). Newsday's Wallace Matthews says the same thing. ESPN.com's Jayson Stark warns that life won't be getting back to normal for him any time soon. The Daily News' Bob Reissman agrees, as does the New York Post's Joel Sherman.

I ADMIT TO NOTHING, BUT I'M SORRY: In the Milwaukee camp, fellow Mitchell Reporter Eric Gagne issued the standard apology-for-something-though-I-won't-say-what that has become the industry standard for baseball's alleged juicers. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

WHY JUST US? Hank Steinbrenner wants to know why the NFL is getting off scot-free in the performance-enhancing drug scandal, since he thinks the problem is probably more widespread in football. (New York Daily News)

YOO HOO, ROGER . . . FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal thinks Clemens should take a lesson from Pettitte.

THE TRUE SIGN OF DEMENTIA: Clemens says he wasn't at a party at Jose Canseco's house, as Brian McNamee claims, and that disagreement has been used as a hammer by Clemens' defense team to pound away at McNamee's credibility. If he wasn't there, either McNamee made up the greatest whopper of all time or Clemens is losing his mind to have forgotten something like this. (yahoo.com)

FORGET IT: No less a rogue that Denny McLain says Clemens is lying and that he won't get into the Hall of Fame. (Chicago Tribune)

DIFFERENT STROKES: In a story he wrote Monday, Sean McAdam compares the messiness of the Yankee situation with the tranquility of the Red Sox camp. (projo.com)

38 PITCHES: After several days of silence, Curt Schilling gathered selected members of the media -- our own Sean McAdam among them -- and talked about the shoulder injury that will sideline him for a good chunk, if not all, of the 2008 season. He acknowledged his disappointment that the Sox went against Dr. Craig Morgan's recommendation of surgery, wondered if the team's more conservative approach will allow him to pitch this year, and strongly denied that he signed his '08 contract knowing he was hurt and thus was doing it merely to collect an $8 million paycheck. Owner John Henry said the Sox are merely trying to find the best course of action, and that Schilling shouldn't be so upset. The Boston Herald's Steve Buckley thinks Schilling should stop ''playing doctor and [start] playing ball.''

QUICK HITS: Terry Francona and the Sox are talking contract, finally . . . Jon Lester is happy to be just one of the guys . . . The Red Sox are concerned how their trip to Japan will affect their roster come cutdown time . . . Francona and pitching coach John Farrell are making sure Sox pitchers take it easy. (All stories projo.com)

HE'S NUMBER ONE: SI.com's Jon Heyman says Theo Epstein is the best general manager in baseball.

NEWS FROM THE FORT: Over on Sons of Sam Horn, poster Mike F has begun his legendary spring-training posts.

PHIL IT UP: More and more, I'm starting to think that -- with all due respect to the always readable Curt Schilling -- the Yankees' Phil Hughes has the best athlete's blog around.

I KNOW WHAT I KNOW: Yankee fans react predictably to the gazillionth study that shows Derek Jeter to be one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball. (New York Post) But even a Jeter fan like Ed Fitzgerald of the blog Bugs & Cranks wonder how much longer the Yanks can afford to keep Jeter at shortstop.

BEGINNING OF THE END: Joe Torre says his downfall with the Yankees probably started in 2004, when he committed the ''mortal sin'' of losing to the Red Sox. (Philadelphia Daily News)

SO THAT'S WHERE THEY ARE NOW! The Baseball Analysts site runs down the whereabouts of some big -- or at least familiar -- names as they attempt to make their way back to the majors via the non-roster invitee route.

RELIEF: Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune says that what's many of the Giants are feeling now that Barry Bonds is gone.

AND YOU WERE WORRIED: Miguel Cabrera showed up at Tigers camp looking nothing like the doughboy he was morphing into down in Florida. (Detroit News)

LET THE SEASON BEGIN: It didn't take long for Jay Mariotti to resume his shelling of Ozzie Guillen. (Chicago Sun-Times)

CLOSE OUTS? Joe Nathan isn't sure how much longer he'll be in Minnesota (mlb.com), and Francisco Rodriguez is fairly certain this will be his last season in Anaheim. So if you're looking for a closer, some pretty good ones may be available next winter.

OLD FRIENDS: Anabel Sanchez has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery (Miami Herald) . . . Matt Clement won't be ready to start the season with the Cardinals (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . Trot Nixon, turned down by the Blue Jays (and ex-local sports writer Kimball Crossley, who now works as a Toronto scout), may hook on with the Diamondbacks (East Valley Tribune).

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:48 AM to Martone | Permalink | Comments 1