Posted by Alex Speier

A year ago, Jed Lowrie played 49 regular-season games at short and handled 155 chances in the field without committing an error. In the third inning of today’s game, he misplayed three balls and was charged with two errors.

He bobbled a grounder to short. He struggled against the Florida sky on a pop-up behind second and dropped it. And he misplayed another ball that was smashed directly at him.

Of course, it is often necessary to take spring training errors with something of a grain of salt, just as is the case with minor-league defensive numbers. The bandbox ballparks make players more susceptible to losing balls against a high sky (the backdrops are often abysmal) and the fields are rarely as well maintained as those at big-league parks - particularly in spring training, when daily infield chews up the grass.

Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that Lowrie will look to add the box score from this day to his scrapbook. Unless, of course, he majored in masochism at Stanford.

Posted by Alex Speier

The Sox will follow a truncated workout schedule today in order to attend a fundraising golf tournament for The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. The team will wrap up on the field by about 11:30 this morning, so updates should be coming relatively soon.

As for yesterday…

1) Apparently, the angst about J.D. Drew’s still-uncomfortable back was somewhat exaggerated. Drew has been free to take part in all aspects of workouts, and has thus far been unrestricted in his activity. The Red Sox underscored to Drew the significance of his presence on the field in a recent meeting. “When he’s out on the field, we’re a different team. There’s no getting around it,” Francona said. “We have a different look.”

2) David Ortiz missed Thursday’s workout. According to Francona, the decision to hold him out occurred after Ortiz slept awkwardly on his shoulder, but the slugger is expected to be fine.

3) Thursday marked the first live batting practice session of the spring, with Red Sox pitchers (yesterday, it was the relievers) throwing to hitters. Many batters are content to swing casually or not at all, using the exercise more to calibrate their timing than to actually start swinging. But one exception was Jed Lowrie, who offered further evidence of the progress of his return from a left wrist injury. Batting left-handed, the 24-year-old was able to generate power to both fields, hitting balls off the fence in both right-center and left-center on hanging curveballs spun by Manny Delcarmen.

By the end of last year, it was nearly impossible for him to produce those kinds of drives while batting left-handed, even in batting practice. Now, the strength of his left wrist nearly matches that of his right. Lowrie expects the disparity in strength between his wrists to eventually disappear.

4) The Red Sox are in regular contact with Daisuke Matsuzaka as he prepares for the WBC by training with the Seibu Lions in Japan. The team speaks with him by phone frequently, and had also deplayed Pacific Rim consultant (and former Seibu Lions and Sox minor-league pitcher) Denney Tomori to monitor the pitcher’s program in Japan.

5) It is a dangerous thing to pay Dustin Pedroia a compliment. Sox manager Terry Francona learned that lesson when he introduced last year’s MVP winner to Pirates skipper Ken Macha (for whom Francona served as bench coach in 2003, when Macha helmed the A’s).

“Mach was just making conversation and he said, ‘You know, you remind me of Chad Curtis,’ and he meant it really as a compliment,” Francona said of a player who was noted for his immense intensity. “Pedie was like, ‘Are you (expletive) me?’ Maybe (Pedroia) is right. I went from just introducing a friend to I had to hold Pedie back.”

For more, visit Full Count.

Posted by Alex Speier

The Red Sox announced the complete list of 19 non-roster invitees to their major-league spring training camp in Fort Myers. Notables include first baseman (and top prospect) Lars Anderson, outfielder Josh Reddick and pitcher Daniel Bard, among others:

Pitchers (8): Daniel Bard, Fernando Cabrera, Enrique Gonzalez, Kris Johnson, Marcus McBeth, Dustin Richardson, Billy Traber and Charlie Zink

Catchers (1): Carlos Maldonado

Infielders (6): Lars Anderson, Jeff Bailey, Angel Chavez, Nick Green, Ivan Ochoa, Gil Velazquez

Outfielders (4): Chip Ambres, Zach Daeges, Paul McAnulty and Josh Reddick

Of the 19 invitees, all except Anderson, Bard, Daeges, Johnson, Richardson and Reddick have major league service. Bailey, Velazquez and Zink all saw some action for the Red Sox in 2008.

Posted by Alex Speier

BY CHRISTOPHER PRICE

The Patriots announced this afternoon they have put the franchise tag designation on quarterback Matt Cassel.

“Matt has been a pleasure to coach his entire career and last season in particular, when his years of hard work and commitment resulted in a most impressive performance,” said Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick in a statement issued by the team. “We look forward to working with Matt again in 2009.”

Cassel took over the New England offense after a season-ending knee injury to Tom Brady in Week 1 of the 2008 season. In the final year of his first professional contract, he struggled early, but finished with 21 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and 3,693 total passing yards while leading the Patriots to an 11-5 mark, one game shy of the playoffs.

As a result of his fine season — and the decision the team has made to place the franchise tag on the quarterback — Cassel will now make the average of the Top 5 highest-paid players at the position, which comes out to $14.65 million for a one-year tender, quite a bump from the $520,000 he made last season.

The 26-year-old quarterback becomes the fourth player in team history and first offensive player to receive the tag, a group that includes kicker Adam Vinatieri (2002 and 2005), safety Tebucky Jones (2003) and cornerback Asante Samuel 2007. In Vinatieri’s first instance, the franchise tag was a mere stopgap — the two sides were eventually able to reach a three-year contract. In 2003, Jones was traded to New Orleans shortly after he was tagged. In 2005 and 2007, both Vinatieri and Samuel played a single season with the franchise tag before leaving Foxborough in free agency.

Teams have a two-week window to decide whether or not to place the franchise tag on a player, and this case marks the earliest the Patriots have decided to place the franchise tag on a player. In the case of Vinatieri and Jones, all three of those decisions were made on the day of the deadline, while Samuel was tagged a week before the deadline.

RELATED CONTENT

What to Make of Matt Cassel - By Michael Felger

Game of Tag Set to Begin This Week - By Christopher Price

Posted by Alex Speier

Red Sox first baseman/outfielder Mark Kotsay underwent surgery on January 29 for a displaced disc fragment in his back in response to back pain. (Kotsay’s signing became official on January 15, after he had undergone a physical.) Few details for his recovery timetable are available as of yet, but a Red Sox official did say that Kotsay is not expected to miss much of the regular season.

All the same, his injury would seem to offer some clarification of the motivation behind the recent agreement to terms with first baseman / outfielder Brad Wilkerson (reported at WEEI.com yesterday). Kotsay has a history of back problems, and required surgery on a herniated disk in 2007. He has been on the disabled list four times with back problems: in 2003 with San Diego, when he missed two weeks due to spasms; the first two months of the 2007 season following the aforementioned surgery; again in the final month and a half of the 2007 season with the A’s; and for much of last June with the Braves.

Posted by Alex Speier

More on the agreement to terms (pending a physical) between the Red Sox and Brad Wilkerson: it is a minor-league agreement, with Wilkerson making the major-league minimum if called up to the majors. He would, however, receive performance and roster bonuses that could increase the value of the deal to as much as $2.5 million. Wilkerson would get $275,000 for each of the following roster thresholds: 60, 90, 120 and 150 days on the active major-league roster. He could also receive $200,000 bonuses for reaching each of the following numbers of major-league plate appearances: 300, 350, 400, 450 and 500.

Wilkerson would serve as a kind of insurance for first baseman/outfielder Mark Kotsay (who has identical plate appearance bonuses to Wilkerson), though without the ability to serve as a backup centerfielder. Though left-handed, his career numbers are slightly better against left-handers (.262/.359/.446) than they are against right-handers (.243/.347/.439).

Posted by Alex Speier

As first reported by MLBTradeRumors.com, the Red Sox are close to signing first baseman/outfielder Brad Wilkerson to a minor-league deal that includes incentives based on major-league playing time. Wilkerson is a career .247 hitter with a .350 OBP and .440 slugging mark. In 2008, the 31-year-old hit .220/.308/.326 in a season in he started with the Mariners before getting released mid-season and picked up by the Blue Jays.

Wilkerson would serve as a kind of insurance for first baseman/outfielder Mark Kotsay, though without the ability to serve as a backup centerfielder. Though left-handed, his career numbers are slightly better against left-handers (.262/.359/.446) than they are against right-handers (.243/.347/.439).

Posted by Alex Speier

There’s very little to report on the Jason Varitek front, according to a source familiar with negotiations. While there seems a desire for a decision–one way or the other–to be reached today (the Red Sox did articulate a Friday deadline for the talks, though the notion of an 8:30 a.m. deadline appears to have been erroneous), the source said that it would be “premature” to say that a decision would or even must be reached today.

If the two sides do reach an agreement, an official announcement would be unlikely until next week, since Varitek would still have to come to Boston for a physical prior to making a deal official. As we wait for some evidence of movement in either direction, it is worth comtemplating Varitek’s performance.

Gary From Chapel Hill looks at the offensive limitations of Varitek in recent years

Quantifying Varitek’s defense is more difficult; in this article, I looked at the performance of members of the Red Sox pitching staff last year with both Varitek and Kevin Cash behind the plate

This analysis (hat-tip: Rob Neyer) suggests that Red Sox pitchers have not been discernably better with Varitek behind the plate than with other catchers

Of course, Scott Boras has been aware of these factors throughout the negotiations, perhaps helping to explain why, at the winter meetings (just after Varitek and Boras declined the Red Sox offer of arbitration), the agent focused on his client’s intangibles in emphasizing his value.

“Representing a catcher is like buying submarines,” said Boras. “You have to look way under the water to find out what’s going on.”

Posted by Alex Speier

A Red Sox official denied a report that catcher Jason Varitek faced an 8:30 a.m. deadline to accept or walk away from the Red Sox’ one- and two-year contract offers, suggesting that the situation would not be resolved this morning, and was unlikely to reach a conclusion until at least this afternoon, and perhaps later. We will keep you updated as the situation develops.

Posted by Alex Speier

Curt Schilling, in his weekly appearance on the Big Show, suggested that based on his recent conversations with Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, he expects the career Sox to come to terms on a one- or two-year deal.

SCHILLING: “I’ve talked with Jason a couple different times about this. I think there’s probably some discussion going on around the parameters of a deal since it was put on the table. In fact, I know there (has been). I think you’re going to end up with a deal that nets Jason the $10 million over two years, somehow guaranteed or tied into some incentives, that keeps him here, or I think he might end up taking the one-year deal. I’m not positive, but at the end of the day I think it’s going to be Jason Varitek catching for the Boston Red Sox, which is really all I care about.

GLENN ORDWAY: If he can get the $10 million over two years, that makes a lot more sense.

SCHILLING. After he fires his agent, it makes a lot more sense.

ORDWAY: You think that’s a possibility?

SCHILLING. No I don’t, because I know how much Jason thinks about Scott. But I would probably be on day six of having no agent if it had been me. But again, he’s been with Jason for a long time, through a lot of stuff.