...and when you hear that a player is in the best shape of his life, what you learn from that is that he isn’t injured and he’s in shape to play baseball.

E.G., You can find lots of such stories about Matsuzaka last year, and he was 7 starts away from Tommy John surgery.

Bobby Jenks, who appeared in only 19 games last season because of assorted injuries, arrived in camp having lost significant weight. He is recovering from back surgery and may not be able to pitch for several weeks

And when his elbow injury was diagnosed, the pieces stopped.

Taking advantage of my newfound proximity to many clubs' spring training facilities, I will be seeing the Sox play the Orioles in early March and will try to see them at least once more before spring training is over. I look forward to posting fraudulent reports here about virtually every player on the roster being in the best shape of his life and looking like a monster for 2012.

Is that going to be reflected in CFBPS?

I expect the CFBPS to be in the best psychic shape of its life by March.

Hence the admittedly fraudulent reports...or are they? Darren will be responsible for deciding if it's a jinx...or a reverse jinx!

What's wacky to me is that that postseason doesn't seem like THAT long ago, yet it's coming up on eight years. What the hell is happening here?

Don't try to blame me. Look at your track record, Jose--It's scary!

Dan Bard: “With Daniel, he was off line,” said McClure. “You can do it in relief because you’re only throwing 20 pitches, 30 on a bad day. So you won’t tire out and you can still kind of fix it, but if you’re going to throw 100, pitch seven, eight, nine innings, you’ve got to be in position where it’s the easiest to do that. We just worked a little bit on alignment. With Bard, it wasn’t much. It was getting his back foot square to where he was going to throw it, because it was pointed in the direction of going closed.”

Unsurprisingly, given his stuff, makeup and success, Bard has made extremely favorable impressions on McClure. He has already cleaned up his alignment, to the point where McClure -- who compared Bard’s ability to generate velocity without requiring substantial drive off the mound with that of Hall of Famers Jim Palmer and Don Sutton -- is convinced that the right-hander has a delivery that can work as a starter.

“Can a guy repeat this type of delivery? Daniel’s is very simple. My guess is yes,” said McClure. “Whether he can start, I don’t know. It’s a whole different gig. But can he repeat what he’s doing 100 times, 120 times, 130 times? I believe he can.

“It’s a very simple, simple delivery. At first look, can he repeat his delivery where he can get the ball down there where he wants to throw it? I would think he can because his delivery is so simple.”

Andrew Miller: “I think Andrew can be a starter,” said McClure. “But I don’t believe he can be a starter stepping two feet across his body. I don’t think you can repeat and command a baseball by being that off line, then having to redirect as the ball is coming out of your hand. I just don’t think you can do that. I don’t know anybody that’s accurate that steps that far across his body.

“When Andrew’s pitched,” McClure continued, “have you seen consistency where he’s missed by just six, eight, 10 inches? Have you seen five quality starts in a row where they got hits to get him out of there, or was it base on balls, pitching behind the count?

“That’s what him and I are going through right now. The more you’re on line, the easier it is to repeat. The reason you’re not on line is you get on your toe and push yourself that way, so we’re going to the exact cause first – what’s causing it? He seems to understand. [In a Sunday bullpen session] he did well at it – very well. Just blew me away. He was maybe this far across his body – a footstep, maybe, which is a big improvement. It’s not easy to do.”

To watch Valentine over the course of a routine spring training day is to understand that bench coach Tim Bogar may not necessarily be joking when he says, “I think there are two or three of them. He’s everywhere all at once. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen."
...
Comparisons with former manager Terry Francona are almost unfair. Under Francona, who led the team to two championships, the Red Sox treated spring training as a tedious requisite. The general idea was to avoid injury and brush up on fundamentals. That worked well for the bulk of Francona’s tenure. But consecutive third-place finishes marked by a historic September collapse last season stamped the Red Sox as a team in need of change. Francona was forced out and Valentine arrived two months later after a drawn-out search.
...
Players who had grown accustomed to Francona’s less frenzied style weren’t sure what to expect from Valentine. But he has already won over the team’s longest-tenured player, David Ortiz, with his approach.

“Bobby is watching every little thing and fixing it now,’’ Ortiz says. “So when the season starts you’re on top of your game. He knows what it takes to get ready for the season. He wants to improve things. Trust me, I’m down with that.’’

As the fog lifts, Valentine grabs a bat and heads for an outlying field to work with left fielder Carl Crawford, an expensive free agent whose first season with the Sox was a failure.

Despite his great speed, Crawford did not have a single bunt hit last season and has only 20 in his 10-year career. A speedy infielder in his youth who was a first-round draft pick of the Dodgers, Valentine cannot fathom wasting such a weapon. So Crawford is getting a private lesson.

“Let the angle of the bat work for you. No poking at the ball,’’ Valentine says as Crawford drops a perfect bunt down. “Nice, Carl. Very nice!’’

Comparisons with former manager Terry Francona are almost unfair. Under Francona, who led the team to two championships, the Red Sox treated spring training as a tedious requisite. The general idea was to avoid injury and brush up on fundamentals. That worked well for the bulk of Francona’s tenure. But consecutive third-place finishes marked by a historic September collapse last season stamped the Red Sox as a team in need of change. Francona was forced out and Valentine arrived two months later after a drawn-out search.