Red Sox pitchers and catchers are officially now in spring camp, the position players will soon be with them. But there is something distinctly missing from the South Florida landscape: the sounds of controversy.
This isn't the first time in recent memory that the complex on Edison Avenue has been Tranquility Base. But it is remarkable that the only truly open question has to do with who the 11th and 12th pitchers on the staff are going to be.
Think about it: practically the entire starting rotation, most of the known bullpen, and a good portion of the anticipated lineup was in camp well before the official reporting date. There is no real competition for the starting job at any condition, unless you count the potential presence of both Marco Scutaro and Jed Lowrie at shortstop as a possible flash point. And the juiciest subject anyone has been able to come up with has to do with where Jonathan Papelbon will be 12 months from now.
Now that’s tranquility!
Imagine being able to focus on conditioning and drills and ensuring all of last year’s wounded warriors open the season healthy! In some ways, it may have been a good thing that so many players were injured last year, and that Josh Beckett, Hideki Okajima, and Daisuke Matsuzaka performed so badly, for their collective determination to turn this year around will ensure no one falls to victim to complacency.
There is work to be done in Ft. Myers, for sure. All I’m saying is that it’s so nice that there is so little to distract from it.
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