If there is one player in Boston's spring training camp who seems primed and ready for a huge comeback year, it has to be big right-hander Brad Penny. The 30-year-old Oklahoman threw 30 pitches in his first official bullpen session in the opening days of spring training, and he didn't feel any of the discomfort or shoulder pain that led to his 6-9 record and 6.27 ERA for the Dodgers last season.
That awful season was one beset with injuries and problems, but Penny has already said he feels 100 percent different heading into this season after getting together with assistant trainer Mike Reinold. He has utilized Reinold's training program designed to help hurlers remain healthy and effective. "The way I feel now, I shouldn't have any setbacks," said Penny, who begins the season penciled in as the No. 5 starter in Boston's deep rotation. "I've just got to stay after my shoulder work, do the best I can to stay in the best shape I can. Everything else will take care of itself."
Taking care of himself hasn't always been priority one for the 6-foot-4, 260-pounder, but it's something he's taken more seriously since hooking up with old buddy Josh Beckett, Reinold and pitching coach John Farrell as a member of the Red Sox.
"(We're going over) a lot of stuff that we weren't doing in L.A., that I've never seen before and nobody had ever shown me," Penny said of the training regimen for pitchers employed by the Sox.
The Sox obviously hope that Penny regains the form that saw him win 16 games and total 208 innings during the 2007 season, but Farrell and Co. won't be looking to skip any steps to get him there.
"I think as we look at the early part of camp, he'll be right in line with every other pitcher as far as their bullpen sessions go and their BPs," Farrell said. "But we'll also be smart about it, and if he needs an extra day built into his mound sessions, we'll look to do that."
WHERE, WHEN: City of Palms Park, Fort Myers, Fla. First exhibition game is Feb. 25 against the Minnesota Twins.
TOP CANDIDATE TO SURPRISE: RHP Brad Penny stubbornly fought through shoulder woes while pitching with the Dodgers last season and finished the year with a 6-9 record and a 6.27 ERA in 19 games. Being reunited with RHP Josh Beckett, his former teammate with the Florida Marlins, and hooking up with renowned pitching coach John Farrell in Boston could go a long way toward helping the power pitcher rebound in a big, big way.
TOP CANDIDATE TO DISAPPOINT: DH David Ortiz's power has dropped off significantly since he hit a club-record 54 home runs during the 2006 season, and he's coming off a wrist injury that clearly affected him through the second half of the 2008 season. He provided clutch fireworks again during the epic ALCS Game 5 comeback last season but couldn't consistently sustain his pop through the playoffs for Boston. Ortiz is clearly at a crossroads at 34 years old, and questions surrounding the middle of the batting order spurred the Red Sox to pursue free agent 1B Mark Teixeira this winter.
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Manager Terry Francona, with a record of 755-703, has slowly gained traction as the most successful field manager in the long history of the Red Sox franchise and wields a great deal of power benevolently in the Sox clubhouse. "Tito" has always been viewed as a players' manager and has two pretty two simple rules: "Be on time" and "Respect the game." Francona has surrounded himself with a good tactical coaching staff that includes pitching coach John Farrell and hitting coach Dave Magadan, but Francona's clear strength is dealing with the big personalities within Fenway's walls.
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