Spring Training Blog: One-On-One With Jon Lester
FORT MYERS, Fla. (CBS) - A quiet morning for the media on this Sunday here in The Fort. Woke up to temps around the 40-degree mark which is frigid for down here (I'm not complaining though). However, it was a chilly day for baseball.
No clubhouse access this morning as it was "photo day" for the manager, coaches, and players. It's the day where they get all the baseball card pictures, team photos, promos, etc. out of the way. It takes about 30 minutes for each player to go through the different stations.
The one thing I like about photo day is that the players wear their "home uniforms" and they wear them for the workout too. The Sox home uni is still one of the best in all of sports.
The starters threw live batting practice for the first time on Sunday. Jon Lester continues to impress as he's showing a bulldog attitude in what he's doing on the field and that continued in live BP.
The strange story of the day focused in on pitcher Alfredo Aceves. The right-hander walked onto the mound to throw his live BP session and began throwing pitch after pitch at batting practice speed rather than the normal maximum effort we see out of every other pitcher. Pitching coach Juan Nieves walked out to the mound and had a conversation with Aceves, who then finished up the way one normally throws. After the session manager John Farrell was seen speaking with the enigmatic Aceves.
Farrell made the following statements when asked about it after the workout:
"He didn't go through the drill as intended and we've addressed it."
"His session on the mound didn't go as intended. He's healthy and it's been addressed."
From afar, it appeared that Aceves may have been testing his manager early on. Remember, Aceves and Bobby Valentine didn't see eye to eye last season and he was suspended for three games. Maybe, he was seeing what Farrell is made of, we shall see.
A day after an MRI showed no further damage to his hip, Mike Napoli took some ground balls at 1st base. It's part of his increase in baseball activities. He also took a full batting practice, and it's easy to see why the Sox would love to put him in the 4 or 5 hole as he has raw power.
David Ortiz was going from field to field on a golf cart. When asked why Ortiz got one and not him, Farrell said, "because he's been here longer than I have."
By the way, got to the park early Sunday do a sit down interview with Jon Lester. He was great talking about lots of different topics. Notably, he cleared up some things from Rob Bradford's article earlier in the week, from statements that came across as whiny about his numbers to what he said about the word "leader".
You can see the Lester 1-on-1 tonight at 11:35 p.m. on Sports Final on WBZ-TV ch 4.
