Bailey, Miller and Crawford all progressing

Closer Andrew Bailey has to pitch this spring because of a strained lat muscle but that will come to an end hopefully on Friday when he is scheduled to pitch batting practice. Bailey also has a tentative inning on Monday  against the Marlins. Closers typically need much less time to get ready for the season given that they only pitch (usually) one inning at a time. I'm interested to see what Bailey can bring to the Sox. It's such a luxury to have end of games figured out these days so if Bailey can regain the form that he lost a little bit in Oakland last year then the Red Sox will have gotten a steal. An 8th and 9th of Mark Melancon and Bailey - if they perform to their capabilities - would lose almost nothing from the Bard/Paplebon battery of last season.

Carl Crawford appears to be doing well with his therapy and will reportedly meet withthe medical staff tomorrow to get a better idea of what to do going forward. Bobby Valentine was quoted as saying,
"Saw Carl this morning," said Valentine. "He said he felt very good. He's not experiencing any pain. We're going to all meet tomorrow morning and figure out a nice plan so he doesn't overdo it on his way back."


That seems to be a common theme with Crawford - "overdoing it". Apparently Carl has been working at such  a feverish pace to get back that the Red Sox literally had to tell him to relax. The apparent anxiousness could explain why he could never break out of his funk last year but hey, I'm not doctor.

And in Andrew Miller news it appears that the initial reports that his missed appearance was nothing more than precautionairy are true as he has plans to throw a side session soon.