March 8, 2009 at 11:20 AM
March 8 Fort Report
In major league camp, the battle continues for the last bench spot on the big league roster, between Brad Wilkerson (.556 OPS), Chris Carter (1.069 OPS), Paul McAnulty (.707), and Jeff Bailey (1.197 OPS) ... Those who don't get the spot will likely end up in Pawtucket to start the season ... The logjam could get even more complicated soon, as Mark Kotsay is reportedly on track to return to the field by May 1 ... Meanwhile, Josh Bard and George Kottaras continue to vie for the back-up catcher role, where the loser would likely be traded or designated for assignment ... Bad news: Rule 5 pick Miguel Gonzalez underwent Tommy John Surgery this past week, and will begin his rehab in Florida ... Good news: John Smoltz may be on target to return sooner than the initially-estimated June 1 date ... Both of these bits of news could affect the battle for the last bullpen spot, which is apparently down to Javier Lopez and Wes Littleton, both of whom are out of options ... Highly-regarded shortstop Argenis Diaz committed his third and fourth errors of the spring on Saturday, continuing his struggles with routine plays ... Among the non-roster invitees, Zach Daeges homered and had two RBIs in a recent win over the Marlins ... Dan Bard hit 100 mph on the gun in a scrimmage against Puerto Rico ... Nick Green is trying to prove he's worthy of a major league call-up if one of Boston's starters gets hurt ... In minor league mini-camp, John Otness continues to rehab from off-season arthroscopic knee surgery ... In the WBC, Taiwan was eliminated after two consecutive losses, but not without impressive contributions from Che-Hsuan Lin and Chih-Hsien Chiang, who batted one-two in Taiwan's lineup ... Dennis Neuman was also quite impressive in the Netherlands' upset victory over the Dominican Republic, pitching himself out of a jam in the eighth against several major league hitters ... On the business side of things, major-league minimum players renewed their contracts this week, all except for Jon Lester ... Manny Delcarmen got the highest salary for the group at $476,000, but Lester is expected to come in slightly higher than that mark ... With the signings of Manny Ramirez and Dennys Reyes this week, the Sox will likely draft 28th and 77th in the 2009 draft ... The only compensation player whose signing might effect the order of Boston's second round pick is Type B Mark Grudzielanek, who remains unsigned.