Red Sox Notebook: Pap Ready To Start

Jonathan Papelbon is well aware of Red Sox Nation's mounting expectations of him as a starter.

Something as simple as a trip to a Boston Celtics game is all the 6-foot-4, 230-pounder needs to hear the shouts, the screams and demands that he immediately mature into an ace. Anything less simply won't do after he dominated his way to an All-Star berth in his first full season as a closer with the Olde Towne Team.

"I went to a Boston Celtics game and some guy runs on the court and says we gotta get 20 wins out of you this year," Papelbon said while Boston last week for the Boston Baseball Writers' dinner at the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. "I don't know...I like it, man. I like the pressure and I expect to go out there and be that upper-echelon pitcher."

Papelbon has started a grand total of three games in the big leagues, but he has geared every throwing and workout program toward taking the ball every five days next season.

"Right now my whole body and mind and everything is focused on going out there and starting," Papelbon said. "It not only plays into what they drafted me as—which is as a starter—but it allows me to go out and give them everything I have in one day, and then go ahead and do that every five days...my livelihood is my arm, and I treat it like a little baby now."

Newly anointed pitching coach John Farrell is looking forward to working with all of the talented young Sox pitchers, with Papelbon's conversion from the 'pen to the starting rotation high atop the list.

"In my multiple conversations with him, he has great or greater expectation than anyone on the outside," Farrell said. "I think that goes without saying about every single person that puts on a major league uniform."


NOTES, QUOTES
—RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka flew from Japan to Los Angeles on Jan. 11 and will spend the remainder of the winter in Southern California working out and readying for spring training.

—Sox GM Theo Epstein and agent Scott Boras continue to work on the "contract language" concerning free agent OF J.D. Drew and are expected to come to some resolution on his four-year, $70 million contract within the week.

—OF David Murphy looks to have gained approximately 10-15 pounds of muscle in the offseason. He is gearing up to battle for a reserve outfielder spot at spring training.

—Former Sox OF Jim Rice was passed over for the Baseball Hall of Fame for the 13th straight year and has two more chances to attain the required votes before he is taken off the voters' ballot.

—3B Mike Lowell was honored as the Jackie Jensen Award Winner after rebounding from a dismal year with Marlins to hit .284 with 20 homers and 80 RBIs with the Sox last season.

—RHP Kyle Snyder avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $535,000 contract. Snyder went 4-5 with a 6.02 ERA for Boston last season after he was acquired off waivers from Kansas City.


BY THE NUMBERS: .213—Batting average RHP Joel Pineiro held opposing hitters to after switching to the bullpen with the Seattle Mariners last season.


QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's been a humbling experience to learn the language, but I think it's important for Matsuzaka and [Hideki] Okajima to have someone to communicate with. I'm not selling their English short, but when you're able to identify with someone and converse with them, it adds to their comfort level." —Sox pitching coach John Farrell on learning Japanese to communicate with his Japanese pitchers.