Sox’ new chill approach to camp cool by starters
FORT MYERS — The soundtrack to the Red Sox starters’ spring training is easy on the ears.
It’s feel-good tunes that go down smoothly in the background as the starters lope around the clubhouse with contented smiles, satisfied minds and throwing arms that are being strengthened at a less-frenetic pace than seasons past.
RED SOX BEAT Michael Silverman
There is a calmness, a peaceful, easy feeling surrounding the starters — especially David Price and Chris Sale.
Last year, each came in jittery, over-amped and too eager to please. The stress from too much desire to please too many wound up costing each of them. Price was hurt in camp, and Sale ran out of steam in the fall.
This year, with a new lowkey manager in Alex Cora at the helm, Price and Sale are each exuding what can only be called a mellow vibe. They’re not walking around in plush, terry-cloth robes and slippers, but in their heads, they are charging their batteries slowly, keeping their respective warrior modes under wraps for as long as possible.
The new emphasis this spring is happening on backfield mounds.
“I’m used to getting ready for a spring training game and being like, ‘All right, I want to get through this game’ — it’s not even about the results or any of that — ‘I want to get through this game,’ ” Price said yesterday.
Price had just completed a — what else? — low-key, controlled throwing session against minor leaguers on a back field at JetBlue Park in which he looked strong and threw his 39 pitches free and easy.
“To not have that thought ... it’s not even about the results or any of that,” he said. “To be able to go out there on Day 2, I threw a 45-pitch bullpen two days ago. That’s not something I would normally do two days before I pitch. The way my arm feels and just the rest of my body, having this laid-back spring training, I think everybody’s benefited from it and taking it nice and slow and getting ready the right way.”
The plan is for Price, Sale and the rest of the rotation to finish strong, and with that finish ideally happening in late October. That certainly was not the script last year, and Sale attributes his own fade with his mindset from 12 months ago when he strode into this clubhouse as the “new guy.”
“I got traded over here, obviously it was a big jolt of energy for the team and the fans, but also for myself when I got traded to a team and their only goal was to win the World Series,” said Sale about how his thought process impacted his workouts. “You start working out in the offseason, you start getting a little bit harder and tougher, you get here, you’ve got your freaking lights and cameras and all this other stuff, and you just want to show, in one day, ‘I’ve got this, I’m going to be this guy.’ And it’s just not the way to do it. I did it so different last year than what I usually do. And it ended up biting me in the butt in the end.
“This year, it’s just, ‘All right, come in and roll.’”
Price spoke last year, after he was injured, of the “unique elbow” doctors told him he had. This year, what’s unique is the new throwing program and how good that change has been for everybody.
“I know a lot of people in the game of baseball, a lot of pitchers, and I never really heard of what we’re doing from other guys, we talked about it whenever we went to lunch this offseason with Alex,” Price said.
Cora told the starters he didn’t want them working up a sweat in fielding practice or playing catch when it was their days to throw their bullpens. Those sessions are the focus, where the real work is taking place, reinforce good pitches and deliveries and tweak what needs tweaking.
“It’s been nice,” said Price. Like Sale and the other starters, Price gets that the dividend for these loosey-goosey days in Florida should pay off in the pressure-cooker of not just one or two, but three playoff series seven months from now.
“To be able to take it lighter right now, for all of us, it’s got to help you down the road,” Price said. “You have to have a little more in the tank at that point in the season. And hopefully the way we’re doing it right now allows us to do that.”