Pitching coach John Farrell said Penny and the Sox were “encouraged” by the performance. Penny has been working on strengthening his right shoulder after an injury-marred 2008 with the Dodgers and has been on a slower schedule than the other starters.I like Buchholz' chances of making the team out of spring training, especially since we're one month from baseball and Penny is only throwing to live batters. He's got to get back into games to prove he can be trusted. This smacks of last year's Red Sox, when the team took injury-plagued Bartolo Colon and moved him to Triple-A to start the year. Buchholz struggled badly at the MLB level, eventually losing his spot in the rotation to Justin Masterson, among others. A year older, maybe he can keep the job this time.
“The stuff that’s coming out of his delivery, the quality, velocity, better command - it was another positive step for him,” Farrell said after the session, which was observed by starters Josh Beckett [stats], Jon Lester [stats] and Tim Wakefield [stats].
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“That’s probably the most confident I’ve been that I can ever remember,” Buchholz said. “I definitely felt good, that was the best outing I’ve had in a long time.”
4 hours ago
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