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Former three-time MLB All Star and current ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk once famously said, “I ain’t an athlete, lady. I’m a baseball player.” It’s no secret that you don’t have to be an Olympic-looking athlete to play in the MLB. Some of the game’s top players look like guys that you would see in the upper deck of a pro wrestling show, swigging a beer and shouting obscenities. Even the greatest baseball player of all time, Babe Ruth, wasn’t even close to resembling an athlete. Hell, even David Wells, a 20-game winner who threw a perfect game, looks like the slob that changed my oil this morning. But not all baseball players fall into the category of not being able to call themselves athletes. If you looked up “athlete” in the dic- tionary, you would see Jacoby Ellsbury’s picture. In high school, Ellsbury was a three-sport athlete, making the varsity squad in his freshman year for baseball and football, and got the call-up to the varsity basketball team in his sophomore year. As the story goes, Ellsbury chose baseball over the other two sports and wound up at Oregon State, where the outfielder hit .330 as a freshman, .352 as a sophomore and hit a foreshadowing .406 in his junior and final year as a collegiate player. Ellsbury holds the Oregon State record, once stealing seven bases in a single game, which would be a precursor to his entrance into Red Sox history. After tearing up Boston’s minor league system for parts of three seasons, Ellsbury burst onto the scene, making his major league debut for a Red Sox team that was 10.5 games up in their division. It was the perfect time for a highly touted prospect to get a taste of the big leagues with no overbearing pressure to perform, and Ellsbury did not disappoint. The 23-year-old hit .353 with a .902 OPS in 127 plate appearances over the 33 games he played at the end of the 2007 regular season. Ellsbury then kept the momentum rolling all through October, hitting .360 with a .949 OPS throughout the postseason, including a .438 batting average in the World Series, en route to Bos- ton’s second championship in four years. And, to think, he wasn’t even a rookie yet. Ellsbury certainly set the bar high when he kicked down the door to the major leagues in 2007. His “fan favorite” status would grow in the coming years, as he would swipe a league-leading 50 bases in his first full season, and a Red Sox record 70 more in 2009, includ- ing a head-first theft of home plate against Boston’s most hated rivals, the New York Yankees, on national television. In 2010, a freak accident cost Ellsbury nearly the entire season when third baseman Adrian Beltre collided with the outfielder, causing hairline fractures to four ribs on Ellsbury’s left side. The injury occurred just six games into the season and limited the 26-year-old to just 18 games for the year - and certainly robbing Red Sox fans of what surely would have been another spectacular year on the base paths for the speedy outfielder. In 2011, after four years of waiting, Red Sox fans finally saw Ellsbury’s true potential when the Oregon native put together one of the most special seasons in team history. We all knew that Ellsbury was a talent, but it was a pleasant surprise to many when the man who held Boston’s single-season stolen bases record began to showcase even more tools. We knew he had speed, that he could hit for average and play spectacular defense, but what we had yet to see was the power. Having entered 2011 without ever amassing double-digit homers, Ellsbury blew the lid off of Fenway Park by becoming the first player in Red Sox history to hit 30 homers and swipe 30 bases. The centerfielder also led the league in total bases with 364, which was one more base than David Ortiz accumulated in his MVP runner-up season of 2005 when the DH blasted 47 homers and drove in a league-best 148 runs. The last Red Sox player to rack up as many total bases as Ellsbury did in 2011 was when Nomar Garciaparra had 365, one more than Ellsbury, in his rookie season of 1997. The season of a lifetime earned him a runner-up spot in the American League MVP voting, while many think that Ellsbury would have won the whole thing had the Red Sox held on to their playoff spot. Unfortunately, there would be no encore performance in 2012, as Ellsbury would suffer another season-threatening injury. Although he would play a total of 74 games, Ellsbury’s .271/.313/.370 perfor- mance couldn’t shake a stick at the year before. And that brings us to 2013, which many regard as a make-or-break year for the, now, 29-year-old Ellsbury. After that 2011 season, he was sure sitting pretty and on a one-way street to a major payday. But now, after having one great season sandwiched in between two injury-riddled poor seasons, it should be an interesting market for the outfielder should he reach free agency. What he does have going for him, though, is that in both instances where Ellsbury had to miss significant time due to injury, they were both contact injuries. There is no amount of strength and conditioning that he could have done to prevent Beltre from bulldozing him over in left field, or Reid Brignac falling onto his shoulder. Many had Ellsbury in the neighborhood of Matt Kemp’s eight-year, $160 million deal with the Dodgers after the season that he had in 2011, but now it’s a wait-and-see approach for teams looking to acquire his services at the conclusion of the 2013 season. Can he stay healthy? And if he stays healthy, will he even come remotely close to the player he was in 2011? These are all questions that need to be answered before any team, including the Red Sox, can make an offer to the free agent-to-be. Fact is, even if Ellsbury has a mediocre season in 2013, don’t count on him getting mediocre money. He’s a Scott Boras client for a reason. Boras clients almost always go to free agency, so don’t count on the Red Sox getting something done during the season to prevent him from going to free agency, and don’t expect a hometown discount either. Boras is on record as saying that Ellsbury is a “franchise player” and Boras will do his best to get the outfielder “franchise player” money, which should put the Red Sox right out of the Ellsbury sweepstakes, especially with stud outfield prospect Jackie Bradley Jr. on the up-and-coming. 5 The Boston coaching staff has been completely trans- formed. Beginning their first year in a Major League club are hitting coach Greg Colbrunn, assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez, first base coach Arnie Beyeler, and bullpen coach Dana LeVangie. Juan Nieves is the new pitching coach after spending 14 years with the White Sox, while Brian Butterfield and Torey Lovullo are new arrivals from the Blue Jays as the third base and bench coaches, respectively. It is time to wipe the 2012 slate clean with the new names, faces and un- knowns of the new season. Here’s to the 2013 Boston Red Sox! The beauty of baseball is that every spring wipes the slate of the previous season clean. After the disastrous 2012 sea- son, one of the worst in Red Sox history, the team and their fans are ready for a chance to turn things around in 2013. Between new players, coaches, and even a new manager, there are a lot of new faces to greet and get used to in Boston this year. Goodbye to the old and hello to the new. Leading off is Manager John Farrell. The Red Sox were able to steal him from his managing stint with the Blue Jays, but you may remember his days as the pitching coach here in Boston. The players seem very happy to have him return – and to have Bobby V gone. The Red Sox were able to fill some positional voids in the lineup by adding shortstop Stephen Drew, closing pitcher Joel Hanrahan, and first basemen Mike Carp and Mike Napoli. Drew, brother of former Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew, played 79 games last year with the A’s, hitting 7 homeruns and 28 RBIs. Coming to Boston from the Pirates, Hanrahan, otherwise known as “The Hammer”, has 96 career saves. Carp spent his career with the Mariners where he hit .255 with 18 homer- uns and 71 RBIs. As a catcher for the Rangers, Napoli had a .320 batting average with 30 homeruns in 2011. Sox management also added outfielders Jonny Gomes and Shane Victorino, catcher David Ross and relief pitcher Koji Uehara. Gomes won the 2012 Catfish Hunter Award with the A’s, hitting 18 homeruns in 99 games, split between outfield and designated hitter. Victorino has 3 Gold Glove Awards and has been a two time All-Star. Ross is described as one of the best back-up catchers in the MLB. Uehara, a control pitcher, had a 2.35 ERA in 2011. Continued on next page... 6 No there wasn’t a big, fancy press conference with a handshake and jersey presentation.

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