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A healthy Kevin Youkilis wants a Gold Glove at 3B 02.15.11 at 10:00 am ET
By Mike Petraglia

FORT MYERS, Fla. — If Kevin Youkilis fields third base the way he fielded questions for 20 minutes Tuesday morning inside the Red Sox minor league complex, he’ll have no problem achieving one of his goals in 2011 – a Gold Glove at third base to match his one already on the mantle for first base.

Moving to third won't be a long stretch for Kevin Youkilis.

He touched on several topics, his surgically repaired right thumb, missing Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols eventually getting his money, making the move to becoming a full-time third baseman and his distaste for talking to opponents when he played first base.

Youkilis pronounced himself fully healthy and ready for the next challenge of his career. The veteran infielder, who won the American League Gold Glove at first base in 2007, is looking for the same honor at third base this season.

“As long as I’m not making mental errors, that’s the key,” Youkilis said. “It’d be cool if I could play just as well at third base and try to win a Gold Glove. There’s a lot of great third basemen out there. It’d be cool. If I could play at a high level and win a Gold Glove at third base and first base, that’d be awesome.

“But, for me, I’m not worried about the accolades. I’m just worried about making the routine plays and trying to make a couple of great plays here and there to get our pitchers out of some jams.”

Francona said he has no doubt that Youkilis will make a smooth transition to third, where he was an All-American while at the University of Cincinnati.

“I think he’s always viewed himself as a third baseman,” Francona said. “A couple years there he thought he was Happy Gilmore.”

Youkilis, who said his right thumb is 100 percent after a winter of conditioning and strengthening, said he will have no problem moving back to third base on a full time basis since he filled in the injured Mike Lowell several times last season.

“I’ve been a third baseman all my life, played third base at the major league level quite a few times and played over there when Mike Lowell was hurt,” Youkilis added. “I feel great. Body feeling’s good. The hand is feeling good. Just got in good shape like normal. Just ready to go out and play third base this year. There are no restrictions. All the good stuff that comes with baseball I can do.”

Something Youkilis doesn’t consider good stuff is trying to be a social director at first base. In other words, he’s no Sean Casey.

“It’s just not interesting,” Youkilis said. “It’s fun sometimes if you have guys you know and you’ve played against. There’s some guys you might not care for too much. You get to know people over there, too. You get to understand people a lot more. But the social scene over there, I can do without. I’ve never been a social-scene kind of guy.

“It’s not fun. You want no-hitters and perfect games thrown where you don’t have to cover the base, but that’s not possible all the time. For me, I’ll leave it to Sean Casey, Jim Thome, guys that are really good over there. Kevin Millar. I’ll leave it to them to master that.”

As for Pujols, who has a Wednesday deadline for the Cardinals to get an extension done, Youkilis is pretty sure that he’ll be taken care of somewhere.

“I think he’ll be happy somewhere, getting paid a lot of money,” Youkilis said. “If he wants to come to the AL East and face some of this pitching, he can come.”

Read More: Albert Pujols, Bearcats, Boston Red Sox, Happy Gilmore Print  |  Email  |  Bark It Up!  |  Digg It
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  • bruinsfan1

    they are not a joke thats why they won the stanley cup last year?

  • Zacjesse2000

    Uhhh, the Stanley Cup win was LAST year. It means nothing this year. If the Bruins continue to play as they have over their past 20 games they will get ousted in the first round of the playoffs no matter who they play. Once again, Robotic Coach Julien hasn’t a clue as to how to get some offense from this team. Anyone notice Ryder has 30 goals in Dallas and Wheeler’s scary offense in Winnipeg? It’s obvious how much players flourish once they get away from Julien’s suffocating Defense-First system. Julien has absolutely no creativity in his coaching style. Look at today’s game. Pens up 2-0 half way thru first period, Blysma puts out FIVE forwards on Power Play, knowing another goal would pretty well end it for the Bruins. Has anyone ever seen Julien put out 5 forwards? He’d rather put knives in his eyes. He just never thinks outside the box. He’s a horrible coach.

  • Ctwp19

    I don’t think you know hockey very well… Claude can’t get offense from his team? Explain what happened after he put Seguin with Looch and Krejci. Ryder can score, but he cannot do anything else and that was proven last year, and Wheeler does not have any “scary” offense. He’s playing alright. But I would take Peverley over him everyday of the week, injured or not. Even so, Chiarelli is in charge of that not Claude. Go back and watch wimpy basketball, because you have no clue what hockey is.

  • snidleywhiplash

    Bruins and Thomas right now are a shell of the team they were earlier this year and last.  What the hell has happened to them.  All teams have injuries but their defense absolutely sucks.  That was suppose to be our strength

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RQDEFBPO2D4T3KVBEFNLQUDPFY Peter

    funny how the arm chair coaches come out of the woodwork to criticize Julian yet they were loving his coaching style a few months ago….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RQDEFBPO2D4T3KVBEFNLQUDPFY Peter

    “To make matters even worse, defenseman Johnny Boychuk was the victim of a hit from Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin that could be looked at by the league.”

    This is laughable. The on ice officials couldnt even get the call right and you think the league is going to look at this?? If that hit was delivered by a Ranger, Flyer, or Bruin, it would have been a 5 minute major with a game misconduct. Yet when someone like Malkin does it, its okay. The league came down hard on the Bruins for playing physical the first half of the year not only with the supplementary discipline decisions but more importantly, the way the officials call the actual game. Prime example is the roughing penalty to Zanon Saturday for his check on Perreault. Clearly a clean hit. Has to have the team as a whole second guessing themselves. 

  • Deano

    First off, this comment borders on a book and for that I am sorry. However, injuries cannot be an excuse when you are playing against Pittsburgh because they have been fighting the injury bug like no other team for almost two years now. 

    However, the health of the Bruins heading into the playoffs is one of the three main components to consider when determining how far they will advance in the postseason. Last year health was one of their main strengths heading into the war of attrition that is the NHL postseason. This year they are in trouble, especially with Horton out, Bergeron is dinged up, Chara looks like he has been playing through an injury, Rask is down etc. Rolston was not enough to quell the lack of offensive talent on the ice, they needed to go after Iginla or someone similar. 

    The other two components are goaltending and special teams play (PK, PP). Compared to Last season the Bruins goaltending is in far worse shape. Last season Thomas was on fire from the drop of the puck in Prague. Thomas is not having a bad season, but he is not having the same year as last year, nor could we expect him to match that performance this postseason. So in two categories the Bruins are in worse shape. 

    The PK is fine and basically just as strong as ever. They have had some ups and downs, but I have no worries about the PK unit. The PP unit continues to have the same problems have existed since Savard “retired”. The PP unit lacks movement, one guy with the puck shedding off defenders while the other four guys just stand still waiting for the puck, it is pathetic. So in the third category they are pretty much in the same shape as last year. 

    So, I would say the ceiling for this year’s team is to make it back to the Conference Finals. The Bruins could very well win the cup, but a lot has to change between now and the start of the postseason for that to happen. Any series against either the Rangers or Pittsburgh will be very tough to win.  

    To ZacJesse, why are you jumping all over Julien? In the last year Julien has pushed almost every button in the right way and won us a cup with that defensive style. Every coaching system has it’s ups and downs, if you play a trap system then you won’t get as much offense of course. This is not a video game, sometimes stopping three goals from happening is better than averaging an extra goal a game. Who would you have coach the team? You don’t like Julien but I don’t see any names of coaches in your comment that you would prefer.  

    Obviously some players will thrive in other markets for a variety of reasons, more ice time, more maturity, better matchups etc. Bringing back Ryder was not going to happen with he money he was offered, same with Kaberle. Wheeler had to be moved along with Stuart for cap room (to add Kaberle who everyone around here was screaming for, why I don’t know) and to acquire Peverly who was a better fit on this Bruins team. Last year when the trade was made for Peverly it made far more sense because he is far more versatile and a much faster skater than Wheeler and that was what was needed last year to win the cup, which they did. What would you rather have the Stanley Cup or Blake Wheeler?  

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