Terry Francona

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It was a day in which the activities were mundane but the excitement was far reaching. Pitchers threw in the bullpen and engaged in a variety of fielding drills, among them a favorite of Sox skipper Terry Francona, who uses a bat to whack a soft rag ball at his pitchers from short range to test their reflexes. Catchers commenced the legendary Camp Tuck, the series of drills organized by bullpen and catching coach Gary Tuck, who has pieced together some of the most innovative practice techniques for those who don the tools of ignorance.

Under other circumstances, these routine events would seem boring. But given that it is the first day to get in uniform and start to embrace baseball activities as a team, it was an undertaking that was greeted enthusiastically.

“Everyone has a little pep in their step. Tomorrow will be the second wave of pitchers. They’ll be excited,” Francona said. “Then the challenge is, after that, to keep the excitement and enthusiasm throughout.”

Francona and pitching coach Curt Young cautioned pitchers not to push too hard in the start of camp, to dial back their intensity to around 80 percent in order to make share that getting in shape does not cross over into jeopardizing health. One new aspect of the initial workout, however, entailed no physical risk at all. There was a station for “game awareness,” in which pitchers and members of the coaching staff discussed different game situations and why the Sox, for instance, would want to hold or not hold a runner at second base in a given situation. That was done with an eye toward “slowing the game down when [it] speeds up on pitchers,” particularly defensively.

Francona noted that Sox pitchers were “sloppy” at times last year while fielding their position, and the team feels compelled to cut down on the errors committed by men on the mound.

“A ball bounces off a pitcher’s shin, it lands at their feet and they try to throw it sidearm, fire it away. Throwing balls to first base when you try to be too quick. Those are things we’ll talk about because we were sloppy,” Francona said. “We made too many errors. That doesn’t help you win games.”

In other news from the manager:

– Francona said that Kevin Youkilis trained during the winter to play third base, even working at times with third base and infield coach Tim Bogar to get ready for his shift across the diamond. Francona raved about what a luxury it is to have Youkilis, since his versatility enabled the club to acquire first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

“He’s always viewed himself as a third baseman. He’s called himself Happy Gilmore for three or four years. He is excited to be over there,” Francona said. “Fortunately for us as an organization, he can do it. Because of that, we could get Gonzalez. If Youk couldn’t do it, that might not have been there.”

“He already worked with [Bogar] this winter a little bit because they were both in Boston. … We certainly want him to be comfortable. It’s not like Youk has never been over there, so, no, I’d say [he probably won't have too much extra work at third this spring]. If you throw too much, you’ll have a bad arm.”

– After the Sox conducted strength testing of their pitchers, non-roster invitees Brandon Duckworth and Tony Pena Jr. came up a bit short in shoulder testing, so they were held back from throwing a bullpen session. Another non-roster invitee, Jason Bergmann, had what Francona called a “little hindrance” in his shoulder that led to him being shut down completely, even as Francona said that there were “no alarm bells or red flags” in any pitchers.

– Francona offered praise for a couple of fringe players who became important to the Sox last year: Scott Atchison and Darnell McDonald.

On Atchison: “Atch was a workhorse for us. He started a game. He’d pitch those innings, the [Julian] Tavarez innings where your staff is in trouble and he’d save your staff. He throws strikes. He’s a solid professional. I remember sitting here in the spring last year and saying that we actually really liked him. He was that guy that had options that might get sent down — which he did — but that we viewed him as a guy that could help our staff, as he did.”

(Of course, it is worth noting that Atchison has one option remaining.)

On the difference for McDonald in this year’s big league camp as opposed to last year’s: “He’s coming into camp, certainly, in a different place than he was last year. Last year, he was a non-roster invitee. This year, he’s coming back as a valuable member of our team. Looking at him now, you can tell he’s got confidence. He knows everybody. He’s got personality. He can hit left-handed pitching.”