Miller: 5 things to know | 
BoSox camp
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Ducks and ninth-inning hitters have scant chance against Jonathan Papelbon, so scant that both species undoubtedly are thrilled now that the Boston right-hander, as advertised, is working his way back into the starting rotation:
Hitters for obvious reasons, after Papelbon mowed through the American League last summer with one of the most impressive jobs ever by a rookie closer.
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| Jonathan Papelbon, an ace closer last season, now prepares to work every fifth day. (Getty Images) |
"I'm sure it's an unprintable number," Red Sox starter Curt Schilling says when asked for a guess on Papelbon's kill count.
Unprintable to the ducks, maybe. Four-thousand-four-hundred-and-two! The 26-year-old deadeye says he kept careful track.
"There are a couple of places in Mississippi we hunt that are big flurries for ducks," Papelbon says. "It's my happy spot."
AL hitters, many of them dead ducks themselves last summer until the pitcher's shoulder gave out in late August, know a few other Papelbon happy spots as well.
His breakout season veered wildly in the opposite direction of where it was supposed to go when Keith Foulke physically was unable to close. Next thing anybody knew, Papelbon was in the bullpen and ringing up an 0.92 ERA, a .167 opponents' batting average and a permanent place in the hearts of the Sons of Sam Horn.
The plan always was for Papelbon to start, and the premature ending to his 2006 season only shortened what surely would have been a lengthy and fierce debate as to the kid's proper role on the team.
Even last spring, Schilling was publicly lobbying the Red Sox to leave Papelbon in the rotation and find another closer alternative.
"I didn't know he'd be that great as a closer," Schilling says. "Unfortunately, (the move back to the rotation) came about because of a physical issue, but the sky's the limit for him. It really is."
The way Papelbon's shoulder popped out of its joint late in the summer -- sublexation is the fancy medical name for it -- pretty much zapped any ideas of keeping him chained to the end of games rather than allowing him to return to the beginning. The Red Sox shut him down after a Sept. 1 appearance, and the doctors all said Papelbon could benefit physically by remaining on a regular routine. So here he is this spring, preparing to pitch every five days.
And while it's one of the spring's most intriguing story lines -- especially given that the Red Sox dropped to third place in the AL East in '06, and especially given that a rotation including a healthy Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and Papelbon could be exquisite -- what most people don't realize as Papelbon prepares is that it involves little change from his past routine.
