Physicals policy worth examining
Fifteen months after the club dismissed him, former Red Sox physician Bill Morgan criticized the organization last week for not requiring Josh Beckett and Guillermo Mota to undergo physicals before closing a deal with Florida for the two pitchers, both of whom coped with injuries last season.
''When I heard . . . that these guys didn't have physicals, I thought, 'What is going on?' " Morgan was quoted as saying in Thursday's Lawrence Eagle-
The Sox dispute that claim, insisting that free agents always must pass a physical but that when obtaining a player in a trade, the need for a physical is determined on a case-by-case basis. This policy, the Sox contend, is nothing new and was in place before Morgan was let go.
It's somewhat surprising to hear Morgan speak up, given that he took an MRI of Trot Nixon's back in the winter of 2004 just before the club gave him a three-year, $19.5 million deal, only to have Nixon show up at camp a month later with a bulging disk.
Still, the question of when to conduct a physical and when not to is worth discussing. It arose when the Indians took issue with Mota's right shoulder during a physical Tuesday in Cleveland, a physical that was supposed to be the last hurdle to clearing a six-player deal that was to bring Coco Crisp to Boston.
The Sox, of course, have Mota only because they found Beckett's medical records disturbingly unclean and asked for Mota as an add-on to the deal. Beckett also wasn't asked to undergo a physical until after becoming unreturnable property of the Sox.
''We felt comfortable, looking at the medical records for both players, that an actual physical examination would not make our decision," assistant general manager Jed Hoyer said last week.
Is that the norm around baseball? One league executive said his club requires a physical 90 percent of the time before completing a deal, even if it holds up the process for days or even weeks. Another executive said his club handles the need for a physical case by case, requiring an exam only if a player has a known injury. Off the top of his head, that executive could think of only one deal made by his club that necessitated a physical. So policies vary.
All teams, it seems, do require a physical before signing a free agent. In such cases, a team will agree to a contract, pending a physical. That allows the team to take the player off the market. The team can void the deal if the player fails the physical, but the team would need an almost indisputable reason. To fail a free agent without legitimate cause would effectively blacklist the player. But, in cases of trades, teams are relatively free to utilize the medical process as a way of bettering the deal.
The Indians didn't fail Mota. Their team doctor, in all likelihood, wrote up a report that assigned a risk assessment. Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro, upon reading the report, presumably realized he could use Mota's worn shoulder as leverage. The Sox played this game with Florida to improve the deal. And the Indians played this game with the Sox, to ask for Manny Delcarmen.
It is apparent that in baseball, medical information is carefully guarded. There is no centralized database of player injuries, as in the NFL. In a moment's notice, an NFL team can pull up a player's health records going back to college. At the NFL combine, each and every physical issue -- something as minute as soreness -- is documented and logged.
Baseball doesn't do this. Players can thank the union for that. As a result, deals in baseball, according to one major league executive, have a ''complete buyer-beware mentality." Added another executive, ''It's a total caveat emptor."
It's a take-it-or-leave-it policy, with no warranty on the goods. The Sox knew when taking on Mota that 32-year-old relievers with recent arm and shoulder problems are tack-ons for a reason. Given their attention to OBP and OPS, VORP and WARP, surely the Sox asked for every piece of medical information available on both Mota and Beckett. But, why not, to be safe, ask to see the best piece of information of all: the individual himself?
Fenway was a fit
When the Sox signed Bill Mueller before the 2003 season, they did so after thorough research, including an assessment of Mueller's hit chart. Mueller, the Sox determined, was a pull hitter batting righthanded and an opposite-field hitter batting lefthanded, suggesting he'd fare well hitting in the Monster's shadow.
The results: Mueller doubled 67 times at Fenway in his three seasons, and 52 of those were hit at or to the left of the 379-foot sign in left-center. That breaks down to 26 of 31 in 2003, when he won the batting title, 11 of 17 in 2004, and 15 of 19 in 2005.
Mueller averaged 32 doubles and 9 homers per 162 games with the Cubs and Giants in the eight seasons before he came to Boston. With the Sox, he averaged 42 doubles and 16 homers per 162 games. Hitting at Fenway certainly aided Mueller's production and value, and he signed with Los Angeles for $9.5 million over two seasons, after making $6.7 million total the last three seasons.
Given age, bad knees, and a new park -- Dodger Stadium plays 330 down the line in left and 385 to the power alleys -- it will be interesting to chart Mueller's numbers in the coming year.
House of David
David Wells will be dealt this month or next because the Sox are well aware that the burly and surly lefthander would make life in Fort Myers very uncomfortable. The Sox won't miss the occasional headaches that come with Wells, but they will miss his 16-1 record at Fenway since 1998. Wells went 8-1 with a 3.07 ERA at Fenway last season, and the team won 11 of his 12 Fenway starts. No Sox starter had a better winning percentage or lower ERA at home . . . Frank Thomas, who signed with the A's for $500,000 with the chance to make up to $3.1 million if he reaches health-related incentives, managed just 105 at-bats last season because of foot/ankle issues. But the 37-year-old Thomas homered 12 times, or, once every 8.75 at-bats. Manny Ramírez, for comparison's sake, led the American League in at-bats per home run (among qualifiers) at 12.3. Thomas's power, coupled with his .427 career on-base percentage, led A's GM Billy Beane to say that, on offense, ''This guy represents nirvana for us." . . . Matt Mantei, who just two years ago was pocketing $7 million a year with Arizona, recently signed a minor league deal with the Tigers. Mantei, 32, will make $575,000 if he makes the team, with a chance to earn another $375,000 if he appears in 60 games. ''Being from Michigan had a lot to do with signing with Detroit," said Mantei's agent, Bob Garber. ''They needed bullpen help. They have mostly young guys except for Todd Jones, their closer. He really enjoyed Boston and considered coming back there." . . . The Sox will host the fourth Celebration of the Life of Jackie Robinson Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino will be joined by a host of speakers, including Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal and Orlando Magic senior vice president Pat Williams, who authored ''Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseball's Greatest Hero." Tuesday would have been Robinson's 87th birthday.
Doctoring the ball
Lefthanded reliever Craig Breslow, 25, who was nontendered by San Diego and signed by the Sox, was on the verge of giving up baseball to return to school a year ago. Breslow, who majored in biochemistry at Yale, had been pitching for the independent league New Jersey Jackals and was bound for medical school at New York University until he received an invitation to camp last spring with the Padres, who had signed him out of a tryout for $1. He made the club's Double A team and debuted in the majors last July 23. Breslow, in 14 appearances as a rookie, compiled a 2.20 ERA and held lefthanded batters to one hit in 16 at-bats . . . The Devil Rays, who have a new owner, president, GM, and manager, apparently also will have a new team name come 2007. Team president Matt Silverman told local business executives that the team could simply go by ''Rays" or something altogether different. Silverman said discussions with focus groups determined that there was a ''negative association" with the words ''Devil Rays" and ''devil." Said Silverman: ''When they liked something we did, they would refer to us as the 'Rays.' If they were discussing a complaint or gripe, we were the 'Devil Rays.' " An official announcement isn't expected until midsummer . . . Contractors are working two 10-hour shifts each day at Fenway, readying the park for the home opener. According to one club executive, had the Sox gone deep into the postseason, and had the winter weather been any less cooperative, completing the renovations by the opener would have been in question. When the facelift is complete, Fenway's fire-code capacity will be increased from 36,298 to 38,805 . . . Fenway will not have the distinction of being the smallest park in the majors this season, and it has nothing to do with the park's expansion. In an effort to increase ticket demand and fan intimacy, the Oakland A's will not sell tickets to the third deck of McAfee Coliseum, lowering capacity to 34,179 . . . TicketsNow, a ticket-reselling agency, reports that Sox tickets accounted for 3 percent of all of the company's sales in 2005, behind only the Broadway show ''Wicked" (4.4 percent) and the band U2 (3.1 percent).
Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report. 
