Daylight Savings in Ft. Myers

The whole having an extra hour of daylight I’m sure will be outstanding later today. But when that alarm went off this morning, ugh. And it was still dark. But I digress. A few morning notes…

First, today’s lineup that will play over at Hammond vs. the Twins today:

Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Youkilis 1B
Ortiz DH
Hermida RF
Scutaro SS
Varitek C
Hall 3B
Reddick LF
Beckett P

That’s right, folks.  Jason Varitek is making is Grapefruit League debut today.
Terry Francona said he hoped that Varitek could stay in long enough to get two at-bats. He’d then make the trip to Kissimmee on Tuesday.

The only other news to report this a.m. is that the big-league clubhouse here got a little bit smaller. Several of the non-roster invitees were seen packing their bags and moving over to the Minor League facility. I was just reading over what Casey Kelly said yesterday — “If they sent me down tomorrow…” — I wonder if he knew something because he was among those reassigned.  Here’s the complete list, with a total of 12 guys being reassigned or optioned:

Pitchers: Casey Kelly, Adam Mills, Kris Johnson, Randor Bierd, Robert Manuel, Kyle Weiland
Position players: Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish, Jose Iglesias, Luis Exposito, Yamaico Navarro, Che-Hsuan Lin

All were reassignments, except for Iglesias. He’s on the 40-man roster, so technically, he was optioned.

Mike Lowell will be in the lineup on Monday against the Orioles. That will be his Grapefruit League debut and he’ll be making it at a new position — first base. He’s been working with coach Tim Bogar on the new spot and word was that he felt pretty comfortable over there. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.