CLEVELAND — Robin Ventura has had one good year (85 wins in 2012) and one bad one (94 losses and counting in 2013). He ran spring training basically the same way before each one, so who’s to say his way is right.
Ventura acknowledged that some fine-tuning, at least, will be in order next spring.
“I’m kicking around doing things differently,” he said Tuesday. “Especially when you have a year like this. But you know, as much as you would like to do that right now, when you get there and kind of see how everybody is and assess that, it could change. It depends on who you have and how you go about it.”
Oddly enough, after the Sox were first in the major leagues with a .980 fielding percentage last season, they emphasized defense more this past spring only to see it unravel into one that has made 70 errors. The Sox are trying to avoid becoming the first team since the 1915 Philadelphia A’s to own the worst fielding mark in baseball a year after having the best.
“I don’t think you can sit there and say it’s all physical,” Ventura said. “There has to be some mental to it. Having had years that weren’t as good as others, I’m going to make sure everybody puts that behind them when they come back. It’s a clean slate and you don’t want to bring this year back with you. It’s not as easy to do as just saying that. That’s what you have to do.”
