Nick Cafardo has a piece in today's Globe on Carlos Peña and Rocco Baldelli, two New England products whose careers are headed in very different directions.
Peña:
"I really think what helped me is spending that month with Manny Ramírez in Boston," said Peña. "I watched him and I watched how David [Ortiz] approached hitting and it was an eye-opener. I was struck by how simple they kept things.
"I saw Manny's approach and basically it's, 'OK, I've got a bat in my hands and I have to find the best way to hit that baseball where nobody is going to catch it."
Baldelli:
"My muscles don't work as they should. They don't recover as they should on a day-to-day basis. It becomes very difficult to go out and be on the field every day. My body is literally spent after a short time out there, which makes it extremely frustrating, but it's something that's kind of a reality."
