Daily Red Sox Links: David Ortiz, Bryce Brentz, Mike Napoli

Will Leitch on how sports just don't matter in the face of a national disaster. (Will Leitch; Sports on Earth)

Ben Cherington spoke about the Red Sox off-season and what has been accomplished, including the David Ortiz contract and the hiring of manager John Farrell. He also spoke about what the team plans to do (generally of course) including the team's (seemingly never-ending) hunt for starting pitching. (Alex Speier; WEEI.com)

Baseball Prospectus's R.J. Anderson is a fan of David Ortiz's new deal for both the player and the team. (R.J. Anderson; Baseball Prospectus)

The fine folks over at Sox Prospects are continuing their countdown of the Red Sox Top 40 prospects, where they've come from, where they are now, and what is in store for each in 2013. Here's Jim Crowell on Bryce Brentz and John Gray on Garin Cecchini.

After locking up Adrian Gonzalez to a seven year deal, the Red Sox thought they were set at the position for the foreseeable future. Then Gonzalez turned into the magic trade chip that allowed Boston to get out from under the Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett contracts. Hooray, but now we're back to square one at first base. So the Red Sox have a hole on the diamond. Who can they get to plug it? Tim Britton looks at all the candidates including Mike Napoli. (Tim Britton; The Providence Journal)

By this point we're all too familiar with Bobby Valentine's particular brand of crazy. And still it's kinda refreshing to hear one of the players who actually worked under the guy (and, good team mate that he was, supported him at the time) rebut one of Valentine's off-the-wall assertions. David Ortiz is was that guy yesterday. Give him two more years, Ben! (Tim Britton; The Providence Journal)

The excellent Dustin Parkes is previewing free agency division by division at Sports on Earth. He's started with the central divisions. First, the American League Central and more recently the National League Central.

Because Jeff Sullivan is a fun and informative read, here he is on Hisashi Iwakuma. (Jeff Sullivan; Fan Graphs)