MLB Notebook: How Red Sox decision-makers will judge rotation competition [Video]

Along the way, the Red Sox collect data from Trackman and other tools that measure the amount of break, ride, run or other movement. But that information is more about measuring improvement rather than a critical data point used to determine who’s in and who’s out of the rotation.

“That (data) is definitely more for environments and hammering out adjustments and working on specifics,” said Bailey. “And we definitely want to carry that over into the games. But from a competition standpoint, we’re only going to go into the season with a certain amount of starters and a certain amount of pitchers on the roster and those impressions certainly do matter.”

Not all spring training starts are created equal. Road games are far more likely to result in the starting pitcher facing a major league-caliber lineup; home games, especially when the visiting team comes from two hours or more away, …