Is the actual rotation the worst in the last 10 Y?

[Palodios]

I know you don't want to burn kids at this point, but Owens and Rodriguez should be up. You have a need, bring them up. If they suck, then you Give them big league experience in a season that would be a lost cause anyway. If they keep you afloat, then you have a ton of options

 

Why rush the high ceiling guys when Brian Johnson is cruising? He seems almost guaranteed to pitch better than Kelly at this point.

[SoxnCycles]

Kelly looks like he's still a work in progress.

Before yesterday's disaster, he pitched two decent games.

 

I doubt very much that the Sox are going to give up on him now and send him to the pen.

 

Two weeks ago we had to get rid of Miley, this week it's Kelly.

 

Oh, and fire Cherington, while we're at it!

That'll change things for the better!

[cp176]

Why rush the high ceiling guys when Brian Johnson is cruising? He seems almost guaranteed to pitch better than Kelly at this point.

 

Owens, Johnson, and Rodriguez have all had their ups and downs. Good starts and average ones- nothing too bad. They seem to have Barnes locked in as a relief guy for now. In the long run, hope he gets a shot to start as well. There really doesn't appear to be much separation between these 4 young guys right now.

[Spudboy]

The Red Sox have had problems drafting and developing top tier starting pitchers for a long time. The only major exceptions in the last 40 years or so have been Clemens and Lester.

 

Does Bruce Hurst count?

[a700hitter]

Does Bruce Hurst count?

 

Sure. Hurst was great, but he pre-dates Clemens.

[Spudboy]

Sure. Hurst was great, but he pre-dates Clemens.

 

I thought that someone mentioned 40 years!!!

[a700hitter]

The relatively smaller number of star pitchers the Red Sox have produced speaks less to an internal flaw than the reality of a team who has not had many top draft picks in the last decade.

 

It's hard for me to buy this as an explanation for a 25 year drought.

[User Name]

Developing top tier pitching is difficult nonetheless. You're either trying to develop a 16 year old crap shoot out of the DR or having to draft an ace, which is hard to do when you're consistently in the bottom half of the draft. That being said, dealing Lackey for the two stiffs you got was a ridiculously bad deal in hindsight. I think you have to move Kelly to the pen and see what that arm can do in 1 inning stints. Craig is a lost cause. Now you need to plug two spots. I know you don't want to burn kids at this point, but Owens and Rodriguez should be up. You have a need, bring them up. If they suck, then you Give them big league experience in a season that would be a lost cause anyway. If they keep you afloat, then you have a ton of options

 

I hate it when you're right.

[a700hitter]

I thought that someone mentioned 40 years!!!

In that case, yes he counts.

[Bellhorn04]

I thought that someone mentioned 40 years!!!

 

I thought about Hurst after I posted that. I agree, he should be included. Still pissed off we let him get away too.

[sk7326]

It's hard for me to buy this as an explanation for a 25 year drought.

 

Top 20 fWAR pitchers 2012-2015

 

1. Clayton Kershaw - 1st Round (#7)

2. King Felix - FA

3. Max Scherzer - 1st Round (#11)

4. David Price - 1st Round (#1)

5. Adam Wainwright - 1st Round (#29)

6. Chris Sale - 1st Round (#13)

7. Cole Hamels - 1st Round (#17)

8. Justin Verlander - 1st Round (#2)

9. Zach Grienke - 1st Round (#6)

10. Jordan Zimmermann - 2nd Round

11. Corey Kluber - 4th Round

12. Anibal Sanchez - FA

13. Yu Darvish - FA

14. Gio Gonzalez - Sammich Round

15. Jon Lester - 2nd Round

16. Stephen Strasburg - 1st Round (#1)

17. Cliff Lee - 4th Round

18. Madison Bumgarner - 1st Round (#10)

19. James Shields - 16th Round

20. Johnny Cueto - FA

21. Lance Lynn - Sammich Round

22. Jeff Samardzija - 5th Round (clear signability issue - you might have seen it on TV)

23. Jose Quintana - FA

24. Hiroki Kuroda - FA

25. AJ Burnett - 8th Round

26. Mat Latos - 11th Round

 

Some interesting notes here:

 

1. You'd think there'd be a monopoly of some sort on this list from teams that "do it better" - but that's largely not the case. The Cards, Dodgers (folks the eye test seems to favour here) and Tigers have some names at the top ... but it is a fairly random distribution. Getting crackerjack pitching is hard.

 

2. The baseball draft is more of a crapshoot than others (duh!). But it is not at all random. You can quibble some with the Red Sox stuff - particularly on the amateur FA front possibly - but without the top draft picks available, getting that sort of talent into the system is not easy.

[User Name]

I like your analysis and I see your point SK. Keep the good stuff like this coming.

[SoxnCycles]

Another game where the pitching is very good, but they can't buy a couple of runs.

 

At least Buchholz isn't totally collapsing after running into trouble.

[iortiz]

Clay Buchholz has the best strikeout and swinging-strike rate of his career! Clay Buchholz has a new changeup grip! Therefore his strikeout rate must be because of his new changeup? Maybe, but it’s not a linear thing. Nothing in baseball ever is.

 

Here's the whole story. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/a-new-changeup-for-clay-buchholz/

[a700hitter]

I read a funny line by a Boston newspaper writer. He said that he was convinced that Joe Kelly was in the rotation only to make Buchholz look consistent.

[sk7326]

Clay Buchholz has the best strikeout and swinging-strike rate of his career! Clay Buchholz has a new changeup grip! Therefore his strikeout rate must be because of his new changeup? Maybe, but it’s not a linear thing. Nothing in baseball ever is.

 

Here's the whole story. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/a-new-changeup-for-clay-buchholz/

 

It is good he has found some confidence there - oh the salad days of 2007 - when that pitch looked Pedro-level unhittable in his magical outing

[iortiz]

I read a funny line by a Boston newspaper writer. He said that he was convinced that Joe Kelly was in the rotation only to make Buchholz look consistent.

 

LOL! A couple of weeks ago I said that I needed to see a couple of more starts from him; at the time he still seemed mediocre but kind of improving. These days he looks much better. Hopefully he keeps this way.

 

While they have had some nice outgoings in May, I'm not ready to call it good pitching, not yet. Masterson is done. Kelly sucks. Porcello is a sea of inconsistencies. Miley is still a ? to me.

 

Now my concern is not only our pitching but our offense. They just forgot how to hit. We need to take advantage from those nice starts because going forward IMO won't be too much of them.

[a700hitter]

LOL! A couple of weeks ago I said that I needed to see a couple of more starts from him; at the time he still seemed mediocre but kind of improving. These days he looks much better. Hopefully he keeps this way.

 

While they have had some nice outgoings in May, I'm not ready to call it good pitching, not yet. Masterson is done. Kelly sucks. Porcello is a sea of inconsistencies. Miley is still a ? to me.

 

Now my concern is not only our pitching but our offense. They just forgot how to hit. We need to take advantage from those nice starts because going forward IMO won't be too much of them.

I know some people are convinced that our hitting has been a product of bad luck, but on the Sunday night game one of the analysts provided a stat that debunks that notion. The Red Sox are at the bottom or toward the bottom in velocity of batted balls. We just don't hit the ball very hard. That is bad hitting not bad luck. Hanley looks injured, Ortiz looks old and overmatched by good heat, Sandoval is atrocious against lefties and Nava has been completely useless. He used to be useless from the right side and that dragged down his stats, but now he is used almost exclusively as a lefty (his good side) and he has been atrocious.

[Spudboy]

I know some people are convinced that our hitting has been a product of bad luck, but on the Sunday night game one of the analysts provided a stat that debunks that notion. The Red Sox are at the bottom or toward the bottom in velocity of batted balls. We just don't hit the ball very hard. That is bad hitting not bad luck. Hanley looks injured, Ortiz looks old and overmatched by good heat, Sandoval is atrocious against lefties and Nava has been completely useless. He used to be useless from the right side and that dragged down his stats, but now he is used almost exclusively as a lefty (his good side) and he has been atrocious.

 

Jim Rice is saying the same thing. He says that Hanley and Ortiz are not driving the ball.

[sk7326]

I know some people are convinced that our hitting has been a product of bad luck, but on the Sunday night game one of the analysts provided a stat that debunks that notion. The Red Sox are at the bottom or toward the bottom in velocity of batted balls. We just don't hit the ball very hard. That is bad hitting not bad luck. Hanley looks injured, Ortiz looks old and overmatched by good heat, Sandoval is atrocious against lefties and Nava has been completely useless. He used to be useless from the right side and that dragged down his stats, but now he is used almost exclusively as a lefty (his good side) and he has been atrocious.

 

I noted this a while back - how much is luck and how much is bad hitting is a curious thing. The team is not driving the ball - that is obvious from most of the batted ball stats. At the same time, the team is still walking a lot and among the hardest teams in the league to strike out.

 

If the players were overmatched, they shouldn't be able to make much contact at all - good, bad or indifferent. So there is definitely an element of randomness here. Nobody would sit here and tell you it's the entire thing (at least not conclusively). But unless the entire lineup has been taught to hit like Ichiro - there is something funny going on in terms of results.

[a700hitter]

Red Sox To Promote Eduardo Rodriguez

By Jeff Todd [May 27, 2015 at 10:35am CDT]

The Red Sox will promote top pitching prospect Eduardo Rodriguez, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal reports on Twitter.

 

Rodriguez may only receive a spot start, per Britton, but regardless it’ll be the first MLB experience for the 22-year-old lefty. Acquired last summer from the Orioles for relief ace Andrew Miller, Rodriguez entered this year (as he did last) as a consensus top-100 prospect league-wide.

 

Getting new blood in the rotation is the only chance we have of improving enough to be competitive. Wright earned an additional start. Hopefully, this kid does well and can win a job. I am assuming that Kelly would be exiled to the pen.

[mvp 78]

ERod getting promoted today. Get hype!

[SoxnCycles]

Supposedly, Rodriguez will just get one start.

I'd be surprised if he's going to take over someone's spot now.

[mvp 78]

They are talking about optioning Kelly to AAA.

[SoxnCycles]

They are talking about optioning Kelly to AAA.

 

Did "they" not include Farrel in the conversation?

 

The lefthander will join the Red Sox in Texas and make a spot start Thursday in order to give the rest of the rotation an extra day's rest. Manager John Farrell told reporters in Minnesota no starter will come out of the rotation and that Rodriguez will be sent back down to Pawtucket after his start Thursday.

 

http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2015/05/eduardo_rodriguez_called_up_to.html

[Palodios]

The Red Sox probably have an eye on Erod's eligibility. If he's as good as advertised, super two status could be expensive.

[mvp 78]

Sox don't need to playgames like holding a prospect back due to money. They aren't the Rays.

[sk7326]

Sox don't need to playgames like holding a prospect back due to money. They aren't the Rays.

 

I think - if they are holding him back - it might be more to manage innings caps and whatnot.

[SoxnCycles]

I think - if they are holding him back - it might be more to manage innings caps and whatnot.

 

Yup, tough to say a pitcher is being held back, when he hasn't pitched an inning in the majors.

[mvp 78]

That would be the only reason to hold him back.