Red Sox manager John Farrell addressed his job security Friday, telling reporters, including Ryan Hannable of WEEI, “We’ve come off a tough month. Finished with a disappointing trip through Texas and Tampa. I can understand that question, the potential speculation that is out there.” The Red Sox followed a 10-16 June by leading off July with a win Friday, but they suffered a stunning 21-2 loss to the Angels at Fenway Park on Saturday. That won’t help Farrell – who said the performance “embarrassed” him (Twitter link via Ian Browne of MLB.com) – though his 43-37 team still holds one of the American League’s two Wild Card spots through nearly half the season.
More from Boston and three other major league cities:
- Farrell didn’t want to commit to right-hander Clay Buchholz making another start after his poor outing last Sunday, and now the manager is in the same position after Saturday’s result, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald was among those to report (Twitter link). Buchholz threw 4 1/3 innings and allowed six runs (three earned) on seven hits and a walk, raising his ERA/FIP/xFIP trio to an ugly 5.91/6.03/5.51 through 80 2/3 frames this season.
- The first-place Giants continue to hunt for starting pitchers, tweets the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman, who reported two weeks ago that the team was searching for rotation help. Giants starters entered Saturday ranked sixth in the majors in both ERA (3.62) and fWAR (7.8), though nearly all of the rotation’s value has come from Johnny Cueto, Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija. With those three in the fold, odds are the Giants are only looking for a back-end type to improve on Jake Peavy, Albert Suarez and the currently injured Matt Cain.
- While Raisel Iglesias’ shoulder injury-forced shift to the Reds’ bullpen could hurt his earning power in the long run, the 26-year-old told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com that he’s enjoying his new role. “I feel really good coming out of the bullpen,” the righty said through an interpreter. “I’ve got my routine now. Coming out of the bullpen is something I did when I was in Cuba.” Iglesias has been a breath of fresh air in relief for the Reds, whose bullpen is the majors’ worst. In 7 1/3 innings and four appearances since returning from a nearly two-month disabled list stint June 21, Iglesias has yielded just one run on three hits and three walks.
- Angels setup man Joe Smith has come off the DL in time to serve as a potential deadline chip for the last-place Halos, writes Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. It’s worth noting that the right-hander, who had been on the DL witIh a hamstring strain since June 7, has seen his ERA (3.78) and K/9 (5.81) fall well below his career marks of 2.92 and 7.48 in 26 1/3 innings this season. The ground-ball-inducing 32-year-old is on a $5.25MM salary and will hit free agency in the offseason.
Farrell has a terrible habit of allowing terrible pitchers to keep appearing in games. Years ago it was Aceves. Past few years it was Craig Breslow. Now it’s Clay Buchholz. I don’t think any other team in the entire league would have this much patience with him. Just DFA him already. Or trade him for anything. Get him OFF the team. There are plenty of guys who could do a better job than him, Brian Johnson, Henry Owens, even Matt Barnes. They wouldn’t be great, or even good, but they would at least not put their team in such a huge whole so early in the game.
What choice does he have? The Red Sox have terrible pitchers. Farrell has to work with what he’s given. Garbage in, garbage out. If the FO would spend a little less effort on the big media splash FA signings (how have those worked out?) and a little more effort on drafting and developing real talent and depth in the pitching staff, they’d have more success and Farrell would not be the focus of so much misplaced rage.
The Farrell issue goes well beyond the starting rotation. It’s 2015 all over again. The team has hit the skids badly, morale is way down and evidently, there is (again) little-to-no respect for him. When they inserted Lovullo last year, they had the same crew, but you could see the team react differently and there was more hustle. More heart. Farrell is also a former pitching coach who has a cache of pitchers (Buchholz, Uehara, Rodriguez, etc.) who were once good and now are no longer. As a former pitching “wizard”, why hasn’t he done something with his pitchers (he CAN overstep the pitching coach).
I totally agree with your point. He should be more involved with the pitchers and work together with Willis to fix at least some of the issues.
Johnson is on crazy DL… On the rare occasions Owens throws a strike, it gets crushed… Would have to stretch out Barnes over a couple of weeks… I’m not defending Farrell, but who the hell is there as an option?
Red Sox are really, really desperate for Buchholz to regain something close to his old form. And rightfully so, b/c there’s literally no fixes for that rotation within the org. Henry Owens is a train wreck, don’t even get me started on that guy.
Farrell was in toronto when the Red Sox had Asceves. That was all Bobby V
I suspect if the Red Sox miss the playoffs then the entire Red Sox coaching staff will suffer the blame. Louvello will likely be named manager next season.
It’s not the coaching staff’s fault that they were given a terrible starting rotation. Firing the coaching staff will do nothing to fix that.
It’s is the pitching coach’s job to spot mechanical problems in his pitcher’s delivery and correct them. That doesn’t seem to be happening when the 2nd basemen is spotting problems in Price’s delivery.
Which hasn’t helped. So maybe that wasn’t the problem.
Not sure it is entirely Farrell ‘s decision on who is on his major league roster. Boston doesn’t have the deepest pitching staff. Perhaps getting lit up a few games will speed Boston’s decision on whether to deal for pitching. I’m not sure it is beneficial that they prolong the process much longer. There are several potential trade candidates who would be likely improvements over most of their current pitchers.
SF might want to look for relievers, too.
So raisel is never gonna be a starter or are they just bringing him along slowly?
If the Giants are truly looking at a rotation piece and the Rays are truly shopping their starting arms, why not take a look at Smyly? Left handed addition in a right handed dominant rotation, solid stuff, may fit in well in a back 2-3 roll. Just my opinion.
I’m sure they have but the Giants don’t really have a great farm system so maybe they don’t have enough or there are better options out there for the Rays
Cubs are a perfect fit for one of the rays starters
Giants need a new rotation arm and shouldn’t be relying on Cain. Cain USED to be a great work horse arm, but it seems like it’s been cut short since last year. Right now if the Giants can get a inning eater with a decent track record and can trade some minor leaguers for him, I think they will be in good shape.
Giants need an entire new bullpen. Every day someone new has a melt down.
It’s amazing that the Red Sox are (as of this post) only 4 games out of first. Their starting pitching has gone into meltdown mode. Their bullpen is worse. Every GM in baseball knows that the Sox are DESPERATE for pitching and are gonna make Dombrowski pay through the nose in top-tier prospects. Though reports and rumors guarantee nothing, all signs point to Moncada, Benintendi and Espinoza being on the path to major league studs. Would hate to see DD make a Jeff-Bagwell-for-Larry-Andersen type of trade.