Curt Young Going To Be Red Sox New Pitching Coach

It is sounding more and more like former A's pitching coach Curt Young will be the new Red Sox pitching coach. From everything I have read this is a great signing. Young ended up wanting too much money from the A's and that's why he was let go.

The A's always have one of the best starting pitching ERAs in the MLB. Some of that could be because of their park, but they must be doing something right to be pumping out all these very good starting pitchers.

And for all you John Ferrell haters out there, his pitching staff posted a 4.11 ERA in his tenure, which is 3rd best in the league during that span.

John Farrell In Toronto Intrigues Manny

Manny, who turns 39 in May, hit a respectable .298/.409/.460 this season. But he played in only 90 games, his fewest since 1994. He also hit only nine home runs. The Dodgers got tired of his act and gave him away on a waiver claim to the White Sox. Ramirez then drove in a grand total of two runs in 88 plate appearances for Chicago. Boston.com

I think Manny in Toronto would be a great signing. Manny would be able to knock in runs and be surrounded by guys who can knock homeruns in. This will give Manny more balls to hit and will probably add more runs to the Toronto lineup. I don't believe Manny is done and if he is able to play DH in a hitters park, he will be a valuable asset. I do miss Manny on the Sox and since he left the lineup hasn't been nearly as scary.

Jays Pick Red Sox Pitching Coach For Manager

"Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell is poised to become the new manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, according to several reports. MLB Network analyst Peter Gammons Tweeted Thursday, "Three GMs today insisted John Farrell will get the Toronto job." However, the Blue Jays would not comment on the situation (WEEI)."

I trust Gammons, so in my eyes it's a done deal. I said yesterday I think this is a really good pick for the Blue Jays, who have an incredible amount of young pitching talent (Kyle Drabek (22), Brandon Morrow (26), Ricky Romero (25), Brett Cecil (24)), and Farrell has shown the ability to groom young pitching (Lester/Buchholz).

Now the Jays need to find a good hitting coach, because as much as I like the "chicks dig the longball" attitude they had this year, you can't have a team with everyone batting below .250.

As for the Sox, I don't think it will hurt them much. Their rotation is pretty set, and I think everyone is groomed enough to do it on their own, but it will be interesting to see who they bring in to replace him.

Jays Getting Close To Signing New Manager

The Jays search for a new manager seems to be down to 3 (Red Sox bench coach DeMarlo Hale, pitching coach John Farrell, and Indians first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr). Out of those 3 I think John Farrell is by far the best candidate. He has a nice track record of developing young pitching, and that could go a long way with a team that has seemingly endless amount of unproven, but talented starting pitching (Kyle Drabek (22), Brandon Morrow (26), Ricky Romero (25), Brett Cecil (24)). So, to me he seems like the obvious choice.

Whoever they bring in will need to do two things to bring this team to the next level.

1. More contact from hitters, not just HRs.
2. Develop their young pitching.

This could be a very good team in a year or two, but playing in the AL East will do them no favors.

Indians Going To Chase Farrell

Before all of you fucks start thinking of something clever to write about his contract, eat a dick. Last year, we let John Farrell take the opportunity to coach when he went to interview for the Pirates job and I think they will let Farrell go if he has a real chance to further his career. The Indians got rid of Eric Wedge today and everyone and their mother knows that they are going to push hard for the Red Sox pitching coach. If it was up to me, I would say fine, peace, see ya to him. He has done nothing useful this season when it comes to our pitchers, ask John Smoltz, Brad Penny, etc. I will be thrilled if he's gone next year, so we can actually get a real pitching coach.

Red Sox Fire Back At Dice-K

We reported earlier today that Dice-K has come out publicly and stated that he doesn't like the way the Red Sox get their pitcher ready for the season, and doesn't like the rehab he has been put on. He wants to throw more, and blah blah blah (If you want to read the rest CLICK HERE. Well this seemed to have pissed off John Farrell...

"We know that there was a pretty substantial amount of fatigue in the second half of '07 that we had to give him a breather at the time, largely in part because of the differences in travel, differences in competition, differences in strike zone, a number of the on-field challenges that he faced. So any of the adjustments that we've encountered have been in response to how he's adapted to the rigors of the schedule and the competition here."

Farrell further defended the Red Sox program, saying it was the best way to protect their investment in Matsuzaka.

"We've got a $103 million investment in a guy that we've got to not only protect, but put him in a best situation to have that success we just outlined," Farrell said.

In perhaps his strongest statement, Farrell also questioned whether Matsuzaka put in the offseason work that was necessary to both prepare him for the rigors of a major league season.

"In hindsight, there might not have been the work that he needed to put in on his own time during the offseason to build the foundation that every pitcher requires to withstand the workloads that a major league starting pitcher is going to go through here in the States," Matsuzaka said (Boston.com)."


So here is what it all boils down to..

1. The Sox are still pissed that Dice-K refused to train with them in the offseason, and feel that he didn't do a good enough job getting ready.

2. Dice-K is pissed because he has a hard-on for Japan and doesn't want to listen to people who say he needs to protect his arm.

3. The Sox are getting angry because they have over $100 million invested in a player that plays for other teams in the offseason and won't follow their workouts.

4. The Sox hate the WBC.


My Take:

If it works for Beckett, Lester, Wakefield, Penny, ect then it's good enough for Dice-K. Dice-K has a lot of national pride, but when you sign a contract you need to follow whatever the team is telling you, especially when it is that much money. He Obviously was not ready for this season, or pushed himself too hard in the WBC and now is paying the price. So in the end he needs to shut the fuck up, do what he is told, so that he can go back to being the pitcher he was last year.

My concern is that this feud is growing and that it is going to end ugly....