Atlanta Braves need a proven successful pitching coach
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves Toronto connection
John Farrell joined the Boston Red Sox after a 2006 season when they finished third in the AL East and their pitching staff finished 14th in the American League in ERA (4.83), third in strikeouts per nine and ninth walks per nine.
The rotation saw the departure of Matt Clement and the arrival of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Julian Tavarez move from reliever starter. In addition to the Tavarez move, Hideki Okajima, Kyle Snyder and Javier Lopez came on board replacing Manny Delcarmen and Keith Foulke.
All of the starters improved and while Papelbon’s ERA ticked up a bit, ERA isn’t a good measure of reliever performance.
| ERA | BB/9 | K/9 | ||||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2006 | 2007 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Josh Beckett | 5.01 | 3.27 | 3.3 | 1.8 | 6.9 | 8.7 |
| Tim Wakefield | 4.63 | 4.76 | 1.2 | 3 | 8.1 | 5.2 |
| Curt Schilling | 3.97 | 3.87 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 5.8 | 6 |
| Jon Lester | 4.76 | 4.57 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 6.6 | 7.1 |
| Jonathan Papelbon | 0.92 | 1.85 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 9.9 | 13 |
| Mike Timlin | 4.36 | 3.42 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 4.2 | 5 |
Numbers courtesy the Baseball-Reference team pages.
Team pitching improved across the board, the Sox finished first in ERA, third in K/9 with 7.2 behind the Angels 7.3 and the Rays 7.5, and tied third in BB/9 with 3.0 behind the Twins 2.6 and the Rays 2.5. The Red Sox also won the World Series that year, sweeping the Rockies.
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In 2008 they finished tied with Rays for first in K/9 and tied for third in ERA but saw the BB/9 increase to 3.4. The 2009 season saw Beckett, Lester, and (knuckleballer) Wakefield continue to pitch well and Clay Buchholz improve his ERA by two runs.
The following year Lester and Buchholz pitched better than the year before but Josh Beckett’s pitched injured, Wakefield turned 43, Matsuzaka continued to be an overpaid fifth starter and John Lackey wasn’t good.
In 2011 Alex Anthopoulos hired Farrell to manage the Blue Jays. Over his time in Boston, Farrell was successful with his young pitchers and fixed Josh Beckett but couldn’t fix Lackey or Matsuzaka.