Archive for Boston Red Sox

In a move that sent approximately zero shock waves through the baseball world, the Red Sox signed former Jays left-handed reliever Jesse Carlson to a split contract this week. It was such a big story that it wasn’t even reported on MLB Trade Rumors for well over a day after the news of the signing first broke. While this transaction has flown under the radar for obvious reasons, it could pay dividends for the Red Sox.

For his career, Carlson has thrown 141.1 innings with a FIP of 4.11, good for 1.1 WAR. This obviously isn’t much to get excited about, and neither is the fact that he has only pitched 13.2 innings in the big leagues since the end of the 2009 season. After two solid seasons in the Blue Jays pen, Carlson was sent to the minors before the 2010 season, and stayed there until he was recalled on August 15th. He then missed the entire 2011 campaign after undergoing left rotator cuff surgery. Read the rest of this entry »

A handful of Hall of Famers were in attendance at the Dallas Hilton Anatole when it was announced that Ron Santo would be joining their exclusive club. Among them was Juan Marichal, who took a few minutes to talk about one of his stylish contemporaries, fellow right-hander Luis Tiant. Among the Golden Era Committee candidates who fell short of election, Tiant won 229 games over a career that spanned 19 seasons. Marichal, who entered the Hall in 1983, won 243 from 1960-1975.

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Marichal on Tiant: “I played with Luis in 1974. He was the type of player who gave 150 percent every time he went to the mound. It’s sad that I haven’t seen him going in [the Hall of Fame]. He deserves it. It’s too bad that only Ron Santo got in.”

On Tiant‘s style compared to his own: “I used to kick my leg, he used to turn his back. I used to love to watch him pitch. I was very aggressive in the way I attacked hitters and he was that type of pitcher. He had great command, good control, good knowledge of the strike zone. He turned the hitters off by doing that — by turning his back to them. Hitters don’t like to see that.

“[Pitching backwards] was also his style. That’s why he was so great. A hitter couldn’t sit down and wait for one pitch, because they didn’t know what was going to come. I was similar. If we knew that a guy was a high ball hitter, or a breaking ball hitter or a fastball hitter, we had an edge.”

On the secret to his success: “When I was on the mound, what was in my mind was to try to a good job. To do that — to give 100 percent on the field — you have to be in great shape. That was my thought. If I was in good shape, I would be able to do a good job. That’s why [I was able to throw so many pitches]. Maybe it was the way I grew up. I walked a lot and I threw rocks.”

There is no disputing that the Red Sox have had a good business model since the current ownership group took over 10 years ago. The success on the field — 93 wins per season and a pair of World Series titles — is proof in the pudding. Ditto the sell-out streak at Fenway Park and emergence of “Red Sox Nation” as a well-established brand.

Is a segment of that model now being compromised, or even replaced?

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When it comes to hitting approach, Jackie Bradley, Jr. fits the Red Sox blueprint. A common catchphrase within the organization is “selectively aggressive,” and that’s exactly the mindset the 21-year-old outfielder brought with him from the University of South Carolina.

Bradley was an on-base machine in his freshman and sophomore seasons with the Gamecocks, reaching safely at better than a .450 clip. A wrist injury hampered his junior campaign, but Boston saw enough promise in his sweet left-handed swing to take him 40th overall in this year’s draft.

Signed at the August deadline, Bradley got his feet wet at the professional level with six games in short-season Lowell and four more in low-A Greenville. He shared his thoughts on hitting during his short stint in the New York-Penn League.

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David Laurila: Is hitting simple, or is it complicated?
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In September, the Boston Red Sox’ lack of pitching prospects at the upper levels was badly exposed, as “prospects” including Michael Bowden, Felix Doubront and Kyle Weiland failed to capitalize on solid minor league numbers. Cue the Red Sox’ interest in Cubs right-handed pitching prospect Trey McNutt as compensation in the Theo Epstein debacle.

McNutt took the hill for Tennessee, the Cubs double-A affiliate in Chattanooga and I just could not miss the opportunity to scout him squaring off against Dodgers pitching prospect Allen Webster. And while McNutt proved to be a quality pitching prospect, the potential he apparently had as a top-50 overall prospect in baseball failed to register. Would I want McNutt in my organization? Absolutely! Is he the type of prospect who profiles as the centerpiece of a deal or impact talent in a big league rotation? Not for me.

Video after the jump

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The release of Baseball America’s South Atlantic League top-20 list is essentially Christmas for me, as much of my time is spent scouting the league. This season, I had the opportunity to see 11 of the top-20 prospects featured in person, which is actually a down year for me. Fortunately, the Greenville Drive, the Boston Red Sox “Sally” affiliate was well represented, with four players in the top-20, including two of the highest ceiling prospects in the system in outfielder Brandon Jacobs and shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

As two of the best hitting prospects in the league this past season, both Jacobs and Bogaerts deserve to be ranked highly on the list, and they check in 8th and 10th respectively. However, I was pretty surprised to see Jacobs edge out his teammate for a higher position on the list.

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Mike Easler was known as “The Hit Man” for a reason. In a career that spanned from 1973-1987, Easler displayed a sweet left-handed stroke that produced a slash line of .293/.349/.454. His best years came with the Pirates and Red Sox — he also played with the Angels, Astros, Phillies and Yankees — and along the way he shared a clubhouse with some of the game‘s most-accomplished hitters. Easler — currently the hitting coach for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons — talks about several of his notable teammates in this interview.

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David Laurila: Who is the best hitter you played with?

Mike Easler: Overall, the best hitter I played with was Don Mattingly. I played two years with him and I’ve never seen a guy that could hit for power and hit for average like [he did]. He was a clutch hitter. He could get a single when you needed one, and he could turn on one and burn on one, in Yankee Stadium, and go deep when he had to. He could hit lefties, he could hit righties. He was the best hitter that I played with.

DL: From a hitting coach‘s perspective, why was Mattingly so good?

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Charlie Haeger is a practitioner of an increasingly-rare baseball art form. The 27-year-old right-hander is a knuckleball pitcher, meaning he lives and dies with the game’s most unpredictable — and often maddening — delivery. Few have mastered it, but when a knuckleball is thrown correctly and does its butterfly dance toward home plate, it is a thing of beauty. Haeger, who has made 34 big-league appearances, with four teams, was recently signed by the Red Sox and assigned to Double-A Portland.

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David Laurila: What is the key to throwing a knuckleball?

Charlie Haeger: First and foremost is being able to take the spin off the ball. Being able to throw a knuckleball isn’t something that a lot of people are able to do, just because you’re not familiar with it growing up. Basically, you have to make the ball rotate as little as possible.

Ideally, for me, would be half a turn, maybe three quarters of a rotation. With that, I can generate the best movement while still being able to command it. You can get away with ones that spin twice, but with anything over that you’re starting to mess with fire.

DL: How do you throw a baseball with little or no rotation?

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Whether he’s offering a strong opinion or he’s waxing philosophical, Chili Davis is always engaging. The former slugger can hold court on any number of subjects — he was born in Jamaica and coached in Australia — but when the topic is his 19-year big-league career (1981 to 1999), thought-provoking pearls are a given. That is especially true when a conversation about hitting morphs into an examination of doctored baseballs — Nolan Ryan cheated? — and bias in hall-of-fame and MVP voting.

Davis, a career .274/.360.451 hitter with 350 home runs, is coaching in the Red Sox system. This interview was excerpted from a conversation about hitting philosophy.

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David Laurila: Who did you least like to face? For instance, Ryne Sandberg told me that the pitcher who gave him the most trouble was Larry Andersen.

Chili Davis: Well, Larry cheated. Ryno probably wouldn’t say that, but later in Larry’s career, he cut the ball up. He taught Mike Scott how to cut the ball up, and then they taught Nolan Ryan how to cut the ball up. Larry Andersen was a good pitcher before that, but as a hitter, I know he did. The ball moved too dang much.

DL: Another former player told me that Mike Scott cheated better than anybody he ever saw.

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Adrian Gonzalez is a student of hitting, which should come as no surprise given that he is one of the game’s premier sluggers. The left-handed-hitting first baseman has a career slash line of .288/.369/.510, and this season he’s been even better. In his first 50 games with the Red Sox, he’s hitting a superstar-caliber .337/.385/.553.

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David Laurila: Is hitting simple or is it complicated?

Adrian Gonzalez: “Hitting is simple. We make it complicated. We look into mechanics and a lot of different things that could be wrong, instead of simplifying everything by staying back and letting our hands go to the ball. In this profession, because of how good the pitchers are, it’s hard not to look at a lot of different things.

“Getting hits is extremely hard. Swinging, just getting up there and hitting, and doing the right mechanics, that’s what I’m saying is simple. But when you put in all of the equations, like the pitcher on the mound and the defense that’s behind him, that’s what makes it complicated.”

DL: What role do hitting coaches play for you?

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