Dice-K's Leash

The Ranger's loss last night gave Terry Francona and John Farrell a little more wiggle room in dealing with Dice-K tonight.  With a 4.5 game lead in the wild-card, tonight's match up with the Angels in not a must win game so you won't see a pitching change if Matsuzaka looks bad early.  The Red Sox are going to give him a pretty long leash to see what they have; especially since Wake's future is up in the air.  John Farrell is optimistic that Dice-K is ready to go:

“He has done an outstanding job of committing to a program and getting himself in what we consider, just to the naked eye, better shape,” Farrell said. “He’s reshaped his body. He’s added core strength. He’s gotten the strength levels in his shoulder back to a level where he was a year ago. I think he feels good about himself as well, so we’re all looking forward to his next time out here.”

If Matsuzaka can pitch well tonight then look out; with a rotation of Beckett, Lester, Buchholz, and Dice-K going into the post-season the Red Sox could go deep into the month of October.

Read more...

Red Sox Pitching Coach John Farell Discusses Dice-K

John Farrell takes questions about Dice-K's problems and talks about where the Red Sox go from here. Watch below:

Read more...

John Farrell Discusses the Staff

Red Sox Pitching coach analyzes each of the pitchers to the Globe's Nick Cafardo. Here are some highlights:

Lester- He's gone from being very deliberate - and I'm not saying he was unsure of himself - to one who attacks hitters, and his pace of game is at a much brisker pace now.

Wake- He's done a tremendous job on his slide step and holding runners on. He's considerably faster to the plate than a year ago, which allows us to throw out some runners.

Buchholz - If he trusts his stuff and doesn't feel that he has to overthrow to generate extra velocity, he'll be successful.

Okajima-I think as he came into this season, there was a tendency to pace himself a little bit to get through the full year, but while that was happening, the sharpness to his stuff wasn't quite what it was a year ago.

Farrell goes through the entire staff with some insight on his approach to each pitcher, well worth the read.

Read more...

Colon Does Well In His First Bullpen Session

Bartolo Colon threw 42 pitches today and according to pitching coach John Farell he "hit both sides of the plate and may have thrown a few pitches that approached 90 miles per hour." Colon is scheduled to make his first start on March 15th but may be moved up. If he continues to do well he will put some pressure on Buchholz and Tavarez for the #5 spot.

Read more...

Delcarmen to See Some Time as Closer

There's no question that Jonathan Papelbon will once again be the Sox go-to guy in the 9th. However, on the days when Papelbon isn't available it's looking like the ball will be handed to Manny Delcarmen.

Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell told the Providence Journal, "“We’ve had a number of conversations already this winter to challenge him with an increased role, increased importance, and not to think that last year’s performance was the Manny Delcarmen. I think there’s still room for improvement, certainly with his fastball command. I’d like to think that at some point we can begin to expose him to the closer’s role.”

Read more...

Buchholz Rehabbing Well in Offseason

After a brilliant no-hitter against Baltimore on September 1, Sox rookie pitcher Clay Buchholz was shut down for the season on Sept. 28th following concerns about his right arm. Things seem to be going well on the rehab front for Buchholz this offseason.

Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell told the Providence Journal's Joe McDonald, “There have been gains from a physical standpoint. In retrospect, it was certainly the right decision to deactivate him at the time. He is making progress, but he still has some work to do, particularly since we project 180 to 185 innings for him next year. There’s still some work to be done to build that foundation to endure that load. We do have some mechanisms and structure in place that will prepare him best for the start of Spring Training."

Buchholz has been rehabbing in Pensacola. He plans to be in Boston in January to take part in the Sox rookie development program.

Read more...