At the beginning of the 2011 season, the Boston Red Sox featured a rotation high in quality and depth and a bullpen anchored by two of the best relievers in the game. By September, two starters, Clay Buchholz and Daisuke Matsuzaka were done for the year and the back up options of Tim Wakefield, Kyle Weiland, and Andrew Miller all floundered. An overtaxed bullpen blew leads and accounted for at least seven losses down the stretch. First year pitching coach, Curt Young, was an inevitable casualty in the aftermath of his staff’s failure and returned to the Oakland A’s in great haste.
With Bobby Valentine installed as manager, the rest of the coaching staff has begun to fall into place. Bench Coach DeMarlo Hale is gone, replaced by Tim Bogar, who previously manned third base and is known for his excellent imitations of a windmill. Dave Magadan’s position was never really in much doubt as the hitting coach is widely respected all around the game and the team’s hitting last year was near historically elite levels. The one position that really eluded the team was pitching coach.
Cherington and Valentine appear to have found their man now though. According to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe, Bob McClure will take over for Young as pitching coach. You might remember Bob McClure from such teams as the Kansas City Royals, where he spent the past six years as pitching coach. McClure was already in the Sox employ as they had hired him as a special assistant for player development in November, following the departure of Curt Young.
McClure pitched in the majors for 19 seasons, beginning as a reliever with the Royals and Brewers before converting to a starter forMilwaukeein 1982. The lefty started for just three seasons and then returned to the bullpen where he remained for the rest of his career. He was the consummate left handed journeyman late in his career playing for six different teams in his last ten years, including the Angels, Expos, Mets, Cardinals and Marlins.
He was essentially average by ERA+ over his career (102), but that does not really do him justice. As a reliever he was often highly effective. In his full season in the pen he allowed just 25 runs in 71 innings of work, thanks in large part to his allowing just two home runs. His brief foray into starting was a disappointment. He saw his moderate strikeout rates drop to below average and maintained the above average walk rates he had as a reliever. Upon returning to the bullpen he found his groove again and had two consecutive strong seasons in 1986 and 1987 before arm injuries once again derailed him. For the remainder of his career he would battle injuries, but pitch well when healthy.
As Royals pitching coach over six seasons, McClure helped to make Zach Greinke and Joakim Soria into two of the top pitchers in the game. Both pitchers are also free agents after 2012 and Boston will likely pursue both at some point. McClure could certainly be a plus for the team in the next off-season’s dealings, but Boston also hopes that he can impact the 2012 team. Looking at his work in Kansas Citydoesn’t give us much of an idea of what that impact may be though. The Royals generally had below average pitching as staff despite Greinke and Soria, as they trotted out pitchers like Bruce Chen, Kyle Davies, Brian Bannister and Luke Hochevar. A generally terrible defense certainly didn’t help either; Kansas City was below average in defensive efficiency in all but one season during McClure’s tenure and ranked last in that metric twice.
In Boston, McClure will have a great deal more talent to work with. It is interesting that he will oversee the attempt to transition Daniel Bard into the rotation, as he is one of the handful of pitchers in his era to make that move. His handling of Bard will be the major focus this season, but he will also need to help out some of the other talent arms Boston is counting on. Keeping Clay Buchholz on the mound and getting more from his back end starters will be just as important.
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