Red Sox Report: Rotation Set?
Friday, March 30, 2012
It’s getting down to crunch time for the Boston Red Sox as they try to solidify the back-end of their starting rotation before opening day next week.
Starters 1 through 3 are already known with Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz holding down those spots. At the moment, there are 3 pitchers competing for the 4th and 5th spots in the starting rotation.
Two of those pitchers pitched Thursday with Alfredo Aceves facing the Toronto Blue Jays and Felix Doubront facing minor leaguers from the Minnesota Twins. Both pitched well.
Aceves went 6 innings allowing just 3 hits and 2 runs, one of which was earned. He walked 2 and struck out 4. Doubront pitched 6 shut-out innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 walk while striking out 4.
The consensus in Fort Myers appears to be that Doubront (2.70 ERA in Grapefuit League games) to earn one of those two spots in the rotation. That leaves Daniel Bard and Aceves and the feeling is that Bard rates the edge.
It’s not necessarily because Bard (7.23 ERA) has out-pitched Aceves (5.50 ERA) this spring. He has actually been much more inconsistent in his starts than Aceves who had just one horrific start his last time out against the Phillies (9 runs in 3 innings).
The feeling is that the organization essentially promised Bard a shot at being a starter after serving as the team’s set-up man the last few years and will at least give him that shot to start the season.
Aceves may also be hurt by his great versatility. His seemingly rubber arm and bulldog mentality has allowed him to flourish in whatever role he has been asked to do. The organization probably feels that he is better suited to go back to the bullpen and give the team quality starts should they need him to on a moment’s notice. Bard appears much less likely to flourish in that role.
While nothing has yet been made official, you can probably count on Bard and Doubront rounding out the starting rotation with Aceves going back to the bullpen.
NOTES:
-David Ortiz belted his 3rd homerun of the spring in the sixth inning of Thursday’s 3-2 loss to Toronto.
-Bobby Valentine reaffirmed the fact that outfielder Carl Crawford will start the season in Florida at extended spring training and intimated that his return to the parent club may take longer than 2 weeks. He said that Crawford would need about 50 at-bats in the minors before being activated by Boston. Considering the fact that he hasn’t even taken batting practice yet, you’re probably talking about at least a month before he will play in the Majors.
-The Red Sox are lining up their rotation for the start of the regular season next week. Daniel Bard will start Friday against Minnesota and will likely throw somewhere around 80-85 pitches. Saturday, Jon Lester gets the start against Tampa while Josh Beckett faces Minnesota Sunday. It is expected that both Lester and Beckett will have scaled back pitch-counts from the 80-90 they threw in their last outings so that they will be rested and ready for their regular season debuts next Thursday and Friday.
-In Thursday’s edition of “As the Line-up Turns,” Valentine went with the following batting order:
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
McDonald LF
Sweeney RF
Shoppach C
Aviles SS
Despite Valentine suggesting that Mike Aviles might be his lead-off hitter with Jacoby Ellsbury moving down in the order, Thursday’s line-up seems to make much more sense and is probably similar to what you will see on opening day in Detroit.
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