Joe McDonald, Projo:
It appears the Daniel Bard Era is about to begin.This is interesting because on Thursday afternoon SoSHer j44thor wrote that:
The Red Sox have not made an official announcement, but Bard is expected to be at Fenway Park Sunday night for the series finale against the Rays.
The 23-year-old right-hander was original selected as the Sox' second pick of the first round (28th overall) in the 2006 draft.
This highly-touted prospect has been outstanding for the PawSox this season. He's 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA and 6 saves in 11 games. He has struck out 29 batters in 16 innings and can easily reach 100 MPH on the radar gun. He's been the closer for Pawtucket.
The Red Sox will not only have to take someone off the 25-man roster in Boston to make room for Bard, but they'll also have to make a move to put Bard on the 40-man roster.
Theo was on the CSN Baseball show over the weekend and said that Bard is still weeks to months from being moved up. He said that Bard could get out MLB batters with just his fastball right now but they want to see him work on his slider as they feel it can also be a wipeout pitch at the next level. ...Bard's AAA stats.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Bard up sooner than Theo hinted but at the same time he is on a very structured pitching program and has yet to face adversity in AAA something the FO typically likes to see them handle before promotion.
DFA Lopez, Jones to AAA? (Though that leaves Jeemer as the only LH in the pen.)
ReplyDeleteJones to AAA and Smoltz to the 60-day DL?
Fom Sox Prospects, May 6 game:
ReplyDeleteTwo key things with Bard's outing: 1) he sits 95-96. He can go get upper 90's if he needs to (he reached back and hit 98 for one strikeout), but it's not like he sits 99-100. However... 2) the slider's not just a show-me pitch anymore. It sits 80-81, and given the nice break it has and the separation from his fastball, it was downright devastating at times. Mike made the solid comparison to a soccer goalie on a penalty kick - as the batter, you need to choose one or the other, much like the goalie needs to pick right or left because he doesn't have time to react, and if you guess wrong, you're screwed. The strikeout to end the game was on an 83-mph slider that just froze the hitter dead in his tracks.
***
Bard's fastball is obviously an impressive pitch. He was sitting about 95-96 with ease tonight. The ball explodes out of his hand and is moving when it comes into the hitting zone. ... The big takeaway from the outing tonight was his slider. ... The pitch gets a little slurvy when it is in the 76-77 range, but is pretty devasting when it is 80ish. ... The thing to takeaway from the outing is that Bard's slider is looking like a weapon rather than something he just tosses between pumping fastball after fastball. If he can consistently bring the 80ish version of the pitch, like he did tonight, Bard is going to be pretty tough on batters given the seperation between the fastball and slider.
Yeah, I figure Smoltz retroactive to the 60-day clears up the 40 man roster spot and Jones goes to AAA. When Smoltz comes back, Lopez might get DFA'd, although a lot can change between now and then.
ReplyDeleteI've heard people say that Daniel Bard may be the hardest thrower in baseball right now with Zumaya's drop in velocity. I'm doubtful that's true, but I'm super excited about this.
Facially, he looks like Houston Street.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've got nothing.
Yay!
ReplyDeleteI've heard people say that Daniel Bard may be the hardest thrower in baseball right now with Zumaya's drop in velocity. I'm doubtful that's true, but I'm super excited about this. • And Joba's move to starter and to 92-93 mediocrity.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the 29 strikeouts in 16 AAA innings, Bard also fanned 14 batters in 10.1 spring training inning (0 runs).
ReplyDeleteIf Beckett has a bad start today I think his ace status is gone for this year. I think that fact there makes it impossible for Beckett to have a bad game today. I think the comeback nature of this team, the fact they are built for the playoffs lends itself to bad starts to a season. The pitchers are not gearing up as soon so they can be fresh down the stretch. I wouldn't be surprised if we have the best post AS Break pitching staff.
ReplyDelete