Top Five Red Sox Pitcher Disappointments of 2015

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Jul 22, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher

Joe Kelly

(56) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

No, you can’t have all of them on the list. Not every single Boston Red Sox pitcher has been a disappointment, no matter how any some of you Fenway faithful are right now. However, your anger is well founded.

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The team now finds themselves 11 games back in the American League East standings, after losing to the Houston Astros once again. That makes seven losses in a row and eight losses in the last 10 games. Some of those defeats came from absolutely terrible offense (check out tomorrow’s Top 5 list for the Mornin’ Chowda) and some of them came from horrific pitching.

It’s not just the starters, either. In fact, the pitching has been pretty brutal in the starting rotation and the bullpen, this season. Disappointments abound from some bigger names this season, making fans question whether some of their pitching staff from last year should not have been sacrificed like they were in the trades that Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington made. Can you imagine being him right now? The pressure he must be going through, considering his moves are what brought these disappointments to the team, must be unbearable at this point.

With that in mind, let’s look at how five of these pitchers rank in terms of team brutality:

Jul 18, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher

John Lackey

(41) throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports

#5 – John Lackey

But … but Lackey doesn’t play for Boston anymore!

That’s the problem. He plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, now. The six-foot-six, 235-pound frame was moved with a minor league player for, supposedly, a steal of outfielder Allen Craig and pitcher Joe Kelly. At the time, last year, the Red Sox were purging the remnants of the 2013 World Series championship team in order to rebuild their franchise. Lackey became collateral damage, under a misguided decision.

Lackey would have only cost the Red Sox $500 thousand this season because of a clause in his contract to tack on an extra year if he had Tommy John surgery. He had the surgery, so this would have been his sixth year with the Red Sox for a very inexpensive cost. Lackey had a winning record in his final days with Boston (11-7, with a 3.60 ERA) and showed no major signs of slowing down.

Instead, the Red Sox are now paying $5.5 million for a hitter who can’t make it out of Triple-A, who is guaranteed another $20 million for two more years, and just over $600 thousand for a pitcher who keeps losing games and could seek arbitration next year.

Lackey is 8-5 with a 2.90 ERA for the Cardinals this season. Between the Red Sox starters, Clay Buchholz is the closest to Lackey with a 3.26 ERA. That’s not a knock on Buchholz, but that’s a kick in the teeth to Red Sox fans, knowing that Lackey’s services could have been theirs on the cheap.

Jul 8, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher

Matt Barnes

(68) pitches against the Miami Marlins during the eighth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

#4 – Matt Barnes

The six-foot-four, 210-pound, 25-year-old righty from Connecticut has been used in 21 games out of the bullpen with some pretty mixed results. Anything sounding like a ‘grey area’ when it comes to relief pitchers is never good.

Barnes has a record of 3-2 with a 5.64 ERA. If that doesn’t shorten your breath quickly, here’s another statistic: Barnes has given up 14 runs in 22.1 innings of work. That is equivalent to giving up a run 63% of the time he is used in relief. What kind of relief is it when you can put money on the fact that he will give up a run if given the chance?

His runs come from Barnes’ inability to keep hitters from bashing him around the ballpark. His opposing team batting average is .343. He can strike out as many batters as he likes, with 22 Ks at present, but the ones Barnes does not strike out find their way to the base paths.

With the troubles that the starters have had this season, a good bullpen was a necessity that the Red Sox did not have, especially not with Barnes. He only recorded one hold this season, while the losing tide washed and overcome him.

Jul 21, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher

Justin Masterson

(63) pitches during the fifth inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

#3 – Justin Masterson

The 30-year-old veteran signed a one-year contract for $9.5 million. That is the number that Cherington believed was worth signing him in order to replace the veterans he traded the year before.

In return, Masterson’s numbers are the following: a 3-2 record, a 5.98 ERA, an injury that kept him out of the lineup for the majority of the season, and a 7.71 ERA when he returned and placed in the bullpen instead of as a starter.

The former 2013 All-Star has been a shell of his former self. That year, he led the A.L. with three shutouts. He struck out 195 batters in 193 innings. Since then, Masterson has fallen on hard times, moving from the Cleveland Indians to the Cardinals and then to Boston in the span of a year.

One major reason is that Masterson’s pitches are slowing down. His four-seam fastball is moving at only 87 mph, according to FanGraphs.com. He has thrown a sinker and a slider as well, moving at about 78 mph with barely any movement. Those pitches are like giant beach balls for opposing hitters when they don’t move the way Masterson wants them to move, which explains why batters have a .290 batting average against him.

Cherington tried to replace Lackey and other veterans with rental veterans to see if they would regain their form. So far, the plan has had a hard time working when veterans like Masterson can’t play well enough to even be in the starting rotation.

Jun 23, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly (56) pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

#2 – Joe Kelly

Well, at least for Kelly, the Red Sox felt that he could still be a starter last night.

When the aforementioned trade with Lackey happened, Cherington was confident that Kelly would be the answer. He was younger than Lackey and, even though he was more expensive, Kelly’s arm would be under contractual control for the next few years. Cherington told ESPN that “[Kelly] was an important addition as we go into the offseason. We wouldn’t have done the Lackey deal without getting someone like that back.”

That someone is 2-6, with a 5.74 ERA in 2015. In his last 7 games, Kelly allowed 24 runs and 13 walks in 32.2 innings.

Kelly lost his control somewhere between St. Louis and Boston, so he was told to go to Pawtucket to find it. He had four starts and posted a 1-1 record and a 2.84 ERA, allowing 14 hits in 19 innings for the Triple-A affiliate. Not terrible, but not dominant.

On his return last night against the Astros, Kelly allowed four earned runs on six hits in 5.1 innings.

Kelly’s problem is his strategy. It looks like he’s trying too hard to strike everyone out. He’s had success in that category; however, his 96-mph fastball has been so straight that he gets hit really hard by anyone whom he doesn’t strike out. Opposing batters hit .270 against him and 78.6% of all balls hit off of him are absolutely cranked, giving the defense a very hard time trying to clean up his mess.

With so many issues, the potential that Kelly once made Cherington blush has made his fall from grace that much more than Masterson’s. At least with Masterson it was a known risk. With Kelly, it was a major disappointment.

Jul 8, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher

Rick Porcello

(22) reacts after giving up a run against the Miami Marlins during the fourth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

#1 – Rick Porcello

You want disappointment? Here’s the king, himself.

Out of all the moves Cherington made, the Porcello acquisition has worked out the worst, so far. The six-foot-five, 26-year-old veteran was the only person whom the Detroit Tigers parted with in return for RBI-machine Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Wilson, and a minor league player. That seems like a ton of assets for a starting pitcher who posted a 15-13 record in 2014.

Porcello’s saving grace before dawning the Red Sox uniform was that he had three shutouts and pitched over 200 innings last year.

This season, after receiving a brand-spanking-new contract for four years and $82.5 million with the Red Sox, Porcello has responded with a 5-10 record, the worst record for any regular MLB starter. He also leads the majors in allowing 68 earned runs in 105.2 innings.

Porcello just can’t find any consistency. He can light up batters, striking out 84 of them, and they also can light him up, bashing 18 home runs so far. Porcello has allowed a .284 opposing batting average and has lost too many games in one inning of torture on an otherwise decent outing.

Meanwhile, Cespedes, the main asset given up for this angel of doom, has hit 14 home runs and 54 RBIs this season. The closest Red Sox player to that production is Hanley Ramirez with 19 home runs and 46 RBIs. While Cespedes has hit a slash line of .289/.319/.486, Ramirez has hit .262/.308/.470. Thinking that Ramirez would replace Cespedes in left field has been a joke. Cespedes had a .977 fielding percentage, with two errors, and had highlight-reel throws to the catcher to nail opposing runners at the plate. Ramirez’s fielding percentage is .970 and has three errors while running into the foul wall in Fenway Park and injuring himself, once again.

If anyone is thinking that those numbers are close, just remember one thing: Cespedes is costing the Tigers $10.5 million this season, while Ramirez is costing the Red Sox $22.75 million. Even with Cespedes being a free agent next season, there was no guarantee that Porcello would sign his contract this year with the Red Sox, making the risk fairly even, while the production less than fair.

Overall, the plan to replace veteran pitchers with other veteran pitchers has not worked. In Porcello’s case, it didn’t work and now it will cost the Red Sox another four years for him to figure himself out. That’s time Boston doesn’t have if it wants to compete any time soon.

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