Red Sox: Five affordable free agent starting pitcher targets

Brett Anderson

Another one who started for the Athletics this year, Brett Anderson certainly isn’t flashy but he was effective for Oakland. Anderson is a pitcher who primarily gets his outs by forcing weak contact, as his career HR/9 and SO/9 are 0.9 and 6.3, respectively. He does a good job of limiting walks as well, with a career average of 2.4 BB/9.

The downside to Anderson’s style of pitching is the amount of contact he allows. If he’s not locating his pitches well enough he will get into trouble pretty easily and allow a ton of base hits, as his 9.6 H/9 would indicate. It’s a risky way to pitch, but it can be effective depending on both the opponent and the fielders surrounding the pitcher.

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Anderson is prone to struggle against a team like the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros, both of which have great hitters almost all the way through the order. Facing a lineup such as those requires a bit of aggressiveness and willingness to try and force swings and misses which Anderson lacks. His career statistics against the current hitters on both the Yankees and Astros are not great, and that may be what prevents Boston from bringing him in.

You probably don’t want Anderson pitching against an elite offensive team, but he can provide a solid five or six innings of work more often than not depending on the matchup. He won’t allow a ton of walks but he will make the fielders work pretty hard to get outs most of the time. The Red Sox have the talent defensively to make that work, assuming they decide to take a look at him.