Buchholz Bounced To Portland After Another Rough Outing… Sox Lose 11-6 |

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Buchholz Bounced To Portland After Another Rough Outing… Sox Lose 11-6

By Administrator | August 21, 2008

I remain convinced that Clay Buchholz is going to be an outstanding major league pitcher… but, for now, his journey to stardom is going to take another detour through Portland, Maine.

I know, I know. His big league numbers for the 2008 season are disastrous. But I don’t care. I know what I see when I watch him pitch. I see a guy with more raw tools than most pitchers in the game. I also see a guy who sometimes lacks confidence and needs to regain confidence in his extraordinary talent. And so he’ll head back to the Eastern League, where the organization has planted a couple of other extraordinary talents (Lars Anderson and Josh Reddick).

Last year, Cleveland Indians southpaw Cliff Lee had a similarly forgettable season (5-8, 6.29)… he was so bad he was sent to Triple-A for five weeks (where he performed exceptionally well) and was ultimately left off the post-season roster. Any of this sounding familiar?

This year, he is the leading contender to win the AL Cy Young Award.

Buchholz is still young and learning how to pitch at the major league level. Hitters have made their adjustments to his repertoire… now he is going to need to learn how to adjust his game to respond to those adjustments. It is a natural progression. Patience is needed. He is suffering through a sophomore slump. He has a boatload of talent. In my opinion, he will be fine.

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Tonight in Baltimore, he breezed through the first inning and had two outs in the second inning, with a runner on base in a 4-1 game, when he played a slow roller into a base hit. He reacted quickly to the ball but appeared to rush… he had a ‘deer in the headlights’ look as he scrambled to field the ball and throw it to first base to end the inning.

I have noticed that look on more than a couple of occasions this year… he seems to wear it when things don’t go according to Hoyle. It is a reaction that he will learn to control as he grows older and gains more experience.

In my opinion, the fact that he didn’t record that third out bothered him — to the point of distraction. He lost his concentration and his composure. Two batters later the score was 4-3. The loss of focus carried over into the third inning, and before you knew it there were two more runners on the Camden Yards base paths. The base runners scored when reliever David Aardsma surrendered a home run to the first batter he faced.

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After the game, the Red Sox announced Buchholz would be sent down to Portland (Double-A) to gain some perspective and figure things out. Personally, I’m not sure that PORTLAND is the answer… it seems to me that Pawtucket would have been a more appropriate destination. The young right-hander pitched extremely well for the PawSox earlier this season and could easily have returned to Triple-A to figure things out.

I’d like to talk with Theo Epstein about that decision. I wonder whether the Red Sox want the young Texan to work with Mike Cather (Sea Dogs pitching coach).

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He allowed five runs on three hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings… it was the shortest start of his career. Only thirty of his sixty pitches were thrown for strikes.

Buchholz is 0-7 in nine starts since May 2nd.

After the game, he said: “People have tough games, I’ve had a tough season. Down there is where you develop, up here it’s a pennant race… If you ask if the decision was right, I’d say it was”.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said: “It’s a tough situation. We’re in a pennant race and we’re in Boston and (there’s) a lot of focus is on him and he feels the responsibility. I think coming into this game we were all excited about watching him pitch, but the way it unraveled makes it kind of obvious we had to do something”.

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Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Coco Crisp each had two hits for the Red Sox… Bay hit his fourth home run since coming to the Red Sox on deadline-day… Ellsbury stole his 41st base.

For the Orioles, Melvin Mora and Ramon Hernandez each hit three-run home runs.

Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |

2 Responses to “Buchholz Bounced To Portland After Another Rough Outing… Sox Lose 11-6”

Dan Says:
August 21st, 2008 at 8:17 am
Watching Terry Francona manage games has become just painful. Sometimes I think the Sox would be better off with a five year old managing because good ol’ Tito seems to be braindead. Here I will air a few of my grievances (Happy Festivus)

-”The Shift” - First off, why is it that anytime a lefty hits a couple of home runs, they need to put a shift on him? Remember a couple years ago when Carlos Pena played for the Sox…did anyone put a shift on him then? Second, why does Francona continue to put the shift on with runners on base? This bonehead decision has already cost the Sox one game (1-0 against the Yankees) and it allowed Melvin Mora to take third on a walk last night, ending the night and probably the season, for Clay Buchholz.

-The Bullpen - The way Francona mismanages the ‘pen will end up giving me a stroke. The bullpen is where you send failed starters, not where you put your best talent to pitch one inning every couple of days. Even Buchholz can pitch one good inning (he does it every start). Justin Masterson, however, can pitch 6 good innings. Wouldn’t it make more sense to send Buchholz to the pen and bring Masterson back into the rotation where he belongs? Another issue I have with the bullpen (and I know I’ll catch a lot of flak for this one) is Jonathan Papelbon. I still don’t see the need to waste someone with young Roger Clemens kind of stuff as the closer. It takes no skill whatsoever to close. Keith Foulke. I think I’ve made my point. He threw the ball 85 mph and dead straight. I could hit that. And yet he was a great closer for a while. I just don’t see the need for a good bullpen when your starters can’t keep you in the game.

One final thought…What the hell was he thinking giving Varitek the day off yesterday? The guy had 2 good games in a row for the first time since probably 2003 and Tito takes him out? Give him an off day after he goes 0-fer in three straight games, not after he hits 2 homeruns.
Eric SanInocencio Says:
August 21st, 2008 at 4:42 pm
My name is Eric SanInocencio and I’m the host of Baseball Digest Daily Live, a weekly podcast that airs from 12-1 ET every Saturday. For this week’s show, we’ve booked Red Sox uberprospect Lars Anderson. Lars will be joining us in our first segment, and chat about his success this season and how he’s improved during his time as a professional.

The show as I mentioned starts at Noon ET, and Anderson will join us right at 12:05. I’ll post the link to the show below, and on that page you can archive any other show I’ve done.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/baseballdigestdaily