Daniel Bard

Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard made an appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show Thursday morning to discuss his transition from a reliever to a starter. Bard also weighed in on what went wrong last September and what changes the team will make this season.

Bard said he first discussed switching from a relief role to a starting job with general manager Ben Cherington in November. When the Red Sox hired manager Bobby Valentine in December, Bard said he told Valentine he would like to either close or start, and Valentine said the team would like to try Bard out as a starter.

Bard said he does not expect the transition from eighth-inning bridge pitcher to starting will happen overnight, but he will learn throughout Spring Training how he can best function as a starter.

“I don’t think it’s something I can go out my first Spring Training outing or first outing of the season and say ‘Okay, I’m going to do what [Justin] Verlander does. I’m going to throw 92-93 the first couple of innings, 94-96 the middle and I’m going to be 98 in the eighth,’ because he’s really good at that,” Bard said. “I think that’s something I’m going to have to learn and learn how much I need to save.

“That’s what spring training is for. I’m going to get a gauge for yeah, if I’m airing it out for the first two innings, am I hanging in the fourth? Obviously there would need to be a change there, but for now, I think I have to go out with the hitter-to-hitter same mentality that I’ve used in the past.”

Bard was nearly lights out in relief through August, earning a 2.03 ERA while opposing batters hit just .164 against him. But Bard’s ERA ballooned in September to 10.64, and he blew two leads, earned a loss and blew a save in his first five outings of the month. Bard said his struggles began when he blew back-to-back games starting with his Sept. 7 outing in Toronto when he gave up five earned runs in one inning of work in an eventual 11-10 Red Sox loss. Bard said the worst part of that outing was that he did not feel like he had thrown the ball poorly.

“I think you couple bad results, tired body, tired arm, and then on top of that, you go out after those two rough outings and you’re trying to overachieve,” Bard said. “You’re trying to do too much. You’re trying to make perfect pitches. You’re trying to throw everything as hard as you can because you’re trying to make up for those last two.

“You couple those things, it makes things worse. It took me about a week or two kind of a snowball effect for me to stop and say, ‘Okay, I just need to trust what I’ve got and do it. Do what I did for the first five months of the season.’ …

“I can’t speak for [other members of the Red Sox], but I’d like to think I was a pretty sure thing. Me and [Jonathan Papelbon] at the end of the game was a pretty sure thing for five months of the season last year. When I faltered for a week or two there, you’d see guys saying, ‘Oh, crap, that was something we could count on, now we can’t. Maybe I need to do more here.’ I don’t know.”

Following are more highlights of the conversation. To hear the interview, go the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. Read the rest of this entry »

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Daniel Bard knows what he’s getting into. As matter of fact, he was adamant Tuesday, on the first day of workouts for pitchers and catchers, that he asked Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington last fall to give him a shot at earning a starter’s spot in the rotation.

“I spoke with Ben [Monday] and he just said, ‘Hey, we wouldn’t do this unless we really thought it would work.’ And I said, ‘I wouldn’t be doing it if didn’t think it would work.’ I’m all in,” Bard said at the picnic bench outside the Red Sox clubhouse. “I’m committed to it and I think they are, too.

“I’m really excited about it. I think it’s a great opportunity for me. It’s something I asked for. Ben was very receptive. This was before Pap had even left. I brought it up to the team. They were very receptive. Then when Pap left, I figured they would kind of forget it ever happened and just move on because they wouldn’t want to lose both of us from the bullpen. Ben called me shortly after that and said, ‘We want to ride this through and see if we can get some bullpen arms.’ He was able to do that with [Andrew Bailey] and [Mark Melancon] and it opened the door for me to do this.”

Bard’s pitching coach Bob McClure is no stranger to this transition. He did it when he was with the Brewers in the 1983 and ’84.

“McClure had done it back in the day,” Bard said. “He’s offered me some good advice. He had done it with a couple of his pitchers in Kansas City. [Justin Masterson] has done it, talked to Masty this offseason. We were catching up on the phone and he was excited for me about it. It’s more just believing in yourself.”

McClure told our Alex Speier he certainly believes Bard can make the transition from flame-throwing set-up man to starter.

“Can a guy repeat this type of delivery? Daniel’s is very simple. My guess is yes,” said McClure. “Whether he can start, I don’t know. It’s a whole different gig. But can he repeat what he’s doing 100 times, 120 times, 130 times? I believe he can.

“It’s a very simple, simple delivery. At first look, can he repeat his delivery where he can get the ball down there where he wants to throw it? I would think he can because his delivery is so simple.”

The origins of Bard returning to his roots as a starter came right after the heartbreaking end to the 2011 season.

“I think it was early November or late October,” Bard recalled. “It was kind of just brought up. I mentioned it to my agent and he had some talks with Ben. And they went from there. Ben called me to see what my thoughts were and hear it straight form me. It just kind of progressed. I think it was kind of set in stone when I spoke to Bobby when he was hired. Our first conversation [he said], ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I want to start or close. I think I can do either one really well. Whatever you guys think will help the team more.’

“Turns out, they think starting is the way to go.” Read the rest of this entry »

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Thanks to a lesson learned from Mariano Rivera the first time Jonathan Papelbon met him at the 2006 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, Papelbon won’t be obsessing about that fateful ninth inning from last September that ended his career in a Red Sox uniform.

“I don’t think about it at all,” Papelbon said Saturday while wearing his new Phillies uniform. “When I was a rookie and I made my first All-Star Game, I had a chance to talk to Mo about what was the biggest thing that was going to make me successful in this game. His first answer was, ‘short-term memory.’ So, you have to be able to learn from them still, learn from those situations but man, I don’t sit there and think about it all spring. You go over things and you try to learn from them but you have to be able to turn the page.”

Papelbon still has in his mind the goal of someday passing Rivera for the all-time saves lead. But that might be next-to impossible as Papelbon has 217 coming into this season, the first of a four-year, $50 million deal with the Phillies. Rivera currently sits at 603. If Rivera doesn’t throw another pitch, Papelbon, now 31 years of age, would have to average 39 saves over the next 10 seasons to pass him.

“I think what Mariano has meant to the game pretty much speaks for itself,” Papelbon said. “But for me, I call him ‘The Godfather’ jokingly because he’s the Godfather of closers but at the same time, I think that he’s the guy you have to go after. Every time I saw him last year, I told him, ‘Man, you’re making my job harder to catch you every year. He’s found some kind of Fountain of Youth somewhere. To me, he’s always been special because I may not be sitting here today if it wasn’t for him.”

But there’s someone else Papelbon is grateful to, someone with a bridge from Rivera in New York to Papelbon in Boston and now Philadelphia – bullpen coach Gary Tuck, who stayed behind with the Red Sox and manager Bobby Valentine.

“For so many years there in Boston, I was able to be under Gary Tuck, who was also with Mo for all those championship runs in New York,” Papelbon said. “How many times I heard ‘Repeat [your] delivery,’ I don’t know, but repeating your delivery and conditioning your body to do one thing, repeat your delivery. Mariano was religious about it and Gary kind of took of that into his role with me and making me realize how important that aspect is. Read the rest of this entry »

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The reaction of Jonathan Papelbon to the six Boston reporters who made the two-hour trip north up I-75 was totally understandable Saturday – on the occasion of his first spring training press conference with the Phillies.

“What the hell are you guys doing here?,” he teased the group at the beginning of his 23-minute session inside the Bright House Field media center.

The man who threw the final pitch of the biggest pennant stretch collapse in baseball history says the Red Sox won’t be affected this season. As a matter of fact, Papelbon said he expects his former team to come out stronger than ever this season to prove a point.

“They’ll be motivated, no question about it,” Papelbon said in his first spring training press conference Saturday with the Phillies. “There’s too many good guys in that clubhouse and too many competitors and too many guys who have too much pride to just lay down and say, ‘we can just come lay down.’ Those guys aren’t going to come into this season and just lay down. They’re going to work hard. There’s no doubt about it.”

He was honest as he always was in a Boston uniform, answering questions thoughtfully on 2011, his successor with the Red Sox and his former setup man for the last two seasons.

Still, there were questions about whether he has forgotten about the night the sinking liner off the bat of Robert Andino came out of the glove of Carl Crawford at Camden Yards on Sept. 28, ending the Red Sox season in stunning fashion. And there were questions about how much he knew of the clubhouse discord that became apparent days and weeks later.

“I don’t think it was a matter of being surprised or not surprised,” Papelbon said. “I know everybody has had their own opinion about that situation and what went on there. But nobody truly knows what was truly going on. I don’t even truly know because I’m worried about myself and doing my own job. Just because a team struggles or somebody struggles doesn’t mean they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Is that why we lost, no, that’s not why we lost because of what was going on in the clubhouse. That had nothing to do with it.”

Papelbon leaves behind Daniel Bard, who won’t move into his closer’s role but rather start spring training in the Red Sox rotation – a move Papelbon believes is perfect for him. Read the rest of this entry »

Two-time All-Star closers with 2.07 career ERAs come with a price, and such was the case when the Red Sox landed Andrew Bailey (along with outfielder Ryan Sweeney) last week. The Sox had to part ways with outfielder Josh Reddick, right-hander Raul Alcantara and first baseman Miles Head, with Reddick having been the primary piece whom the A’s had to have in the deal — the young starting outfielder with several above-average tools (hitting for average, power, defense, arm) who will be under team control for the next five seasons.

The Sox didn’t have to give up any of their top prospects in the deal, but even so, the cost of those three players was meaningful. Reddick, after all, had been penciled in as the Sox’ opening day right fielder in 2012 prior to the deal.

In many ways, that fact was remarkable. Reddick entered professional baseball from a position of almost complete obscurity. He was undrafted out of high school. The Red Sox were one of three teams (along with the Reds and Angels) to show any real interest in scouting him in his one year at Middle Georgia College. Even though Sox scout Rob English and cross-checker Mike Rikard had evaluated the outfielder as a sixth-round talent, he lasted into the 17th round because the team was confident that it wasn’t in jeopardy of losing Reddick in the draft in the earlier rounds.

“This kid was a raw junior college kid who (Red Sox scouts) dug out of nowhere,” Sox assistant GM Mike Hazen noted in this look at the process that led Reddick to the Sox. “It’s a true scouting story. It’s a true, good evaluation, a gut instinct signing.”

Indeed, one can make the case that Reddick represents as impressive a “true scouting story” as the Sox have had in the last 10 drafts. He had virtually no profile when he was taken, and even though he had a great summer league performance that put him on the scouting map after he’d been drafted, Reddick received a relatively modest $140,000 bonus when he signed with the Sox. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Youkilis hit a career-low .258 in 2011. (AP)

Is it time to trade Kevin Youkilis?

Well, not ideally. We are clearly at the 70 cents on the dollar stage with Youkilis, who had his worst offensive season in 2011, a batting average 41 points below his career number and an on-base percentage 18 points lower than his .391 career mark. Throw in that he played 120 games last season — and 102 the year before — and will be 33 in April and you’ve got kind of a lousy trade chip, no?

But this is where the Red Sox are. I’m not certain they occupy a position of real strength when it comes to trade talks. Has Ben Cherington been cautious in his first three months as GM? You could call it that, I suppose — not sure I would have given up top prospects for Gio Gonzalez (career 1.49 road WHIP) or handed Carlos Beltran a two-year, $26 million deal. No problem with the Sox punting on both.

I have no clue if Cherington (or Larry Lucchino or whoever is calling the shots) is going to be a competent general manager, but I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt for now.

Here’s the problem, though: The Sox have been the third-best team in the AL East each of the last two seasons and right now are no better than the team that walked off the field after Game No. 162 in Baltimore. They’ve basically flipped Jonathan Papelbon for Mark Melancon. Makes sense from a business perspective — no way I’m giving any closer 50 million bucks — but you can’t make the case with any confidence that Melancon has a better year than Papelbon in 2012. What else you got? Nick Punto with his career .327 slugging percentage and intangibles to spare?

Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel Bard

Speaking for the first time since the end of the 2011 season, Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard appeared on “The Bradford Files” podcast with Rob Bradford (click here to listen) to touch on a variety of subjects, including the transformation he is making in regards to becoming a starting pitcher.

“I think it would be a great personal challenge,” Bard said of starting. “I think it’s something that I truly believe I can do. I think I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t want it. Either one’s technically a promotion for me, if you want to look at it that way. And I don’t think anyone’s not looking to get promoted within their job. Like I said, either one I’m more than happy to do. And if it means going back to doing the the role I’ve been doing, that may happen, too, which is fine.

“I wanted to let them know, I tried to make it as clear I could to Ben [Cherington] and Bobby [Valentine], that I had no reservations about going into the rotation and I was 100 percent willing and ready to take on that challenge. I didn’t want Ben to be worried about my mindset going into it. I had to make that very clear, I think, just so they wouldn’t hesitate.”

Following are more highlights from the conversation.

On how the offseason has unfolded: “It’s been weird. It’s almost like I’m watching the whole thing happen as an outsider’s point of view. I’ll hear things and then talk to somebody and then hear something totally different. But pretty much the way it went was, within probably two weeks after the season ended, I spoke to Ben, and I think it was pretty shortly after he had gotten the job, maybe right after. For whatever reason, I was pretty confident we were going to re-sign [Jonathan Papelbon]. As good a year as he had, I kind of thought he maybe wanted to come back. That’s the vibe I kind of got from him, actually. I gave it at least a 50-50 chance that he was going to come back and I’d be pitching probably in the same role as I have been.

“So, I told Ben when I heard that [John] Lackey was having surgery and [Tim Wakefield]‘s a free agent that I saw two openings in the starting rotation. For the last two years, I hadn’t said it much, but in my own head, just watching the guys in this league that had a lot of success in a starting role, I just felt like I could do that. I’ve got as good or better raw stuff than them. I try to keep myself in good shape. I felt like everything I had pointed to that I could have success in that role.

“So, I told Ben that, and then when Pap signed with the Phillies, it wasn’t maybe a week or two after that, I kind of figured that whole starter thing would kind of subside and they may forget it even happened. I just figured once Pap was gone they wouldn’t be taking me out of the ‘pen as well. But it turns out they feel pretty strongly about me trying to become a starter, and I do, too. And as of right now, that’s how it stays.”

On the decision to make him a starter: “Obviously, they look at it and say, now that Pap’s gone, what are our options at closer? And I was probably part of that discussion as well as free agents and [Alfredo] Aceves and whoever else you want to throw in there. But I think that they had kind of in their minds said, hey, we’re going to make Bard a starter, and we’re going to stick with it. … A lot of things are subject to change, but as of now I’m going in preparing to start this year.”

On if he currently views himself as a starter: “Yeah, I think I have to. I feel like it would be really easy for me to go back to [closing]. To me, in my mind, there’s not a huge difference between the role I was pitching in and closing. You’re not asking me to anything a while lot different in that. When it comes to starting, it is a different mindset. Just for me, it’s not something I’ve done in a while. But I’ve said in the past, I see myself as a pitcher and I’m not going to drastically alter the way I throw or the way I pitch or anything. There’ll be a few things that need to change maybe a little bit just in my preparation. But I just think it’s a lot easier to go and become a starter and if we have to go back to the bullpen then make that move rather than vice versa.”

Read the rest of this entry »