Red Sox prospect Kyle Weiland, pictured here with the Salem Red Sox in 2009, is enjoying a strong year in Triple-A Pawtucket. (Photo courtesy Salem Red Sox)

Daisuke Matsuzaka is scheduled to go under the knife today, undergoing Tommy John surgery that will sideline him well into the 2012 season — perhaps even for all of that. That, in turn, affects the depth of the Sox’ rotation.

At the major league level, with Tim Wakefield now in the rotation, Alfredo Aceves serves as an insurance policy. In Pawtucket, Felix Doubront — who impressed the Sox as both a starter and reliever last year in his big league debut — continues to build back up after spending time on the sidelines with a groin injury. He has a 2.33 ERA in seven starts, most recently having allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings on Thursday.

Yet other options are starting to emerge in Triple-A. Most notably, right-hander Kyle Weiland is positioning himself as a potential starting option down the road.

Weiland commands four pitches: the curveball, the two-seam fastball, the change up, and now a cutter. PawSox pitching coach Rich Sauveur says that arsenal should translate into major league success for Weiland.

“It’s the command that is impressive,” Sauveur said recently.

That command has translated into a .217 opponent’s batting average this season, a 3.00 ERA in 63 innings over 12 starts, and 69 strikeouts — more than one per inning.

Sauveur says it’s not just Weiland’s command that he likes, but also his maturity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Red Sox fans may know Rich Sauveur as the pitching coach in Triple-A Pawtucket. Yet the 45-year-old represents something as a result of a most unusual playing career that spanned just 34 major-league appearances over a 15-year span (from 1986-2000). His statistics at the major-league level suggest little glory: an 0-1 record, 6.07 ERA, no saves, 24 walks and 28 strikeouts in 46 innings.

Why is any of this of interest? Sauveur concluded his career as a practitioner of the knuckleball—an unusual enough class of major-league pitcher. But he was not just a knuckleballer, he was a left-handed knuckleballer.

How rare a breed is that? According to baseball-reference.com, there have been 1,625 pitchers who have made a major-league appearance this decade. According to this fascinating list, exactly one was a left-handed knuckleballer.

How did Sauveur become the entirety of that class? Read the rest of this entry »