OK, I’ll admit I haven’t watched all of the Red Sox games thus far, but I’ve watched enough and read enough to know that manager John Farrell must be fired. And immediately. Not only is the guy mismanaging his bullpen in a way that will ultimately get him fired anyways, but by the time he does poor Torey Lovullo (his obvious replacement) won’t even have a bullpen left to wield for the rest of the year.
Look, I feel bad the guy was diagnosed with cancer last year (the only reason why, IMO, he kept his job to begin with). I don’t feel bad for the guy caught cheating on his wife with a Comcast SportsNet reporter. But what really bothers me is the fact he’s gonna wear Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara down to the quick before the calendar even flips to May. The guy is (obviously) managing as if every game is the seventh game of the World Series in a pathetic attempt to keep his job, with little recognition that the baseball season is a marathon not a sprint, and the team in the end is gonna suffer for it, big time.
The Sox are playing .500 ball (6-6) but there are definitely two, perhaps three games that Farrell has single-handedly lost because of his handling of the roster generally, and the bullpen specifically. I thought everyone had agreed that Tazawa was run into the ground last year and needed to be handled if not with kid gloves, then judiciously this year. Same thing with Uehara – isn’t that why they brought in San Diego closer Craig Kimbrel to begin with? So what has Farrell done? Uehara and Tazawa lead the pitching staff in appearances with seven and six, respectively. At this rate, Memorial Day will come around and both will be done for the year.
I’m only hoping (actually, I’m sure) GM Dave Dombrowski is paying close attention to what’s going on, and I guarantee he’s not liking what he sees. I know he’s jonesing to pull the trigger but he knows he’s got to give Farrell a little more time in order to make it look like he wasn’t ready to fire the guy before the team broke camp in Fort Myers (even though I’ll bet he was). My only hope is that by the time DD does get around to canning Farrell there’s still a bullpen left for Lovullo to use for the rest of the year.
