'Farr-ell' To Arms

'Farr-ell' To Arms

Multiple sources are reporting that the Blue Jays will announce that Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell will become Toronto's new manager. This will likely have a negative effect on the under-perfoming Boston rotation—which saw two of its high-priced arms cave in 2010 (Beckett and Lackey). Moreover, the progressive developments of both Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz has been credited to Farrell. Having said all this, the influence of pitching coaches is usually overstated—in both directions. Poor pitching is never completely due to bad tutelage and vice versa. In any event, another big decision now rests on the shoulders of Theo Epstein this Winter.