Bob McClure Out, Randy Niemann In

I guess we’ll have to take this as the Red Sox executives having faith in Valentine. The Red Sox fired pitching coach Bob McClure yesterday and made Randy Niemann, the assistant pitching coach, the pitching coach for the rest of the season. Sox starting pitchers have a combined 4.82 ERA.

Yes, the pitching has been horrendous this season, and it’s really no wonder why the Red Sox are not winning more games. The Sox are 17-29 in games started by Lester and Beckett; that record should be at least reversed. Even if the Sox had won 50% of the games started by their two “aces,” they would be in 2 games above .500 and only 1 game out of the Wild Card race.

However, I believe this change is more of a boost of confidence for Valentine than showing the team and fans that changes are inevitable. McClure and Valentine really hadn’t gotten along well all season. In fact, I noticed many, MANY times when the cameras would pan to the dugout and McClure and Valentine weren’t even in the vicinity of one another. With a pitching staff having one of the worst seasons in recent memory, you would think the manger and pitching coach would be seen talking.

I had a lot of faith in McClure, and I’m not really sure why. It seems that whenever the Red Sox pick up the best pitching coach available (Curt Young last year, who had been the pitching coach for the A’s previously and is the A’s pitching coach again this year), the pitchers just can’t cut it. With McClure, I thought the Sox had a chance. After all, he had been the pitching coach in the Royals organization previously, and a lot of Zach Grienke’s success happened because of his work with McClure. The Sox really haven’t had a pitching coach who has stuck since John Farrell.

With Randy Niemann being promoted to pitching coach for the rest of the season, the Red Sox are essentially saying that Valentine is in for at least one more season. Niemann came to the Red Sox because of Valentine; they had worked together for 5 years with the Mets.

Will the Sox pitchers do better under Niemann than they did with McClure? I’m guessing no. What might be better is the pitching coach and manager talking about what needs to be done and how it needs to happen. At this point in the season, I think everyone is looking on how to improve for next season. Case in point: Carl Crawford is having Tommy John surgery Thursday and will hopefully be ready for Opening Day 2013.