Lauber: Nieves Got The Axe Because You Can't Fire 5 Pitchers
BOSTON (CBS) - The Red Sox pitching staff has been one of the worst in all of baseball through more than a month of the MLB season, and as a result, pitching coach Juan Nieves was relieved of his duties, the Red Sox announced Thursday afternoon.
Nieves joined the Red Sox prior to the 2013 season, helping the team win the World Series in his first year on the job. But with a month-plus sample size the team currently ranks 29th in Major League Baseball with a team ERA of 4.86, so the Nieves firing is a move that should put everyone else on notice.
98.5 The Sports Hub's Adam Jones can't help but feel like Nieves is the scapegoat for a much larger problem, and the Boston Herald's Scott Lauber agrees.
"[Nieves] got the axe [Thursday] because you can't fire five pitchers. Honestly, there weren't a whole lot of things they could have done at this point to make this better," Lauber said Thursday night.
"You've got these five guys who are just not pitching very well. For lack of a better option, they're going to try and make a change with the pitching coach and hope that has an impact."
Lauber notes that outside of the Philadelphia Phillies, no team at this point is willing to make a trade to deal an ace. Left-hander Cole Hamels would certainly be a nice improvement to this starting staff, but it's probably not worth trading the farm at this point.
Lauber adds that Nieves didn't have a whole lot to work with, and that's a problem that will persist with the next guy in charge of the pitchers.
"It doesn't matter who they bring in there to be the pitching coach, you're still going to have a rotation that doesn't have a No. 1, and five veteran starters all struggling at the same time. I don't know that anyone is going to come in here and do a better job than Juan Nieves did, because quite frankly I don't know that they have the horses."
Lauber also discussed some potential candidates to replace Nieves and much more.
Listen below:
