Roche: Red Sox Believe Rick Porcello Can Emerge As No. 1 Starter
BOSTON (CBS) - With the latest from Fort Myers, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich caught up with WBZ-TV's Dan Roche for a Red Sox spring training update.
Designated hitter David Ortiz made headlines Wednesday when he flipped out about Major League Baseball's new point of emphasis on pace of play, and how batters are required to keep one foot in the box.
Ortiz doesn't think it's fair, and Roche believes he made some good points.
"Ortiz has been doing it the same way for how many years, and now all of a sudden you want him to change because baseball needs to be faster? Well his argument is make the pitcher [stay on] the rubber, and not walk around and look around and rub the baseball and everything else," said Roche.
"That was kind of his message, like, 'If I'm going to do it then they're going to do it.' Just don't pick on the hitters, pick on the pitchers too. There's a happy medium, and it has to be found."
The team's first exhibition game is next Tuesday, and Boston's first exhibition game against major league competition is a week from today.
We all know how manager John Farrell feels about his starting pitchers -- he's got five no. 1 starters apparently -- but Jon Wallach was curious to know when the team will make a decision on the Opening Day starter, and who 1-5 will be.
"I think the first guy out of the chute will be Clay Buchholz. Then it will be [Rick] Porcello, and then it will be Wade Miley, then Joe Kelly and Justin Masterson because he's coming off an oblique injury from last year. That's my guess. But it depends on maybe the type of springs they have, and maybe how Clay responds to conversations with [pitching coach] Juan Nieves and John Farrell.
"Maybe it goes Porcello and then Buchholz, because I think that they think Porcello could be that emerging no. 1 starter after the year he had last year. He won 15 games and had an ERA of around 3.5. They think he can be that guy. That's how I look at it coming out of the chute."
There's no question Clay Buchholz has Cy Young-type "stuff" on the mound, and Roche notes the team's belief that injuries are the only thing that have held him back. They're hoping for a different result in 2015.
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