The John Farrell Effect: Unfortunately, It’s Real

When John Farrell began his
arguably-traitorous path back to his dream job in Boston, my first
thought was how it would affect both the Blue Jays’ and Red Sox’s
pitching staffs. Through the first 30-plus games of the season, it
has played out the way I expected it to.

Toronto’s staff has imploded (hence
the team’s dreadful start), and Boston’s has been phenomenal (even if
Clay Buchholz has been using questionable tactics to get to 6-0).
Over the past two seasons without Farrell as their pitching coach,
the Red Sox’s team ERA was a combined 4.45. The two pitchers who
alarmingly struggled were Jon Lester and Buchholz.

Lester had a miserable 2012 campaign,
going 9-14 with a 4.82 ERA. Buchholz was 11-8 but had a 4.56 ERA and
served up 25 home runs. Both are on fire to start the 2013 season,
and Lester is even doing it without foreign substances on his
pitching hand.

All kidding aside, the Blue Jays are
crying all the way to the bank to ask for a refund on their R.A.
Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle investments. Granted, none of
these pitchers had Farrell as their pitching coach, but they sure
could use him.

Dickey, the 2012 NL Cy Young winner,
is 2-5 with a 5.36 ERA. Johnson: 0-1, 6.86. And what happened to Mr.
Perfect Game Buehrle? 1-2, 6.43. As an entire staff, the Jays’ team
ERA is 4.73. Is it any wonder they are 12-21 and mired in last place?

With Farrell as their manager (true,
never their pitching coach), Toronto’s team ERA numbers weren’t all
that much better: 4.32 and in 4.64 in 2011 and 2012. But also
consider what he had to work with. Ricky Romero, who began 2013 in
the minors, was his ace. Brandon Morrow was oft-injured. Henderson
Alvarez and Drew Hutchinson to name a couple others.

A supremely (on paper, anyway) more
talented group of arms under the passive John Gibbons is getting
shellacked in baseball’s toughest division, while Farrell’s rotation
and bullpen are both loaded and deep. Casey Janssen, Toronto’s
closer, is a respectable stopper, but in all likelihood would be
Boston’s mop-up reliever. Still, give Farrell the nod for improving
Janssen’s resume – 22 saves and a 2.54 ERA last season.

Farrell, who was Boston’s pitching
coach from 2007-10 before taking the Blue Jays’ managerial job, never
felt comfortable in Toronto. It doesn’t mean he didn’t put in maximum
effort, but his heart was clearly elsewhere. When he was elsewhere,
his former Sox disciples struggled.

In 2010, Lester and Buchholz were a
dynamic duo. The former was 19-9 with a 3.25 ERA, striking out 225
batters in 208 innings pitched. The latter was 17-7 with a 2.33 ERA
in 173.2 innings pitched. Neither had a year like that after he left.
Both are on pace for a year like that in 2013.

It’s not a coincidence.