Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Pirates have released righty Daniel Bard, according to Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com (via Twitter). Now 30, Bard hasn’t seen the majors since a brief stint in 2013; indeed, he hasn’t even appeared in the minors since the campaign that followed. The live-armed reliever completely lost his ability to hit the zone and has seemingly never regained it. Pittsburgh had been the latest organization to take a chance on a return to form for the one-time late-inning ace, but obviously it appears as if the experiment didn’t take.
- There were several notable promotions today, some of which we haven’t yet covered. Tommy Joseph got his first big league call from the Phillies, as ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark was first to report on Twitter. He was moved out from behind the plate after dealing with numerous concussions, but has rebounded while shifting to first base and was scorching the ball at Triple-A. Meanwhile, the White Sox brought up lefty Matt Purke, once a high-dollar draftee who never worked out for the Nationals as he battled through significant shoulder issues. Purke owns a 2.30 ERA in 15 2/3 Triple-A innings, with 8.0 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9.
Shame about Bard. Always thought he had a really bright future. Still had time to jump start, but still…
My sox ruined his career by going RP, then SP, and back. Maybe my sox should pick him up off waivers and see if we can trade him for Trout. That would be fair…
Dude cut the crap. That loser has been gone for a while. Stop making our heads hurt by reminding him of his stupidity!
they are not “your” sox
Wow… Pirates have really worked magic on some pitchers. That’s unfortunate for Bard
I’d be surprised if the Pirates even let Bard pitch to live batters.
In his last documented games (7 games, 1 IP) he walked 18, hit 10, and allowed 20 ER without giving up a single hit.
Wow. This guy has kept going down and down. Those sound like what my stats would be pitching in the majors, if not worse than them!
Bard did not face any live batters as a Pirate, you are correct. He had not posted any statistics, and I could not find any record of him being assigned to a minor-league affiliate, so I assume that he was working in extended spring training with those players rehabbing from injuries.
Spring of 2012 and that entire, turning him into a starting pitcher again fiasco was the problem. He just never recovered from it. Lost almost 4mph from his fb average velocity then, down to 93-94mph and it went way downhill from there after that. Couldn’t throw strikes, was wild, hitting batters, absolutely no control at all and it became all mental like it was when Boston 1st drafted him and he had those same issues and was walking 5-6 batters per game and had to switch him to relief, only this time there was NO fixing the mental issues, nor wa there the 96-98mph velocity either.. It finally dipped down to 90-91mph his mechanics were getting so messed up.
THIS is what happens when you have a dominant reliever, not happy and try to mess with it.. You end up with a heap of trash.. never happy.. Joba Chamberlain.. Same thing.. Will teams ever learn? I doubt it.
Good point, Yanks did the same thing with Jobba….
I thought back then that the organization maybe had this wild idea that just because they had fixed his UNC teamate’ Andrew Miller’s problem with career long wildness that they would take this unnecessary risk that they had already avoided once by converting him to relief and dealing with the mechanics and psychological part and going thru the entire mess again.
The entire episode was just mind boggling. The Sox have had such a poor track record with developing pitching the last 10 seasons, then purposely breaking (seemingly) one of the best ones for a foolhardy endeavor has to go down as laughable to the opposition and many of the fanbase, especially here were all for it at the time.
Lester, Bucholtz, Masterson, Arroyo, Anibel Sanchez, Papelbon…. You’re right, they haven’t had a lot of luck developing aces but they have developed a few solid pitchers…..they’ve done a pretty well with position players though, and had some luck trading them away for pitching
Joba is a fantastic example. What a train wreck that turned out to be.
Really a shame about Bard. As soon as he joined the Bucs I immediately thought of Steve Blass, the former Bucs pitcher and current announcer whose career also derailed from an indxplicable and relatively sudden inability to throw strikes.
Question for Sox fans: I’ve read the comments about Bard being ruined because the Sox moved him to starting. Didn’t Bard ask to be moved to the rotation, or am I remembering that wrong? In any case, I agree, that move was the beginning of the end.
You are correct. Bard demanded to be placed in the rotation. It has been a train wreck for him ever since.
Yeah, same thing to neftali feliz right? After they got joe nathan they transitioned him to a starter.
Seriously? Joba, bard, feliz, i’m sure there’s others through the years,but why do teams try to make dominant relivers starters? I get shifting a starter to a bullpen role like hudson in arizona but vice versa doesnt work as well.
Feliz has at least turned things around by going back to the bullpen in Pittsburgh.
Without any numbers to back it up, I feel like the bullpen to rotation move after already being established in the majors has become less common each decade or so in baseball history, and certainly successful less and less as time goes on. Going way back, Wilbur Wood and Charlie Hough are 2 guys off the top of my head who ended up with very long careers after being relievers first and then starters.
And you’re right, it does seem like the rotation to bullpen move is successful much more often, although to be fair that move often happens toward the end of 30-something year old pitchers whether they like it or not.