Matt Barnes Courtesy of pawsoxblogs.mlb.com
I have a minor pitching proposal for the Red Sox regarding two minor league pitchers, which the team has already brought up, Anthony Ranaudo and Matt Barnes. Neither pitchers are active, nor in uniform…yet!
In the interest of brevity, let’s focus on Ranaudo.
Anthony Ranaudo, top prospect with the Pawtucket Red Sox, earned a position on the Eastern League post-season All-Star team. After three years this pitcher has really hit his stride. In the first game he pitched in the Division Series, he allowed just one run in 6 innings pitched.
Anthony Ranaudo Courtesy of http://pawsoxblog.mlblogs.com
The stars aligned for Ranaudo this season. The question for the Boston Red Sox is will they put Ranaudo, and possibly Barnes, in some of the remaining regular season games? I know what you thinking, “You are one crazy gal” and while that is true, please hear me out.
One possible scenario is to have one, or both pitchers, go out to Colorado during on the September 24th and 25th games as a trial to see how they do in the big leagues. Fans could see Ranaudo in the post-season depending on his performance. How would he help the Sox’ bullpen is the question? Certainly, the team could use help in the middle innings to set-up Koji Uehara to close.
In addition, Ranaudo’s, or Barnes’ trial would provide starting pitchers like Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz a few days of rest. These guys would stay loose at home, and join the team for the final three games of the regular season in Baltimore. A crazy idea like this is far more plausible now that the magic number is 4 or 4.5 to take the league.
Ranaudo, a Red Sox first round (39th) draft pick, most definitely earned an opportunity like this with 106 strikeouts in 109 2/3rds innings during the 2013 season.
Is this completely bananas, do I need an extra visit with my shrink this week, or should the Sox give it a shot?
