HBT: Red Sox send Bard to Triple-A

Daniel Bard?s move from the bullpen to the rotation has been anything but smooth, as the formerly dominant reliever posted a 5.30 ERA with more walks (36) than strikeouts (34) through 10 starts while showing significantly diminished velocity.

Bard failed to make it out of the second inning Sunday against the Blue Jays, walking six of the 13 batters he faced while allowing five runs, and manager Bobby Valentine hinted afterward that a change would be coming. And sure enough Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports that the Red Sox have sent Bard to Triple-A.

Presumably by sending Bard to the minors instead of moving him back to the bullpen the Red Sox are still planning to go forward with him as a starter. Or maybe they just think he?s so screwed up right now that he needs some Triple-A time even if he?s bullpen bound.

In 193 career relief appearances Bard has a 2.87 ERA, .190 opponents? batting average, and 213 strikeouts in 198 innings, so realizing he?s not cut out to start and making him a setup man again is hardly disastrous for the Red Sox. Assuming, of course, that spending the past two months struggling as a starter hasn?t had some sort of permanent impact on the 26-year-old?s raw stuff and/or confidence.

And now there?s a spot in the rotation for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who threw 5.1 innings of one-run ball in his last minor-league rehab start over the weekend and is seemingly close to returning from Tommy John surgery.

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