Bannister making Red Sox a priority while keeping an eye on ‘big picture'

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BOSTON - Brian Bannister, the Red Sox director of pitching analytics and development-turned- assistant pitching coach, finds himself making a transition in mid-season.

Until Tuesday, when he was shifted to the major league staff and in uniform, Bannister helped out with scouting -- both amateur and pro -- and worked closely with minor league pitchers.

Now, with the Red Sox staff scuffling, Bannister is focused on trying to help John Farrell and Carl Willis fix things in Boston.

"Now, this is the priority,'' said Bannister of the major league club, "making sure we get to the playoffs, helping our pitchers any way possible. I’m still keeping an eye, especially on the Triple A club, the development going on there, making sure Eddie Rodriguez is getting attention, working on his needs, Henry Owens. But also the long term, working with the pitching coach at each affiliate level, making sure we’re staying on top of it, especially our starters, but we have a couple of really promising reliever arms.

"So it’ll be maintain the big picture but dialing it in here. . . This wild-card race and this division race is tight. (I've) really have been contributing in a lot of areas and trying to add value, and this is just one other area that I hope I can contribute some and make a difference, even if it's one or two games by the end of the year.''

Bannister first developed an interest in analytics as a player, but back then, the amount of data available was minuscule compared to what's out now.

"(The information) existed in a very small universe for a long time,'' he said, "Now, with StatCast and all of the things, the general public has way more access to it, but for awhile I didn’t even know about it until I became a big leaguer. So just utilizing what I’ve learned, feeding that to the players, to the coaches, keeping an eye on our minor league guys, I’m really here to be a resource to be somebody you can talk to having gone through the struggles of trying to pitch at this level, failing over and over again and finding ways to overcome it.''

One area Bannister might immediately help with is the team-wide problems in the first inning. Since June 12, the Sox have been widely outscored, including Tuesday, when they fell behind 2-0.

"Teams have different strategies,'' Bannister noted. "Teams are trying to jump on us early, get us early in the strike zone when we’re trying to establish fastballs, so sometimes you just have to come up with things to get around that and there’s been discussions on it, but really I know everybody’s quick to pick up on it, but it’s just one inning so sometimes it takes a little extra preparation in the bullpen or before the game or change up your mix or getting out of your typical patterns or routines in order to shake it up and get through that lineup the first time and then get back into what you really want to do and your game plan for the game.

"I think everybody’s got their own way to deal with it and I think a lot of it just comes down to pregame preparation. And so whether it’s physical whether it’s mental whether it’s throwing a little extra in the open, whatever you have to do to really just feel comfortable, that you’re already in a groove when you get out there and that quick spike in your blood pressure and adrenaline isn’t getting you out of your routine.''

 

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