Red Sox Ace Josh Beckett's 2011 Was Not a Fluke: He Learned to Pitch

Since Josh Beckett was acquired by the Boston Red Sox from the Florida Marlins in 2006, he's been one of the most inconsistent pitchers in baseball. He began his Red Sox career with a massively disappointing season which saw him post an ERA north of 5.00. Having given up Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez to the Florida Marlins, many began to wonder if the Boston Red Sox had made a mistake. The next year, Beckett finished second in the American League Cy Young Award voting and lead the Red Sox to a World Series title.

During the Boston Red Sox postseason run in 2007, Beckett allowed just four earned runs over 30 innings (1.20 ERA) while striking out 35 hitters. There was talk that he may become one of the best postseason pitchers of all-time. But then in 2008 and 2009 Beckett gave up a combined 18 earned runs over 21 innings (7.71 ERA) in the postseason.

In 2010, Beckett again struggled mightily. He managed to pitch just 127.2 innings due to injury. And when he was healthy enough to pitch, he left many Red Sox fans wishing he wasn't. Beckett went 6-6 that season with a 5.78 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP.

Then of course in 2011 he responded with a 2.89 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP over 193 innings. Both of those figures ranked within the top 5 among qualified American League starters. But it wasn't the numbers Beckett posted that were so impressive, but rather the matter in which he posted them.

In 2011, Beckett's average fastball velocity was a career low 93 mph. His strikeout rate of 8.2 per nine innings was identical to the one he had in 2010 when he was throwing batting practice. Anyone who was expecting to see a flame throwing strikeout pitcher was sorely disappointed. But he had one of the best years of his career.

So what accounted for the difference? Pitch selection for one. Over Beckett's career, nearly two thirds of his pitches have been fastballs. And when he got into trouble, he had a reputation for throwing harder rather than pitching smarter. Beckett would occasionally mix in a curve ball and very rarely he would throw a cutter or a change up, but those were more show me pitches than real offerings. Up until 2010 he had never thrown a cutter for more than 5.1% of is pitches in any given season.

Beckett's 2011 season was a dramatic change. Last season, Beckett threw a fastball on just 50.8% of his pitches. He also threw a cutter a career high 18.1% of the time and he threw a changeup a career high 14.2% of the time. This made his pitch selection much less predictable.

To say that it was simply Beckett's pitch selection that made the difference would be an oversimplification. He also pitched to the situation. Whereas the Beckett prior to 2011 would try to strike out a batter with a runner on, the Beckett of 2011 would try to get them to roll over on a breaking ball away and ground in to a double play.

The 2011 Josh Beckett, while allowing just 1.03 walks or hits per innings pitched (lowest of his career) and getting hitters to ground out only 40.1% of the time (lowest of his career since 2002), got hitters to ground into 14 double plays (tied for his best mark since 2006). By pitching smarter instead of throwing hard, Beckett also managed to strand 80% of base runners, another career best.

Only time will tell if Beckett can shake his reputation as an inconsistent starter and become the consistent ace of the staff that the Red Sox thought they were acquiring in 2006. But the adjustments the pitcher made in 2011 are likely here to stay.