Price's mechanical issues are still present, as witnessed by his being all over the place on the mound on the recent road trip. He needed Pedroia to fix him the last time back in May, not Farrell or Willis, who never even noticed.
And ERod has his mechanics fixed back in Pawtucket; the major league staff couldn't do a damn thing with him. Bannister had to be brought in to fix Buchholz; supposed pitching guru Farrell got 1/2 a season's worth of terrible results from him first
They are not good at this part of their jobs, which is a huge reason for the massive underperformance of key members of the pitching staff. It's about as big an indictment as I've ever seen.
Farrell is incapable of righting any type of ship. He's more than happy to sit passively in the dugout and watch games implode (cue the staring while on the phone .gif), and then sit passively in his office and not do a damn thing about getting the team to play better. He's extremely smart and good at scouting and other prep, but awful, beyond awful, at getting pitchers to pitch to their abilities. And this lack of ability is going to ruin the season.
Rodriguez was sent down to AAA to work on the pitch-tipping issues he had. Willis, and I'm guessing Farrell, were very aware of those issues, according to articles from last year and this year. They tried to work on them in-season, but during games, he would revert to form and began tipping again. The only way to resolve tipping is to make sure the habit is broken during games. Yes, they could have left him in Boston and continued to work on it, but since that would be during games that counted, in my mind it's much better to work on tipping, and other problems, during games that don't count in AAA. Once the issue was resolved he was brought back up. so far, it seems like it's not an issue anymore.
Buchholz identified his lower arm slot by looking at video from 2013. Bannister confirmed what CB found:
And so, he tried to find solutions to his dreadful early-season performance. Buchholz turned to video of a 2013 season that he identifies as his best performance and noted that his release point was higher than it was in 2016. He conferred with Sox director of pitching analysis Brian Bannister, who confirmed that Buchholz’s release point had indeed migrated steadily south over a three-year span.
Yes, that is something that Willis should have identified, but he didn't. I have no reason why, but you also need to remember that with the number of problems the pitchers are having that he can't possibly have the time to give everyone the individual attention they need. I'm guessing that is a big reason Bannister is now travelling with the team. He can be in the clubhouse during games using video, and other resources, to identify potential problem areas during the game. And before gmes he can be in the pen working with the pitchers with Willis. And he can go over those issues he sees with Willis during and after the game so they can all work on them as soon as possible.
There are all sorts of mechanical issues pitchers can have, same with hitters, that cause them to fuck up in games. Just like with ER, it's one thing to work on them in side sessions and another to translate those side sessions to the mound during a game. And it's usually not just one thing causing the player to be ineffective. Most of the time it is many things because the player will try to compensate for the original problem and change his mechanics to try to "fix" the original problem.
When a pitcher doesn't bring the work they did in the pen into a game, it's the pitcher's fault, not the coach. A lower arm slot, especially when it happens gradually - which appears to be the case with CB - is not as easy to identify as something like throwing more across the body or not driving towards the plate with your shoulder when you deliver the pitch. I'm not saying this to excuse Willis by any means, but some problems are much easier to identify than others.
Farrell was a very good pitching coach, but that's not his job anymore. Willis, and now Bannister, have that job. I'm surprised that move wasn't made earlier and also that more teams aren't doing this. As for Farrell, I doubt that there are enough hours in the day for Farrell, in addition to managing the team, to have much time to also coach the pitchers. I do agree with many that his bullpen management isn't always optimal, but as many have noted, many managers have similar problems. I do wonder if people would have the same reaction to many of his moves if they had the same knowledge about the relief pitchers as the team does.
The bottom line is still, you have to allow people to do the job they were hired for. If they can't do the job, fire them. I'm not ready to fire Farrell yet, especially since I have no idea who would do things differently enough to matter.