Prioritizing strikeouts is direction coming from Cora?
Oh right - I forgot the pitching coach is a completely independent actor, and Cora's just along for the ride.
And how do you know that this isn’t going on? Maybe the pitchers that he’s getting just aren’t good enough.
I feel like every thread in this forum can be summed up by saying “they need more good players”. Because that’s the issue, they don’t currently have enough MLB talent to be a playoff team.
This is just assuming a conclusion. Sure, there are a variety of pitchers that move through the org. Some are better than others. But it's an org. Meaning, there are coaches and managers who are there to get the most out of the staff. Ultimately, Cora gets what he gets, and it's up to him to develop it, to use it wisely, to maximize it in pursuit of wins.
Any manager can be great with the best bullpen in the world, and a limitless supply of replacements. That's a given. The first question is: "Can Cora and his coaches effectively use the talent given to win ballgames?"
So far, on the whole, I'd say one of Cora's weaknesses is handling the pitching staff. Reasonable minds can disagree as to the impact of that, but I don't think anyone can seriously argue that Cora (and staff) are a "+" when it comes to handling pitching. He's mechanical and short-sighted, lacking a sense of "the moment" or a feel for individual games.
A reasonable second question is: "Are they getting enough talent?" That's harder to answer if they're mismanaging it.
While they've acquired and gotten some good runs out of unheralded pitchers (especially last year), they've also abjectly failed at getting the entire starting pitching staff to go deeper into games. Houck, Whitlock, Sale, Crawford, and until recently, Bello.
Some of that has gone on for multiple years now (Houck/Whitlock) and it's now borderline inexplicable. Either these guys are starters or relievers. The coaching staff needs to decide and cultivate them in the best roles for them.
Successes like Winckowski (and Brasier, post-org) seem to have retooled their pitches on their own.
Others seem to be Bloom-finds that are brought in and initially do well without major changes: Schreiber, Bernardino, (old) Brasier, Strahm, Wacha, etc.
Overall, I'd say they're certainly getting talented pitchers. I just don't think they're developing/using them well. Which is
not to say the Sox are abject failures in this department, and pitching is volatile anyway. But I don't think this is a strength for them, and I think a new coaching staff might do better with what we have.