“We’re looking forward to not only getting him back to where he was, but getting him even better,” Boles said. Not to become the pitcher he was, but to be even better.”
![bob kipper bob kipper](https://www.pelotabinaria.com.ve/beisbol/img/MLB/1988/PIT/kippebo01.jpg)
“Maybe we can take his game to an even higher level,” Kipper said. In fact, both Boles and Kipper said they have even higher goals than that. He has three years of dominating performance at the major-league level to draw from that he didn’t have five years ago.”īack then, no one really knew if Bard could be a dominant reliever.Įveryone now knows Bard can be a dominant reliever. Now we’re jumping forward five years, and the baseline is totally different. Back in 20, that was his first full season in professional baseball. “His baseline is totally different - totally different,” Kipper said. To Boles and Kipper, what Bard faces now pales in comparison to what he faced at the start of the 2008 season. He struck out 29 Triple-A hitters in 16 innings the following year - at which point the Red Sox called him up to the major leagues. He struck out 64 Double-A hitters in 492/3 innings.
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He struck out 43 Single-A hitters in 28 innings. … I remember looking at this arm, like, ‘Oh, boy.’”īy the time Bard got to Greenville for the regular season, he was on the fast track to the major leagues. The rest of his delivery fell into place. In the middle of that outing - “I remember the day like it was yesterday,” Boles said - Bard found middle ground between the high leg kick and the slide step. The resulting inconsistency did little to help him repeat his delivery. Before that, he’d been using a higher leg kick with the bases empty and a shorter leg kick - “a slide step, almost,” he said - when runners reached base. As had become typical, he’d allowed runners to reach base. Boles then was the Greenville manager, Kipper the Greenville pitching coach.īard was pitching against the Minnesota Twins’ Single-A affiliate. The first indications he was back on track came in an outing for Greenville late in spring training. He was in the home clubhouse at Hadlock Field alongside prospects five years his junior like Matt Barnes and Xander Bogaerts. He wasn’t with the Red Sox in New York on Wednesday. “This sounds like the identical conversation we had back in 2008.”Įverything old is new again for Bard, dispatched to Double-A Portland out of spring training to recapture what had made him one of the best relievers in baseball over a three-year period. “This sounds really familiar,” Kipper said. Rather than thinking about his release point or the movement of his legs, he described to Kipper a focus on maintaining a straight line from the start of his delivery all the way through the ball crossing the plate.
![bob kipper bob kipper](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f6/2d/c9/f62dc98b99dd8df841b5ca127ce21f10.jpg)
It didn’t take long before Bard and his old pitching coach launched into a conversation of the mechanics of Bard’s delivery. It will be also his 15th season in the Red Sox minor league system.PORTLAND, Maine - It was during live batting-practice sessions early in spring training that Bob Kipper ventured into a bullpen on the back fields at JetBlue Park to greet Daniel Bard. He will serve for the fifth consecutive year, and his seventh year overall. He spent the full 2002 season as bullpen coach of the MLB Red Sox.The Boston Red Sox announced in December 2013 that Kipper is back as pitching coach for Double-A Portland for the 2014 season. A member of the Boston Red Sox organization since 1999, he has coached for their Lowell Spinners (1999), Augusta GreenJackets (2000–2001), Greenville Drive (2005–2006 2008–2009), Lancaster JetHawks (2007) and Portland Sea Dogs (2003–2004 2010–2014) affiliates.
![bob kipper bob kipper](https://www.pelotabinaria.com.ve/beisbol/cards/SCORE/1992/SCORE_1992_340_0.jpg)
He is currently the pitching coach for the Portland Sea Dogs.In an eight-season career, Kipper posted a 27–37 with a 4.43 ERA and 11 saves in 271 appearances.Following his playing retirement, Kipper has worked as a pitching coach in independent league baseball and in the minor leagues. He batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He played from 1985 through 1992 for the California Angels (1985), Pittsburgh Pirates (1985–1991) and Minnesota Twins (1992). He had signed to play baseball at Nebraska before his selection. Bob Kipper Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Robert Wayne Kipper (born Jin Aurora, Illinois) is a former middle-relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who was the eighth player drafted in the 1982 draft.