FORT MYERS, Fla. -- John Farrell was Daniel Bard's pitching coach for almost two full seasons with the Red Sox and isn't surprised that Bard is attempting to transition from the bullpen to the starting rotation.
But he cautions that such a job switch can take time.
"I don't know that I can speak to the transition," said Farrell, whose Toronto Blue Jays were set to face Bard and the Red Sox Tuesday night. "I can speak to a guy who has three very good pitches and a tremendous arm, in terms of its power . . . He's a talented guy.
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"On a given night, you saw a guy with three very good pitches. And typically, when you see that, starting comes to mind because of the definition of three pitches and whatever factors come into that. Starting's not foreign to him."
Farrell manages Brandon Morrow, who went through a similar transition from reliever to starter and understands the process. He cautions that Bard will need time to fully evolve.
"It's getting back to the full length of the season and the total number of innings pitched," he said. "So when you're counting on a guy to be an inning-eating starting pitcher, that might be a (multi-) year process."
Farrell noted that Morrow was shut down in September of 2010 because of workload before "he finally got through a full season," in 2011.
"I think there's constant development that goes on," said Farrell, "because you take a one-inning, all-or-nothing mentality -- for a lack of a better way to describe it -- and now you have to stretch that out over 21 outs. There's going to be that fine line: do you pace yourself, what's the intensity level from pitch to pitch over the course of 110 pitches.
"That was last year's step for Brandon. One year, it was the physical side of it. Last year, was more the intensity level from start to finish in a given game. So it's been a two-year process
for him."