Farrell: Beckett will be even better

MLB. Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell has revealed this week a bit of news that has to be construed as the bad variety to major-league hitters.

Right-handed heat-throwing ace Josh Beckett is expecting to elevate his game even higher during his third season with the Sox.

Beckett is entering a power pitcher’s prime at 28 years old and could potentially upgrade his numbers of a season ago when he finished second in Cy Young Award voting with a 20-7 record and 3.27 ERA.

“I think one main challenge will be not placing a ceiling on him to limit what he can do given what he did last year,” said Farrell, entering his second season working with the Texas gunslinger. “He’s very diligent and routine-oriented, but if there’s one area where we can look to improve upon, it’s using his fastball above the strike zone a little bit more to lefties, particularly in on them at times.

“It’s something that can be utilized to change the eye level of a particular hitter. A year ago, we worked on getting the ball down in the zone, and he accomplished that as he had done prior to his 2006 season. But now, we can reinforce those things he accomplished a year ago and then add some subtleties along the way. We’re talking about someone that’s pretty elite, as we all know.”

In addition to being at the top of a pretty elite list of aces around the big leagues, Beckett has been painted in the past as something of an anti-establishment rebel of sorts — a young, wealthy, accomplished baseball player who deflects the typical praise and glory but isn’t above occasionally sprinkling colorful language into his postgame press conferences.

It wasn’t surprising that, given his personality, Beckett didn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on a body of postseason work that furthered the power pitcher’s reputation as a big-game bulldog. Instead, Beckett will again aspire to put up the 200 innings and 20 wins associated with starting pitching excellence.

“I think, for me, it’s about trying to stay consistent this year like I was last year,” Beckett said. “Whether it’s from pitch to pitch, or outing to outing, or day to day, or hour to hour or in between starts, being consistent is what I’m going to focus on.

“Last year, obviously the team goals were met, and the personal goals were also met. So I think it’s a good year to look back on and say, ‘This is what we want to do.’”