Panda Express

Today the Red Sox designated Pablo Sandoval for assignment, essentially ending his time in the Red Sox organization. And, while I know I’m in the minority on this…

I don’t really get it.

Oh, sure. Sandoval was vastly underperforming his contract. I’m not going to say he’s been an all-star during his time in Boston. But, here’s the thing. Neither are any of the players replacing him. And, no, I don’t count Brock Holt.

So, you now are stuck having to pay Sandoval's contract AND another player to actually play. So, you’re paying even more to get a player at about the level Panda was playing.

Why does this make sense to anyone?

Again, if Devers is just busting his way into the line-up a la Mookie Betts, I get it. Or if Dombrowski was on the phone right now trading for Jose Ramirez, I get it. I’m not about to play anyone just because they’re getting paid a lot of money. But, I am going to play someone with a proven track record when there isn’t anyone available who’s better.

Sure, some of the fill-ins have done well in spurts. But they generally remember who they are after a time or two. So, I suppose, if you can only play guys when they’re hot, and then replace them once they start to cool down even a little, you can do that. Not exactly the best way to make it through the season though.

I’m honestly not sure what happened to Panda during his time in Boston. For some reason fans decided he was just a publicity stunt, and really never gave him a chance. Sure, he was a big guy. And fans loved making fat jokes. But the Sox have had plenty of big guys who were beloved. It’s not like we expect all Red Sox players to look like Mookie Betts. Once Panda started showing the effects of injuries, he was doomed. The Sox fans never let him recover. While I didn’t get it, I can at least see what happened.

The team, I really don’t understand. Why the Red Sox benched Sandoval to start the 2016 season will always puzzle me. Travis Shaw in no way earned the job. He didn’t outperform Panda in any measurable way. Certainly not by enough for the unproven youngster to take a job away from a veteran. Which is why I assumed that the Sox traded Shaw away in the off-season. They knew Panda was the better option. But, they kept doing it again. Marrero kept getting playing time. As a defensive replacement, of all things, as he made error after error. John Farrell said things like “Pablo will still get at-bats” like he lost his job to a guy hitting .250. It’s puzzling.

And here we are with an even more puzzling move. Cutting ties altogether.

Maybe the Red Sox have a plan. Maybe there’s a player on the roster that can actually play better than Pablo could. I don’t know who that is.

I wonder if they do.

It's Here!

It's finally here!

All the waiting. All the anticipation. All the boredom. It all ends today, because Red Sox baseball is back!

The bad news? The Sox are already in second place. The good news? They're still ahead of the Yankees.

The even better news? The Red Sox have the reigning Cy Young award winner on the mound for them today. I think the expectations were too low on Rick Porcello entering last season, and they'll probably be a little high for him this season. But, it will be exciting to see what he can produce now that his good year in Detroit wasn't the "fluke."

Pablo Sandoval will also be back. I see no reason not to think he'll have a bounce back year. (I think I got all the negatives to work out there...) It will be fun to see what he can produce with a healthy season. Especially since I think most fans have washed their hands of him, so the pressure will be off. Anything we get will be enough for most.

And, it's the low expectations at some positions that I think will save the Sox this season. Yes, David Ortiz is gone. Yes, David Price is hurt. But, compare the team to last year. Does subtracting Price and adding Sale make the rotation better? Yes. Does subtracting Buchholz help? Sure. Might Porcello slide back a bit? Sure. But I think we can agree, compared to Opening Day last year, this is an upgrade. 

But, will the Sox score runs without Ortiz?

I don't see why not.

Sure, they'll take a hit with (essentially) Mitch Moreland taking Papi's place in the line-up. But, it more than that. A healthy Sandoval takes the place of the hot mess at third base last year. That's an improvement. Anyone think that Andrew Benintendi won't be an improvement over what the Sox got out of left field last season? When the Sox had to force Swihart out there for crying out loud?

So, yes, I think the Sox offense can make up for the loss of Ortiz. No, you can't replace him straight up. But, you can make smaller improvements elsewhere. Which is just what the Sox did. 

So, let's see how it all plays out. Mother Nature has decided to hold of on the snow for a day to allow the Sox to open in the sunshine. Even she is excited to get things started. She wants to make sure everyone gets a good start to the day. And the season.

162-0?

Do You All Owe Panda an Apology?

Is this John Lackey all over again?

You remember. Everyone killed Lackey in 2011. He was terrible. The worst pitcher in baseball history. Then it was revealed that he was forcing himself to play through a pretty significant injury. That’s why he was terrible. He was sacrificing himself to try and help the team. He should have been celebrated like Schilling was, not buried.

Then we come to Panda.

He’s lousy. He’s so fat! The guy’s so fat he can’t even throw! He can’t even bend over far enough to field a grounder! He’s not even as good as a mediocre minor leaguer at third base! What? His shoulder is strained? He’s so fat he hurt himself on the bench! Did he strain his shoulder because his fork was too heavy?

But, reports are that his shoulder is actually a mess. We’re not quite sure when this happened. But, since we can’t pinpoint a time, wouldn’t that suggest it’s been a while? At least all season? After all, he’s played so little this year that if he hurt himself, we would have noticed. At least while he was struggling through his fielding in Spring? At least while he, for some reason, needed to play for his job?

Maybe it’s been bothering him for a while? Maybe that’s why he had a sudden drop in production last year? Maybe he’s been pulling a Pedroia. Acting tough while trying to play through an injury when you’re actually hurting the team. Pedroia gets applauded for that. Panda, apparently, gets scolded.

And that’s too bad. What if Panda has been doing exactly what he thought that everyone wants him to do? He didn’t whine. He didn’t blame his injury. (People hate it when you do that, for some reason.) He suffered through it quietly. Yeah, it’s stupid to do that. But, the rest of Red Sox nation thinks it’s the thing to do. 

Maybe it’s time fans stop doing that. Maybe if you’re injured, you should just tell everyone. Maybe you should rest so it gets better. Maybe if Panda had done that, his performance wouldn’t have suffered. 

Maybe people would call him lazy. 

But, apparently they’ll do that either way.

Can We Pump the Brakes on Travis Shaw?

I'm going to start this with a question, and I want you to answer it honestly.

How good do you actually think Travis Shaw is?

I ask this because people seem to think he's Mike Schmidt. I hate to be the one to break it to you. He's not. That's certainly not a knock on Shaw. There's only one Mike Schmidt. But, it should be a knock on the people who seem to think they've found another one.

Travis Shaw is having an amazing spring. He had a darn good September too. But, people seem to forget Spring and September numbers don't actually count for anything. So far he's been excelling at competition slightly better than AAA level. We're going to make decisions based on that? 

But, some people want to do exactly that. They think Shaw should be the starting third baseman, and not Pablo Sandoval. Let's explore that a little bit.

Pretend you actually care about September statistics. (You know, like the ones that insisted Kevin Maas was the next Mickey Mantle.) How did Shaw do last fall? I see he performed to a 115 OPS+. That's a pretty good number. Know what Pablo Sandoval's career OPS+ is? 117. It doesn't take an expert to see that Panda's been better over his career than Shaw has been over his. 

Yes. yes. I know. Panda had an off year last year. And, you'd be right to mention it. But, I should point out that his numbers were a bit worse than his performance. I've already mentioned that he put the ball in play about as often last year as he did the year before, he just hit about 35 points lower. That could very well be dumb luck. In fact, baseball reference predicts that he will bounce back a little bit. A .264/.317/.404 slash. 

What do they predict for Shaw? A .270/.329/.468 slash. So, they predict that Travis Shaw coming off the month of his life will be marginally better than Sandoval coming off the worst (unluckiest?) season of his.

That's not good enough for me.

If I'm going to replace a guy who has had an eight-year history of good performance, I'm going to need more than replacement level to get him out of there.

After all, the Sox will need Panda in the playoffs!