108, 109, 113, 99, 111, 121, 108, 113, 118, 102, 103, 91, 103, 112, 100, 84. These are the Red Sox team wRC+ vs. LHP every year since 2003.
In a bubble, yes, the team's numbers against Paxton would be too small a sample to be meaningful. But they correspond to the biggest weakness against left-handed pitching the team has had this century. (And that 84 figure includes Hanley's 133 wRC+, so it's actually worse.)
I'd expect them to address that weakness anyway, but since the strength of MLB teams in 2018 is so weirdly disparate and there aren't enough contenders to create the usual number of playoff scenarios, why wouldn't you think about preventing a glaring vulnerability from being exploited in the highest-stakes game of the year?
In a bubble, yes, the team's numbers against Paxton would be too small a sample to be meaningful. But they correspond to the biggest weakness against left-handed pitching the team has had this century. (And that 84 figure includes Hanley's 133 wRC+, so it's actually worse.)
I'd expect them to address that weakness anyway, but since the strength of MLB teams in 2018 is so weirdly disparate and there aren't enough contenders to create the usual number of playoff scenarios, why wouldn't you think about preventing a glaring vulnerability from being exploited in the highest-stakes game of the year?
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