These aren't John McGraw or Leo Durocher days. So, no.adam42381 said:Can't the manager/hitting coach flat out tell him to hit lefty exclusively?
And if he refuses? They bench their $95M investment? They signed a switch hitter, they're going to let him switch hit until he decides to stop.adam42381 said:Can't the manager/hitting coach flat out tell him to hit lefty exclusively?
Cherrington on WEEI last week said the Red Sox would not force him to hit lefty exclusively. Cherrington said this is a player's decision and a player has to do what he is comfortable with.adam42381 said:Can't the manager/hitting coach flat out tell him to hit lefty exclusively?
He seemed to be fine before his leg injury. I wonder if that is still bothering him and causing his play to sufferSavin Hillbilly said:So, after tonight he has a wRC+ of 84 and the defense continues to underwhelm. Are we getting into Carl Crawford territory yet, or just Edgar Renteria?
soxhop411 said:He seemed to be fine before his leg injury. I wonder if that is still bothering him and causing his play to suffer
That is so wrong. Christie should be thankful Letterman is retired. But, yeah, that makes me feel better about Pablo.BannedbyNYYFans.com said:He looks awful out there.
Savin Hillbilly said:So, after tonight he has a wRC+ of 84 and the defense continues to underwhelm. Are we getting into Carl Crawford territory yet, or just Edgar Renteria?
gaelgirl said:Don't worry, everyone, Pablo's a professional and he knows what he has to do. Just leave him alone! LEAVE PABLO ALONEEEE!!!
In all seriousness, this is what you get with Pablo Sandoval. He will look lost and awful and you'll wonder if he'll ever get a hit again, but then it'll click in and you wonder if he'll ever make an out again. This is the world of Pandoval.
Um, unless it's one of his bad seasons, which have in the past tended to be when he was significantly overweight. Still, he's streaky.
gaelgirl said:Don't worry, everyone, Pablo's a professional and he knows what he has to do. Just leave him alone! LEAVE PABLO ALONEEEE!!!
In all seriousness, this is what you get with Pablo Sandoval. He will look lost and awful and you'll wonder if he'll ever get a hit again, but then it'll click in and you wonder if he'll ever make an out again. This is the world of Pandoval.
Um, unless it's one of his bad seasons, which have in the past tended to be when he was significantly overweight. Still, he's streaky.
.500, five hundred, such heady thoughts right now. Would I settle for .500 at the end of this season?Rovin Romine said:
In retrospect, Pandoval and Napoli probably aren't the best combo to anchor a lineup. If extreme feast and famine hitters have their hot and cold spells in sync, you're looking at a .500 team that has a lot of blowout games (one way or the other).
Hank Scorpio said:Pablo Sandoval has not had an extra base hit since May 16th, and in that time he is 8 for 54 (.148).
In that same time period, Will Middlebrooks is 21 for 71 (.296) with 4 HR and 3 doubles.
And $90m+ less committed salary?rembrat said:
Oh, fuck, I so wish we had Wil's .238/.271/.411 instead of Pablo's .239/.303/.348!!1
Wasn't like 75%+ of SOSH sick of WMB after last season?Toe Nash said:And $90m+ less committed salary?
soxhop411 said:And we have no good 3B IN the minors close to the majors.
Lowrie is out until the all star break. Try again.Plympton91 said:
Jed Lowrie was available. And there are these things called "trades," which our front office may have heard of, though it seems like many on SOSH haven't.
Rudy Pemberton said:And Sandoval has been terrible. What's the point here? They had Bogaerts and Holt. Headley was out there. Hanley Ramirez was a free agent. Cecchini was at least seen as potential help down the road. Signing Sandoval to a huge deal was not the only option that you present it to be.
Which of those other options were preferable? Headley has been just as bad, Cecchini isn't hitting in Pawtucket, Bogaerts just opens up a hole at SS, and do you really want Hanley there?Rudy Pemberton said:And Sandoval has been terrible. What's the point here? They had Bogaerts and Holt. Headley was out there. Hanley Ramirez was a free agent. Cecchini was at least seen as potential help down the road. Signing Sandoval to a huge deal was not the only option that you present it to be.
Do we really know that Holt will always start playing poorly every time he gets sustained every day playing time? That might be a sample size thing, like Pedroia starting off his career at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007 with an OPS in the .500s over 160 or so plate appearances. I mean, why should a good athlete/good ballplayer like Holt not be able to sustain good play full time? Of course, mostly hindsight, but I really wish Sandoval had taken the Giants offer. They're ecstatic he didn't because their new third baseman is far outplaying Pablo at one 35th the cost.Hee Sox Choi said:Are you seriously saying that WMB was an option? The guy was/is terrible and it was VERY CLEAR by the end of last year. WMB is down to 228/261/394 for the Pads and is probably saying he's about to find his rythym. I was surprised that Ben could even get a 34-year-old backup catcher for him.
If the Sox would have went in to last season with WMB and Holt as the 3B options, I would have lost my mind. Holt was exposed last year once he played full time and this year he's riding a .379 BABIP. Sox are better when Holt is the UTIF/OF.
Well, that's the problem and why they overreacted. They have pressure to win the World Series every year, even coming off a last-place season.Hee Sox Choi said:If the Sox would have went in to last season with WMB and Holt as the 3B options, I would have lost my mind. Holt was exposed last year once he played full time and this year he's riding a .379 BABIP. Sox are better when Holt is the UTIF/OF.
That'll be interesting to see play out. ML pitchers will probably figure something out with Duffy, like they did with Betts, then he'll have to adjust. Does fielding go into a slump though? So far this year, Duffy has looked good and Pablo not. Eh, it's all hindsight. We're stuck with what Ben got us.Hee Sox Choi said:
By the end of the season, I'm betting that Sandoval is much better than Matt Duffy.
Hee Sox Choi said:Are you seriously saying that WMB was an option? The guy was/is terrible and it was VERY CLEAR by the end of last year. WMB is down to 228/261/394 for the Pads and is probably saying he's about to find his rythym. I was surprised that Ben could even get a 34-year-old backup catcher for him.
If the Sox would have went in to last season with WMB and Holt as the 3B options, I would have lost my mind. Holt was exposed last year once he played full time and this year he's riding a .379 BABIP. Sox are better when Holt is the UTIF/OF.
He showed signs of life during his first call up with the sox. Then pitchers figured him out.Rovin Romine said:
WMB is also 26. I'm not saying he should have been an option for the Sox as their starting 3B in 2015, but he has shown some signs of life in San Diego.
Not fair to look at that and make a judgment. He had just eaten an entire ham.BannedbyNYYFans.com said:He looks awful out there.
Hee Sox Choi said:Holt's been lucky on batted balls in play. Three different projection systems have his ROS at 272/.329/.365 (Fangraphs). Could he outplay those projections? Sure, but that's what advanced statistics are for - making an educated guess. Holt's D is fringe-average at 3B (to my eye). I would hope Panda can play much better than that on both sides of the ball. Not to mention, Holt is a real weapon as someone who can play every position. Why eliminate his greatest strength?
By the end of the season, I'm betting that Sandoval is much better than Matt Duffy.
33.7% of his BIP are line drives. He's fucking raking, there's no doubt about it. If he had enough at bats, he'd lead the league in LD% per fangraphs.JBJ_HOF said:
Holt's batted ball profile has been so good his xBABIP is like 30 points higher than his current BABIP, but you keep going to the well with that argument.
Rovin Romine said:
In retrospect, Pandoval and Napoli probably aren't the best combo to anchor a lineup. If extreme feast and famine hitters have their hot and cold spells in sync, you're looking at a .500 team that has a lot of blowout games (one way or the other).
He also only hits 16% fly balls, which are babip killers. Same for infield popups, only 6%.33.7% of his BIP are line drives. He's fucking raking, there's no doubt about it. If he had enough at bats, he'd lead the league in LD% per fangraphs.
People are going to stop believing me when I say P Sandoval was really great at 3B last year. But he was. What the heck has happened?
I get pressure to perform up to big $$$. But come on - he performed under game 7 World Series pressure; and in front of bigger crowds in SF
Bottom line - Pablo has plenty of time to justify contract. But I'm really surprised by the cratering of his defense thus far.
Small sample alert - but right now Matt Duffy is a significantly better player than Sandoval. That's a nice surprise for SFG.
At 1/35th the salary this year. Duffy could fall apart like Middlebrooks did, I know.nattysez said:Thoughts from Dave Flemming, one of the Giants' announcers. Nothing revolutionary, but figured I'd share:
Small sample alert - but right now Matt Duffy is a significantly better player than Sandoval. That's a nice surprise for SFG.