i believe given the opportunity to be an everyday player that panda would have positive WAR and certainly do better than now while he is part timing with fill in the blank utility player. i believe he just needs a week or two of 3-4 AB's everyday to get rolling. i believe his defense is adequate enough that it won't matter if its rutledge or him on D.
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is this DD or Slasher9?
"Third base has been one area I think we still need a spot to kind of see how Pablo plays through this," Slasher9 said. "Starting in spring training, he did very well for us. We were very excited. And I think you also have to remember that Pablo has done everything that we asked him to do. He got himself in shape, he's worked very hard. He's continued to work hard. He's worked on the dietary aspect of it. He's worked on the skill aspect of it.
"I think sometimes you have to give guys an opportunity before you just jump to the conclusions right away. And we'll continue to monitor his situation. It's up to him to do well and we'll see what takes place."
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It really looks as though the Red Sox are all but done with Sandoval. I have to think that if they actually thought that playing him for a few weeks in a row consistently would be the best situation for the club, they would do it. Really looks like he is done in Boston. This one goes down as one of our worst free agent signings for sure.
Maybe tied with CC.
Just because we suckered the Dodgers into taking CC off our hands, doesn't make that signing any better than Pablito.
$142M/7 years
BOS .260 14 75 (664 PAs in 2 seasons) .711 OPS
LAD .278 18 99 (1119 PAs in 4 seasons) .720 OPS
(Did not play his final year of contract- 2017.)
Totals: .272 32 174 in 1783 PAs (.716 OPS)
He basically had enough PAs for 3 full seasons over his 7 year contract.
At least Crawford had a positive WAR a few times. Sandoval has literally been hurt a majority of the contract, and when he does play, he sucks offensively, defensively and is slow. He's one of the most useless players in all of baseball.
It certainly looks like he is gone until the all star break. After that, a reevaluation has to take place. In the mean time, Rutledge is our utility infielder so the question becomes do we trade for a 3rd baseman or make the jump with Devers. Nothing new in those thoughts and that Marrero will be probably be sent down again.
I would bring Devers up soon, keep Travis and Rutledge up and send Marrero back down. Assuming Devers can show plate discipline, hit with a little power and field his position enough so he is better than anyone we currently have, he would have a nice start to a ML career.
What a nice lineup that could be:
Pedey/Rutledge
Bennintendi/Young
Bogaerts
Betts
Moreland/Travis
Rameriz/Young/Moreland
JBJ
Devers/Rutledge
Leon/Vazquez
I am hoping Handley gets hot. Watching his at bats shows me he has good plate discipline but is just missing the pitches (lot of fouls), so may not be seeing it well. That or possibly the shoulder is more of a problem than we know. It is worth waiting as he is a 235 pound vedry strong player and capable of much more.