Spring training

[jung]

Elias could get the spot and not Wright. Elias certainly has a better chance at it than Owens. But I think like Owens Elias will have to pitch his way past Wright to get it. It won't just be given to him.

[User Name]

Even more so than the last time we had this discussion, it looks like Wright will get the slot in the rotation until Eddie comes back. Surely it can't be Owens. As of last discussion, he was a Control Pitcher with no control, bordering now on Control Pitcher that can't find the plate.

 

I don't view Wright getting the early spot as a bad thing at all. Throwing a knuckler at somebody early in the season does have its advantages.

 

You're still wrong, just like you were in the last discussion, so nothing's changed!

[Station 13]

Another day, another throwing error by Pablo.

[Spudboy]

Another day, another throwing error by Pablo.

 

So that is what? 4 errors in 11 games?

[jung]

Yup about right Spud.

 

These split squad games with no coverage of either are a little tough. We lost both today. Porcello went 4 innings v Twins. Gave up 6 hits, no HR's, 1 BB and 3 runs all in the 2nd inning. So that sounds like the Twins must have bunched their hits in that 2nd inning to get the runs.

 

In the other game, the Sox only scored 1 run against Tampa. Elias made a good showing. Pablo had his throwing error in that game. Two games, one each Sat and Sun broadcast this weekend. After this road swing to the other side of the state expect to see a bunch of minor league assignments.

[mvp 78]

@peteabe Vazquez back-picked a runner off first. Hanley snuck behind John Hicks to make the tag. High throw but the tag was made.

 

BUT HE CAN ONLY GET GROUNDERS!!!!!

[a700hitter]

@peteabe Vazquez back-picked a runner off first. Hanley snuck behind John Hicks to make the tag. High throw but the tag was made.

 

BUT HE CAN ONLY GET GROUNDERS!!!!!

Start measuring him for a Gold Glove.

[Station 13]

So that is what? 4 errors in 11 games?

 

Playing 'half games' to boot. He looks absolutely atrocious in games I've seen. Hanley is surprisingly holding his own. But with bad throws from Pablo, it might change.

[jung]

Anybody know if Vaz is reporting stiffness in his forearm after today's game? I heard something that was attached to JBJ's reported shoulder stiffness about Vaz. I can only assume that if that was pregame, they would not have had Vaz play today.

[Bellhorn04]

2 men on this team who are on thin ice: Sandoval and Farrell.

[Elktonnick]

Like I said yesterday I went to the Ft Myers game today and posted my comment on the st game thread. One of the ushers at the game who has been doing the games in FT Myers for more than ten years, (and played softball with my father in law back in the day) told me that word around was the Sandoval reported to ST twenty pounds heavier than last year.(His twenty pound weight gain may have been reported in the media but I hadn't heard it. before.)

[jung]

Like I said yesterday I went to the Ft Myers game today and posted my comment on the st game thread. One of the ushers at the game who has been doing the games in FT Myers for more than ten years, (and played softball with my father in law back in the day) told me that word around was the Sandoval reported to ST twenty pounds heavier than last year.(His twenty pound weight gain may have been reported in the media but I hadn't heard it. before.)

 

If that is true then Spud has been right this whole time...He is without doubt bumping the 300 mark. Time for a new term in baseball, like the Mendoza line. What to call it....The Sandoval Arc........The Sandoval Circle.........The Panda Parabola???

[mvp 78]

Anybody know if Vaz is reporting stiffness in his forearm after today's game? I heard something that was attached to JBJ's reported shoulder stiffness about Vaz. I can only assume that if that was pregame, they would not have had Vaz play today.

 

Nobody is reporting anything, but you wouldn't believe them anyway.

[jung]

Nobody is reporting anything, but you wouldn't believe them anyway.

 

You are right about that. I probably would not. Believing anything that a MLB exec says publicly is like believing that two movie stars imperviously un-involved showing up at the Oscars together are "dating".

[Elktonnick]

The usher who obviously has seen every ST game played at Jet Blue this spring said Sandoval had trouble picking up slow rollers because he was so fat.

[Spudboy]

To clarify, I believe that Pablo's reported weight of 245 ( or there about ) is not accurate.

 

I am currently fat. I look like a short very white version of Pablo. I am about 280. I have been in "clutch mode" before. Which is to say that if I were to step onto my electronic scale the LED display would read "ERROR". Over 300 pounds. I figure at worst I have been about 325. I am 5'7". Scale my weight up to Pablo's height and he must be around 300. And that is not factoring in that his arms, neck, and legs are clearly larger than mine.

 

Any man on this board who has been clinically obese as I have should clearly understand this.

 

I can not understand why a professional athlete, a person with all the resources and reasons to lose weight, just refuses to do so. Before I broke my back in 2011 I could lose 50-60 pounds by low carbing and just walking around. When I was younger and able to exercise like riding my dirt bikes or going to the Y to do Nautilus I could easily maintain 200 or so which was a healthy weight for me.

[jung]

To clarify, I believe that Pablo's reported weight of 245 ( or there about ) is not accurate.

 

I am currently fat. I look like a short very white version of Pablo. I am about 280. I have been in "clutch mode" before. Which is to say that if I were to step onto my electronic scale the LED display would read "ERROR". Over 300 pounds. I figure at worst I have been about 325. I am 5'7". Scale my weight up to Pablo's height and he must be around 300. And that is not factoring in that his arms, neck, and legs are clearly larger than mine.

 

Any man on this board who has been clinically obese as I have should clearly understand this.

 

I can not understand why a professional athlete, a person with all the resources and reasons to lose weight, just refuses to do so. Before I broke my back in 2011 I could lose 50-60 pounds by low carbing and just walking around. When I was younger and able to exercise like riding my dirt bikes or going to the Y to do Nautilus I could easily maintain 200 or so which was a healthy weight for me.

 

How ironic spud....my exercise of choice after my back would no longer allow me to run was my dirt bike. Then my back really went bad and that was the end of that too.

[a700hitter]

To clarify, I believe that Pablo's reported weight of 245 ( or there about ) is not accurate.

 

I am currently fat. I look like a short very white version of Pablo. I am about 280. I have been in "clutch mode" before. Which is to say that if I were to step onto my electronic scale the LED display would read "ERROR". Over 300 pounds. I figure at worst I have been about 325. I am 5'7". Scale my weight up to Pablo's height and he must be around 300. And that is not factoring in that his arms, neck, and legs are clearly larger than mine.

 

Any man on this board who has been clinically obese as I have should clearly understand this.

 

I can not understand why a professional athlete, a person with all the resources and reasons to lose weight, just refuses to do so. Before I broke my back in 2011 I could lose 50-60 pounds by low carbing and just walking around. When I was younger and able to exercise like riding my dirt bikes or going to the Y to do Nautilus I could easily maintain 200 or so which was a healthy weight for me.

Wasn't your broken back caused a defective door? I hope that you got some insurance money for that. My recollection is that it was an extremely dangerous condition on that property.

[Spudboy]

The suit is pending.

[a700hitter]

The suit is pending.

Good luck with it. I hope that you get a big settlement. You have suffered a lot and my recollection is that you could have been killed.

[Kimmi]

There was a nice article written yesterday about Pablo. Thank goodness someone else can look at this objectively and is willing to give him a chance.

 

Why I'm Still Rooting for Pablo Sandoval by Ben Buchanan

 

On Wednesday, Red Sox fans heard about an incident involving Pablo Sandoval and a local writer. Sandoval, it was said, had gone on a tirade, going so far as to slam his bat on a table, over said writer citing his declining defensive statistics in an article. And while it would later be revealed that A) the incident was not so dramatic as it was made out to be and such incidents tend to happen fairly regularly with both sides ultimately keeping it private, the damage had once again been done, and Sandoval was once again in a very negative spotlight indeed.

 

As with so many other incidents surrounding Sandoval's short time here in Boston, it's not terribly important, but looks very bad. Instagramming as the team sinks, showing up to camp and contradicting the Red Sox on his weight loss goals, etc. etc. Pablo Sandoval doesn't come across as disruptive in the way certain other Red Sox have in years gone by, but he gives off the appearance of a player who is either out of touch with reality, or simply disinterested.

 

Most Red Sox fans seem to believe it's the latter, and Sandoval's weight issues certainly play into that. Obesity is generally viewed as a condition of the lazy or the indulgent. It's damn hard to fix—as someone who went from wearing XXXL shirts to mediums, I can speak to that personally—but ultimately seen as just a matter of exercising the proper willpower and effort. One is not forced to be fat, but makes the decision to be by refusing to work hard at fixing it.

 

Whatever the reason behind it, though, the fact is that Pablo Sandoval is large, and has been hearing about it on a daily basis from Boston. He has borne the slings and arrows thrown his way over his weight with as much grace as anyone could possibly expect. You might scoff at that, but it's true. There have been some exceptionally nasty comments directed towards Sandoval during his time here both by fans and certain portions of the media, and he hasn't really reacted to any of it, continuing to be his amiable self until, well, pretty much now.

 

Which brings us back to the incident in question, and the reason why I don't believe Sandoval is disinterested. He's taken a million cuts in stride, and what sets him off? A reporter citing declining defensive statistics.

 

Putting to the side, for the moment, the use of single-year samples with defensive numbers, does that really sound to you like a player who doesn't care? If Sandoval just wanted to collect his $95 million and sail off into the sunset, why should he be bothered by negative comments about his play? If Sandoval is upset by this, then by definition, he cares.

 

That doesn't make his reaction reasonable or correct. The fact of the matter is that Sandoval was miserable last year both on the field and at the plate, and I don't really need any numbers to corroborate that claim. The argument goes that if Sandoval doesn't want people to criticize his performance, then he should perform better. And that argument is absolutely right! Red Sox fans saw their team disappoint yet again in 2015, and know that Pablo Sandoval—both the portion of payroll he took up and the negative impact in-game—was a big part of why they were so bad for most of the year.

 

But it does show that, at least as a person, Pablo Sandoval is the sort of guy I want to see succeed. Is he fine with his weight? I honestly don't know. Maybe he thinks that, based on past performances, it's not physical fitness that's holding him back. Maybe he's even right, though the reality is that the physical requirements on a player change as the years progress. I don't necessarily think he's just lazy, and I know there's a vast middle ground between "fat and fine with it" and "finally fit." Sometimes it takes a hundred legitimate, difficult efforts before one finally sticks.

 

We don't really know what the situation is with Sandoval. We've heard about a 72-hour weekly workout routine, but it's hard to take that at face value given the results seen in Fort Myers. Still, we've also only had one season. One very bad season, yes, but still just the one, and as this town tends to do when it's disappointed, it's been doing its best to bury Sandoval on the back of that one year. His every spring training gaffe is picked apart while those of the local favorites are ignored, even knowing all along that nothing that happens in spring is really indicative of anything.

 

If Sandoval is as bad this year as he was in 2015, then the Red Sox will likely have to cut their losses on him rather than keep throwing good playing time after bad money. But I won't revel or rejoice in his failure. Not just because Pablo Sandoval is a player for my favorite team whose on-field struggles hurt their chances to win games, but because he genuinely seems like the type of player I would love to be able to cheer for, whether as the All-Star he was in years gone by, or just a solid-if-overpriced third baseman.

 

He may not be the most mature player in Boston, but that's not what you expect when you sign a player named Kung Fu Panda. And I'll take cheery, invested, and perhaps a bit out-of-touch over a player who knows exactly what they need to do to be good, but just doesn't particularly care if they're hitting .220 or .300 so long as they're getting paid. That's not the player I see in Pablo Sandoval, and hopefully it starts to shine through in the boxscore in 2016 the way it once did in San Francisco.

Edited March 19, 2016 by Kimmi

[mvp 78]

I'm rooting for him, but he hasn't shown any improvement in ST. If he plays like last year in 2016, just stick a fork in his career.

[Kimmi]

I'm rooting for him, but he hasn't shown any improvement in ST. If he plays like last year in 2016, just stick a fork in his career.

 

If he doesn't show any improvement the first couple of months of the season, I will be right on board with everyone else about letting Shaw be our everyday 3B. But give him a freaking chance people. I don't mean you MVP, I mean pretty much everyone else on this board, and in the world.

[Bellhorn04]

If he doesn't show any improvement the first couple of months of the season, I will be right on board with everyone else about letting Shaw be our everyday 3B. But give him a freaking chance people. I don't mean you MVP, I mean pretty much everyone else on this board, and in the world.

 

Unfortunately Pablo has given the fans every reason to doubt him. He's made 4 errors in what looks like the equivalent of about 6 games. John Farrell will only say Pablo's defense is a 'work in progress'. What kind of comment is that to make about a veteran third baseman?

 

With all the reps Shaw has been getting at third it's hard to escape the sense that the Sox are just about ready to pack it in with Pablo.

[Elktonnick]

There was a nice article written yesterday about Pablo. Thank goodness someone else can look at this objectively and is willing to give him a chance.

 

Why I'm Still Rooting for Pablo Sandoval by Ben Buchanan

It is fine to root for him but when he comes into camp 20 lbs heavy than last year and is so fat he can't pickup a slow roller and has made 4 errors in 11 games (and should have had two more in the games I watched) it is hard to see any reason why anyone should. He looks awful in the field.

[Elktonnick]

If he doesn't show any improvement the first couple of months of the season, I will be right on board with everyone else about letting Shaw be our everyday 3B. But give him a freaking chance people. I don't mean you MVP, I mean pretty much everyone else on this board, and in the world.

Why should anyone give him a chance when he hasn't given himself one? Farrell said he was losing weight when in fact he gained 20lbs. What does that say about his respect for himself, his team mates or the fans. Okay he has an eating problem then admit it and do something about it. Step up and be responsible. He hasn't and probably won't. So the fans, the media, his team mates and ownership have every right to get on his case until he does or is shipped out of town.

[Station 13]

His fielding sucked last year, it's even worse now. I just cannot see how they could manage a key position and play a defender who is unfit for it. This kills a team quickly. His range, lack of it, is a big problem for a staff that consist of 3 groundball starters. It is important to convert groundball outs, double plays especially. Things get messy fast with defensive inefficiency for such pitchers. His throwing is another concern, he has made a ton of bad throws and with an inexperienced 1B, it's a double edged sword. So I find it very hard to have any patience for Pablo. Edited March 19, 2016 by Station 13

[mvp 78]

For me, the cutoff point is Memorial Day. Sink or Swim.

[Station 13]

2. Here are more reasons Pablo Sandoval’s weight is a factor: There were 17 instances last season when Sandoval was on first base when a single was hit, and all 17 times he made it only as far as second base. There were seven times when Sandoval was on first when a double was hit, and six times he made it only to third, and he never scored. And in the 11 times he was on second when a single was hit, he scored just three times. His “extra base taken percentage” of 9 percent was half of David Ortiz’s. Dustin Pedroia was at 32 percent and Mookie Betts 44 percent.

 

Yikes, clogging up the bases too.

[cp176]

Team in general is still a work in progress. Adding Price for $ and Kimbrel for prospects that probably would not have played for us have made the team better. No questions there. Most us I would imagine would love to see Hanley and Pablo perform the way we kind of thought they might. It's early but Ramirez looks like he might get the job done. I don't know how much time you give Sandoval. Personally, if his performance hurts his team, I hope that he is at least out of the lineup sooner as opposed to later. Athletically baseball may not be quite as physically demanding as some other sports but unless my television screen is grossly distorted I cannot imagine a person as heavy and wide as Sandoval is being able to compete successfully day and day out without breaking something. He will get his chance for sure but if he can't do the complete job it will very obvious early on and he won't be in that lineup. They will no by the end of April.