It is called choking and it was on full display for everyone to see yesterday. Some baseball fans don't want to believe that professional athletes choke, but they do. Every golfer knows about choking and every golfer chokes, except for Jack Nicklaus (a golfing god).
Here is the Red Sox lineup:
Mookie Betts, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Xander Bogaerts, SS
David Ortiz, DH
Hanley Ramirez, 1B
Travis Shaw, 3B
Brock Holt, LF
Blake Swihart, C
Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
David Price, P
The better move at this point would be to send Swihart to AAA and let him work some more on his catching skills. Later in the season, Hannigan could be moved to fill a hole.
Cashing a $17 million annual check does cushion the blow of the embarrassment. I worked for a Fortune 100 Company for 30 years and there were a lot of overpaid executive knuckleheads that made atrocious business decisions. I never knew a single one who was embarrassed about being useless. And every one of them was highly proficient regarding maximizing their own compensation. I don't think we should project feelings of shame on Panda.
I don't think we need to extrapolate from one start when we have last year's body of work to look at. This first start just looks like continuation of last year -- lots of pitches up in the zone.
I don't think it is much of a stretch. He replaced the hottest hitter in our lineup and he came up 3 times with men on base and he did nothing. It wouldn't have taken much to tip the scales in a 3-0 game.