Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Is The Kung-Fu Panda Coming East To Boston?

(Photo: DreamWorks Animation)
Almost every review of the off-season needs of the last-place Red Sox includes talk of a left-handed-hitting third baseman. Of course, implicit in this discussion is the notion that Will Middlebrooks is history—something the team steadfastly refutes. Nevertheless, Boston needs another left-handed bat to augment David Ortiz in a heavily right-handed line-up. Two of the most obvious options are two switch-hitting denizens of the hot corner: Pablo Sandoval and Chase Headley. Both are free-agents in 2015 and thus would come with no sacrifice of prospects or current players. In combined action for both the Padres and Evil Ones, Headley hit .243 with 13 HRs and 49 RBIs (almost exactly the same as the numbers put up by Xander Bogaerts so far in his short career). Sandoval remained pretty healthy this year and posted better stats than Headley—in 157 games, The Panda hit .279 with 16 HRs and 73 RBIs. Headley also strikes out a lot more than Sandoval—but both have about the same OBP (.324 for the Panda, .328 for Headley). So, which one will the Sox land? Sandoval would be a lot more fun and probably more productive. Stay tuned.