Hurley: The Real Embarrassment For Pablo Sandoval? Red Sox Perform Better Without Him
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox punished Pablo Sandoval on Thursday night, forcing the $95 million man to ride the pine because he let his love for the ladies spill into game time.
As far as "scandals" in the sports world go, this was without question the silliest of them all. The guy went to the bathroom mid-game, grabbed his phone, uttered "ooh-la-la!" and double-tapped a couple of photos on Instagram. The punishment was deserved and appropriate, because, come on, man. Pay attention.
But the story has nevertheless blown up into a national topic, with former big league manager and current ESPN analyst Eric Wedge maxing out the Sanctimony Charts by referring to Sandoval's online activity as "sickening."
Sickening!
The dude was trying to set up a postgame rendezvous with a nice young lass from the Atlanta area. He deserved a one-game ban for being foolish about it, but were his double-taps really "sickening"? Let's relax a bit here, folks. We're talking about Instagram. Let's dismount our high horses, please.
But leaving the "sickening scandal" aside, there is a Sandoval-related thought that's been kicking around my noggin for the past month or so. It seems to me that whenever Sandoval has sat out of a game -- whether it be for rest, due to injury, or so he can "get a breather" and try to figure out how to hit -- I've kind of thought, "Gee, are the Red Sox any worse when he's out of the lineup?"
Obviously, Sandoval is a fine player, and while he hasn't exactly been tearing it up, he has been OK this season. But does the team really take a step backward when Brock Holt joins Xander Bogaerts on the left side of the infield? At the plate and in the field, Holt's proven to be better than your average replacement player.
Sandoval
.270/.323/.409, .733 OPS, 6 HRs, 10 2Bs, 1 3B, 23 RBIs in 232 PAs; 9 errors in 133 total chances (.932 fielding percentage)
Holt
.319/.408/.469, .876 OPS, 2 HRs, 12 2Bs, 3 3Bs, 15 RBIs in 185 PAs; 4 errors in 77 total chances at 3B, SS and 2B (.948 fielding percentage)
Beyond that, I had a feeling that typically when Sandoval's been out, the Red Sox have won. So I checked it out.
Sure enough, the Red Sox are 8-4 when Sandoval is not in the starting lineup. They've outscored the opponent 54-42 in those games. They're 21-35 when he does start. They've been outscored 280-211 in those games.
I know, I know, I know.
I know!
We're not even allowed to pin wins and losses on starting pitchers, so certainly we cannot dole out "Third Baseman Wins" either. I'm not stupid.
So no, I'm not trying to make the case that the Red Sox would be a .667, first-place team with a positive run differential if they'd just keep Sandoval far away from the field every night.
But I do think it's fair to suggest that Sandoval might want to start earning that contract sooner than later. Brock Holt is a local legend, a modern-day cult hero. Nothing written in this story is meant to disparage how remarkably he's been playing this year. But when it comes right down to it, he makes $530,000 per year, aka less than what Sandoval makes every week. Think about that. Holt's compiled a 2.4 WAR while earning peanuts; former World Series MVP Sandoval sits at a perfectly even 0.0 WAR while raking in piles upon piles of cash every single week.
For perspective, even Mike Napoli -- with his anemic .204 batting average -- has managed to tip the scales to give him a positive 0.1 WAR. Even Shane Victorino, who's played in just 20 games this year, has managed to make a better positive impact on the team than Sandoval, as evidenced by the outfielder's 0.8 WAR.
Meanwhile, Sandoval is congratulating himself -- via Instagram, comically enough -- for reaching minor career milestones in the midst of a dreadfully disappointing Red Sox season, for which he shares a fair chunk of the blame.
Much like Jacob told Cal to "be better than the Gap," it should not be too much to ask Pablo Sandoval to be better than Brock Holt. Or, if he can't be better than Holt, can he at least be somewhere near that level?
Now if you don't mind, I'll be busy taking screenshots of this story and posting them on Instagram, so that @KFP48 might see it.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
