Look at Ray Ray Run

Sometimes the median is a better story teller than the mean. If someone plays 70%+ of his teams games in 4 seasons and 50% in one season, it's more likely he hits the 70% number than the 50% number. Who has any idea what Seiya Suzuki is going to do? How much have you watched him play? Maybe he turns out amazing, but I'm not going to act like I know much about him or that I've seen him play a lot and know how he projects. The last Japanese outfielder with a ton of hype that the Cubs signed to a long term deal went on to be bad, and if we're being honest... the history of Japanese position players in the US isn't all that great.

That seems like one heck of a good problem to have. Pollock is so good at his grandpa age as you are implying that he opts out of a 10 million dollar deal and goes onto the market to get even more; knowing that the market isn't kind to grandpas. I'd take that 10 out of 10 times. Sox have some money freeing up next year too so they could acquire 3-4 quality utility outfielders with that freed up money.

You take away 2019, and Pollock has been right around 120 games played since 2017. Unless you think there's some huge difference between 117, 113, and 112 and 120. I'd say mine was rounding, and yours is misleading. Pollock also played 55 of 60 games in the shortened season. The past two seasons he's played 77.4% of his teams games, which times 162 = 125 games. I rounded down to 120. Also, I'm not sure what was "much better" on the RF FA market. I'd like to have Schwarber and maybe Castellanos bat, but arguing that either guy is a RF'er is like arguing Vaughn was one.

He's just a bad defensive outfielder; I'd argue terrible. The IF will need him to give blows to Tim and Yoan too - although Yoan is probably the most reliable guy not named Abreu on the roster, health-wise, which is ironic given how much flack he takes for his "injuries." The Sox still don't have a second baseman, but I can get over that with a lineup that's 8 deep.

The risk with Pollock will always be injury related, and the nagging injuries can bring down his play. Sox should have enough flexibility and depth at this point to keep him fresh and put him in good positions to succeed. As I noted though, you're pointing to BABIP as an indicator of success, but his expected numbers were in fact very good - based on his batted ball profile. Pollock is a good player. He's aged really well so far too, and the speed has held up pretty well. Could he hit a wall? Sure. He's certainly worth the gamble though.

Posted this a few pages back, but there's plenty of playing time to go around: Edited it to account for CF too; and honestly, Leury shouldn't see a single game in the OF this year. With 5 positions, you have 810 games to go around. They could easily shake out as follows: Vaughn - 120 (Hoping for more but we'll see) Abreu - 145 Pollock - 120 Sheets - 80 Eloy - 135 Engel - 40 starts - he'll get into a lot more games as a defensive replacement too so he'll likely see about 80-90 games Yas - 25 games at DH Robert - 145 games If you want to give Sheets more games because he's hitting and Vaughns not for whatever reason, then swap. There. Are. Plenty. Of. At. Bats. And this is assuming zero injuries really @Jack Parkman You get an injury to anyone of those guys, and now you're looking at almost everyone pushing 130-140 games.

jack has demoted vaughn. apprentely getting AB's against inferior competition is somehow going to fix and improve upon vaughn's struggles against elite MLB offspeed stuff from the right side.

Like the Pollock move, but this off-season as of right now is still a C at best. Hahn had to trade a mistake from last year to fill one of his holes. Those kind of wash to me. It's going to be impossible for me to move past a C knowing that Hahn spent 11 million dollars on two utility guys.

His xwOBA would have ranked him 3rd on the team last year behind Yaz and Robert. The Sox were a pretty good offense last year. His production was expected to be very good.

I'm not a huge Manaea guy either, and as I mentioned before I hate arms coming out of Oakland, but he'd undoubtedly be an upgrade for the team and I think his impact would be better than the impact Sheets may provide over say... Vaughn taking those AB's.

Some of you really can't enjoy anything. His career BABIP is 310. It was 326 last year. If you normalize it to 311, and take away an even distirbution of hits per type from last year, his wRC would have been 133 instead of 137... oh the horror!

1. Timmy 2. Moncada 3. Robert 4. Abreu (because we know they won't move him) 5. Yaz 6. Eloy 7. Pollock 8. Vaughn/Sheets 9. The legend I'd guess they'd likely bat Sheets 7 and Pollock 8 when Sheets plays to break up the Righties.

I would think if the Sox traded for Manaea it would be incredibly likely they'd extend him and he'd basically be replacing Keuchel going forward.

The thing I love about Pollock is he's gritty as fuck but he's also really good and a complete player. I hate gritty and bad or gritty and below average players who people have to first talk about their intangibles and then mention their abilities and production as some after thought.

Said it a bit earlier in the off-season, and I think Hendriks is still the chalk, but I have a sneaky feeling the Sox best reliever in 2022 is going to be Aaron Bummer. Also the fact that Bummer isn't tied to any inning or any roll I think will help mitigate this pain. Bummer can throw in the biggest spots in the game from the 5th inning on and can possibly go multiple innings. Bummed for the kid though; good news for him is he's so young, by the time he comes back it will be at an age of which most guys are just making their debuts.

Yeah, I broke it out a page or so back, but they have plenty of games to go around. If they traded Sheets - maybe possible? - Vaughn just slides in at DH, moves to the OF to give a guy a breather when Yas moves to DH for 25-30 games, and etc. Even if they don't move Sheets, Vaughn should be able to find 120ish games and hopefully he can force their hand even more with elite production.

Balta, I was with you in that boat of it was terrible to pick up the option and they'll never get anything of value for Kimbrel. Turns out they did. Hahn >> Ray Ray today. It's good news, not bad. Always good to be wrong when the outcome is a positive one. Everytime I saw people mentioned Bellinger and Pollock I thought they were crazy. Turns out, Hahn knew what he was doing with the option and he turned it into a viable talent that filled a hole on the roster. It doesn't change the off-season process in other areas from being poor, but Hahn won this one. Pollock has risk, but so did Kimbrel. At least Pollock wasn't a guy being paid to play a position he wasn't even going to play with the Sox.

Yeah, his arm is weak but him and Robert should cover some ground and Robert has a ++ arm for CF and should be able to cut off the gaps so it might help negate that weakness a bit. Robert covers up for so much in the outfield.

Last bit, I can swallow much easier the notion of trading Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer for someone like AJ Pollock who is going to get 400-450 PA's, and play everyday in the playoffs, than for a reliever who is going to be a set-up man.

Is this even a question? I'd rahter pay Pollock 30 million than give Joc Pederson a starting spot.

I still think Conforto is a better bet to play more games, but I also think the Sox are in a unique situation where they may not want a guy who is going to play 150 games in RF. I know for sure Pollock will get hurt and will sit with some nagging injuries at some point; he's been hurt pretty much every year of his career but for one, but he's just a really nice all-around player when he's out there and he's way better than anything I thought we'd get for KImbrel.

This lineup only has one hole; I can swallow that. I think Vaughn sees quite a bit of time in the outfield - Pollock isn't a 162 guy, and Eloy will need rest. They have enough playing time to go around given the rest they'll have to give a guy like Pollock. I think Engel and Vaughn share some outfield time, Vaughn gets some DH and 1B time (I think Abreu takes some time this year). Have 648 games to go around 4 poisitions: Vaughn - 120 (Hoping for more but we'll see) Abreu - 145 Pollock - 120 Sheets - 80 Eloy - 130 Engel - 60 (has some CF starts) Yas - 25 games at DH

I'll add, I'd rather have Pollock for this year than Conforto.

I have always really liked Pollocks game. He will undoubtedly get hurt at some point, won't play over 130 Games, but he's such a complete player when hes out there.

Kimbrel didn't want to be here. Didn't want his role and was going to be a dog. Getting anything for kimbrel was a big win. I guess the dodgers didn't want to pay the full tax on Jansen and figured they could offset that by shedding Pollock contract. Shocked they got a viable big leaguer. Wonder if they eat any money. Good stuff. Good call to all who held out faith on getting something of value for kimbrel.