Darnell McDonald: McDonald is walking more, striking out less, and hitting for more power than he did last year, when he posted a not-terrible .704 OPS operating mostly as a platoon player. A plunging batting average on balls in play has knocked McDonald down to an abysmal .179/.277/.357 this year.

Science!!

Dozens of outfielders spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported.

As I pointed out in the game threads, these injuries haven't really held back the Red Sox because the replacements have played so well. Their OF has played to a 9.2 WAR pace so far. The Red Sox got 10.3 WAR out of their OF last year, and that’s probably a reasonable starting place for 2012 pre-season expectations (with less coming from Ellsbury and more from Crawford).

Even if you expected 13 WAR out of the OF this year, they’re only 1 win off the pace.

As I pointed out in the game threads, these injuries haven't really held back the Red Sox because the replacements have played so well. Their OF has played to a 9.2 WAR pace so far.

Well, so far. Nava's not going to hit .350 forever and Ross, who has been the steadiest one out there, is out. Can Byrd and Podsednik be expected to be anything more than replacement-level going forward? And when you put Gonzalez in right, how much are you giving up on defence? The team needs to make a trade for a real outfielder sooner rather than later, even if it's just a Travis Buck or Chris Coghlan type.

Darnell McDonald: McDonald is walking more, striking out less, and hitting for more power than he did last year, when he posted a not-terrible .704 OPS operating mostly as a platoon player. A plunging batting average on balls in play has knocked McDonald down to an abysmal .179/.277/.357 this year.

Apart from actually getting hits, he's doing everything right!

Nava's not going to hit .350 forever

Piss on someone else's dream, please.