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uh, yeah, let's have the guy with a .988 and .894 (not to mention .823 career) OPS with lefties start bunting more. i mean, why wouldnt' the red sox just want to help other teams neutralize their best or second-best hitter?

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yeah, career .823 OPS vs. lefties, which is skewed by two seasons where he was excellent against them, and the other 4.5 since 01 with only one (04, .784) over .740. this year he's putting up a .694 and having some terrible ABs vs. lefty specialists in particular. looking at his career numbers, those last two years look like an aberration, not the norm. he hasn't hit a home run off a LHP yet this year and is slugging a monstrous .330 vs them. so yeah, let's just keep letting them overload the right side against him and take away like 10 hits a month with the shift, not like it seems to be hurting him or anything. wouldn't want to waste his alex cora-like power by having him try to slap the ball to the opposite field once or twice a week instead of striking out on a slider a foot off the plate.