joe dokes said:
That is a meaningless statement. The only Abs that people in Boston "dont expect" are ones that end up in outs too many times. if you're saying he's gonna suck, then, yeah, "people in Boston" (are these different than "Red Sox fans"?) wont expect or like it.
"People in Boston" have also been known to be idiots of the not 2004 team variety. ("JD Drew didn't have enuf RBIs.....")
I suppose I should be more clear here too given your confusion. For my purposes, I will use Hanley Ramirez as a comp given that they both signed on the same day and for roughly the same amount of AAV. I believe that Ramirez, who is capable of getting on base at a .360 or .370 clip and having an o-swing rate of somewhere around ~30% (which is high relative to his career) should, if he performs to his historical averages, put up ABs that Red Sox fans are happy with given what they have grown accustomed to from the top Red Sox performers of the last decade plus.
Sandoval, on the other hand, will be a test of the aesthetic with his lower OBP (call it .340 to be generous) and, more importantly, his penchant for swinging like he was an extra at the key party scene from the Ice Storm - his o-swing of 48.1% led the MLB last season and he is second to the one and only beloved A.J. Pierzynski in that stat over the past three seasons.
I guess I could have saved us both a lot of time and simply said he is a lot more free-swinging than the players the Sox fans have become accustomed to of late but where is the fun in that?