Season Review: Scott Podsednik

Scott Podsednik came to us in our moment of greatest need, when we couldn't keep an outfield spot filled for more than a week. He performed for us when we needed it most, trying in vain to help keep the team afloat. He left us when we most needed a space, as the Sox played at health for a couple of weeks.

And, when all was done and the season was sunk, he came back when the team needed nothing more than a warm body, and certainly didn't provide anything more than that.

It's hard to wax poetic about a 36-year-old outfielder tossed back and forth as little more than 40-man chaff. The fact of the matter is that Scott Podsednik if Scott Podsednik was ever a particularly good major league baseball player, he isn't that anymore. He got by on some BABIP fun for a while and then faded. If his BABIP didn't deflate entirely, his OPS did, leaving us wondering how low he could have sunk had his luck been given enough time to fall all the way back to career averages.

Still, for what he actually did with the team, there should be little complaining done about Scott Podsednik. When wins were still ostensibly of some importance to the team, Scott Podsednik performed admirably. He gave us hits whether they were entirely "deserved" or not, and if the Red Sox did not win as many of those games as they needed it was not his fault.

And when wins were no longer the goal--when they were frankly hurting the team's draft position more than they were helping anything else--Scott Podsednik vanished into thin air.

So thank you, Scotty Pods. Your contribution to the team may have been one of happenstance more than anything else, but one way or another he was better at doing the best the team needed than just about anyone else he shared a locker room with in Fenway.