Julio Lugo has been a less than "as advertised" addition to the Red Sox. The Sox have had a revolving door of shortstops over the past several years since Nomar's departure. Julio is the only one to last more than one year.
The expectation was that Lugo would be a leadoff threat to hit near .300 every year & steal several bases on offense. His defense was average at best, but the thinking was his offense would make up for it. In Year One his batting average was down, but his RBI were in the 70-80 range which made up for the poor average. His fielding was average and the Red Sox were able to win a World Series with him at short. In fact, Lugo played very well in the series on both sides of the ball.
Year 2 was a different story. The RBI did not come this past year. The batting average was still low. On defense Julio accounted for 50% of all the Sox errors. In July Lugo sustained a major leg injury that kept him out of the lineup for the rest of the year. His replacement, Jed Lowrie, started getting those key RBI & played a solid shortstop. At one point the Red Sox defense went from middle of the pack to top of the pack with Lowrie at short. Lowrie's bat, however, peetered out at the end of the year & into the playoffs. Jed did get the ground ball through the infield to beat the Angels in the ALDS.
Lugo has 2 more years on his contract at $9 mil a year. Theo says that the Sox are glad to have 2 players at short. At this point Theo & Co. can keep both or try to move Lugo by splitting his salary with another team.
Here's the questions for this week:
- Should the Sox move Lugo?
- Is Lowrie ready for a 162-game schedule?
- Is there another shortstop out there?
- Does resigning Cora figure into this scenario?
I know one of my brothers is all for moving Lugo. I think it depends on what you can get in return.
I look forward to your thoughts this week.
1 comment:
KEEP LUGO!!!
3nohitters, it sounds like we have the same family, as I have an Uncle that given the call would rush to Boston to help Lugo pack, heck he may even fight Logan traffic to ensure he was on the 1st plane out. But that being said let's not forget what helped the Sox get to the ALCS this year... Depth.
Depth in the outfield by keeping both Crisp and Elsbury, depth in the infield with the addition of Casey and depth at pitching after a wasted $8 million on Schilling propelled us to where we got. While the stars aligned for the Rays and allowed them to overcome their laundry list of star injuries this year I would like to see that lightning strike twice. Our depth at almost every position allowed us to adapt and overcome all year.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Lugo fan but I'm also not comfortable yet giving the "keys" to the infield to Lowrie. What I would like to see is Lowrie get about a 100 starts and Lugo the remainder. This allows us to go with the hot hand with an eye toward the future.
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