I was tracking the 9th inning of the Red Sox - Tigers game tonight via refreshes to mobile ESPN on my Treo. A game that Papelbon couldn’t close out after a nice comeback from a 4 run deficit. But saw that there was a Lugo error in the midst of that 9th inning. So is that a game that Lugo is the scapegoat for? Is WEEI going to be full of callers pleading for the inclusion of Jed Lowrie in the everyday lineup at shortstop?
By the way, I say that the Blue Jays lost not one, but two shortstops to injury in a single game the other night. Is it possible that we can trade Lugo to Toronto? Is there anybody on that team that we want that Toronto might be willing to give up for Lugo?
4 Comments
Not sure what WEEI is saying yet but Lugo has made at least 10 errors already this year and his range sucks…and his errors seem to be errors on plays he should make. I remember Nomar used to get charged with a lot of errors every year but that was usually b/c he was able to reach so many more balls than the average ss.
I doubt the Sox will be able to trade Lugo unless they take on someone elses crappy salary in the process-which, at this point, would be nice. I actually have a theory about Lugo that I haven’t heard anyone mention yet:
I think he will be converted to a utility outfielder. He’s fast enough to get to a lot of balls, his lack of ability to field ground balls would go away, and he’d be a pretty dynamic late inning running substitution.
One thing I know for sure after watching him over the past year and a half:
He’s the worst infielder we have on our team. Cora is a better ss, Pedroia would be a better ss. Lowrie would be a better ss. And none of them are amazingly good - it’s just that he is so bad that it would always be an upgrade.
So, assuming Lugo is with the team at the end of the year, I’d be willing to bet they either convert him to utility - although I think we’d all rather see Moss in that role - or swallow a part of his contract value in order to move him for minor leaguers.
All that said, I wouldn’t be unhappy if Lowrie got a shot at everyday ss but I’d rather have Cora as the backup.
cc
here’s what people are saying…
http://boards.boston.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bc-redsox&tid=45697
I think we’ll see Lugo shipped out of town before being converted into some super utility role. Pretty sure the dodgers tried that with him a couple of years ago with little success.
Gammons’ idea of trading for Omar Vizquel and having split time at SS with Lowrie sounds pretty good. But Visquel, Lowrie, Cora…is there room for all of them on the roster? Does Cora need to go, too? Why not just ship off Lugo and let cora/lowrie share the time. Seems like Cora and Vizquel are the same players. Except Cora plays more positions.
Fairly certain that the Theo braintrust is exploring this stuff. They shipped away Nomar in part because he couldn’t field. Lugo doesn’t nearly have the same built in security blanket that Nomar had a few years ago.
Renteria…just another example of Theo isn’t afraid to dump his SS. Is Theo forever going to be making up for letting Orlando Cabrera walk away?
Who’s makes more, anyway? Lugo or OC?
Looked it up. Lugo is making $9.25 million this year. OC is making $10 million. Plus are sox still subsidizing a ton for Renteria’s contract?
So Theo was willing to shell out for Renteria/Lugo…but not for OC?
All that said…OC’s offensive stats are pretty horrible this year. But only 1 error.