MUCH needed day off.

by Red Peltic on Apr 28, 2008 12:55 PM EDT Comment 15 comments

The Sox have now played 20 games in 20 days (Dating back to a 5-0 home win versus Detroit, when the Tiggers were winless). I don't think its any coincidence that the Sox have started to stumble and loose momentum at the tail end of this marathon.

Now they get to return home to Fenway, where we know they play so much better. Three versus the Jays and another three against the Jays before setting off on a 10 game road trip.

Nagging injuries, flu-like symtomps have nagged the local 9 during in the last few weeks and caused them to falter. Their pitching has been better (not great, but better) and the offense has let them down the last two games; no question about it.

Bright spots? Drew is a hitter again (cooling off recently but at least he's not hovering around the Mendoza line like last year). Lugo (see Drew analysis). Buchh pitched the game of his life (sans no-hitter) and Beckett is the horse he's been since last year. This group can right the ship. Oh yea, Papelbon's been alright.

What they need is to sleep in their own beds for a night and come back with a vengance. Don't panic yet people. It's April. For another few days at least.

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Ok, I wouldn't call Lugo a Bright Spot

But you got the rest right.

Walk on, walk on With hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone You'll never walk alone

by MerryGoByeBye on Apr 28, 2008 1:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well...

He’s hitting .297 and at this point last year he was hovering around his weight (175).

Is he setting the world on fire with the glove or the bat? Probably not. But he’s third in the AL in batting as a SS. Ironically, number one is Edgaahhh who fans crucified and jettisoned after a decent offensive year in his only year with the Sox.

by Red Peltic on Apr 28, 2008 2:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It is when you hit that counts

He’s hitting .297 and at this point last year he was hovering around his weight (175).

I’ve been watching Lugo for over a year now, and he can’t hit when it counts. When there is no pressure, sure he gets some hits, but he is a momentum killer because of his terrible, pitiful clutch performances. That kind of momentum killing takes a real toll on the team spitir, and his defensive performance is quite poor this year as well. Please do not try and make him look any less pitiful than he is.

by NG on Apr 28, 2008 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lugo

The real question is, why haven’t we tried out Lowrie at SS yet? He clearly has a better bat then Lugo and I would bet his glove is comparable to Lugos. We had a couple of chances while Cora was injured and we had Casey and Youk on a hot streak. Why did we drag our feet?

Hopefully we will give it a try when the whole team is healthy again, because I don’t know if I can go another year thinking the same thing at the beginning of the year as the end of year. (Great team we have, our only weak link is Lugo)

by drabidea on Apr 28, 2008 4:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know if Lowrie is good enough now to be our SS

But Lugo isn’t either. And Pedroia also didn’t look that good at the beginning of last season. I think we should give him 2-3 games in a row at SS and see what happens. What of bad could happen? Some GIDP and erros? Well, we get that already from Lugo.

Walk on, walk on With hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone You'll never walk alone

by MerryGoByeBye on Apr 28, 2008 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Please do not try and make him look any less pitiful than he is.

Albeit he may not ever be a clutch player, and for that reason he’s batting 8th-9th, he’s not the putrid waste of sperm that he was last year. I was just comparing his numbers last year and this year and they look like two different players, that’s all. I’m not comparing him to Hanley Ramirez or anything, but was merely pointing out that he currently has almost twice as high a batting average as he did at points last year.

The real meaning of this post wasn’t to qualify Julio Lugo’s performance (or lack thereof) 27 games into the season; but rather to note that it’s about time the Sox get a day off. I’m a big fan of what the Rays have been doing lately, aside from their just awfully uninspired uni changes.

However, unless you think they’re going to be in it for the long hall (as in win 93+ games to capture the East) there’s not need to panic about the Rays or O’s being there at the end of the season.

by Red Peltic on Apr 28, 2008 4:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Here's a thorny little problem

The league leader in serving up offense killing double-play balls?

Julia Lugo?

nope, David Ortiz, with eight GDPs

Lugo is tied for third with sixth.

J.D. “regressing to the Norm*” Drew is in the next category with five.

That’s a lot of innings ended.

- by which I mean the George Wendt character

by nuthinboutnuthin on Apr 28, 2008 5:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Still...

I’m planning on sticking with “small sample size” and “Japan trip killed us” until the NBA finals are over

by nuthinboutnuthin on Apr 28, 2008 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I will take Ortiz's DPs because of his other clutch performances and potential!

Besides, Ortiz may well be hurt. Nobody can study that guy for a year and acuse him of not hitting in clutch situation. Even this year, he may hit in DPs, but he also hits for clutch hits often and will again. It will be quite an unusual happening if Lugo starts to get clutch hits, but I would like it! I just don’t know how much longer we can keep waiting for such a miracle. Ortiz is worth the wait!

by NG on Apr 28, 2008 7:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No, no...

I agree that Ortiz is worth the wait. I just think that up until this point, our hitherto most-clutch (most clutchical? clutchiest?) hitter has been our least. I think that shift in production goes a long way towards explaining our merely-”better”-than-league-average W-L record.

by nuthinboutnuthin on Apr 28, 2008 9:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Let's not forget though

Even though Papi has been slumping all year. He still has 4 HRs and 20 RBIs with an OBP of .288. Even “Nancy” has got 13 RBIs. I know that RBIs don’t give a full representation because they are dependent on your spot in the lineup. However, with the way Youk, Lowrie, Casey, and Drew practically get on base half the time there is no excuse for only 7 RBIs.

Can’t he just bunt or something, learn from Crisp. I have seen Coco bunt for hits twice this season already (There may be more they I just haven’t seen either). With Lugo’s speed, his OBP if he bunted everytime has to be higher then .333. Not to mention it will move the runners and not mark a tally up on the GIDP column.

Lowrie can’t be any worse, atleast give him a try for a couple of games. If not we have a SS who won the National Defensive Player of the year in college, and posted a .975 field percentage at short. We could give him a shot too.

"He’ll make an out against a guy throwing 98, and when he comes to the dugout, we’ll ask, “What’s he got?” Pedroia will tell us, “He ain’t got shit!” – Brandon Moss, April 2005

by drabidea on Apr 29, 2008 9:00 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I’m heavily onboard with the trade Lugo plus cash considerations for a hotdog and a bag of batting-practice balls plan. As far as I can see, the only real asset he gives us is his speed on the basepaths. That’s nice and all, but he doesn’t appear to be a defensive asset, and – if I’m reading his splits right* – his high numbers mainly result from a spike around (I think) the Houston and Cleveland series. His basic offensive stats (BA, OBP, OPS) spike in the past-14-days frame, and the past-7-day numbers are lower than the past-28 and the season average. Unlike Papi, if Lugo’s slumping and not providing us with league-average defense there’s really no reason not to insert Lowrie, and see how he holds up at short…

- Disclaimer: Not a devoted stat-head. At all.

by nuthinboutnuthin on Apr 29, 2008 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

But But But

I can’t remember the exact numbers but Terry has been picking guys out of Portland and Pawtucket about 28 times so far this year. Last year it was 4 times in April. The team isn’t really a “TEAM” until the “who’s on first” issues get settled. This isn’t last year. It’s this year and the team zietgiest needs to form around those familiar faces. The whole needs to be bigger than the sum of the parts. The winners know this and so far it’s the only failing. All the other (hitting) problems will resolve themselves when the player movement settles down.
“WE are family I got all my ~~sisters~~ brothers and me”. Memba that!
sj

by SJINEUG on Apr 29, 2008 3:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The problem is injuries.

Francona and Epstein wouldn’t be diving into the minors so much if Lowell, Cora, Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, and others hadn’t been afflicted with illness or injury. Also, using replacements isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you get above average performance. Nobody was complaining when Jacoby Ellsbury was called up late last year. In general the Sox received excellent performances from their call-ups last year, particularly pitchers like Gabbard and Buchholz. As for team chemistry, I’ll take the rookie no-hitter over a loss from a “veteran” anytime. Chemistry builds around both camaraderie and victory. Don’t blame player movement on the string of losses, blame debilitating injuries and a slumping offense (which happened several times last year).

Also, if you’re going to use words like ‘zeitgeist,’ at least learn to spell them properly.

by 0157H7 on Apr 30, 2008 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs