And even if Cora ended up last season with better numbers than Lugo, he had less than the half of PA Lugo had. And Cora starts hot, then become crap again. He just didn’t have the ‘time’ to put up worse stats than Lugo. The last time Cora had nearly the same amount was in 2003:

Cora: .249/.287/.338
Lugo: .271/.333/.410

Lugo is not a bad hitter (although his OBP being actually higher than his SLG this season is… I want to say it’s bad, but it’s so unusual I just don’t know what to call). I wouldn’t be too concerned with him as our SS if he was a decent defender. His career numbers on fielding are in line with the average on the league (really), but this season he’s not being good at all defensively. And that’s worse than his bat (as opposed to Crisp, who is a great fielder, but an awful hitter).

1.The current counts more than the past. Babe Ruth may have great lifetime stats, but he is now dead so not likely to do well on the field.

2. You Lugo semi-denfenders have very short memories, or so it would seem. Do you remember Lugo’s hitless streak of last year?? From:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Lugo

Lugo was brought on to bat leadoff, but was moved by manager Terry Francona to the bottom part of the order primarily due to his inability to consistently get on base. From June 15 to July 3 Lugo went 0-33 from the plate. Since 1996, only one other Major League player with more than 250 at bats 80 games into the season has had a lower batting average; Greg Vaughn, .163 for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2002. His performance was at such a low point, columnist Tom K. Elitch coined the phrase “Lugo for 4”, and Red Sox fans started referring to him this way as well as “Lug-Out” and the Hot Dog Don.[3]

After the first week of July 2007, Lugo turned his hitting performance around, completing a 14-game hitting streak on July 25, 2007. He was 24-for-54 (.444) during the career-best streak, raising his average from an abysmal .189 back on July 7 to .226.

You do not consistently do well with crap like that on a team! Everyone else has to make up for his lack of talent, and that takes its emotional and physical toll over time! All this on the offensive side no less, so when you add in his lead leading error total, well what the heck are we talking about? Back to my original Cora question but with greater emphasis for some honesty!