mosox

It's a long season, and the players in Boston and NY are not robots, there will be streaks and slumps. This is hardly a time to worry about a race or crown a champ.

20 of 27 games for the Sox in July are against teams below .500

In July the Sox will finally start playing Tampa.

It's Piniero time. Time for Joel to eat up innings so he can't pitch the rest of the week.

Perfect. Now Piniero and Lopez are warming up. Soon it will be raining walks for the Rockies.

This bullpen, with the exception of Paps and Okajima, has been a nightmare. No one can throw strikes and get ahead of hitters.

He did it again Sunday in Arizona, Lugo and Crisp, 1 and 2. What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports does Tito see in these guys?

Oh no....it's Lugo.

Hits, hits, hits.!!!

Nice out. Good job by Manny in a left field corner he is not familiar with.

137,000 attendance this weekend in Arizona. This is the sole reason inter-league play will continue.

I'm surprised Johnson has gone this far. He has to make a mistake.

Way to nut-up Dice K!!

Dice K is getting behind in too many counts. He can't pitch in the big leagues like that.

Smart play by Coco. I saw Victorino do that same move for Phiily last month.

Inning killers=Lugo and Crisp

They could have flipped a coin between Romero and Piniero to see who would be let go. I wanted to see Piniero go. He always looks frightened when he's out on the mound.

"Cabrera signed with the Angels for $32M over four years. For a million fewer dollars a year than the Red Sox are paying Lugo, the Angels have a shortstop who is considerably superior defensively and hitting .333 with an .834 OPS. Lugo is hitting .217 with a .591 OPS. In 664 career at bats, Braves pitcher Mike Hampton has a .292 OBP and a .354 slugging percentage for a .646 OPS. In other words, the Red Sox would have scored more runs with Mike Hampton leading off for them than Julio Lugo. It seems as if he never gets on base. Thanks to Lugo, the Red Sox are 14th in the American League in leadoff OBP, almost 50 points behind the 13th-place Devil Rays." -- 6.8.07, Kevin Hench, FoxSports.com It seems the secret is out. Lugo is beginning to take a beating in the press. I wonder how he'll handle the pressure, since it seemed to crush Renetria.

This thread was not meant to be about Lugo as much as it was about the decisions of the front office at this position over the last three years. If you think you can compare Lugo to Pedroia, good luck and I hope your right, because were stuck with Lugo for 4 years. But the fact is Pedroia has turned it around and Lugo hasn't. Pedroia knew he had to earn his place, where Lugo has 4 years at 36 million. Since Nomar was traded, there has been a revolving door at shortstop with no success. Refusing to pay OCab after '04 may be the biggest regret (.328 avg, 74 hits, 29 rbi, 40 runs scored, 3 hr) Signing Renteria may be the biggest blunder, but he's an all-star again (.326 avg, 74 hits, 29 rbi 41 runs scored, 8 hr). Letting Gonzalez and his glove go may be the biggest puzzle considering how the improved pitching would benefit from a better defensive shortstop, plus he's hitting well (.272 avg, 56 hits, 26 rbi, 32 runs scored, 11 hr). And trading Hanley Ramirez in the deal for Beckett, which seems fair now, but can only be adequately judged years from now. This guy was Theo's "untouchable", until his Halloween exile in '05. Now he is an all-star (.309 avg, 72 hits, 51 runs scored, 8 hr). So we are left with Julio Lugo, long coveted by the organization, who finsihed the last 49 games with LA last year hitting .219, and was rewarded with 36 million dollars (.224 avg, 48 hits, 33 rbi, 27 runs scored, 3 hr). Sure he's the rbi leader among shortstops (barely), but he isn't scoring runs and getting on base and shows an erractic arm defensively. If you guys want to make quick sarcastic comments, then fine, I don't pretend to know it all. It is great to see Pedroia showing signs of making a future for himself at second (which has been a revolving door also for a couple of seasons), but the decisions at shortstop have been reactionary, miscalculated and costly.

Lenny DiNardo beats us giving up 6 walks in 6 innings and the A's turn 5 double plays. I need a drink to forget about this one.

Time for Embree to be battered.

Living on the edge with the Sox bullpen for another night.

Why is Lopez still pitching to a righty? Did Tito have Donnelly warm up for no reason at all?

Must every Sox relief pitcher put the lead off man on base?

Lugo is hitting .224 with more k's than walks. Of all the positions, this is a mess Theo created. First by letting OCab go in 2005 then signing Edgar for more money, only to have him turn into a train wreck. Then came Theo's winter exile in '05 and off went Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins. Gonzo flashed leather, but couldn't swing any lumber, and now it's Lugo. At this point, I think Tito should just play Cora at short. That would make Cora the 5th shortstop in 4 years since trading Nomar.