Sox drawer: Lugo demotion long time coming

Tito made a move yesterday that was much deserved, but also long overdue.

Great grabs like this is one reason teams have been snowed by Lugo's talents

Julio Lugo, the struggling veteran shortstop with the ginourmous contract (4-years, $36 million) and microscopic batting average (.215), was dropped from the leadoff spot all the way down to #9 in the order in favor of the hotter, younger, and much cheaper bat of rookie Dustin Pedroia.

Let's go over why this was the right decision, and why it should have happened sooner:

1. He's NOT a leadoff hitter. The guy is many things-alternately slick & sloppy in the field, alternately hot & (mostly) cold at the plate- but one thing he is not is a leadoff batter. He's always been more of a slap hitter/RBI guy, and in 8 seasons he has never come close to walking more times than he strikes out (okay, in 2005 he had nine fewer.) Plus his lifetime OBP is an anemic .335; by comparison, Kenny Lofton's is .371, Judas Demon, .344, and even Randy Winn has a career OBP of .344.


2. He's NOT worth the mega bucks. Look, for some reason Theo & the boys have been enamored with him since his days in Houston and then throughout his 2+ seasons here in Tampa Bay. Why? That is the mystery. Sure he has some pop (career high 75 ribbies in 2004, 15 homers in 2003), but so what? He's always been more of a defensive liability than a plus (20+ errors in a season four times, 16 last year in 81 games), has struck out more than 100 times in a season three times, and then there's that whole lousy OBP thing, which is pretty important if you want the guy to hit leadoff


3. He's NOT an upgrade at either position. A couple of guys who have manned the SS position since Nomah departed in mid-2004 have had equal or better stats than Lugo, yet were jettisoned for one bad reason or another:

• Orlando Cabrera (2004) has only had one 20+ error season in 11 years, has had over 70 RBIs three times, including a career-high 96 in 2001 w/ Montreal, and has the exact same career batting average as Lugo (.272); he'll make $3 mill less than Lugo in '07


• Alex Gonzalez (2006) career batting average (.247) & OBP (.293) may be awful, but he is a far better fielder (30 fewer errors in 24 more games from 2003-06), has had two 70+ RBI seasons compared to Lugo's one, and is owed $22 million less than Lugo over the next three years. Plus he was batting 8th & 9th, not first.

And we all know there is no comparison to him and Demon as far as leadoff batting goes, and there's no need to go into the 2006 disaster that was Edgar Rentanerror.

Look, I haven't been a fan of this guy since the former D-Ray regime fell hard for him in 2004, wooing him away from the Astros, and it had nothing to do with his ugly spousal abuse charge that paved the way for his early departure.

In my opinion he's always been a lot of sound & fury signifying nothing. Boston and Tampa Bay were enamored with is wiry, limber body that allows him to get to many tough balls, his occasionally streaky bat that has led him to hit over .280 three times, and his enthusiastic personality & energetic play.

I'm not saying that Pedroia is the answer; he may not be. But now the truth is out- Lugo isn't either. He attempted to man a high profile position on a team with the best record in the game, and he came up empty with a pathetic batting average, paltry on base percentage, and just 21 walks in 242 ABs while committing eight 8 errors in 59 games and knocking in 33 runs.

All that points to a bottom of the lineup player.

But there were $36 million reasons why Tito didn't do it sooner.