Tagged: Julio Lugo

Power Outage

power outage.jpg

22 games, 22 for 87 (.230 BA), 0 (ZERO) HR, 12 RBI, .623 OPS

After the month of April who would have guessed this line would belong too?  Normally, maybe him:

lugo.jpgThat would have been a good guess, but he only has played 2 games this April.  Plus, he is normally not know for power.

How about this fella:

tek.jpgAgain, not a bad guess.  He has had several 20 homer seasons, but it is not him.  He’s had a decent start, going deep 4 times so far.

Would you be surprised to find out that those numbers belong to:

big papi.JPGProbably not, if you have been following the Red Sox closely this season.  This is the big news with the Red Sox.  When Nick Green has more HRs and a higher slugging percentage than David Ortiz over the first 22 games, then something is the matter.

What is WRONG with Big Papi?

  • Past his prime, good years are behind him.
  • Lack of protection in the order; missing Manny behind him.
  • Wrist still hurts.
  • All of the above.
  • Nothing, give the guy a break! 

I don’t know the answer myself, but I can say it is not from lack of protection in the order.  People who think because Manny is no longer batting behind Ortiz that this is the reason are sort of clueless.  I mean Ortiz is hitting between the 2008 MVP and the 3rd Place finisher for 2008 MVP!  Anybody else have protection like that in MLB?

This is the first time since Ortiz joined the Red Sox that he has not at least 1 HR in a month where he has not been injured. 

Dating back to last season, Big Papi has now gone 25 games (in which he as gotten at least 1 AB) with out a HR.  That is the longest cold streak since he came to Boston.

He has had two 19 game homerless streaks, 1 occured last season and the other occured in 2007.

So, what is the problem?  Will he ever get out of this funk?  Will he be the Papi of 2004 – 2006?  So many questions, so little answers.

I think the problem is in Papi’s head.  I recall hear him complain about lack of protection (isn’t that a bit insulting to Kevin Youkilis) in the batting order.  However, Sean McAdams (I believe) has stated numerous times that the two seasons Manny packed it in during September, Ortiz had the best OPS (this coming from listening to talk radio, I haven’t research these numbers myself) during the month of September.  So he wasn’t missing Manny then. 

However, now that Ortiz doesn’t have it in the back of his head that Manny will be back, I think he is using it as an excuse (for a lack of a better term) when it is more of a combination that Ortiz may be thinking too much and having some erosion of his skills.  Ortiz also mentioned a while back that he isn’t getting any fastballs to hit.  I seem to recall plenty of fastballs in the mid to upper 80s that he is not catching up to. 

Hopefully, it is more of a mental funk than a physical / skill erosion problem.  The Red Sox are going to NEED Ortiz, especially when Youkilis, Bay, and Lowell cools down from their hot starts.

C’mon Big Papi, work it out.

Go Sox!

P.S.  This could have been about Josh Beckett too.  Since the Abreu incident, Beckett has not been himself.

Lost and Found: Voyeurism Returns

On of the cool things about MLBlogs is checking out the other blogs.  The way I usually do that is through the Recent Activity links on the front page.  I’ve discovered some great blogs that way, and some terrible ones too. 

Anyway back in January, I found a blog that had the name Crab in its title.  It ended up being a blog about a minor league affiliate of some major league team.  The post I read was about their new stadium they had built and included a camera with a live feed that you could watch through and control (pan left or right, zoom in and out).  It was very cool.  However, something happened, I left the computer and my browser window was closed, thus a cool site was lost.

I tried to do a search for Crab via MLBlogs search tool.  However, that search tool only searches the tags, so alas I could not get any hits that way.  I thought the only way I’d get back there is if the blog was updated, but I had not been able to find it in the Recent Activity links since.

Today, I got the bright idea to take a look in the browser history.  Luckily for me, there is a menu option that says “History”.  I clicked there and found the option “Show All History.”  There was a search function, so I typed Crab.  Funny, all of my searches I did on MLBlogs came up in the history, but so did “Life as a Crab.”  That’s gotta be it, I thought.  And presto, there was the lost blog entry I was looking for.  However, when I went to the live web cam feed, that wasn’t working.  Bummer.  However (I seem to use this word a lot), here is how it looked on that day in January when I first discovered it.

camera.JPGThis is the new ballpark of the Charlotte Stone Crabs, a minor league affiliate of the Tampa Rays.

Looks like a few construction workers were on break as a couple of tourists came in to look around the park.  I don’t know if you could hear sound, because I had my sound off.  But that camera is in the RF corner and when I pan right you could see the whole baseball field.

This would be a wonderful feature for major league clubs to have on their website of their spring training facilities.  It wouldn’t even have to be at the major league camp.  How cool would it be, to just peek in now and then at a spring training work out?  Exactly.

Some quick tidbits around Red Sox spring training:

  • Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner brought up a possible salary cap for baseball.  Me?  I’m not too keen on the idea.  If a salary cap bring lower ticket prices / concession prices / parking prices then I am all for it.  Otherwise, I don’t see the need.
  • Apparently, Julio Lugo has already won the shortstop gig for the Sox.  However, if Lugo is puts up the same performance as last year, before he got hurt, I don’t see how he will keep that starting gig.  Jed Lowrie isn’t going anywhere.
  • Yesterday, was the first day of live batting practice, or I guess we should call it pitching practice.  According to Steve Buckley’s article, pitchers facing live batters is not something the batters look forward to.
  • Number 24 is back in action in Red Sox camp.  No, Manny Ramirez has not re-signed with the team.  Takashi Saito is now sporting the number.  Apparently, he got Manny’s “permission” to wear the number.

That’s all I got for now.  GO SOX!!

MVP Has It’s Privileges

I come back from lunch, and find out that ESPN is reporting that the Boston Red Sox and Dustin Pedroia have come to an agreement on 6 year (through 2014), $40.5 million contract with an option for 2015.

Usually, you here sniffs of a deal like this before it happens. I listen to WEEI sports radio all of the time, and there was no mention of the possibility of this type of deal happening, so it was quite a nice surprise to read this.

This is a nice deal for both sides. Pedroia made about $500,000 last year. He will now average $6.75 million over the 6 years  According to an industry source as reported to the Boston Herald, here is how the contract breaksdown:
 
2009:  $3 million ($1.5m salary / $1.5m signing bonus)
2010:  $3.5 million
2011:  $5.5 million
2012:  $8 million
2013:  $10 million
2014:  $10 million
2015 (option):  $11 million club option or $500,000 buyout.
 
It ends up being quite a raise for a deserving player like Pedroia. For the Red Sox, it eliminates the arbitration years and 2 (3 is the option is exercised) of Pedroia’s free agent years, which will end up saving the Red Sox money in the long-term.  Interestingly, it will be 2013 before Pedroia will actually earn more than Julio Lugo’s $9 million dollar salary he is owed this season and next season.  It is one of the most lucrative deals ever signed by a player who was not even eligible for arbitration.  Seems like quite the deal for the Red Sox, doesn’t it?  Or does it just make the Lugo signing all the more puzzling?

Anyway, Congratulations to both Dustin and the Red Sox, as it is great to be able to watch Pedroia play and knowing we will be able to for at least 6 more years is nice.
 
Now, who will be next?  Pap?  Youk?  Lester?  I’m sure the Red Sox would like to get these three signed long term as well.

Free Agent Frenzy?

Now that players who filed for Free Agency are able to sign with any team, the transactions are flying fast and furious. (Note the sarcasm dripping from that sentence.) The action has been slower than anticipated, with the biggest news of the Yankees desperate attempt to make sure they sign Sabathia. Supposedly they have offered $140 million over 6 years and if that is only their initial offer, one has to wonder how high they will go. So far, the only free agent to change uniforms is Jeremy Affeldt. He will not be returning to Cincinnati, instead choosing to sign with the San Francisco Giants.

In Red Sox news, several Sox players and coaches are awaiting to hear some results. Bench coach Brad Mills and 3rd Base coach DeMarlo Hale both interviewed for the Seattle Mariners manager position. The Mariners are supposed to announce their selection today. Although, rumor has it that the Mariners will select Oakland A’s bench coach Don Wakamatsu. Good luck to Mills and Hale.

Meanwhile, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are 2 of the top candidates for AL MVP. We will find out the winner around 2pm today. Even though I think Youk is more deserving, my guess is that Pedroia will be named AL MVP. Go Red Sox!

Steve had a nice post over at his The Boston Red Sox Blog about a Julio Lugo – Dontrelle Willis trade that may be in the works. I’d like that.

Finally, if you have never checked out this blog: U.S.S. Mariner, it is one of the best blogs around. Anyway, one of the creators of that blog is trying to win a college scholarship for bloggers. Here is his post about it. So, let’s support our fellow baseball blogger, and help him win. Vote for David Cameron!! He was winning for a while, but is now about 200 votes behind.  Help him out not only because he loves baseball and blogging, but he is a poor Mariners for fan for cying out loud. 

Jake Says No, Look to Japan again

Jake Peavy has said he would not accept a trade to the Boston Red Sox. Peavy has a full no-trade clause in his deal with the Padres. Kevin Towers confirmed that the Red Sox were on a list of teams Peavy does not want to get traded to. However, the New York Yankees are not on that list. Seems there is something about the Padres not liking Boston. Remember when Brian Giles would not accept a trade to Boston at the trade deadline?

However, it seems like the Sox aren’t going to give up on trying to get Padres. It looks like they may be interested in acquiring shortstop Khalil Greene. Greene is coming off a down year where he hit .213 in only 105 games. In 2007, he did hit .254 with 27 HRs and 97 RBIs after having 15 HRs a season from 2004 – 2006. Greene would either be a free agent after 2009 or be in his last year of salary arbitration, as he will finish up a 2-yr, 11m contract extention that he signed at the beginning of 2008 to avoid salary arbitration. This could be a nice stop gap to give Jed Lowrie a bit more seasoning, especially if they can move Julio Lugo somewhere duing the off-season.

EDIT:  Heard on WEEI that Coco Crisp has been offered to the Padres for Greene.

So, word has it that the Red Sox are the front runner for a young amateur free-agent from Japan named Junichi Tazawa. He is 22 yrs old, supposedly with an above average fastball to go along with a curve and split-finger. He requested that Japanese professional teams not draft him so he could sign with MLB as a free agent. Japanese players usually must go through a posting process, but since Tazawa has never been drafted or sign to a Japanese professional team, he does not need to through that process. It is unclear how major league ready he is, but it is never wrong to try build up some quality young pitching.

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