February 10, 2012
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Friday, July 17, 2009Red Sox call it quits with Lugo Lugo's agent has confirmed that the Red Sox have designated the embattled shortstop for assignment. In 266 games for the BoSox, spanning 1,060 plate appearances, Lugo hit an underwhelming .251/.319/.346 with 10 home runs and wildly inconsistent range. While Lugo got off to a miserable start with the bat in 2007, hitting .197/.270/.298, he held his own on defense. Lugo had always had solid range but was prone to booting the ball or throwing it away. The Sox were able to adjust his positioning, which yielded results, as he improved his UZR/150 at shortstop to 4.3 from -8.0 the previous year. It would be the last time he would help the Sox on defense. In 2008, during an injury-plagued year, he checked in at -2.6. This year, Lugo's offense has seen an uptick, hitting .284/.352/.367 in his best offensive display since his time with Tampa Bay in 2006 before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline in 2006. However, his defense has become atrocious: he's checking in at a cool -43.2 UZR/150. To put that in perspective, when Yuniesky Betancourt was traded to the Kansas City Royals last week, he was the consensus worst shortstop in the game according to many bloggers. His UZR/150 on the year? -17.4. With at least 50 innings played at the position in 2009, he's easily the worst in UZR/150. The second worst is the Mets' Ramon Martinez, at -29.1 in 81.1 innings, or 162 less innings than Lugo. Ouch. Of course, UZR/150 (Ultimate Zone Rating divided over 150 games) isn't the end-all, be-all of defensive shortstops. You have the Fielding Bible's Plus/Minus splits plus other defensive statistics that are just starting to see the light of day. So far this year, Lugo is 11 defensive runs below average under John Dewan's plus/minus system. This is horrendous in 243 innings given the numbers rack up as the season goes on. The season leader in 2008 was Betancourt (there's that name again!) at 14 runs below average in 1,325 innings. What does the future hold for Lugo? Well, middle infielders are in demand these days. He should have no trouble finding a spot, but which spot he chooses is largely contingent on which teams will offer him starting jobs. Lugo is determined to remain a starter and would like to start producing day in and day out to land a starting gig next year. With the news that the Pirates have tendered shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Freddy Sanchez contract extensions, it's unlikely the Pirates could promise a starting gig for Lugo -- unless the team reverses course and trades one of the two players before the deadline and picks up Lugo to start. Oh, what am I thinking? Lugo's defense is right up Dayton Moore's alley. "Now starting at second base for the Kansas City Royals..." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||