We have Lowrie. He's played well enough, especially defensively, to warrant the move. How can the Sox possibly rationalize their continued indulgence of Lugo's failure addiction?
Lowrie is not a ML SS. He doesnt have the range of arm strength to play the position adequately. Even if you state that he will make less errors, he will get to less balls, and more guys will beat out grounders against him.
People keep saying this, and yet in the few stints he's had at SS, he's been 100% passable. The only reason people call Lugo one is because he's been allowed to play a shortstop. Balls do get by him plenty, and even when they don't you have to deal with inaccurate throws that take a long time to get to the baseman because of his obsession with double-pumping like he's some sort of QB, and overly flashy plays. In the short time Lowrie's had to prove himself, he's done nothing to hurt his stock. In the long time Julio Lugo has had to prove himself, he's done nothing but.
Except passable isnt good. having someone that makes an occasional error and gets to more balls is better then passable. Lowrie has yet to dispel any notion that he lacks range.
In fact, just tonight playing 2b (where you need less range) his lack of range came into play on more then one occasion.
Again, it comes down to this, if on 10 ground balls, lugo gets to 8 of them and makes an error on 1, is that batter then lowrie getting to 6 of the same balls with no errors. Obviously those numbers are a random shot in the dark, but they illustrate the point. Lugo making errors but getting to more balls is still better then someone who cant get to the balls.
Lowrie doesnt have range. it was the knock on him coming out of stanford (which is why he wasnt thought of as a particularly good prospect despite being able to hit), it was the knock on him as he has progressed through their farm system (which is why he is projected to play 2b, which will help cover for his inadequacies).
Lets also remember that we are a month into the season and numbers can be decieving right now. case in point is cash who is hitting well over 300 despite having a career mlb batting avg below 200. going strictly by the numbers it seems he should be playing over varitek, although no one is going to attempt to make that argument.
Lugo isnt the best ss, not by a long shot, and it would certianly help if he could hit the ball like he used to with tb, but Lowrie is not an upgrade...