Red Sox sign Lugo

[Sandman42]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2687827

4 years $36 million

[CWood2]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

Excuse me while I go delete my posts on Juan Pierre to cover up my feelings on this one...

[Dispatch]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

Red Sox are spending some big money. Now they need to sign Matsuzaka. But I'm glad were starting to see what the 2007 Red Sox will look like.

[BatsareBugs]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

You guys didn't want Greene? What a shame....

[theaub]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

The $250 million offseason.

[skitch]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

LOL, theaub, that's what I was thinking.

There seemed to be a good number of teams interested in Lugo. Yeah, he's versatile, but I don't see him being worth this amount of money.

[Misfit]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

Renteria got 40 from the Sox just a couple of years ago, so 36 for Lugo isn't horrible. He was the best guy available and has a swing built for Fenway. He'll surely make more errors than Gonzalez, but their lineup needed him. Hopefully he actually sticks around for the duration of this contract. The Red Sox haven't had a shortstop make consecutive opening day starts since Nomar in '02 and '03.

[jake44np]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

How does a guy who couldnt make the Dodgers postseason lineup get a 36 million dollar contract? The guy had 5 post season at bats for the Dodgers!
Little Theo must think you have to out spend the Yankees to beat them!

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

How does a guy who couldnt make the Dodgers postseason lineup get a 36 million dollar contract? The guy had 5 post season at bats for the Dodgers!
Little Theo must think you have to out spend the Yankees to beat them!

Wow. What a horribly, terribly, misinformed post.

There are certainly criticisms to be made about Lugo's contract, but using the number of at bats he received in the post season this past year is not one of them.

Lugo was traded from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays right before the July 31st deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the past couple years, Lugo was the starting shortstop and leadoff hitter for Tampa, and put up very respectable offensive numbers.

The trade to the Dodgers, in my opinion, was awful, as they played Lugo out of his most comfortable position (SS), and all across the field at: 3B, LF, RF, to name a few. The Dodgers gave up 3B/OF Joel Guzman, who used to be a highly acclaimed prospect in exchange for Lugo (A great move for Tampa BTW, as they got a fairly solid young player for a guy who was going to walk after the season was over). Essentially, L.A. acquired Lugo to be a utility player, when he never performed that role before in his career. In his time with L.A., Lugo never received consistent at bats and was jerked around the field by Grady Little.

I don't believe in throwing away results from somebody's career, but I think in the case of Lugo's 2006 2nd half, you can take it with a grain of salt.
So, in conclusion, the signing of Lugo has nothing to do with the Yankees, and nothing to do with his time with the Dodgers (aside from the fact that they offered him arbitration)..

[Ckhoss29]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

Wow. What a horribly, terribly, misinformed post.

There are certainly criticisms to be made about Lugo's contract, but using the number of at bats he received in the post season this past year is not one of them.

Lugo was traded from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays right before the July 31st deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the past couple years, Lugo was the starting shortstop and leadoff hitter for Tampa, and put up very respectable offensive numbers.

The trade to the Dodgers, in my opinion, was awful, as they played Lugo out of his most comfortable position (SS), and all across the field at: 3B, LF, RF, to name a few. The Dodgers gave up 3B/OF Joel Guzman, who used to be a highly acclaimed prospect in exchange for Lugo (A great move for Tampa BTW, as they got a fairly solid young player for a guy who was going to walk after the season was over). Essentially, L.A. acquired Lugo to be a utility player, when he never performed that role before in his career. In his time with L.A., Lugo never received consistent at bats and was jerked around the field by Grady Little.

I don't believe in throwing away results from somebody's career, but I think in the case of Lugo's 2006 2nd half, you can take it with a grain of salt.
So, in conclusion, the signing of Lugo has nothing to do with the Yankees, and nothing to do with his time with the Dodgers (aside from the fact that they offered him arbitration)..

The funny thing is, you are actually lying to yourself to make it seem more like it was a good move to bring him in. He is ok offensively if you like .275 or so with around 8-10 homers and about 15-20 SB's. For 9 Million why didn't they just give into trading for Tejada instead and offer to pay the full contract and throw money in the deal. Lugo is also not very good defensively at short, 25 and 24 errors are not too solid of seasons for a SS.

Lugo is a decent player but not worth $9 Million even in this market, so go ahead and butter it up all you want, he is still just an average ball player.

[Misfit]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

Getting someone like Tejada would require the Sox to part with talent as well as dollars. Lugo is just cash. Plus Tejada's defense has eroded to the point where he isn't an upgrade over Lugo in the field. Lugo gets a lot of praise for his range at short and is considered by many to be a good defensive player (http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/018509.php) who makes some poor decisions on when he should and should not hold the ball, leading to his high error totals. If Renteria can get 10 million a year, I don't see how it's a travisty that Lugo gets 9.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Red Sox sign Lugo

Another thing is that there are no other free agent shortstops available. It was Lugo or a season of Dustin Pedroia and Alex Cora at short. They almost had to make the move at this point.

It is certainly debateable whether or not they should have kept Gonzalez, though. Personally, I like having both Lugo and Crisp in the lineup, as it adds more speed to a largely lumbering group of hitters. I can definitely live with Lugo and Youkilis at the top of the order, with Crisp hitting farther down in the order.

The move, while not a slam dunk, really isn't a brain dead ******** move by the front office. I can't really argue with their calculus too much if their metrics indicate Lugo's defense is in reality solid.