A slew of reactions about the Drew and Lugo signings around the Interwebs, as to be expected and as Robin commented yesterday, the tone is fairly positive, because everyone seems stuck on the idea of a 3-4-5 of Papi, Manny and Drew and the offensive capabilities of Lugo over Gonzo. All meritorious points, even if the Sox do seem like they’re jumping from ship to shore and back again every winter on the general winning strategy for the team. There have also been the requisite and all too appropriate Johnny Damon comparisons – I think if the sports media was George Bush, they’d accuse the Sox of being wishy-washy (and possibly engaging in some cutting and running – NSFW) – but what got me going today was an article from SI.com that DC sent me.Now, of the two main writers on this site, I’m generally more of the straight-laced stat head: I believe that baseball is a game of statistics as much as anything else and that statistics help you prove empirically what your subjective memory can’t tell you about a player’s performance. Also I can’t write the funny like Robin can. But using PECOTA scores to tell me that Renteria would have been a better choice at shortstop over Lugo is ridiculous. Yes, Renteria, when he’s playing well is the better player. But if we’re going to play that game, then I give you some right back: in 94 at-bats in Fenway Park since 2004, Julio Lugo has a .914 OPS, 9 doubles, 2 triples, 2 home runs and 6 RBI – all while playing for the wildly inconsistent Devil Rays. Edgar Renteria, over the same period at the same park, has a .707 OPS, 22 doubles, 2 triples, 3 home runs and 32 RBI over 304 at-bats. Renteria may be the better player according to his overall projections, but Lugo is a much better offensive fit at Fenway.
Posts
