Shawn’s Status Report: The Infield

The defensive play from the corner infield positions was remarkable last season. Hopefully, this year Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis can continue that stellar defense.
Electrified by their second baseman Dustin Pedroia, Boston had a strong defensive right side of the infield. The weakest link was their shortstop in Julio Lugo.
Mike Lowell (3B)
He may have had a down year as far as errors are concerned compared to his 2006 campaign where Lowell only had 6 errors on the season. Last year Lowell ended up with 15 but boy can he flash the glove and save and take away some hits from opposing batters.
Grade A
Lowell gets an A for one simple reason and that was his ability to carry this team on offense when no one else would. .324 batting average, 21 homeruns, and 120 RBI’s speaks for itself. Yes, a down year in the field, but those numbers could be a lot better next year which is something I feel will happen and his offensive numbers will stay the same.
Lowell was a catalyst for this team when the Red Sox needed it most and that is why he gets an A.
Julio Lugo (SS)
OOOOO he is worth a pretty penny and he certainly is Theo’s boy, but I do not see much improvement from Lugo going into this year than last year.
Grade C+
Yes, maybe harsh but here me out. 19 errors at the shortstop position where he really has no range to begin with anyway. Well I may be spoiled with Alex Gonzales but man-o-man there were points in games sometimes last year where you would say Gonzo would have had that!
Hitting: pathetic. Come on you hit at the bottom of the order you have speed and you hit .237. If Lugo does step it up this year it will certainly drive this offense more from the bottom of the order but he has to start hitting early or fans are going to jump all over him. I do not expect many RBI’s from a guy hitting down in the order but at least get on.
The one plus side of Lugo that I personally loved was the stolen bases. 33 stolen bases while only being caught 6 times. That is something that I want to see from a guy like Lugo. When you get on make the opposition pay by getting extra bases.
Gotta work on the leather bro.
Dustin Pedroia (2B)
Grade A+
Yeah, call me nuts and call me crazy. Pedroia played out of this world. And he deserves that A+
Hitting .317 with 8 homers and 50 RBI’s and stellar defense at second base where we have really never had a good defensive second baseman for a long time unless you would like to consider Mark Loretta at the position Pedroia was steady with the glove at second and provided some pop for the offense at well.
I see his RBI total going up next year but his average may slip a little down to .307ish if you will. It is hard to bounce back from what an incredible year he had last year. Although Pedroia has some spark in him and could do it again.
If he starts off with a better April than last year (.182 avg) than Pedroia could lift his batting average above my bench mark. Again, last year was an incredible season for the rookie second baseman.
Can he do it again?
Kevin Youkilis (1B)
Defensively he was quite simply a human vacuum, a machine if you will. Offensively Youk was as good as advertised.
Grade A
Youk hit anywhere in the order that the Sox needed him. Played record setting defense at first base. There is not much more to ask from Youk than what he did last year. A .288 avg last year is the only thing that I as a Red Sox fan could gripe about. I like to see a lot of hitters hit over .300 but Youk’s on base percentage of .390 makes me not care so much about the .288 BA.
So, the Sox need more leather and offense from Lugo and cut down the errors at third base a little and the infield will again be the vanilla to the pitching staff’s chocolate again next season.
Clearly pitching and defense wins championships.
(Note: The Catchers will be discussed in a separate piece).