Lugo’s death knell begins gonging

The Red Sox have informed all teams that they are willing to pay most of Lugo’s remaining salary, Ken Rosenthal reports. The team has publicly announced its intention of bringing Mike Lowell aboard Friday with Jed Lowrie to follow Saturday, so Lugo’s time is running short.

The Sox have realized Lugo’s sunk cost — one of the few teams to understand the idea of sunk cost — and are willing to receive a fringe prospect in return just to move him. The idea behind moving him instead of releasing him outright would be to get at least some talent into the system from a team that wants Lugo without having to fight for him in free agency.

I’m going to guess Lugo to the Pirates. The Pirates seem to be highly likely to trade second baseman Freddy Sanchez, and Jack Wilson may be on the way out as well. The Pirates need middle infield depth with these moves, and Lugo fits the bill.

Theo Scoops Up Dominican Shortstop

Theo Epstein has signed another elite international shortstop today, wrapping up the contract of Jose Vinicio for $1.95 million out of the Dominican Republic. Vinicio recently became eligible on July 10 when he turned 16 years old. The scouting report from Baseball America:

Pressing Questions For The Second Half

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With the unofficial second half of the season set to kick off with Clay Buchholz much-anticipated 2009 debut on Friday night, it seems like an appropriate time to gauge where exactly the Red Sox stand and how they stack up going forward in this years campaign. With the best record in the American League and a three-game lead on their hated rivals, even the most pessimistic Sox fan has to be fairly impressed and satisfied with the Red Sox first half performance.