I LOVE THE SMELL OF CONTROVERSY IN THE MORNING! Don’t you? According to Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal, it appears there may be one brewing at the shortstop position.
“When he met with reporters Wednesday afternoon, Terry Francona wouldn’t admit to having decided on a starting shortstop for Friday. He would admit only to having decided on a starting shortstop for Wednesday — a game that was postponed — and he admitted to that only because the lineup card had been posted in the clubhouse.
But the lineup card for Wednesday did list the name of Jed Lowrie for the second day running, this time at shortstop in place of Marco Scutaro. If Francona was going to start Lowrie — who hits better from the right side of the plate — against Tampa Bay righty James Shields, it’s hard to believe Lowrie isn’t going to start seeing more at-bats going forward.
“Jed’s hitting about .480,” Francona said, his voice matter-of-fact. “We don’t have a lot of guys hitting .480.”
While I think we all knew this would come up at some point during the season, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about what this means just yet. If there’s one underlying characteristic that defines Terry Francona, its loyalty. Could we debate for hours on end whether his undying loyalty to certain players is positive or negative? Yes, but it’s also one of the reasons his players are willing to lie down on the train tracks for him. He remembers the sacrifices Marco Scutaro made to the team last season. Despite being battered and beaten all year, he managed to get himself onto the field in 150 games. Why? Because 44% of the projected 2010 lineup spent significant portions of the season on the disabled list. Someone had to play! At one point, the Red Sox were toting out the likes of Mike Lowell, Bill Hall, Darnell McDonald, Ryan Kalish, Daniel Nava, and Eric Patterson with regularity.* At the very least, Scutaro’s selfless actions kept the Red Sox from having to find another replacement level player to fill a spot on the 25-man roster.
* Say what you like about any one of those guys, but if you claim that you liked seeing those guys play every day, you’re either lying or certifiably insane.
Does this buy him an indefinite amount of time? No, but it certainly buys him more than nine games to plead his case for a starting position. Later in the article, Francona had this to say to try and squash the rumors of a controversy:
“If I was a player and went through what Scutaro did and then had to come to camp and base my playing time on 40 at-bats, I wouldn’t want to play for a guy like me,” Francona said early in spring training. “I don’t think that makes a lot of sense.”
Scutaro was his starting SS from the get-go, and it looks like he’s the guy right now. If Francona wasn’t going to base his playing time on 40 at bats in Spring Training, do you really think he’s going to do it based on 33 plate appearances in the regular season? Of course not! While the early returns on Scoot don’t look good (a .231 wOBA, a GB% that’s 10% higher than his career norms, and questionable range at a position where range is key), the small sample in which they were produced make them pretty meaningless. In fact, the numbers posted by Jed Lowrie (.466 wOBA) in 18 plate appearances are just as meaningless. While that won’t quell the overwhelming cries of Red Sox Nation, it’s nice to know that more rational heads are prevailing.
So what does this mean for Lowrie? For the time being, he’ll continue to encumber the role of utility infielder while playing predominately against lefties. The good news for Lowrie (and the Red Sox if he continues to hit well) is that the Red Sox are projected to go up against several left-handed starting pitchers over the next seven games.
Friday 4/15 (vs. Blue Jays) – Brett Cecil (LHP)
Saturday 4/16 (vs. Blue Jays) – Jo-Jo Reyes (LHP)
Sunday 4/17 (vs. Blue Jays) – Jesse Litsch (RHP)
Monday 4/18 (vs. Blue Jays) – Ricky Romero (LHP)
Tuesday 4/19 – (vs. A’s) – Brett Anderson (LHP)
Wednesday 4/20 (vs A’s) – Gio Gonzalez (LHP)
Thursday 4/21 (vs Angels) – Tyler Chatwood (RHP)
Considering the amount of playing time Lowrie’s likely to see over the next week, he could play himself into a position where it’s nearly impossible for Francona to keep the switch-hitting utility infielder on the bench. Still, we should probably cross that bridge when we come to it, and not beforehand. Scutaro could negate the cries to install Lowrie as the shortstop by going on a tear himself. With the incredibly small sample sizes we’ve been dealing with thus far, anything could happen over the next week.
Luckily, the roster, as it’s currently constructed, is set up for maximum flexibility. There are more than enough plate appearances to go around for both players to get significant playing time. As long as they’re both playing in situations that maximize their ability to perform at the highest levels, the designation of the “starting shortstop” tag is pretty irrelevant.
Is there a controversy? Maybe, but I’m not sure it exists outside of the minds of certain sects of fans and journalists. At least not yet.