Now batting, Julio Lugo

A few years ago, I reconnected with a childhood pal, Art Pollock. Art is an insurance man in Dunedin, Fla. Our common ground is baseball. We played in Little League together. Art’s late dad Chick, a slugging first baseman and major league prospect in his day, coached the Dunedin High baseball team.

Art is a Tampa Bay Devil Rays season ticket holder. He is a meticulous scorekeeper, and watching a game with him, you can’t help but appreciate his deep knowledge of the players and the game.

With that in mind, and with the Hot Stove League in Red Sox Nation just morphing magically into the Grapefruit League in Florida, I asked Art for a scouting report on Boston’s new shortstop. That would be Julio Lugo, Tampa Bay’s old shortstop, whom Boston signed to a four-year, $36 million contract.

Art?

“Lugo is 31. Most shortstops sharply decline defensively in their 30s, and Lugo has never consistently gotten the throw down from deep short or from behind second. When the Rays traded him to the Dodgers at the deadline last summer, he was dead last in MLB fielding percentage for shortstops who had played over 70 games. His error-per-game ratio was among the very worst. And the Devil Rays’ Travis Lee is the greatest-fielding first baseman in big league history. He saved Lugo a ton of throwing errors over the years. So watch out if you are walking past Fenway on Van Ness Street.

“Several clubs interested in obtaining Lugo in ’06 were not going to replace their shortstop with him but would have put him at second base. The Dodgers, who appreciate the virtues of defense and pitching, chose to play Lugo at second and third and not much at short. He never became a consistent starter in LA.

“My childhood idol was Cub shortstop Ernie Banks, an offensive shortstop. The Cubs then were generally a seventh and eighth place team. Offensive shortstops don’t make the same contribution to a contender that defensive shortstops do. (By the time they made their big pennant run in 1969, the Cubs had moved Banks to first base. Fergie Jenkins owes at least part of his Hall of Fame plaque to the defensive shortstop behind him, Don Kessinger.)

“The Devil Rays got Lugo in 2003 from Houston after an incident in which he allegedly whipped up on his wife in the parking lot of the Astrodome. The Astros got Julio out of town pronto.

“Now Tampa Bay fans (the few there are) probably think Jack the Ripper was a slugger and a nice guy on one of them up-north teams. Hence the National Organization for Women did not picket Rays games after Lugo arrived at Tropicana Field. His wife ultimately recanted, saying Lugo did not beat her. An out-of-court settlement, where we all know truth and goodwill prevail over monetary considerations, quickly followed.

“I’ve had season tickets at Tropicana Field since Day One (3/31/98), and Lugo was our best SS ever. However, that is damning with faint praise. In Boston, he will pop a few over the Monster and add some spirit, unless Manny & Co. fall into the team’s historic ‘25 cabs’ routine. Then Lugo will just seem to be an annoying mouthy presence.

“I don’t think he is worth what the Red Sox paid for him. They could have made a better choice for that key infield position.”