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Thursday, April 19

BoSox: Keys to Success

Here's something I have observed as a Julio Lugo owner...
Obviously, the Red Sox are good and they have had one of the best offenses and teams in general over the past few years. I am not going to dispute that Big Papi and Manny are great players and offensive juggernauts or that Schilling, Beckett and Daisuke can be dominating starters, but I want to take a look at what I believe is an overlooked key to the Red Sox success. I think there is data (both current and past) to support this hypothesis. My contention is:
JULIO LUGO IS THE CATALYST FOR BOSTON'S OFFENSE AND WHEN HE PRODUCES A GOOD OFFENSE BECOMES A GREAT OFFENSE.

The Support:
So far, Boston has scored 3 or less runs 6 times.
In those 6 games, Lugo's production was down, here are the numbers in this order:
Boston's score - Lugo's Hits - Lugo's Walks - Lugo's Run
1 - 0 - 0 - 0
0 - 0 - 1 - 0
3 - 0 - 0 - 0
3 - 2 - 2 - 2
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
1 - 0 - 0 - 0
As you can see, when Lugo doesn't get on base the BoSox struggle to put up runs.
Here is what happens when Lugo does get one base, following the same format for listing the stats:
7 - 1 - 1 - 0 (he did have an RBI)
4 - 2 - 0 - 1
4 - 2 - 0 - 1
10 - 3 - 0 - 2
8 - 1 - 1 - 2
7 - 2 - 0 - 1
So as you can see, everytime Lugo has gets on base twice in a game either by hits, walks or combo of the two, the Red Sox have put at least 4 runs on the board except for once.
I think when you look at the Boston teams of the past, it was Johnny Damon who was the catalyst that helped Ortiz and Manny drive in so many runs. Lugo now has the chance to be that guy and help the Boston slugger's drive in a lot of runs instead of just hitting monsterous solo-shots.

Thoughts?

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