Projo Sox Blog

By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. _ As long as everyone stays healthy, the Red Sox have a pretty good idea what their roster will look like for the 2009 season. With that in mind spring, training should be relatively relaxed.

Oh, wait a minute. That's not true. There will be at least one aspect of camp that should be exciting to watch - the shortstop position.

Julio Lugo and Jed Lowrie will be in an all-out competitive battle at short. J-Lu suffered a season-ending injury in July that gave J-Lo an opportunity to prove what he can do. Lowrie hit .258 with two homers and 46 RBI in 81 games for the Sox last season. Prior to his quad injury, Lugo hit .268 with one homer and 22 RBI in 82 games.

Defensively Lowrie committed only two errors, while Lugo had 16 miscues.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said the other day he'll wait to see how the situation plays out this spring, but admitted he's excited to watch it the two battle for the starting job.

"That's what makes this game fun," said Lowrie. "You can say we're in a competition, but you're always in a competition. You have guys who are always trying to take your spot so you're always on that edge anyway. The competition is going to make the team better. Obviously it's a personal game from the standpoint you're trying to do your job to make the team better because that's the ultimate goal."

Lowrie arrived at the Sox' Player Development Complex Saturday morning and plans on working out on the field on Sunday. He appears to be in good shape and has been hitting and throwing in Tampa for the last month.

"Last year I was coming in as a non-roster invitee and looking to show them what I could do," said Lowrie. "Obviously I was called up during the season and showed them what I could do. Now it's just about getting ready to play this season."

Lowrie suffered a left-wrist injury last May but was able to play through the discomfort for the rest of the season. The pain had an effect on his play in latter part of August and into September, so it was extremely important for him to rest the wrist during the offseason.

"For me it was just about getting my wrist healthy," he said. "Obviously that was the No. 1 priority and I took about a month off to just let it heal. We decided not to do surgery just because there wasn't enough time. I probably wouldn't have been ready for spring training if I had the surgery. It was just a matter of giving it some rest and trying to strengthen it back up.

"From the left side, and I'm not one to make excuses, it really hindered my ability to swing with any sort of power. My wrist was just not strong enough to keep the barrel above the ball."

After he first suffered the injury while with the PawSox, Lowrie worked with the training staff to tape the wrist everyday in order to play.

"Towards the end of the year it really didn't matter what I did," he said. "I just kind of hit that wall. The strength went down, even with the same routine [of taping it] that I had been doing all year."

Now that he's ready to begin the battle for shortstop, Lowrie's injury-free.

"I can't even describe the difference," he said. "I couldn't even touch my wrist at the end of the year because it was painful. Now that's not the case."

 Tags  Jed Lowrie Julio Lugo Red Sox

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