Sunday, December 6, 2009

Impact of the Marco Scutaro Signing

Photo by AP

♫ The Rooters showed up at the grounds one day
They found their seats had all been sold
McGreevey led the charge into the park
Stormed the gates and put the game on hold
The Rooters gave the other team a dreadful fright
Boston's tenth man could not be wrong
Up from "Third Base" to Huntington
They'd sing another victory song ♫
--Dropkick Murphys

On Thursday the Red Sox agreed to a 2 year $12.5MM deal with middle infielder Marco Scutaro, who spent the last two seasons with Toronto. When analyzing exactly how much will Scutaro impact Boston's upcoming season one major aspect has to be looked at. Since Nomar left Boston after the '03 season Boston has had 5 different starters at SS over the last 6 seasons (Pokey Reese, Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, Alex Gonzalez, and Nick Green + Jed Lowrie spliting time with Lugo in '08 makes it 7). Scutaro gives them a reliable SS who now at 34 years old is actually seemingly improving, last season he had the most ABs of his career and put up the best stats. Scutaro's power is not overwhelming but his 12 HR equal the HRs put up by Lugo, Green, and Gonzalez last season combined. Scutaro may be able to use the wall to his advantage and put up another double digit HR season which would be the first by a Boston SS since Nomars 28 HRs in 2003. Scutaro can also fit into many spots in the lineup and actually started in 5 different spots in the lineup during his time with the Blue Jays (led off all of '09). He is also a very polished defender who rarely makes costly mistakes in the field. Overall I consider this a very intelligent pick up by Theo Epstein and this could even wind up being a major steal.

2 comments:

Rob A from BBD said...

You make it sound like Scutaro is a good shortstop. He's average at best. In reality most Yankee fans should be happy with this move. The Red Sox would have been better off with Orlando Hudson at 2nd and Pedrioa at short.

Stephen A. Crociata said...

Boston won in 2004/2007 with shortstops who were less of a talent then Scutaro. He's a definite upgrade.