Scutaro or Lowrie..Mark Or Jed

Hello on this 4 degree below zero early morning Saturday. As we approach the halfway mark of this, the first month of the year, the Boston Red Sox have two different guys who can play a mean shortstop...Jed Lowrie or Marco Scutaro. Scutaro hit .275 with 11 home runs, a .333 on-base percentage and 56 RBIs over 150 games last season. Lowrie hit .287 with nine homers and 24 RBIs in 55 games. He had a .381 OPB. It will be Scutaro's job to lose unless something extremely drastic happens. We'll see Lowrie as a fill-in at second base and a spot stint or three at the hot corner in addition to his play at shortstop. Is he the odd man out of the quartet? No and yes. Here's the man with all the answers who essentially did what he had to do to enable the Red Sox to come out of the starting blocks as the number one team in the AL East. Speak up, Theo Epstein...

“I think we have two really talented shortstops on the roster at different phases of their career and they’ll both end up helping this club win. How it shakes out in terms of playing time will be up to Terry Francona and ultimately the players will determine their own roles. Scutaro signed here to be a shortstop and he should be healthy when he comes to camp and he’s going to play a lot of shortstop. Jed Lowrie is someone who can play a good shortstop and can play a number of positions to help this team win. I’m sure he’s going to see some time at shortstop. Marco was our shortstop last year and until something changes, that’s how it’s going to be. I’m just making the point that we believe in both guys.”

I feel the exact same way. If Scutaro (God forbid) goes down with an injury of some kind, Jed Lowrie will be right there to play his heart out at shortstop. Scutaro and Lowrie will have similiar offensive stats and that's just fine with me. Last year, Lowrie showed flashes of power at the plate. To have him "waiting in the wings" is a blessing indeed. One of the signs of a great team is its built-in redundancy factor. If one guy goes down, for any reason at all, someone is there to fill the injury gap smoothly, seamlessly and faultlessly. What a wonderful thing.

Click on this post's title for more Red Sox news from somewhere and as always, BE WELL. Live long and prosper, as Spock said. Have a great Saturday and a wonderful weekend. GO PATRIOTS. Beat the stuffing out of those big-mouthed and utterly foul NY Jets. The game at Foxboro will be televised nationally Sunday afternoon. I'll be back with any and all late breaking news.