Julio Lugo's Excuse

Got the first word on this from a new baseball blog (co-authored by Deadspin's Combudsman and a featured Deadspin commenter), which links to a Rob Bradford piece for the Herald, but apparently Julio Lugo (pictured at right, inexplicably getting high fives from teammates last year) and his complete inability to play effective baseball last year can be explained away quite simply. Apparently, the parasites made him do it.

"I never got my strength back," Lugo said. "I started training in January and that only made it worse, and when I got to spring training, I wasn't right. "Last year I was sick before I came in. I was weak. I just couldn't get my bat through the zone. This year I feel better. I'm in better condition."

And here I thought Lugo was the parasite, sucking $10 mil from the Red Sox last year while producing a lovely .230-something average. Now, I know I'm the least impartial Sox fan in the universe when it comes to the subject of Julio Lugo (while most Sox fans were incorrectly directing their bile at J.D. Drew last year, just because he was getting paid even more and despite that he produced significantly more than Lugo...but that's the start of a long rant that no one wants to read, so I'll spare you all). As far as I can figure, Theo Epstein took some Cialis three years ago and got a raging Lugo-boner, and he never consulted his doctor when the condition persisted. Lugo never did anything against the Sox as a member of the vaunted Devil Rays (unless he started one of their annual bench-clearing brawls and I don't remember it) that would make a normal fan think he was worthy of being much more than a journeyman who could steal some bases.

Luckily, we've got stud shortstop prospect Jed Lowrie in our system, and Sox fans can only hope that he does to Julio Lugo what Jacoby Ellsbury did to Coco Crisp. Then again, I like Coco...I won't be compelled to pop open a bottle of champagne when he gets traded away.