POLL: Lowrie Mania is Upon Us

When Julio Lugo went down, it was almost as if an audible sigh of relief was heard across New England. No one, well most people at least, wouldn’t wish an injury on someone, but this was one that people weren’t broken-hearted over.

Add to that the .310 average and .816 OPS of rookie Jed Lowrie in his first stint with the team in April/May and you get a good old fashioned “quarterback controversy."

So when we posed the question, “How should the Red Sox address the shortstop vacancy created by Julio Lugo’s injury?,” should it really be any surprise that you responded loud and in mass that not only should Lowrie get a serious look at short, but that Lugo’s job shouldn’t necessarily waiting for him when he returns.

• Lowrie gets the bulk of playing time and a chance to “Wally Pipp” Lugo
  70% of all votes
• Lowrie and Cora mix-and-match until Lugo comes back
  22% of all votes
• The Sox strike a deal to bring in a shortstop out of the organization to start
  4% of all votes
• The Sox bring in a veteran shortstop (Omar Vizquel?) to split playing time with Cora until Lugo’s return
  4% of all votes

It looks like Terry Francona may have voted with the 42 of you who chose option number two above, and unless Lowrie improves on his one for nine start to his second stint with team this season that plan may stick regardless of Cora’s offensive deficiencies.

On to the next poll, from Fire Brand reader Sean.

Which, if any, current Red Sox
player should have their number retired by the team?

Vote away in the poll to the right and feel free to leave your comments/thoughts in the thread for this post below. We’ll highlight selected answers in an upcoming episode of the Fireside Chats Podcast.