The Sox were delivered a huge blow today, losing starting third baseman and 2007 World Series MVP Mike Lowell to the disabled list with a right hip strain. Lowell, 35, is coming off pre-season hip surgery and wasn't expected to perform nearly as well as he has thus far (.282 AVG, .789 OPS). Nevertheless, hip strength and flexibility are absolutely crucial in the game of baseball, especially in hitting. Your hips generate most of the torque in your swing, thus healthy and powerful hips will result in more hits. Now that Lowell is experiencing the pain that most of us saw coming, I don't think we can completely rely on him to continue performing at this level for the rest of the season.
That being said, the Sox' brass has two options. They could test the trade market for a corner-infielder/utility type player to fill the void for the remainder of this season, or look internally and shuffle a platoon of Kevin Youkilis, Mark Kotsay and David Ortiz from 1B, 3B and DH; while having Nick Green, Jed Lowrie and possibly a healthy Mike Lowell manning third.
I feel Theo Epstein is one to look at matters internally first, before having to shell out the quality pitching it seems every team is after in order to land an every day player. If shuffling around the aforementioned players is not getting the job done, the Sox have a variety of options. Names that have popped up are Nick Johnson of the Nationals, a very good first baseman DH type that just plain gets on base. His OBP is hovering around .470, some 100+ points higher than the league average. Also Garrett Atkins of the Rockies, Mark Teahan of the Royals, and Bill Hall of the Brewers. All of these players would command mid-level pitching, probably a reliever along the lines of Takashi Saito or Manny Delcarmen.
With the Yankees and Rays in the rear view mirror but fast approaching, the front office needs to make a decision soon to secure another pennant for the hub.
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