Look out Marco, Boston eats up under-performing shortstops and you are now on the clock. It may not be fair, but Edgar Renteria and Julio Lugo have soured fans on waiting for newcomers to be the new Nomah. In case you haven’t noticed, Scutaro is not exactly hitting the cover off of the ball this spring and the first article to point it out appeared on ESPN Boston today:
The 34-year-old Scutaro called himself a traditionally slow starter in spring training. He also believes spring statistics can be misleading, which is the main reason he isn’t overly concerned.
“I’ve never seen statistics behind a baseball card from spring training,” he said. “They only show them from the season because that’s all that matters. You’re just trying to get ready and work on whatever you’re doing wrong, and try to get your body in shape.”
That “back of the baseball card” line was used by Ortiz when he was in a slump earlier this spring and it seemed to diffuse the pressure for him. Tito has been juggling the lineup and hitting Scutaro second as well as ninth to see where he can contribute. To win over the fans all he needs to do is get a big hit against the Yankees once the season starts and everyone will forget about spring. But he also needs to remember he’s not in Toronto anymore and the pressure can build pretty quickly.
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