Golden: Lowell excited to be with Sox

11/25/2005
BOSTON -- The contract. By now, everyone knows about the $18 million due to Mike Lowell over the next two seasons. The numbers. By now, everyone knows that Lowell is coming off a career-low .236 average in which he produced just eight homers and 58 RBIs in 500 at-bats.
But how about the Gold Glove? It has been listed as an afterthought in recent days, yet it says something about the character of the player the Red Sox just acquired from the Marlins, along with potential ace Josh Beckett and talented reliever Guillermo Mota.
Consider that while Lowell was going through his worst year at the plate, and obviously not producing a whole lot of bang for his employer's buck, he put together a glittering year with the glove, being selected as the top defensive third baseman in the National League.
Did Lowell take a lot of pride in that honor in what otherwise was the most miserable season of his baseball being?
"Very much so, to be quite frank," said Lowell. "I think it was very hard to separate the two because in this game you can make 30 errors if you're hitting .300 with 30 [home runs] and 100 [RBIs]. They don't care about the errors. But I had to really take it upon myself to separate the offense from the defense.
"There were many times where I felt like I didn't drive in runs when I could have or should have. So I felt like defensively, I had to do my best to try to stop any runs from coming in. The fact that I was able to have my best defensive year, I was very satisfied with the fact that I could separate the two. I would say that it was the small little silver lining to the whole season of last year. But I think that's the professional way to go about it. I don't think you can take your offense to your defense or vice versa. You got to separate the two."
And now, Lowell looks forward to a different separation. The act of separating 2005 from his upcoming debut season in Boston.
While any player who puts on a Red Sox uniform is in a pressure cooker, Lowell was already plenty driven before this blockbuster deal was ever consummated.
"This year, whether there was a trade or not, I'm going to be very motivated to prove that I'm not the player that I was in '05 so I don't really care what label you put on me, but I'm looking forward to having a good year," said Lowell.
The Red Sox, after doing thorough research the last couple of weeks, see no reason to believe Lowell can't get his game back in gear.
"It wasn't the fact that we would have to take Mike. It's that we wanted Mike," said Red Sox special advisor Bill Lajoie. "We look for him to bounce back extremely well from last year. At 31 years old, he certainly has many years ahead of him. The fact that he had an off year does not distract from his value in our eyes."
Playing 81 games a year at Fenway Park in an electric atmosphere could be just the recipe for a revival for a man who clocked 32 homers and drove in 105 runs back in 2003, and put up some respectable digits in '04 (44 doubles, 27 homers, 85 RBIs) as well.
"I'm a pull hitter," said Lowell. "I think the dimensions of the park favor myself the way I am, as opposed to where I'm coming from. I don't think Pro Player was very much of a hitter's park. Hopefully a couple of those balls that normally go to the track will either be doubles off the wall or steal a few home runs."
What exactly did go wrong for Lowell in 2005?
"For me personally, I think what happened was, I'm usually the type of person where I think I use Spring Training to get my swing down and right around the last 7-10 days everything starts clicking," said Lowell. "For whatever reason I didn't find that this year. It turned into the beginning of the season and I never found that rhythm. I think I dug such a deep hole in those first three weeks that I started trying to tinker with my swing, trying to do too many new things."
Sure, there's the possibility that Lowell could get off to a poor start in 2006 and Red Sox fans could overreact and make him an early target of abuse. But Lowell, who spoke to close friend Kevin Millar earlier this week about the environment he is about to enter, seemed to have everything in perfect perspective.
"[Millar] says, 'If you're not hitting it's tough, but you're going to love it.' I think I understand the good and the bad of the business. But I'm a very optimistic person," Lowell said. "I think very positively. I think if I prepare myself the way I should and the way I plan to, I'm going to be able to produce. So I'm not really dwelling on that part."
He is enthused that Beckett and Mota are coming along with him for the 1,500-mile rocket ride up the East Coast, to the place where baseball is almost a religion.
"I think if he can log in the innings and he remains healthy, the sky is the limit," Lowell said of Beckett. "His talent is special. He's the type of guy where he has three plus pitches, he can locate, he's not intimidated. He has supreme confidence in his own abilities. I really think a market like this where everything is scrutinized and broken down and expected, I think he's going to be able to thrive in that, I really do."
And the lesser-known Mota?
"Well, what I can tell you was he was someone you did not want to face at all when he was with the Dodgers," Lowell said. "And I think his confidence was hurt a little bit in April of this year because he was slated to be our closer. And he got off to a little bit of a slow start and he actually got hurt and was on the shelf for about three weeks and then Todd Jones was just so lights-out that I think he was a little disheartened that he wasn't going to get his closer's job back. But his stuff is there. This is a guy who throws 95 [mph] with a real good changeup and a decent slider. I think when he's on, he's tough."
As for Lowell, his only regret seemed to be that Spring Training is still three months away.
"I've never been more excited for a season to start than this one," said Lowell. "I think just with the change and everything, everything's pointing in the right direction."

Source: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/