Grandpa Lowell

He is old. His stint on the DL did not help his baserunning or his fielding. He was caught at home last night and let at least one ball roll by him with absolutely no burst towards it.

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=y&type=0&season=2009&month=0

Take a look. The only players worse in UZR/150 are Michael Young, who's playing third this year for the first time, and Chipper Jones, who has been lousy for years but can't be hid at DH. Young even made a nice play last night which shows he may be improving.

UZR can fluctuate and takes a large sample size to give a true picture, but when they are this bad already and confirm what you see with the naked eye, you can place more faith in them. It also follows that he would have a new level of defense after major surgery.

Calling Lowell a statue is putting it kindly. He is very very slow now, especially laterally, and doesn't make up for it with his bat. According to WARP he is just 0.4 wins above replacement.

Finding a third baseman who can move should be the team's top priority at the trade deadline.