The media whispers and innuendo, or “sound and fury” as Sox General Manager Theo Epstein might call it, naturally kick into high gear when a Sox player, particularly one that the Sox paid a handsome fee for the prior off-season, is struggling as shortstop Julio Lugo is right now in going 0-for-the road trip through Atlanta and San Diego.

The spell of batting failure extends back to a pair of home games before the road trip, with Lugo hitless in his last 26 at bats and 14-for-127 (a truly horrible .110 batting average over that span) over his last 32 games and embarrassed owner of the lowest batting average among Major League qualifiers.

Rock bottom thy name is Julio Lugo.

A source within the Red Sox organization indicated to me that Lugo has been hesitant to embrace attempted tinkering and/or hitting modifications suggested by Boston hitting coach Dave Magaden and the rest of the coaching staff, and has been stubborn about changing things that are obviously not working for him.

All Lugo need do is look at Coco Crisp as an example of a little advice going a long way as Magaden and the Sox staff helped Crisp lessen the very pronounced crouch in his hitting stance, closed his stance off a little bit and also altered the way he had been wagging the bat pre-pitch. Crisp is also holding the batter much higher in his stance now, a key part of his suddenly regained ability to turn on fastballs that had been confounding him before.

All of these suggestions helped Crisp start hitting the fastball again with authority and allow him to show off the respectable power he had in Cleveland – something that had all but disappeared in Boston until the last week or so.

The results have been indisputable as the centerfielder has been hitting the ball all over the field with authority over the last three weeks (.345 over his last 13 games and three home runs and 5 RBIs over his last six games) and is beginning to look like the player the Sox envisioned when they acquired him from Cleveland.