The Red Sox’ Dustin Pedroia gets ready to take a throw , which came too late to get the Indians’ Josh Barfield at second base Sin the first inning of last night’s game.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez Ruben W. Perez

BOSTON — Despite not picking until 55th in next week’s Major League Baseball amateur draft, the Red Sox are hoping to land several impact players.

The Sox lost their first-round pick in the draft to Los Angeles because of its signing of free-agent shortstop Julio Lugo.

Boston’s first pick comes in the “sandwich” round between the first and second rounds as compensation for the Reds signing Type-A free-agent Alex Gonzalez. The Sox have another pick in the sandwich round — 62nd — for the Indians’ signing of reliever Keith Foulke, even though the right-hander retired a few days into training camp. Despite their draft position, Boston could still wind up with some good players, said general manager Theo Epstein.

“I think we can still make an impact,” said Epstein during a press conference yesterday. “That (picking low) is when you have to do a good job of preparing for the unexpected. In 2002, Jon Lester (second round) fell down to us. In 2004, Dustin Pedroia fell (to the second round, the 65th pick). So we take the same approach every year. You never know who might be there.”

Jason McLeod, the team’s director of amateur scouting, said this will be a draft dominated by high school players. The Sox’ philosophy on taking high schoolers is to select kids they think are mentally and physically prepared to play professional baseball. There are few, if any, sure things in evaluating talent, the two men agreed, especially when compared to the NFL and NBA drafts.

“It’s an imperfect pursuit,” said Epstein. “Regardless of how thorough you are, you are projecting. It will always be an imperfect science.”

To illustrate his point, Epstein told a story about former Bishop Hendricken star Rocco Baldelli, who the Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected with the sixth pick in the first round of the 2000 draft.

“All of a sudden, about a month before the draft, a tape started circulating showing him taking swings in his basement and playing volleyball, to show his athleticism,” said Epstein with a chuckle. “It was like a bootleg tape. So just before the draft there were scouts taking red-eye flights to Rhode Island to maybe see one game (of Baldelli’s career) based on a volleyball tape.”

Baldelli, though slowed recently by injuries, has proven to be a solid choice by the Rays.

Lugo gets a rest

Sox manager Terry Francona gave another of his regulars some time off last night. Coco Crisp replaced Lugo as the leadoff hitter and Alex Cora played shortstop and hit eighth. Lugo is mired in a tough slump, with just seven hits (.132) in his last 12 games, but with an off-day today he will get two days off.

“He’s fine,” Francona said of Lugo. “Sometimes back-to-back [days off], we think is good; sometimes we don’t think it’s good,” Francona said. “We think it will be really good for him.”

Job is never done

What do major-league managers do on a night off? Go to a ballgame.

That’s Francona’s plan tonight, anyway. He says he and pitching coach John Farrell plan to head to McCoy Stadium tonight and watch the PawSox. Mike Timlin is due to pitch. He’s struggled in a battle back from tendinitis in his pitching shoulder but is making progress.

“I think (Tuesday) showed he’s not quite there,” said Francona. “I think he feels healthy. He feels like he’s got pretty good arm strength, but as far as repeating his pitches in his delivery, that’s why he’s there doing it. I don’t want to speak for him. I think he’s frustrated, but I think he understands.”

Francona said he exchanged text messages with Lester, who was happy with the way he threw Tuesday. Lester will be allowed to throw more pitches in his next start than the 84 he tossed in his last start.

Rotation juggled

With Josh Beckett joining the rotation this week, plus an off-day, the Sox needed to juggle their rotation a bit. Francona said the easy call was to push Julian Tavarez up two days to Monday’s contest in Oakland and come back with Curt Schilling and Beckett on their normal four-days’ rest for the Saturday-Sunday games in the series against the Yankees.

pkenyon@projo.com