RIP R-L-R-L-R-L?
Just a few minutes ago the Trib reported that Alfonso Soriano is leaving his leadoff spot in the Cubs lineup for tonight’s game vs. the Cardinals. I guess that’s news around the Cubs water cooler — what with Hendry and Piniella fielding constant questions on the matter from fans ever since Alfonso became a Cub. It’s not crazy, though.
What’s weirder and even more worthy of discussion in my opinion is the Cubs manager’s apparent scrapping of his right-left stacked batting order that we heard about all offseason. This after all was the given reason that Mark DeRosa is wearing an Indians jersey, why Ronny Cedeno was shipped off, and why two well-paid switch hitters were acquired to replace them (Miles and Bradley). The Cubs used the same explanation to recently reveal the answers to mysteries including the disappearance of John Gotti and the location of the Holy Grail. The missing DVD, not the actual thing. But anyway, back to crazy…
1 Theriot
2 Fukudome
3 Soriano
4 Aram
5 D-Lee
Seems a little jaded, right? Like the kind of thing the team would do after losing 5 in a row instead of 2 tough ones vs. the Reds. Or the kind of thing to throw at certain Sunday Night Baseball commentators just for fun. Hmm. Soriano, Aram and D-Lee are all streaky hitters, so this is a boom or bust move by Piniella without a doubt. Those losses against Cueto and Harang must have been a big wakeup call to Lou Piniella…they sure were for me.
Sheps and I weren’t aware of tonight’s lineup when we recorded today’s episode (download – mp3), but we discussed at length some of the recent moves by Sweet Lou.
Can’t wait to discuss this one on Monday. Hopefully this’ll wake up the bats. Go Cubs!
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5 Responses
Adam April 24th at 10:30 pm
Lou, I know this looks like the biggest, most drastic move in the world. Soriano out of the leadoff spot. Lee in the 5-hole. Huge, desperate act, right?
Not really. Think about this: just 15 games into the season, Lou has had to adjust for injuries to Bradley, Ramirez, and Soto. With Bradley officially out of the starting lineup (again) until he’s 100% healthy and Lou’s hesitancy to put Hoff back in right, this is just another injury adjustment. Replacing the Hoff/Bradley spot in the lineup with Reed Johnson leaves a power void in the heart of the lineup. Going to Soriano, Ramirez, and Lee at 3-4-5 takes care of that nicely (and The Riot belongs at leadoff, we all know that).
Also, think about these indisputable facts about the batting order (disregarding pitchers) through 15 games:
* Lou has employed 10 different batting orders.
* Only 2 of the 10 batting orders have been used more than once.
* Only 4 of the 10 batting orders have started off Right / Left / Right / Left.
Yes, the front office put a premium on Bradley as a left-handed power bat. Yes, we lost a right-handed DeRosa who could play anywhere and gained a switch-hitting Bradley who isn’t playing at all. But we’re FIFTEEN GAMES into the season. Consider that fifteen games into his first year with the Yankees, Babe Ruth went 0-48. (Also consider that I made up that stat.) But come on . . . it’s fifteen games.
This team went through a pretty massive turnover. They’re still figuring out the bullpen. They’re still figuring out the lineup. It’s to be expected. Let’s not be alarmed that Lou’s fiddling with the lineup like he’s Daniel Webster.
It’s all good.
BobT April 25th at 4:17 pm
I think you and Lou are making the same point from opposite sides– it’s 15 games, why all the the different lineups, the big announcements about who will no longer play right field, who will no longer hit cleanup, who will no longer be in the pen, etc. It’s not a huge thing that the lineup has been shifted again, it’s a huge thing that it’s been shifted so much, regardless of injuries, this early.
The Cubs had over of month of spring training to figure out the closer, figure out the leadoff hitter, figure out the cleanup hitter, figure out the bullpen, figure out the bench, and so on. And now about 2 week in everything has changed. Yes, injuries are a big reason why, no doubt, but the amount of tinkering, the big announcements, the moves, it’s too much. My message to Lou Piniella, chill out and let the team play some baseball and stop acting like every game is telling you something new that should change the approach you settled on over the off season and in spring training.
Lou April 26th at 10:38 am
You guys both make good points and the bottom line sounds like we should all chill out.
It’s clear, though, that whatever patterns the Cubs coaches have noticed are extremely disturbing…I would like to think more disturbing than anything they noticed the last 2 seasons.
Part of it is injury-related, no doubt, but another part is unquestionably the 0 for 4’s from middle of the lineup guys.
I hope after the soon-arriving 3 game winning streak, a nice article will popup on Cubs.com that mentions Gerald Perry and/or Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto discovered something negative in their plate appearances by watching some extra video.
Sheps April 26th at 5:17 pm
So, 1 day later and Soriano is back in the leadoff spot and now, according to Piniella, it’s “for good”.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Sweet Lou is freaking me out.
Adam April 26th at 8:00 pm
Freaked out hosts . . . that’s a good thing. Chill hosts can be boring. Get freaked out, panic, and rant for Monday’s podcast. Thanks in advance!