Monday mashing: Move Soriano
Got up early today to have some TV fun with the Monsters in the Morning on Comcast. Thanks again to Mike North, Dan Jiggetts and Jen Patterson for their hospitality. Of course, one of the subjects that came up was Alfonso Soriano, the leadoff man who shouldn't be a leadoff man.
Over his last 22 games, Soriano is 14-for-95, or .147. Worse yet, his OBP has slipped to .296, which is unacceptable for any leadoff hitter. For June, Soriano is 8-for-50 with an OBP of .250. Lou needs to move Sori down to sixth or seventh and hit Theriot first. And he needs to tell everybody involved that he's not going to change his mind in 48 hours.
Speaking of Theriot, he went to right field twice yesterday to drive in runs. Ryan is one of my favorite friendly sparring partners, and I asked him about going the other way versus trying to "drive" the ball, not that I have anything against Theriot driving the ball.
"I'm just basically hitting the ball where it's pitched," he said. "Traditionally, I've been able to hit the inside pitch the other way. In the last month or so, I have been taking that inside pitch and turning on it quite a bit. I guess to be able to do both of them would be ideal. Hopefully, I can continue to work on that."
I appreciate the good discussion on that topic here. Friend of the court and stats man non pareil Colin Wyers has weighed in that Theriot's "problems" of late are the least of the Cubs' worries, and Colin is right. However, Theriot hasn't taken a walk since June 9. For the month, he's 12-for-49 for a .245 batting average. His OBP for June is .296, and his slugging is .327. He's walked twice and struck out 12 times this month. For the season, Theriot has 18 walks and 39 strikeouts. Last year, he put up an OBP of .387, walking 73 times and striking out 58. His isolated power (slugging minus BA) of .147 is still way up from last year's .052. So that's definitely a good thing.
Ryan Freel is supposed to begin his minor-league rehab tonight for Class AAA Iowa. Freel has been on the DL since May 28 with a left-hamstring strain. It'll be interesting to see what the Cubs do when Freel is ready. They've already sent Bobby Scales down when Aaron Miles returned. Andres Blanco may get sent out when Freel returned, but Scales and Blanco (not to mention Jake Fox) have been much more productive than Miles and Freel, in his short time here.
Speaking of the minors, one pitcher flying quickly under the radar at Iowa is right-handed reliever Blake Parker. Scouting director Tim Wilken took Parker as a corner infielder out of the University of Iowa in his first draft with the Cubs, in '06. Parker began at Class AA Tennessee, and in his first 13 games at Iowa, he's gone 0-0 with an 0.69 ERA and 7 saves. The Cubs like his stuff and the fact that he displays good "mound presence" for being a pitcher for a relatively short time. One of my minor-league gurus who visits here often says Parker has a good changeup, which is impressive itself. A Cubs guy told me it's not out of the question Parker could even make it up to the big club sometime this year. Keep an eye on this kid.
The Cubs have 38 quality starts now. They're 22-16, and the starters have a 2.17 ERA in those games. Ted Lilly leads the pack, with 10 quality starts, and he's my pick to be the Cubs' (probably) lone all-star.
Enjoy the calm before this week's storm with the Sox (and let's not call it the "Crosstown Classic") and the Indians.
all managers/coaches make adjustments, football, basketball, hockey, etc, etc....this team makes no adjustments, real ones.....like soriano being moved from lead off or sat for a game or 2, and "history" as most people like to say/use shows Reed is a 300 hitter and lead off man....and "history" shows fukudome is not a better hitter then Reed.....a 2 month 300 hitter is not better then a 5-6 month 300 hitter....the weakness with Reed is he has been labeled a part time player,
some people say you can't expect Theriot to hit 300 as last cause it was a career year....if that's the case then why did Hendry and many people expect Bradley, Fontenot, Soto, and Dempster to repeat years like last?....they all had career years......
i like Lou but he has to adjust, the fact that he doesn't shows ME he doesn't care much.....not fun anymore...just my opinion
Bruce, have you asked Theriot about his K/BB rate being so bad compared to last seasons?
Re: Benching guys
I don't understand how benching guys would help. Everyone wanted Lee benched for Hoffpauir and now look; Lee is the only one hitting and Hoffpauir has a 308 OBP.
I feel like if you bench a guy like Lee and play a Hoffpauir, you're going to see that Hoffpauir isn't an everyday guy and then Lee will have just that much longer to get out of his funk. I think its the same with Fukudome, Bradley, Soriano, etc, etc. If you sit them for an extneded time, how are they going to get out of their slump?
then you play a guy like Reed everyday and his weaknesses become exploited. Then his numbers drop and show everyone exactly why they are nothing more than bench players.
I don't know what else Lou could do. As he says, just gotta keep running them out there. Reed is not a better hitter than Fukudome or Bradley or Soriano so he shouldn't be playing over them.
Fooling around with the lineup could send a message just like benching someone would.
Bruce,
I saw Hendry on the Monsters show last night. I get the feeling he might make a play to get DeRosa back here. Do you think this will happen? This team sorely needs a player like him.
I don't think so, but anything can happen. The problem with the Cubs right now is their inability to take on any salary without getting rid of some in return, and the Indians won't want to do that.
Hey Bruce,
Do you think there is any chance the Cubs trade Harden? He seems to be their only tradable asset. You might be able to get a good return on him and open up some room for a hitter. I know you would be robbing a strength. However, you could put Marshal as the 5th and move Wells up. He has looked every bit a 4th starter.
You have to be careful with Wells. He doesn't have dominating stuff, and if he's not locating, that could spell trouble. We'll see how he looks his next few times out. They don't seem to have any inclination to move Harden.
What would the compensation be for him signing with another team?
http://baseball.suite101.com/article.cfm/baseball_free_agency_rules
If he's a Type A, the Cubs get the other team's first round pick and a sandwich pick.
What would he be as of today?:) Just kidding.
The Cubs probably wouldn't offer him arbitration in fear of him accepting and getting any raise whatsoever....so....no compensation!
Wouldn't a possible trade to the Indians cover that? Maybe they can trade a package of Fox, Blanco and Miles to get DeRosa back? I have to think Jim Hendry is exploring ways to get DeRosa back without having to take on too much salary. If he can be creative and create space to sign Bradley, I'm sure he can do the same for DeRo who's not as expensive.
It's always nice to trade your own unwanted pieces for a guy you want. But why would the Indians want Aaron Miles? There are a lot of guys like Blanco in pro ball, most of them in the minor leagues. Fox? The Cubs have tried to trade him to almost every AL team, without any luck. The other team has to want and/or need the guys you want to give them.
One of the reasons I have been disappointed in Lou is that he seems to have no fire. I am not talking about throwing bases in a tirade vs. the umps. Rather I am disappointed that he worries about Soriano or Z being senstive. I would expect him to put Sorry Sori at 6th or 7th. When Sori or Bradley blunders as badly as Bradley did when he combined poor baserunning with losing track of the number of outs, I feel the young Lou would have sat their butts down for a while. Am I being unfair, Bruce?
Hey Bruce,
Any news on Ramirez? How is the shoulder? Also, if the WS winning Phillies can move Rollins(a true leadoff hitter) down in the order...there should be no questions asked when moving Soriano.
We won't know anything until he swings all-out during batting practice. I'd still think we're looking at right around the all-star break.
You're not being unfair, bill t. Lou has a reputation as a tough guy, but he's really a "players" manager, as these things have proven. As I've maintained, the only thing you can do to athletes today is take playing time away from them. That's what I would have done, but I'm not the manager.
for Soriano looks more and more like a lead weight around the Cubs' neck.
I agree; Lou should move him down in the order AND STICK WITH IT.
Pretty sad when you get beat by the disAstros..the same way two games in a row. Give me a break.
But despite all that, they're still only 2.5 out. Just need to string together some series wins.
Is that despite themselves, they are 3 games out of 1st. They have been playing bad baseball, and I think if they can ever wake up, the Brewers and Cardinals will look back to May and June when they could have burried the Cubs and curse themselves.
I don't think that Lee, Soriano, Bradley, Soto, and Fukudome can all hit like crap together for a prolonged time. I do think that Fukudome is a mirage. Yes, his OBP is high, but the guy is now hitting .266, and is pulling off every pitch like he did last year when he imploded. If he turns out to be a bust, then Hendry must be held responsible. He was just hitting .300 and I think he's below .180 now for June. Why isn't Reed Johnson playing?
THis team needs to fix it's bullpen and bench. Once those two items get aligned, the Cubs should be able to go on a run.
As far as Soriano goes, until Piniella speaks about it, I will leave it alone. I don't disagree that he shouldn't be hitting 1st, but it's a moot point. Nothing will change until Piniella actually manages, and stops giving into these guys. Soriano hasn't had a hot streak all year, and I honestly think that can be contributed to the horrific team batting. When the rest of the lineup doesn't hit, why would anyone challenge Soriano? They can pitch around him, and allow him to get impatient and get himself out. IF he gets on base....whose going to drive him in? Look at these rbi totals....they are pathetic.
Anyone else tired of the Sox BS? Ozzie rips Wrigley, everyone picks an all city team that is full of crap players, etc. I like the series, but the build up around it, is pointless.
Ozzie, you can have him....
I'm amazed at how Fukudome can be so good in April and May then just flop...
I'm a big Cub fan and like most of the players, but some like Fukudome, Sori can really be annoying.....when and or if they start hitting we will be ok.....
problem is they can slump just as fast...
we need 2 consistent, good, solid 300 hitters to keep us from going into these long slumps....and to make us a great team....
the occasional homer from sori, singles hitter Lee, constant good bat from A-Ram, Soto coming back, would be a great help, but to me the key are Bradley and the Fukudome of April/May of last year.....to have them turn it around in the 2nd half or from this point...could still be done....
Good points, Steve.
Ozzie is basically a buffoonish cartoon character so I wouldn't pay him any attention... He should get his own cartoon show, though it would have to be on the Comedy Channel and it would have to run late at night.
My guess is that Lou or the new hitting coach will be more proactive with Fukudome in having him make corrections to try to avoid the same death spiral he went into last year at the plate. But I agree; it's beginning to look ominously similiar.
Dan Roan closed out his sports segment with more Ozzie idiocy. Yep, he's definitely a baffoonish cartoon character. Then they come back to the studio and all the people at the news desk are chuckling. At what? It's the same rehashed B.S. about Wrigley. They should quit showing the clips and stop indulging him.