'Let him swing the bat'
The lineup is the big news today, with Soriano hitting sixth. And Lou says he's going to stick with it for a while.
Fukudome, CF
Theriot, SS
Lee, 1B
Bradley, RF
Fox, 3B
Soriano, LF
Soto, C
Fontenot, 2B
Harden, P
"We're going to see if we can get Sori jump-started," Lou said in his office this morning. "We moved him to the sixth hole, where he doesn't have to concern himself with trying to get on base or running. Let him swing the bat. Hopefully he starts hitting the ball with some power for us and driving in some runs."
"We're going to stay with this thing for a while."
Lou called Soriano a "team guy" and a "good man."
For his part, Soriano seemed OK with it all.
"Sixth is fine," he said right after we talked to Lou. "I know I'm not doing my job batting leadoff. I hope that whoever is batting leadoff does a better job than what I am doing to help the team win. That's the key."
Soriano agreed that the move may take some pressure off. He added that he learned from playing for the Yankees not to hang his head about such things.
I know there's not a lot of affection for Soriano among fans right now, but he conducts himself in a professional and friendly manner when dealing with reporters every day.
Lou said he chose Fukudome to bat leadoff because of his .380 on-base percentage.
On to other things:
--Lou says one solution to Monday's impending roster crunch is to get to to 11 pitchers instead of 12. That would mean just one position player would have to be sent out when Aramis Ramirez, Reed Johnson and pitcher Angel Guzman come off the DL Monday. Jeff Baker and Andres Blanco are going to stay, meaning Mike Fontenot, Jake Fox, Micah Hoffpauir and Sam Fuld will be watching things nervously here the next couple days as will pitchers Kevin Hart and Jeff Samardzija.
--Guzman tossed 1.1 scoreless innings last night for Iowa in his final rehab tuneup. He walked one and struck out one.
--If you were out at Kane County with the big crowd last night, you saw Ramirez go 1-for-2 with a walk, a double and 2 runs for Peoria. Johnson was 1-for-2 with a run scored. They'll play against Beloit today and tomorrow in Peoria.
Lou can't justify playing Fuld when he has Bradley 10 mil, Fukudome 12 mil and Sorry-ano 16 mil.
Hendry has made his bed and if the Cubs don't make the playoffs his head needs to roll!
when you're losing and fighting for your life/job you play and pray these "big money" guys come on....(that day came yesterday) guys you know did it before..you get a one tract mind, you become desperate, losers/organizations think that way, people who think in the past and won't try something new.......
at some point the winners move on.....you're right.....
they don't have time for guys like Fuld or Casey.......
Hendry was on the monsters and said the guy he signed (35 plus steals/40 hr) hurt his leg/s his first year and has had leg problems since preventing him from being that guy....... so he became just a streak hr hitter, now he can't even hit a homer........oh he'll come on for his normal hot week before it's over, hopefully it's not to late......
so they are going with the money, what have they got to lose? the worse is they'll retire rich.......we'll get a new owner, GM, manager, new players and start over........i don't mean to knock these guys, i know they are good men, but I'm a long time Cub fan who cares as many of you do.......and I'm tired of losers (GM'S/Managers) who are scared/won't take chances.
you can't always go on what someone does in the minors.....Hank Aaron, Dave Justice, Billy Williams to name a few were not home run hitters in the minors.........
Baker wouldn't play Theriot for fear he'd hit, cause then what would he do?......is Lou the same?..........
no one is putting Fuld in the HOF, but 3 months of nothing from most of the outfield of Soriano, Fuku, and Bradley and Lou says he's looking for a spark, someone to hit...then Fuld comes up, hits in his 2 starts, gives the team energy, and then is benched?.............................that's misleading people....
now he says this lineup will stay as is foor awhile....Fuld never had a chance, Casey never had a chance......Lou never was going to give them a chance.....
wasn't Casey with us last year? why did we get rid of him? i remember him coming up last year for a bit...
Lou's half correct in moving Soriano down, but Fukudome for lead off? All Sam Fuld has done is inject some energy and life, even on his outs, and he's hitting ...where in the lineup today...? oh.
Remember in April, when everyone was convinced that Hoffpauir could outhit Lee?
Sam Fuld's minor league production is a much better indicator of what he's capable of as a hitter than what he's done in a dozen or so PAs after being called up. The guy has hit .274/.356/.392 in AAA, in a hitter-friendly park.
..is that the kid has a hot hand right now. I agree he's probably not the long term answer, but might as well throw him in there while he's swinging it.
i agree, give him a shot........the minors have many career 300 plus hitters in a small or big park who never could and still can't make a major league roster.......Steve Bilko would hit 50 plus homers a year in a friendly ball park and could only make it up here for a cup of coffee......he was a career power minor league hitter...he couldn't hit a curve
as I've heard over the years and it makes sense is the pitchers down there are wild, can't get the ball over the plate, only have a good fast ball so hitters swing at many bad pitches instead of walking every at bat...when they come up they see good pitchers who put the ball over the plate most of the time giving hitters better pitches to see and swing at....so a 274 hitter in the minors may become a 300 hitter up here, and a 300 plus one may become your next Hall Of Famer.........or he may be a good major league 274 hitter with defense
and many 300 plus hitters (Pie/Patterson) in the minors off fast balls come up and can't hit a curve, slider, change up, etc.....think about that.......so numbers in the minors don't always tell a true story of a player like Fuld......or any player
this guy Steve Bilko couldn't hit a curve.....look at Soriano with the slider, he's a fast ball hitter.....
same with pitchers.....why do you think Samardzija was sent back down? if all you have is a fast ball you'll never make it to the big's/with success....there are many guys like samardzija that have great fast balls but can't throw a curve, change up, etc...........the guys who can hit a fast ball and curve are the good to great players, the pitchers who can throw a curve and good fast ball with location are good to great.......in the majors
if you go on numbers alone like a guy hitting 274 in a friendly ball park in the minors, none of them would ever make it to the majors....... so everyone hitting 274 and under should go home and look for a real job.......some times numbers don't really show the true story......the good scouts don't look at the numbers...how many times have you heard a scout, GM, etc say "he's raw, lots of work to do, but he has the tools"?....let's win today, I'm out of here..
I'd have played the kid this weekend since it's about 90 percent certain he's going to Iowa Monday. But no, long term, he's not the best option.
I'd have started him all weekend, especially if you're going to send him down Monday. That way, Fukudome and Bradley each get a day off, and maybe Fuld does something.
Harden's making the point moot in the early going. 37 pitches in the first inning.
Precisely...play Fuld while he's there and has a hot bat. Let him inject some energy into the team. At least Lou finally consented to moving Soriano down and is planning on leaving it that way for awhile (at least he's said that). Hopefully it doesn't mean that if/when Soriano gets it going at the plate, he'll move him back to the leadoff spot. Lou was wrong about one thing. He said that the fans would be complaining about Fuld batting leadoff if they weren't winning. Most true Cub fans are intelligent enough to understand that even if Fuld had a .500 OBP, his holding down the leadoff spot would not guarantee victory. It's not difficult to deduce that the 3-4-5 batters will have more RBI chances when the leadoff hitter has an OBP above .350 versus one below .300. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that a greater portion of Soriano's HR's are going to score more than a single run when he's 5th or 6th as opposed to batting behind the pitcher. So try to do everything possible to heat up Sori's bat Lou, but let him do it down in the lineup. Today's brutal loss had nothing to do with Sori batting sixth versus leadoff. It was due to a poor start by Harden (anyone else getting concerned about this guy after he has been so dominant in the past), lousy defense, and once again the poor RISP.
Harden was bad, lousy defense, poor hitting, ......
At this point I'd rather see Fuld come up with the bases loaded instead of Soriano.