ALL RIGHT!!! LEMME HEAR YA!!!

[KatJ]

The ENTIRE starting rotation from the top of the year is on the DL, headed for the DL, or traded, and the Cubs just got tossed into the cellar courtesy of the PIRATES - a team with less than half the Cubs' payroll.

 

Can you believe that roughly 70% of people in the latest cubs.com poll actually think Juan Pierre should be re-signed??? Talk about throwing good money after bad!

 

I know this probably belongs in Rants, but the team is so flat out stinky that I think we should make a nice thread for Len to "gift wrap" for the front office. I also know I'm not making sense, but I'm so dumbfounded by the clusterduck of this entire season that I just gotta laugh. Luckily, I haven't been following much baseball for a while. Maybe I can get a $6.5 mil deal from Jim Hendry for that? Seems to work for some people...

[chuckywang]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

[RockTheIvy]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

[Mizzou]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

[Electron Blue]

I know some of you may be sarcastic about Pierre right now, but I really don;t think he's awful.

 

He definitely shouldn't get $7-8 million, but still, he's not the worst problem on this team. Not even close.

[Rob]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

[CubColtPacer]

I know some of you may be sarcastic about Pierre right now, but I really don;t think he's awful.

 

He definitely shouldn't get $7-8 million, but still, he's not the worst problem on this team. Not even close.

 

That's how I feel-if Pierre was the worst problem, we'd have a pretty good team-hopefully we don't re-sign him for big money, but there's other areas that need to be fixed first.

[Rob]

I know some of you may be sarcastic about Pierre right now, but I really don;t think he's awful.

 

He definitely shouldn't get $7-8 million, but still, he's not the worst problem on this team. Not even close.

 

That's how I feel-if Pierre was the worst problem, we'd have a pretty good team-hopefully we don't re-sign him for big money, but there's other areas that need to be fixed first.

 

The problem is, if he re-signs, it will be for big money. And that money then cannot be used to fix the myriad of other problems we've got.

 

Is he our biggest problem? No.

 

Can he keep us from solving the big ones? Yes.

[soapy]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Mark Bellhorn (2002).

[Rob]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Mark Bellhorn (2002).

And Eric Young (2000)

[illiniguy]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Mark Bellhorn (2002).

And Eric Young (2000)

And Lenny Harris(2003) Bwhahaha. In all seriousness he is about the 5th best this decade and we are in its 6th year. A real keeper.

[Rob]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Mark Bellhorn (2002).

And Eric Young (2000)

And Lenny Harris(2003) Bwhahaha. In all seriousness he is about the 5th best this decade and we are in its 6th year. A real keeper.

 

Lenny Harris only hit .111/.111/.111 out of the leadoff spot in 2003.

 

Todd Walker hit .294/.370/.535 in 228 AB out of the leadoff spot in 2004, though.

[Warpticon]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Todd Walker.

[Rob]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Todd Walker.

 

Beat ya to it. :P

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Lance Johnson was pretty close too.

[BigbadB]

Bellhorn blows everyone else out of the water for best Cubs lead off hitter this decade. And it's not even close.

 

Pierre was garbage before the trade and he's garbage now. It's a match made in heaven for the Cubs to bring him back.

[CubColtPacer]

Lance Johnson was pretty close too.

 

to the decade or Pierre's numbers? A year or 2 off the right decade, and about 60 points of slugging off the numbers also.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Lance Johnson was pretty close too.

 

to the decade or Pierre's numbers? A year or 2 off the right decade, and about 60 points of slugging off the numbers also.

 

He was within the last 10 years, that's how I took decade.

 

Also, it's about 30 points of slugging with a slight OBP advantage. I'd like to see how the OPS+ works out before saying one way or the other.

[dalgreen]

I've always said the leadoff hitter is overrated because other than the first inning, on average, how many times does the #1 hitter lead off an inning? You need to have four to five high OBP guys in the lineup to have a successful offense. Our offense has been no better since Pierre has learned to get on base over the past two months. Why? Because other than Lee and Barrett (who've both been hurt) no one really gets on base consistently. You look at the Cardinals (other than this year) and over the past five or six seasons, they've had five or six guys in the lineup with good OBP.

[KatJ]

The problem is, if he re-signs, it will be for big money. And that money then cannot be used to fix the myriad of other problems we've got.

 

Is he our biggest problem? No.

 

Can he keep us from solving the big ones? Yes.

 

Neifury, part two? Okay ballplayer, but hardly a team's savior, and totally not worth re-signing. What possessed Jim Hendry to turn out the dough for OF when anyone could see - yes, even in March - that the Cubs needed another starting pitcher who was actually capable of getting into a live game on Opening Day?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I know we hate Juan Pierre but he has been the best leadoff guy the Cubs have had this decade.

 

Except for Kenny Lofton.

And Mark Grudzelaniek.

And the 04 version of CPatt.

And Mark Bellhorn (2002).

And Eric Young (2000)

And Lenny Harris(2003) Bwhahaha. In all seriousness he is about the 5th best this decade and we are in its 6th year. A real keeper.

 

Lenny Harris only hit .111/.111/.111 out of the leadoff spot in 2003.

 

Todd Walker hit .294/.370/.535 in 228 AB out of the leadoff spot in 2004, though.

 

But...but...the Cubs have had a long-standing problem trying to find a leadoff hitter!

 

Sigh.

[abuck1220]

LEGITIMATE!

[UMFan83]

I've always said the leadoff hitter is overrated because other than the first inning, on average, how many times does the #1 hitter lead off an inning? You need to have four to five high OBP guys in the lineup to have a successful offense. Our offense has been no better since Pierre has learned to get on base over the past two months. Why? Because other than Lee and Barrett (who've both been hurt) no one really gets on base consistently. You look at the Cardinals (other than this year) and over the past five or six seasons, they've had five or six guys in the lineup with good OBP.

 

The leadoff hitter is important because he hypothetically sets the table for the middle of the lineup. A leadoff hitter with a higher OBP gives the 3-4-5 hitters a better chance to drive in a run. Or at least thats what the MLB textbook says.

[jmajew]

I've always said the leadoff hitter is overrated because other than the first inning, on average, how many times does the #1 hitter lead off an inning? You need to have four to five high OBP guys in the lineup to have a successful offense. Our offense has been no better since Pierre has learned to get on base over the past two months. Why? Because other than Lee and Barrett (who've both been hurt) no one really gets on base consistently. You look at the Cardinals (other than this year) and over the past five or six seasons, they've had five or six guys in the lineup with good OBP.

 

The leadoff hitter is important because he hypothetically sets the table for the middle of the lineup. A leadoff hitter with a higher OBP gives the 3-4-5 hitters a better chance to drive in a run. Or at least thats what the MLB textbook says.

 

One more thing...The leadoff hitter generally has the most atbats in a game and definitely has the most at the end of the season. So why woudl you want someone with a low OBP have hte most atbats on your team.

[BigbadB]

Now hitting before Derrek Lee ever picks up a bat is......

 

Rey Ordonez, Damian Jackson, Lenny Harris, Neifi Perez, Freddy Bynum, Jose Macias, etc.....