Lou gives insight into the #2 spot

[b_wiggy_66]

"Piniella says he's leaning toward either Izturis or DeRosa in the No. 2 hole. That's what Spring Training is for. Izturis has a career .249 (150-for-603) average in 152 games in the No. 2 spot with 29 doubles, five triples, two homers and 51 RBIs. DeRosa has a career .272 average (82-for-301) batting second with 18 doubles, one triple, and seven home runs."

 

Dusty who?

[David]

Serenity now!

 

BTW - You might wanna rethink the "In Lou we trusty" in your sig...

[rocket]

here we go again!

 

MURTON BATS SECOND. NOT HARD.

[Wheelimus]

here we go again!

 

MURTON BATS SECOND. NOT HARD.

 

Nuh uh. He'll be sitting on the bench. Cliff Floyd will be playing and batting fifth or sixth. :(

[Tracer Bullet]

I knew I wasn't going to like Lou.

 

Murton doesn't even get a mention as a possible 2 hitter? Ugh.

[Rob]

It begins...

[Post Count Padder]

:x

[Banedon]

What's that quote from?

 

That sure sounds like it's taken from Lou's comments during the winter meetings, but I could be wrong. I'm hoping that spring training will change Lou's mind on a few things...

[Guest]

What's that quote from?

 

That sure sounds like it's taken from Lou's comments during the winter meetings, but I could be wrong. I'm hoping that spring training will change Lou's mind on a few things...

My hope is that Hendry fails to acquire a LH compliment to Murton. That would make it much more likely that he'd hit in the #2 spot in the order as Lou would probably like a non-platoon player in that spot.

[CubColtPacer]

What's that quote from?

 

That sure sounds like it's taken from Lou's comments during the winter meetings, but I could be wrong. I'm hoping that spring training will change Lou's mind on a few things...

 

It looks like it's taken from Muskat's last mailbag, and she is probably referencing the one where Lou talks about the batting order. You're right, it was a couple weeks ago that he said that, and we talked about this last week as well. My guess is DeRosa becomes the #2, which will push Izturis to 8-but other players could slide in at number 2 as well, as I'm pretty sure Lou wasn't at all settled with any lineup yet.

[BigbadB]

Aggravating is only one useful term for Izturis getting any consideration, whatsoever.

[soapy]

I'm going to continue to (perhaps foolishly) hope that this is just some insignificant rambling from Lou and not really how things will shake out. Having Izturis in the number 2 spot would be nothing short of idiotic.

 

I'm curious to know what Lou's lineup configurations were like with Seattle and Tampa Bay, but I don't know for sure where to find that (and I am too lazy anyway).

[CuseCubFan69]

IMO he's just thinking out loud. Whenever I have my team I have a basic idea on what I'm going to do before the season starts and it often changes once the season does indeed start.

[sethuel1]

Vomit-inducing is only one useful term for Izturis getting any consideration, whatsoever.

fixed

[goonys evil twin]

IMO he's just thinking out loud. Whenever I have my team I have a basic idea on what I'm going to do before the season starts and it often changes once the season does indeed start.

 

I just don't want to hear any Dusty-like comments that everybody has a clean slate and he needs to see what these guys will do for him before making any decisions. There is enough evidence out there to come to conclusions about these guys long before April. Lou doesn't need to see Izturis fail mightily for 3 months to realize he shouldn't be hitting near the top of the lineup.

[BigbadB]

Vomit-inducing is only one useful term for Izturis getting any consideration, whatsoever.

fixed

 

Thanks. I was having a very difficult time coming up with terms that would be fit to print at NSBB.

[CuseCubFan69]

IMO he's just thinking out loud. Whenever I have my team I have a basic idea on what I'm going to do before the season starts and it often changes once the season does indeed start.

 

I just don't want to hear any Dusty-like comments that everybody has a clean slate and he needs to see what these guys will do for him before making any decisions. There is enough evidence out there to come to conclusions about these guys long before April. Lou doesn't need to see Izturis fail mightily for 3 months to realize he shouldn't be hitting near the top of the lineup.

 

I agree that Izturis shouldn't hit anywhere but 8th but maybe Lou is just giving him a little respect by saying this.

[CubColtPacer]

I'm going to continue to (perhaps foolishly) hope that this is just some insignificant rambling from Lou and not really how things will shake out. Having Izturis in the number 2 spot would be nothing short of idiotic.

 

I'm curious to know what Lou's lineup configurations were like with Seattle and Tampa Bay, but I don't know for sure where to find that (and I am too lazy anyway).

 

Go to baseball reference, and then choose a franchise and year. I'm linking the 1998 Mariners to this post-once on a team page, one of the options right above team batting is a link to all the batting orders that a team used that year. It's actually quite interesting.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SEA/1998.shtml

[RichHillIsABeast]

Batting DeRosa or Izturis 2nd is actually a decent way to go. Otherwise the back end of our lineup is going to suck hardcore.

 

Soriano

Murton

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Barrett

DeRosa

Izturis

 

^^^ That's stacking all our best hitters up front.

 

Soriano

DeRosa/Izturis

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Murton

Barrett

DeRosa/Izturis

 

^^^ That's much more balanced IMO. Wasting several innings offensively a game b/c we have a crappy 7-8-9 is not the way to go. I'd rather have Murton's OBP and developing power batting 5th through 8th.

[TruffleShuffle]

Soriano

DeRosa/Izturis

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Murton

Barrett

DeRosa/Izturis

 

^^^ That's much more balanced IMO. Wasting several innings offensively a game b/c we have a crappy 7-8-9 is not the way to go. I'd rather have Murton's OBP and developing power batting 5th through 8th.

 

 

DeRosa I could live with at #2, especially if Murton's power keeps developing, because then he could produce some runs in the 6-spot. I wouldn't mind seeing Barrett at #2, although it won't happen. But batting Izturis #2 would be extremely stupid. You're guaranteeing that he'll get significantly more ABs than better hitters like Murton and Barrett, and you're also putting your worst hitter in front of the two best hitters. Izturis bats 8th for the Cubs; anything else is a mistake.

[KingCubsFan]

Batting DeRosa or Izturis 2nd is actually a decent way to go. Otherwise the back end of our lineup is going to suck hardcore.

 

Soriano

Murton

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Barrett

DeRosa

Izturis

 

^^^ That's stacking all our best hitters up front.

 

Soriano

DeRosa/Izturis

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Murton

Barrett

DeRosa/Izturis

 

^^^ That's much more balanced IMO. Wasting several innings offensively a game b/c we have a crappy 7-8-9 is not the way to go. I'd rather have Murton's OBP and developing power batting 5th through 8th.

OBP isn't as important at the bottom of the lineup though. COnsidering that Soriano's OBP might be below average, we should make sure that we have someone hitting in front of Ramirez and Lee that will get on at .360+ As it stands, Murton is the really the only sure bet for that type of production. If we put Soriano and Izturis at the top, we could be looking at 2005 all over again in terms of OBP at the top of the lineup (maybe not as bad, but close).

[soapy]

Balanced or not, Izturis is still getting way too many at-bats if he's near the top of the order. If DeRosa continues what he did last year, he's a viable candidate to hit 2nd, but Izturis has no business being up there. They MAY already get less than optimal OBP from Soriano leading-off. That doesn't need to be compounded by having Izturis hitting behind him.

[RichHillIsABeast]

Batting DeRosa or Izturis 2nd is actually a decent way to go. Otherwise the back end of our lineup is going to suck hardcore.

 

Soriano

Murton

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Barrett

DeRosa

Izturis

 

^^^ That's stacking all our best hitters up front.

 

Soriano

DeRosa/Izturis

Lee

Ramirez

Jones

Murton

Barrett

DeRosa/Izturis

 

^^^ That's much more balanced IMO. Wasting several innings offensively a game b/c we have a crappy 7-8-9 is not the way to go. I'd rather have Murton's OBP and developing power batting 5th through 8th.

OBP isn't as important at the bottom of the lineup though. COnsidering that Soriano's OBP might be below average, we should make sure that we have someone hitting in front of Ramirez and Lee that will get on at .360+ As it stands, Murton is the really the only sure bet for that type of production. If we put Soriano and Izturis at the top, we could be looking at 2005 all over again in terms of OBP at the top of the lineup (maybe not as bad, but close).

 

It's not about OBP. It's about not having the opposing team pitch around Jones/Barrett. Jones gets eaten up by offspeed stuff. Having someone like Murton behind them ensures they don't get pitched around (offspeed stuff out of the zone).

 

Whoever in the 2 spot is going to be asked to put the ball on a certain side of the IF, moving Soriano along, maybe even sac bunting more than a handful of times. I don't want Murton's skillset wasted pulling that crap.

 

Should Murton bat 2nd? Sure, but we're not living in a vaccuum. Piniella isn't going to play station to station baseball.

[goonys evil twin]

Balanced or not, Izturis is still getting way too many at-bats if he's near the top of the order. If DeRosa continues what he did last year, he's a viable candidate to hit 2nd, but Izturis has no business being up there. They MAY already get less than optimal OBP from Soriano leading-off. That doesn't need to be compounded by having Izturis hitting behind him.

 

I think they'll definitely get less than optimal OBP from Soriano leading-off, but it could still be decent.

 

The Cubs got 732 PA out of the 2 hole last year, 630 out of the 8 hole. Giving Izturis a shot at an extra 100 PA would be a terrible decision. And it would virtually guarantee decreased RBI numbers out of Lee and Ramirez.

[goonys evil twin]

Whoever in the 2 spot is going to be asked to put the ball on a certain side of the IF, moving Soriano along, maybe even sac bunting more than a handful of times. I don't want Murton's skillset wasted pulling that crap.

 

There's no reason why the 2 hitter should be doing any of those things to move along a guy who is being paid a ton of money in part due to his SB ability.

 

I don't want Lee and Ramirez wasted, again, due to crap OBP at the top of the order.