Why is Jones hitting 3rd?

[bobbyd20]

I thought our inability to fill out a lineup card correctly would disappear with the firing of Dusty.

 

Apparently, I was wrong.

[hitamprun]

I thought our inability to fill out a lineup card correctly would disappear with the firing of Dusty.

 

Apparently, I was wrong.

 

 

I agree, but I think Piniella will catch on a little quicker than Dusty.

[BRASKYS SCOTCH]

It's because Aramis is out. Piniella's trying to fill out the lineup to provide as much protection as possible.

[CubColtPacer]

There really isn't a way to construct this lineup correctly if Ramirez is out. If you start with the premise that 3 spots in the lineup are filled-Soriano in the 1 spot, Theriot is playing so he has the 2 spot, and Izturis has the 8 spot.

 

So if you have the hitters who played today-Jones, Lee, Floyd, Barrett, DeRosa.

 

Keep in mind that Lou wants to split the left-handers-why? So what happened today to the Cubs with Stanton against Jones cannot be compounded by having Floyd bat right behind him. It lets either one of the Cubs big hitters face a left-hander in the late innings, or it lets one of Floyd or Jones face a right-hander in the late innings because the left-hander was used to get the other one out.

 

DeRosa seems like the candidate for the 7th spot-he really has been struggling this past week and was the opening day 7th hitter anyway.

 

That leaves Jones, Lee, Barrett, and Floyd-you could do Lee/Jones/Barrett/Floyd, Jones/Lee/Barrett/Floyd, or Jones/Lee/Floyd/Barrett.

 

I really don't see the big difference between any of those lineups, and so in this lineup Jones hitting 3rd or 4th is just as good as anybody else paired up with Lee.

[Soriano12]

Jones looked just pathetic today. I don't care who is hurt, he has no business batting 3rd in ANY MLB lineup.

[bobbyd20]

I haven't seen every game, but to me Floyd is swinging a better stick than Jones. I understand and agree with splitting up the lefties, I'd just use Floyd in the 3 or 4 spot (depending on where you hit Lee) instead of Jones.

 

I'm just not a Jones fan. I never understood why he saw so many at-bats last season and wanted to trade him in the off season.

 

That at-bat today in the 6th was absolutely brutal.

[Sammy Sofa]

Jones looked just pathetic today. I don't care who is hurt, he has no business batting 3rd in ANY MLB lineup.

 

I don't think you could have contrasted more with the well thought out analysis of the post above yours if you had tried.

[YearofDaCubs]

Per rotoworld:

 

Murton has been the odd man out even though Alfonso Soriano, Jacque Jones and Floyd have combined for three RBI in 117 at-bats to date.

 

OUCH.

[Balsa]

Because Jones rocks righties.

 

I assume we won't see the same lineup against a lefty.

 

Agreed though, that the AB in the 6th was just godawful.

[Sarcastic]

Jones looked just pathetic today. I don't care who is hurt, he has no business batting 3rd in ANY MLB lineup.

 

Actually, he made decent contact in his first two ABs, but the ball didn't seem to be carrying well today. After that, he didn't look so good.

 

I'd have to agree that without Ramirez, and assuming that Soriano must bat leadoff, then is no good way to construct the lineup. Hopefully Ramirez will recover quickly.

[CubmanPi]

Per rotoworld:

 

Murton has been the odd man out even though Alfonso Soriano, Jacque Jones and Floyd have combined for three RBI in 117 at-bats to date.

 

OUCH.

Current OBP among outfielders, total AB in parentheses:

 

Murton: .278 (17)

Soriano: .280 (47)

Floyd: .300 (29)

Jones: .326 (41)

 

We all know the drawbacks of using RBIs as a meterstick. In terms of OBP, though it's close (and pathetic) among all four OF, Murton has been at the bottom of the list.

 

He hasn't gotten anywhere near the same opportunity though. The other three have a combined OBP of .302 thru an average of 39 AB. I'll keep that in mind for when Murton reaches his 39th AB, which, at this rate, will be in the neighborhood of the first of May :x

[Fred Hornkohl]

Per rotoworld:

 

Murton has been the odd man out even though Alfonso Soriano, Jacque Jones and Floyd have combined for three RBI in 117 at-bats to date.

 

OUCH.

Current OBP among outfielders, total AB in parentheses:

 

Murton: .278 (17)

Soriano: .280 (47)

Floyd: .300 (29)

Jones: .326 (41)

 

We all know the drawbacks of using RBIs as a meterstick. In terms of OBP, though it's close (and pathetic) among all four OF, Murton has been at the bottom of the list.

 

He hasn't gotten anywhere near the same opportunity though. The other three have a combined OBP of .302 thru an average of 39 AB. I'll keep that in mind for when Murton reaches his 39th AB, which, at this rate, will be in the neighborhood of the first of May :x

 

I offer this for your consideration........

 

Percentage of baserunners driven in

 

04/02 - 09/29      BDI  LOB   RBI%

Floyd                2   16  0.111
Soriano              1   11  0.083
Murton               0    4  0.000
Jones                0   16  0.000

team                35  151  0.188

 

To use your own words....... it's close (and pathetic).

[NewUserName]

I probably would keep Lee batting 3rd with Jones 4th. Another maybe better way to do it would be to have Theriot leading off until ARam is better and put Soriano into the middle of the lineup.

 

 

Edit: The real question may be how long will Pie have to tear up AAA before he is up? I know its just a hot start but even 2/3rds of his AAA numbers would look better than our OF so far.

[Keener98]

To me, since Ramirez is out then the only way to make a "decent" lineup is to move Soriano to 4th. Let Theriot leadoff and either Barret Jones or Floyd hit 2nd 3rd Lee 4th Soriano 5th and 6th whoever isnt hitting 2nd 7thDerosa 8th Izturis 9th Pitcher I know Soriano wants to leadoff but for the better of the team until Ramirez comes back he should understand its best for the team

[Soul]

To me, since Ramirez is out then the only way to make a "decent" lineup is to move Soriano to 4th. Let Theriot leadoff and either Barret Jones or Floyd hit 2nd 3rd Lee 4th Soriano 5th and 6th whoever isnt hitting 2nd 7thDerosa 8th Izturis 9th Pitcher I know Soriano wants to leadoff but for the better of the team until Ramirez comes back he should understand its best for the team

 

Soriano should be moved out of the leadoff role regardless of what's going on with Ramirez.

[mul21]

I just think it's dunb to not let your best hitter get as many oppotunities as possible. There is no reason to be putting Lee in the 4 and not the 3. I would have done a lineup like this yesterday:

 

Soriano

Theriot

Lee

Floyd

Barrett

Jones

DeRosa

Izturis

 

But that's just me.

[jmajew]

While we are one this...what would be the preferred lineup vs Lefties and Righties. Assuming Soriano has to bat leadoff.

 

Vs Lefties I believe it should be Soriano (CF), Theriot (2b), Lee (1B), Ramirez (3b), Murton (LF), Barrett ©, Derosa (RF), Cedeno (SS).

 

Vs. Righties it should be be Soriano (CF), Theriot (2b) Lee (1b), Ramirez (3b), Jones (RF), Barrett ©, Murton (LF), Izturis (SS).

 

Just my thoughts.

[davearm]

I just think it's dunb to not let your best hitter get as many oppotunities as possible. There is no reason to be putting Lee in the 4 and not the 3. I would have done a lineup like this yesterday:

 

Soriano

Theriot

Lee

Floyd

Barrett

Jones

DeRosa

Izturis

 

But that's just me.

Agree completely.

 

If you're without Ramirez, and Floyd's in the lineup, then Floyd has to take ARam's cleanup spot.

 

From there, just flip-flop Barrett and Jones to get the alternating R-L-R-L sequence you want to have from 3 through 6.

[BleedCubbieBlue81]

I'm not a huge fan of Jones batting third, but I can understand Lou's reasoning for it. Lee gives any hitter in front of him a lot of protection. Jones isn't swinging the bat that well, so putting him behind Lee means they can just pitch around Lee to get to Jones. Now at least Jones should be seeing better pitches than if he were behind Lee. Although, he has been swinging at some garbage pitches anyway, so it probably doesn't matter. The only two guys in the lineup that are hitting right now are Theriot and Lee, so it really doesn't matter who hits third.

[RynoRules]

To me, since Ramirez is out then the only way to make a "decent" lineup is to move Soriano to 4th. Let Theriot leadoff and either Barret Jones or Floyd hit 2nd 3rd Lee 4th Soriano 5th and 6th whoever isnt hitting 2nd 7thDerosa 8th Izturis 9th Pitcher I know Soriano wants to leadoff but for the better of the team until Ramirez comes back he should understand its best for the team

 

Soriano should be moved out of the leadoff role regardless of what's going on with Ramirez.

 

And he never should have been there in teh first place. Trade Cesar, put Theriot at SS and let him leadoff.

[Soul]

To me, since Ramirez is out then the only way to make a "decent" lineup is to move Soriano to 4th. Let Theriot leadoff and either Barret Jones or Floyd hit 2nd 3rd Lee 4th Soriano 5th and 6th whoever isnt hitting 2nd 7thDerosa 8th Izturis 9th Pitcher I know Soriano wants to leadoff but for the better of the team until Ramirez comes back he should understand its best for the team

 

Soriano should be moved out of the leadoff role regardless of what's going on with Ramirez.

 

And he never should have been there in teh first place. Trade Cesar, put Theriot at SS and let him leadoff.

 

In my mind, either Murton or Theriot should be playing on any given day, and should be hitting leadoff. Either of those 2 guys are better than the leadoff hitters we've had for the majority of our past 10 seasons anyway.

 

The only thing Soriano's been doing at the plate that's positive is hitting a few doubles, and those aren't going to be RBI-producing doubles nearly as often with him hitting leadoff. But regardless, moving forward we're going to be leaving runs on the table. The problem will be even worse once he starts getting his legs under him.