this has been beat to death already

[Amazing_Grace]

For the first time in several seasons, our lead off hitter's OBP is above .340. There's a lot of things wrong with this team but Soriano at leadoff isn't one of them. If anything, it's worked out better since he's hitting pretty well and has an 80% SB success ratio but his power is way down.

[cubfan1955]

For the first time in several seasons, our lead off hitter's OBP is above .340. There's a lot of things wrong with this team but Soriano at leadoff isn't one of them. If anything, it's worked out better since he's hitting pretty well and has an 80% SB success ratio but his power is way down.

 

It's worked out? LOL...have you checked the Cubs record lately?

[Guest]

Soriano in the lead-off spot is way down the list of things that need to be changed on this team.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that. Getting a couple good obp guys at the top of the order would sure help the consistency of this offense. Sadly, Alfonso has all the tools to be Rickey Henderson but just doesn't have the eye.

[The Troll]

If we were going to pay $136 million for a crappy leadoff hitter that doesn't walk, we should have just kept Juan Pierre and saved the money. It makes no sense to stick a guy with that much pop at the top of the order, regardless of how fast he is. $136 million should buy you a lot more than 30 solo homers a year.

[slieb85]

For the first time in several seasons, our lead off hitter's OBP is above .340. There's a lot of things wrong with this team but Soriano at leadoff isn't one of them. If anything, it's worked out better since he's hitting pretty well and has an 80% SB success ratio but his power is way down.

 

It's worked out? LOL...have you checked the Cubs record lately?

 

Have you bothered to even look at the umpteen responses refuting your claim? He's got better avg, OBP, and SLG with no one on base than he is with people on or in scoring position. He's more comfortable batting leadoff and it is so far down on the list of issue's this team has. I'd rather take soriano with a .350 OBP in the 1 hole with theriot with his .331 OBP in the 2 hole or 7th spot (if pie sticks at 2) over putting that .331 OBP in the leadoff with soriano in the 5 with a line of .268/.321/.474 It makes us worse in 2 spots in the lineup.

[seanimal]

If we were going to pay $136 million for a crappy leadoff hitter that doesn't walk, we should have just kept Juan Pierre and saved the money. It makes no sense to stick a guy with that much pop at the top of the order, regardless of how fast he is. $136 million should buy you a lot more than 30 solo homers a year.

 

k, I'm glad you are not the GM

[cubfan1955]

For the first time in several seasons, our lead off hitter's OBP is above .340. There's a lot of things wrong with this team but Soriano at leadoff isn't one of them. If anything, it's worked out better since he's hitting pretty well and has an 80% SB success ratio but his power is way down.

 

It's worked out? LOL...have you checked the Cubs record lately?

 

Have you bothered to even look at the umpteen responses refuting your claim? He's got better avg, OBP, and SLG with no one on base than he is with people on or in scoring position. He's more comfortable batting leadoff and it is so far down on the list of issue's this team has. I'd rather take soriano with a .350 OBP in the 1 hole with theriot with his .331 OBP in the 2 hole or 7th spot (if pie sticks at 2) over putting that .331 OBP in the leadoff with soriano in the 5 with a line of .268/.321/.474 It makes us worse in 2 spots in the lineup.

Look, I know what the numbers say but something needs to be done with our black hole of inconsistancy lineup. With the way the lineup currently reads if Lee and Ramirez don't drive the runners in, and they sometimes don't, you can forget about it. Going by your logic why not have Lee batting leadoff with his .424 OBP? Sometimes teams have to think outside the box. As others have said, paying $136 million for a leadoff hitter borders on insanity. Fits the Cubs to a tee.

[rocket]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

[cubfan1955]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

Move him down in the order and you might get 2 or 3 runs on that one swing of the bat. Pretty simple really. And it would be great to have a bat like Soriano hitting leadoff if we had Beltran in CF, Tejada at SS and Carlos Lee in RF.

[rocket]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

Move him down in the order and you might get 2 or 3 runs on that one swing of the bat. Pretty simple really. And it would be great to have a bat like Soriano hitting leadoff if we had Beltran in CF, Tejada at SS and Carlos Lee in RF.

 

just because he hit a solo homer to lead off an inning doesn't mean he'll do anything with runners on base. you want your best hitters hitting early, so they get the most at bats.

[jersey cubs fan]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

Move him down in the order and you might get 2 or 3 runs on that one swing of the bat. Pretty simple really. And it would be great to have a bat like Soriano hitting leadoff if we had Beltran in CF, Tejada at SS and Carlos Lee in RF.

 

just because he hit a solo homer to lead off an inning doesn't mean he'll do anything with runners on base. you want your best hitters hitting early, so they get the most at bats.

 

All the more reason not to have Soriano leading off.

[rocket]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

Move him down in the order and you might get 2 or 3 runs on that one swing of the bat. Pretty simple really. And it would be great to have a bat like Soriano hitting leadoff if we had Beltran in CF, Tejada at SS and Carlos Lee in RF.

 

just because he hit a solo homer to lead off an inning doesn't mean he'll do anything with runners on base. you want your best hitters hitting early, so they get the most at bats.

 

All the more reason not to have Soriano leading off.

 

i agree with that.

[cubfan1955]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

Move him down in the order and you might get 2 or 3 runs on that one swing of the bat. Pretty simple really. And it would be great to have a bat like Soriano hitting leadoff if we had Beltran in CF, Tejada at SS and Carlos Lee in RF.

 

just because he hit a solo homer to lead off an inning doesn't mean he'll do anything with runners on base. you want your best hitters hitting early, so they get the most at bats.

There are no guarantees anywhere on a baseball field. Just like no one can guarantee he won't hit .361/.424/.557/.981 batting 5th, I can't guarantee he won't hit .254/.314/.310/.623 batting 5th. But we'll never know if they don't try. We're losing a lot with the present lineup. What have we got to lose?

[The Troll]

i do not understand this mentality that a leadoff hitter can't have any pop in his bat.

 

using last year's lineup, it would be considered a successful inning if juan pierre lead off the inning with an infield single, then stole second, followed by todd walker grounding out to second advancing pierre to 3rd, followed by a derrek lee sac fly, scoring pierre. that was 2 outs to get 1 run, but pierre did his job to perfection.

 

soriano, on the other hand, scores a run with 1 swing of the bat, and doesn't waste any outs, but all he did in that inning was hit a practically ineffective solo homerun.

 

There is nothing wrong with having a leadoff hitter with a little pop, but there's a big problem when said leadoff hitter has the second most pop on the team.

 

Really, what good does Soriano do if he hits 30 homers and drives in 50 runs? The team wouldn't be better off if he hit 5th and still hit 30 homers and drove in 100 runs instead?

 

You pay a guy that much money because you expect him to be a run producer. You can't be a run producer whenever you hit behind Cesar Izturis and a pitcher.

[Amazing_Grace]

For the first time in several seasons, our lead off hitter's OBP is above .340. There's a lot of things wrong with this team but Soriano at leadoff isn't one of them. If anything, it's worked out better since he's hitting pretty well and has an 80% SB success ratio but his power is way down.

 

It's worked out? LOL...have you checked the Cubs record lately?

 

The Cubs aren't losing because Soriano is hitting leadoff. If he was hitting fifth, regardless of how well, we'd all be complaining about how we once again have no one with a decent OBP to leadoff. The other alternatives, Jones, DeRosa, Theriot, Izturis are not great. If Theriot had managed to keep his OBP higher, he might be a decent option, but he's down around .330 now.