Leadoff....Maybe not Soriano?

[E.J.]

Can we just act like Lou didn't say any of those things because I'm pretty much upset about the entire lineup.

[MWV]

At this early point in the (pre)season, I'm willing to assume that Lou hasn't even given serious thought to line up order. It is my hope that this god-awful line up is merely the product of on-the-spot spitballing by Lou to the tune of, "Lou, what's your line up going to look like opening day?"

"Uhh, I don't know, Some Reporter. Maybe... these guys. Yeah."

[17 Seconds]

I'm most worried about the fact that he mentioned Miles over Fontenot.

[Fred Hornkohl]

At this early point in the (pre)season, I'm willing to assume that Lou hasn't even given serious thought to line up order. It is my hope that this god-awful line up is merely the product of on-the-spot spitballing by Lou to the tune of, "Lou, what's your line up going to look like opening day?"

"Uhh, I don't know, Some Reporter. Maybe... these guys. Yeah."

 

Welcome to the Forum !!

 

I hope you're right.

[Derwood]

I'll just make myself feel better and assume he meant the opening SPRING game lineup

[cubsfan26]

On Thursday, Piniella said the lineup he's leaning toward is Soriano, Aaron Miles, Derrek Lee, Milton Bradley, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto and Ryan Theriot.

 

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

 

WTF is this? Our best hitter batting 5th? Fukudome before Soto? Where the hell is Fontenot? If Miles is starting on opening day I'm going to flip out.

 

Me too, unless for some reason Wandy Rodriguez is starting opening day for the Astros. I'm not concerned yet though, because I doubt Fukudome will hit as high as 6th or Miles is starting everyday. Even if Lou does do something dumb like flip flop them at first, I'm still confident Fontenot will hit his way into a primary everyday role. If Fontenot hits anywere near the way he did last year, Lou won't be able to justify playing Miles over Fontenot very often. Lou changes his mind about the line-up almost daily, during spring training so this is no big deal yet. But if Lou comes out and says Miles is the everyday 2b(would go against everything Randy Bush and Crane Kenney have said), then I'm gonna be pretty pissed off. Until Fontenot takes Miles job sometime during the season.

[cubsfan26]

At this early point in the (pre)season, I'm willing to assume that Lou hasn't even given serious thought to line up order. It is my hope that this god-awful line up is merely the product of on-the-spot spitballing by Lou to the tune of, "Lou, what's your line up going to look like opening day?"

"Uhh, I don't know, Some Reporter. Maybe... these guys.

 

 

 

Yeah last year he had Fukudome batting 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th at one point. I believe he also had line-up ideas of Soriano batting 1st, 2nd(started the first two games of the season batting 2nd) and 3rd. He had Lee 4th and Ramirez 5th with Fukudome or Soriano batting 3rd. In Lou's two years with the Cubs, he's been pretty good about putting a good line-up together overall, and usually lets the superior players play. So once the season starts, I still have faith that he will put a pretty good line-up on the field with the best players in it.

[wvcbxl]

Can we just act like Lou didn't say any of those things because I'm pretty much upset about the entire lineup.

 

My theory is that Lou lurks on NSBB and deliberately made that statement to rub this board the wrong way.

:wink:

[cubsfan26]

After reading articles from the Tribune and the Suntimes, I think this could just be confusion caused by Carrie Muskat using a poor choice of words in her article. She writes Piniella is leaning towards a line-up of Soriano, Miles, Lee, Bradley, Ramirez, Fukudome, Soto and Theriot. While the Tribune and Suntimes mentions it as more of a possiblity when Fukudome and Miles play. Piniella was talking about how balanced the line-up could be and just put those names out there. He said nothing about this being his line-up, or Miles starting over Fontenot. Even if he did nobody should pay much attention to it when we haven't even played a spring training game and still have 39 to go.

[cubsfan26]

Can we just act like Lou didn't say any of those things because I'm pretty much upset about the entire lineup.

 

 

I think three spots are pretty much locks going into the season IMO. Soriano will most likely still be leading off, Lee will at least start the season as the number 3 hitter, and Theriot will probably bat 8th. Lou commented yesterday that Lee needs to hit for more power. So I think Lou is giving him the benefit of the doubt right, and is now writting it off as a bad year. But if he's got 3-5 HR in early to mid May, and hitting alot of ground balls, Lou will probably move him down then. With a LH bat(Fukudome, Fontenot/Miles) most likely to hit second to balance the order a bit, that leaves Theriot as the 8th hitter. I still would be surprised to see Miles starting alot over Fontenot, Ramirez batting 5th and Fukudome ahead of Soto, especially if Soto is hitting like Soto, and Fukudome is hitting not like the April and early May version of Fukudome.

[Brett]

I just don't understand why Derrek Lee is seemingly wedded to that three-spot. He's OBVIOUSLY mired in decline, he's a brutal ground-ball hitter, and he no longer has a whole lot of pop. I just don't understand it.