Soriano leaving leadoff spot?

[Three Finger]

It probably deserves its own thread but I really like having Kosuke in the leadoff spot. It really seems to maximize his offensive abilities.

 

I know I've been dogging him but when his approach is right, he's pretty good.

 

After today's game, his OBP is .379, highest on the team not counting Fuld and Ramirez. That should be enough to see that Fukudome should be leading off. It helps that he sees tons of pitches. If he manages to tack another .020 onto his AVG as he gets his swing back in order, his OBP will hover around .400. He's no Ichiro, but he has potential to be a good lead off hitter for a few years.

[Banghart]

Well it depends on which Kouske we are getting in the leadoff. If we are getting the Kouske whose OBP is higher than 370 (it has been over 400 each month except June) then he certainly makes the most sense leading off. However, if the Kouske of second half shows up again then it doesn't matter where he hits because it is going to suck.

 

I really like Fukudome's approach, and am glad to see Lou finally put someone whose main skill is getting on base at the first spot in the lineup.

[wrigley23]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

[Keener98]

HAHAHA right on cue pretty much.

[Sammy Sofa]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

So a leadoff hitter knocking themselves in (not that Soriano has been doing that for almost 2 months) is unacceptable?

[Banedon]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

We moved him to the six-hole, where he doesn't have to concern himself with trying to get on base or running.

 

"Sixth is fine," Soriano said. "I know I'm not doing my job batting leadoff. I hope whoever is batting leadoff does a better job than I'm doing to help the team to win. That's the key. Everybody has to help the team to win."

 

"Anything can help," Soriano said. "I'm struggling at the plate, and I don't know what I have to do. I have to keep fighting and working."

 

Sometimes, there's a lot of pressure to try to get on base," Soriano said. "Now, batting sixth, it takes a lot of pressure off myself."

 

Man that guy sounds so selfish, right?

[CyHawk_Cub]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

We moved him to the six-hole, where he doesn't have to concern himself with trying to get on base or running.

 

"Sixth is fine," Soriano said. "I know I'm not doing my job batting leadoff. I hope whoever is batting leadoff does a better job than I'm doing to help the team to win. That's the key. Everybody has to help the team to win."

 

"Anything can help," Soriano said. "I'm struggling at the plate, and I don't know what I have to do. I have to keep fighting and working."

 

Sometimes, there's a lot of pressure to try to get on base," Soriano said. "Now, batting sixth, it takes a lot of pressure off myself."

 

Man that guy sounds so selfish, right?

 

He (well, up until the last couple of months) hits home runs. Home runs are selfish.......I guess that's the rationale?

[justlikethecubs]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

We moved him to the six-hole, where he doesn't have to concern himself with trying to get on base or running.

 

"Sixth is fine," Soriano said. "I know I'm not doing my job batting leadoff. I hope whoever is batting leadoff does a better job than I'm doing to help the team to win. That's the key. Everybody has to help the team to win."

 

"Anything can help," Soriano said. "I'm struggling at the plate, and I don't know what I have to do. I have to keep fighting and working."

 

Sometimes, there's a lot of pressure to try to get on base," Soriano said. "Now, batting sixth, it takes a lot of pressure off myself."

 

Man that guy sounds so selfish, right?

 

He (well, up until the last couple of months) hits home runs. Home runs are selfish.......I guess that's the rationale?

 

Chicks dig the long ball.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

I love it when posters come up with cute little nicknames for their favorite players.

[jersey cubs fan]

Like the Cajun Connection?

[abuck1220]

sorey-anus.

 

thoughts?

[Derwood]

sorey-anus.

 

thoughts?

 

as a nickname for wrigley23? I like it

[wrigley23]

how many leadoff homers by him caused the Cub to win games? Since you guys think his leadoff 1-run homers are so important, tell me how important it has been in leading to wins. Everything about his play is selfish from preferring to bat leadoff to not changing his ways in left. His stupid hop in LF is another huge sign. So is his swinging for the fence w/ two strikes, trying to pull everything, swinging at the first pitch in lieu of taking pitches to start a game to flailing at breaking balls continually. For Lou to finally bench him & then put him in the 6-hole is hysterical & way, way, way overdue.

[Sammy Sofa]

I'll bet this guy actually likes Soriano being this bad.

[17 Seconds]

apparently a leadoff home run doesn't help the team win, but a leadoff walk does.

[rocket]

how many leadoff homers by him caused the Cub to win games? Since you guys think his leadoff 1-run homers are so important, tell me how important it has been in leading to wins.

 

5-9-07 Soriano hits a lead off home run, Cubs win 1-0 against the Pirates.

6-23-07 Soriano hits lead off home run, Cubs win 2-1 against the White Sox.

9-19-07 Soriano hits lead off home run, Cubs win 3-2 against the Reds.

 

So you might say that without Soriano and his lead off home runs in 2007, the Cubs might not have made the playoffs.

 

The Cubs are 15-7 when Soriano hits a lead off home run. That translates to 110 wins over the course of a season. I'm not smart enough to come up with a correct formula on how many wins his lead off home runs contribute to, but when he hits them, it certainly doesn't affect the Cubs' chance of winning.

[RedFlash]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1654519,CST-SPT-cubnt07.article

 

If Soriano is truly committed to hitting in the middle of the order, and truly don't care about hitting leadoff and wants to win then I could see this lineup taken off. He can't say what Lou and the fans want to hear, he has to be committed to the plan. If he does and the offense clicks, then a 3-4-5-6 of Lee/ARam/Bradley/Soriano can be a fearsome of a middle of the lineup as any team in baseball. Let's hope Soriano is sincere about not being bothered about leaving the leadoff spot.

[BigSlick]

Yeah I'm really pleased with the lineup with Soriano hitting 6th. The 1-5 are all now extraordinarily competent, and when Soriano gets his swing back he wont be a terrible drag on the lineup, and will knock in a faire share himself.

 

In fact, its gonna be a pretty darn good lineup top to bottom if/when Bradley starts hitting since Fontenot and Soto have been coming around themselves. It just was so painful giving Soriano a guaranteed 5-6 at bats every game when he literally could not get on base.

[RynoRules]

Imagine if Soriano hits just a bit and Soto gets hot. We'll run away with this division.

 

I still would consider moving Soriano to 2B to get Fox in the lineup.

[Banedon]

how many leadoff homers by him caused the Cub to win games? Since you guys think his leadoff 1-run homers are so important, tell me how important it has been in leading to wins. Everything about his play is selfish from preferring to bat leadoff to not changing his ways in left. His stupid hop in LF is another huge sign. So is his swinging for the fence w/ two strikes, trying to pull everything, swinging at the first pitch in lieu of taking pitches to start a game to flailing at breaking balls continually. For Lou to finally bench him & then put him in the 6-hole is hysterical & way, way, way overdue.

 

I think you missed my last post, so I'll post it again, just to make sure you see it. (Actually, I'm pretty sure you don't read other posts, but oh well. It won't be because I didn't try.)

 

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

We moved him to the six-hole, where he doesn't have to concern himself with trying to get on base or running.

 

"Sixth is fine," Soriano said. "I know I'm not doing my job batting leadoff. I hope whoever is batting leadoff does a better job than I'm doing to help the team to win. That's the key. Everybody has to help the team to win."

 

"Anything can help," Soriano said. "I'm struggling at the plate, and I don't know what I have to do. I have to keep fighting and working."

 

Sometimes, there's a lot of pressure to try to get on base," Soriano said. "Now, batting sixth, it takes a lot of pressure off myself."

 

Man that guy sounds so selfish, right?

[wrigley23]

so...because he has hit 3 leadoff homeruns in the last three years, you guys want him to still hit leadoff? Even w/ his dreadful OBP? Wow. And yeah, I would rather have a walk than a solo homer. Why? Because you have to be incredibly dense to think that a homer will happen more often than a walk followed by a run scored at some point in the inning following the walk.

[Banedon]

so...because he has hit 3 leadoff homeruns in the last three years, you guys want him to still hit leadoff? Even w/ his dreadful OBP? Wow. And yeah, I would rather have a walk than a solo homer. Why? Because you have to be incredibly dense to think that a homer will happen more often than a walk followed by a run scored at some point in the inning following the walk.

 

Holy cow....that's completely not what he said. He used 3 examples, then quoted the record when Soriano lead off. Talk about picking and choosing what you want to read. Really...you're just making yourself look worse. I'd say you're embarassing yourself, but I doubt you are.

[Little Slide Rooter]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

So a leadoff hitter knocking themselves in (not that Soriano has been doing that for almost 2 months) is unacceptable?

 

Id rather have a leadoff guy that will consistantly get on base than 1 who will hit the occasional home run but more often than not K on 3 pitches or ground weakly to SS on the 1st or 2nd pitch. Will Kosuke consistantly get on base? Time will tell.

 

Thing about Soriano is, when hes hot, Ill take him anywhere in the first 5 lineup spots, but when hes cold, I want him nowhere near the lineup.

[Banedon]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

So a leadoff hitter knocking themselves in (not that Soriano has been doing that for almost 2 months) is unacceptable?

 

Id rather have a leadoff guy that will consistantly get on base than 1 who will hit the occasional home run but more often than not K on 3 pitches or ground weakly to SS on the 1st or 2nd pitch. Will Kosuke consistantly get on base? Time will tell.

 

Thing about Soriano is, when hes hot, Ill take him anywhere in the first 5 lineup spots, but when hes cold, I want him nowhere near the lineup.

 

Soriano is 7th in the MLB in run scored from the leadoff spot. Isn't it kind of silly to complain about HOW he's scoring the runs?

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?split=109&league=mlb&season=2009&seasonType=2&sort=runs&type=reg&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&state=0&college=0&country=0&hand=a&pos=all&startDate=null&endDate=null&minpa=0

[Little Slide Rooter]

anyone but sorry-ano there works for me. We've seen his ineptness there long enough. He has no plate discipline, no mindset for hitting there, does not take pitches, etc...etc. His solo leadoff homerun record is his problem in a nutshell. it's all about his stats & not about what leadoff men are supposed to do...get on base so you can be knocked in.

 

So a leadoff hitter knocking themselves in (not that Soriano has been doing that for almost 2 months) is unacceptable?

 

Id rather have a leadoff guy that will consistantly get on base than 1 who will hit the occasional home run but more often than not K on 3 pitches or ground weakly to SS on the 1st or 2nd pitch. Will Kosuke consistantly get on base? Time will tell.

 

Thing about Soriano is, when hes hot, Ill take him anywhere in the first 5 lineup spots, but when hes cold, I want him nowhere near the lineup.

 

Soriano is 7th in the MLB in run scored from the leadoff spot. Isn't it kind of silly to complain about HOW he's scoring the runs?

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?split=109&league=mlb&season=2009&seasonType=2&sort=runs&type=reg&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&state=0&college=0&country=0&hand=a&pos=all&startDate=null&endDate=null&minpa=0

 

But how many of those runs are from the 1st month or so when he was red hot compared to the past few when hes been, well, not.