Piecing together the 25 Man Roster

[SouthSideRyan]

It's arbitrary rotation numbers time!!! With your host BacktoBanks

[Guest]

The Opening Day lineup is in

 

DeJesus 9

Barney 4

Castro 6

LaHair 3

Soriano 7

Stewart 5

Byrd 8

Soto 2

Dempster 1

 

 

Guess Barney hit his way into the top of the order. Hopefully, that added muscle actually does help him become decent at hitting.

 

 

https://twitter.com/#!/ESPNChiCubs/status/185782212376006656

 

I have a feeling Soto isn't long for the 8 hole.

Edited March 30, 2012 by David

[Guest]

It's arbitrary rotation numbers time!!! With your host BacktoBanks

 

Almost as fun as arbitrary batting order spot time.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

The Opening Day lineup is in

 

DeJesus 8

Barney 4

Castro 6

LaHair 3

Soriano 7

Stewart 5

Byrd 8

Soto 2

Dempster 1

 

 

Guess Barney hit his way into the top of the order. Hopefully, that added muscle actually does help him become decent at hitting.

 

 

https://twitter.com/#!/ESPNChiCubs/status/185782212376006656

 

I have a feeling Soto isn't long for the 8 hole.

 

 

The best hitter in the lineup is hitting 8th. The worst* is batting second.

 

 

* - like Rey Ordonez and HACKING MASS, Ian Stewart gets his own category.

[Guest]

Also

 

Barney got the second spot after posting a .450 batting average this spring.

 

“[barney] definitely earned that,” Sveum said. “He’s swing the bat better than anybody in camp. He’s driven the ball. He’s done everything.”

 

There are questions as to whether or not Barney has the intangibles to handle the No. 2 spot, but showed his ability to hit to all fields this spring, something that helped his case.

 

There are other question marks, though, for somebody so high in the order. He walked just 22 times last year in 143 games, leaving him with a .313 on-base percentage. But on-base percentage will be a challenge for the Cubs up and down the lineup.

 

“On this team we don’t have a whole lot of on-base percentage guys to evaluate that way,” Sveum said. “You evaluate more on productivity. Hopefully the on-base percentage happens without maneuvering the lineup because of it because we don’t have any proven guys besides DeJesus that has any longevity to say he’s had a decent on-base percentage.”

 

So in that sense, Barney’s potential for productivity won him the second spot.

 

“From looking on the other side of the fence last year, to me he’s a different person that what I saw playing against him,” Sveum said of Barney. “His strength, the way he’s pulling the ball, the way he’s letting the bat go, you don’t see that same guy flaying stuff to right field. He’s driving the ball consistently. He’s hitting velocity. He’s doing a really good job.”

 

 

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/8774/cubs-opening-day-lineup-is-revealed

 

 

EDIT - Sveum apparently needs to look at Soto's OBP numbers.

Edited March 30, 2012 by David

[Guest]

 

The best hitter in the lineup is hitting 8th. The worst* is batting second.

 

 

* - like Rey Ordonez and HACKING MASS, Ian Stewart gets his own category.

 

 

Great subtle troll bait there.

[SouthSideRyan]

I'm just shocked he doesn't think Stewart is the worst hitter in the lineup

[mookie]

This is going to be a fun season.

[El Duderino]

subtle?

[Sammy Sofa]

Jed? Theo? You guys wanna step in at any point? Where's some of that J.D. Drew-style love for Soto?

[mookie]

Maybe it is a character thing. Soto must be a raging Richard.

[Guest]

I remember TT posting in the spring training games thread something about Barney's amount of doubles though his first few games worth of at bats compared to last year's entire ST.

 

Just for kicks, the final comparison ends up being

 

 

2011

 

3 2B, 1 HR in 50 AB... .340/.411/.440

 

2012

8 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR in 40 AB .450/.477/.700

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm just shocked he doesn't think Stewart is the worst hitter in the lineup

 

I do. It's just so obvious that he gets his own separate category and it's not worth mentioning him. Like in the old HACKING MASS where they had to make a special division for teams that didn't pick Rey Ordonez, because picking him was so obvious.

[SouthSideRyan]

Oh, I didn't read that lunacy

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I'm just shocked he doesn't think Stewart is the worst hitter in the lineup

Oh, but he does.

[jersey cubs fan]

Jed? Theo? You guys wanna step in at any point? Where's some of that J.D. Drew-style love for Soto?

 

Why waste time thinking about somebody they don't have control of for 6 years? 2012 Cubs are Sveum's thing, 2015 Cubs are Jed and Theo's thing.

[CubColtPacer]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

 

The scary thing is that you are right about how bad his 2011 was (though the .280 BABIP didn't help), but it was still probably the second-best 2011 of anyone in the current lineup.

[Guest]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

 

Yea. Hopefully it was some kind of undisclosed injury or something.

[Guest]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

 

The scary thing is that you are right about how bad his 2011 was (though the .280 BABIP didn't help), but it was still probably the second-best 2011 of anyone in the current lineup.

 

I don't think that's true at all.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

 

The scary thing is that you are right about how bad his 2011 was (though the .280 BABIP didn't help), but it was still probably the second-best 2011 of anyone in the current lineup.

 

I don't think that's true at all.

 

Stewart, Barney and DeJesus clearly had much worse offensive seasons.

 

LaHair was busy beating up on 23-year-olds and other roster fill in the Coors Field AAA League.

 

Soriano had a better OPS, but it was extremely SLG heavy.

 

That just leaves Byrd, who hit .276/.324/.395.

[Guest]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

 

The scary thing is that you are right about how bad his 2011 was (though the .280 BABIP didn't help), but it was still probably the second-best 2011 of anyone in the current lineup.

 

I don't think that's true at all.

 

Stewart, Barney and DeJesus clearly had much worse offensive seasons.

 

LaHair was busy beating up on 23-year-olds and other roster fill in the Coors Field AAA League.

 

Soriano had a better OPS, but it was extremely SLG heavy.

 

That just leaves Byrd, who hit .276/.324/.395.

 

sooooo that make soriano's year worse?

 

 

and lahair beating up on AAA to the tune of an MVP probably beats soto being terrible in the majors

 

and, for whatever little it's worth, wasn't dejesus's year pretty unlucky?

 

 

 

soriano and byrd were both better...which leaves soto nowhere near "probably" having had the best 2011 of any regular after castro.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

sooooo that make soriano's year worse?

 

It makes them pretty close to indistinguishable. Outs are still bad.

 

 

and lahair beating up on AAA to the tune of an MVP probably beats soto being terrible in the majors

 

Disagree.

 

and, for whatever little it's worth, wasn't dejesus's year pretty unlucky?

 

Yes.

 

soriano and byrd were both better...which leaves soto nowhere near "probably" having had the best 2011 of any regular after castro.

 

2011 Fangraphs Batting Runs Above Average (this is not adjusted for position):

 

Byrd -2.4

Soto -2.3

 

So all in all, if Soto's season wasn't the second best, then the worst you can say is that it was no worse than a statistical tie with everyone but Castro.

[CubColtPacer]

Soto's numbers were pretty bad across the board last year (nothing like 2009 when he was an obvious bounceback candidate going into 2010). I wouldn't be hitting him 8th, because even with last year's numbers he isn't the worst hitter on the team. But it is very concerning to have that bad of a season without at least some sort of reason for it.

 

The scary thing is that you are right about how bad his 2011 was (though the .280 BABIP didn't help), but it was still probably the second-best 2011 of anyone in the current lineup.

 

Stewart and Barney were the only ones that were clearly worse though (and of course LaHair is an incomplete). Castro was the only one that was clearly better. DeJesus should have been better than Soto last year even though his results didn't show it. Soriano probably had better peripherals than Soto as well. Byrd was around the same as Soto.

 

And Soto earned that BABIP last year. It is a little under what you would expect from his LD percentage, but his putrid 14.2% IFFB percentage is a big reason why for that, and he actually had more infield hits than his average is. Plus his line drive percentage and BABIP are only slightly less than .1 apart for his career, which makes sense since he's pretty slow.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Anyway, long story short, everyone had better be way better than they were last year.