wrigley23

i hate to break it to you but Holliday is better than soriano.

I wouldn't trade Marmol for Greene straight up. This team needs more effective pitching...not less.

Griffey will be heading back to Seattle after 600. We definitely need a left handed bat but i'm not sure Dunn makes sense in that he's a butcher in the outfield & will be a FA.

there are no numbers that support the soriano for leadoff argument. Every day he flails, fails to work counts & whiffs are days that are piling up that will one day lead to his being supplanted out of the leadoff spot. It's just too bad we have to pile on more losses before that ultimately happens. Fuko is a waste at #5 just like soriano is at the top. His flailing proves it more everyday. It's funny when it has now become a national story. You hear about it all around baseball. It was even discussed during sunday's national broadcast.

what sully said. Vlad is one of the best bad ball hitters. He has very good hand-eye coordination & hits the ball where it's pitched. Soriano does not have an eye for the plate. He guesses & does not pick the ball up from the pitcher. If he guesses wrong and/or the ball is not in his zone then he whiffs. He is a good fastball hitter as he has quick hands, but the problem is that pitchers know this. They get him to chase/flail at offspeed pitches & get him in the hole. This is the main reason I rag on him at the top. With no one on base, there is not as much stress on the pitcher to give him strikes. Plus the fact that he is not much of a base stealing threat anymore. The fear from Soriano at the plate & on the basepaths is certainly lessened & maybe gone altogether.

I said I can't wait to see Soriano 3-pitch flail at the young fireballer. Come to think of it...he 3-pitch flails at nearly ever pitcher he faces. It's a good thing he feels more comfortable in the leadoff spot though. Comfortable strikeouts aren't near as bad as uncomfortable ones that would come down further in the order.

I've yet to be schooled & certainly not by you. Every game soriano leads off makes you look even more foolish.

And so do you. The difference is that I want his damage minimized by eliminating the fantasy that he is a capable leadoff hitter. He should hit about 7th so his big whiffs & one pitch at bats are hidden. It's kind of like my little league team where you hide the kid that can't hit. Also, he has no business being in the game at all in the late innings in a close game because he obviously cannot field anymore either. He has free swinging AL DH written all over him.

I can't wait to see Soriano 3-pitch flail at him.

his 3-yr is .301. This is certainly subpar. He has a whopping 23 strikeouts this year & no homers to go with his Soriano-esque .216 batting average. He'd fit right in with Soriano. Maybe he should come in & tell Lou he only feels "comfortable" hitting 3rd in the lineup. Then we could be called the Chicago Greene Soriano's. Soriano played horribly yesterday, just like he did most of last year & before his injury this year.

mojo...the losing w/ soriano reconvened today. He sure looked awesome all the way around today.

meph...you are putting quite a few words into my mouth. I'm not going to rehash all of it. I do think Greene would boost our production in the middle although I think it would be improved greater by solidifying a solid leadoff hitter. I'd love to buy into the Reed Johnson at the top all season but i know better than to expect that. He also would be a solid 8 hitter in front of the pitcher as he has a knack for the strike zone. I still cannot believe Lou is putting soriano back at leadoff. That blows my mind how they continue to cater to this guy. Soriano's days as a 40 hr hitter are over. Pitchers will not give him enough fastballs to get anywhere near that number. He also will not be a base stealer any longer so your argument does not hold water there. In a perfect world, I wish we would get Roberts to lead off, hit fuko second, soriano 3rd as he would see plenty of fastballs in front of lee & aram. It would be great to have a left handed Dunn somewhere in the middle as well. I would prefer Dunn over greene due to the obp difference as well as the power diff. I certainly don't see Greene hitting near as many as Dunn & certainly not enough to make up for his obp hole. I still think we need to slot in a #2 starting pitcher. It will be interesting to see what move is made. We definitely need to make one before the trade deadline to legitimize our post season chances.

The Cub win streak this year all but proved that OBP & getting the starter run are the keys to offensive baseball. Now you want to plug soriano back at the top & bring in a similar strikeout artist in Greene just for good measure. Their joint OBP would dilute any patience Fuko & others provide.

Soriano used to have good speed. He doesn't any longer.

why won't he put fuko there? Because he's an on base machine? I don't get it.

the issue has been should he be hitting leadoff w/ a reduced capacity to steal when you consider he is horrible at managing counts & getting on base. Now that he is no longer able to steal, his value is even less hitting leadoff. The more lou caters to his leadoff fascination, the more this team truly is the Chicago Soriano's and that is to the detriment of the Chicago Cubs.

I hope you are right. If team OBP keeps up the current pace & soriano is even average, this will be a lethal offense. On top of that, we've kept the trading chips we do have & that could get us pitching insurance for the rotation down the stretch. Even if we win the division going away, we need a big move heading into the playoffs.

yes. Soriano is addition by subtraction at this point.

Let's see if Soriano shows up to the OBP class first before we get too giddy. The offense didn't click quite the same when the human strikeout led off games a couple weeks ago.

The cub had a hole at leadoff before he was hurt so really, nothing has changed.

One thing that is very consistent throughout the organization is the fact that they are horrible teachers of fundamentals when it comes to baserunning & patience at the plate. They have no baseball sense.

yeah...silly me...this is the Chicago Soriano's after all. He is a liability to the team at this point. Even at his best last year, he did not impress. He rarely gets on base, which is the main job of the leadoff hitter. He doesn't work the count either which is another key part of being a leadoff hitter. Beyond that, we've heard all of these excuses about him being a better hitter at the top then in the middle where there is more pressure which is a very lame excuse. He is not hitting at the top either. Also, even when he does get on...he can no longer run. He needs to be in the middle to at least drive in runs when this so called hot streak comes along. Fukodome should be leading off on this team. He is a good hitter, works the count & has the right mindset for a leadoff hitter at the plate. He is not a basestealer but neither is Soriano...in part because he never gets on.

it must drive you as bananas as me to see Soriano lead off the game flailing at everything coming his way. He is one of the few hitters that swings at balls over his head w/ a 2-0 count or the first pitch after following a walk. He is a complete mental midget at the plate. His OBP at the top is in the low 200's & it is infuriating.

I'm amazed that some of you actually believe the Cubs are good. The Cubs are not a good team. Good teams do not have guys like Soriano leading off, Theriot playing SS, Pie in center, Lilly as a #2. Soriano has an OBP of .230 & does not steal bases anymore. He literally swings at everything. He does not know the strikezone any better then my 5 yr old. He is a mental midget when it comes to the plate. A good GM would have known that Lilly overachieved last year in his first yr in the NL. Instead, he assumed he'd be the same. Instead of getting Roberts early when he had the chance, he didn't pull the trigger & the cost went up. When it finally dawned on him that Roberts is exactly what the offense needed at the top, he focused so hard on it that he did not pursue Dan Haren or an upgrade at SS. Jim Hendry is the problem. He's the one that paid Jim Marquis all that money as well as all of the Dusty rejects. He misread Corey Patterson & kept counting on Prior when the writing was on the wall. This team may very well win the NL Central but that's lke being named the pork queen at the county fair.