Sammy Sofa

If you're saying that he showed he can actually pick up a bat and not drop it, I completely agree with you.

He always had plan and a way out and stuff.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-080407-kosuke-fukudome-chicago-cubs-piniella,0,7789593.story I had a sudden image of Kosuke turning around to bat RH against a LOOGY late in a tight game, ala Rocky II. Maybe he has an identical twin, who has the exact same skill set, who wants to play CF? =P~ Now the talk of him being a robot doesn't seem so ridiculous...and is actually a little terrifying.

I don't know or care whether leadoff is a position or not as that is semantics. I do know you must have capable on base players at the top & we don't have that. Roberts is clearly one of the best in the game & I feel would provide a huge boost to a struggling lineup. The Cubs have scored almost half a run more per game than they did last year, when they finished 8th. They're on pace for 833 runs, which would have finished third in the NL a year ago. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?! THIS LINEUP IS STRUGGLING AND THEY NEED A BOOST OF VITAMIN ROBERTS.

This sounds completely nonsensical.

Pushing Aramis or Lee down to 5th is just dumb. Getting DeRosa less AB's makes little sense so long as we maintain the gaping offensive hole that is SS. Roberts makes this team marginally better. You could arguably replicate his effect, or come close, on the team by putting DeRo and Fukudome in the top two slots. The cost it would take to get Roberts isn't worth it since he isn't dramatic enough an upgrade from what this team already has available to it. Use those pieces to get a decent SS and/or starter, please.

I think DeRos' anxiety over the trade talks and now the talks over him undergoing radical cyborg procedures have gotten him nervously talking to Sorino about it, and so Sori is having sympathy anxiety and stress which is hurting his play. Brian Roberts, on the other hand, thrives on human misery, and that's why he's doing very well.

What is a "situation favorable to Pie?" Facing righties when his wrist isn't hurt? Obviously, but Brasky's post seemed a bit beyond that.

What is a "situation favorable to Pie?"

Tha's kind of scathing insight I expect from a man who willingly goes by "Buster" as his professional name.

Distracted robots eating old people's medicine.

So are you thinking that Lou has found favor with Reed Johnson over Pie? With Soriano and Ramirez relatively cold as ice, I can see him looking for a little more production. I seriously doubt you have anything to worry about concerning Pie's grasp on CF. Johnson does little to replace the type of production Soriano and Ramirez are counted on for. Move DeRosa to #2 and you likely get the same results and Pie still gets his AB's. Anything else is just an excuse to get a bench player more starts.

Pie's got a dinged up hand, Johnson is seeing the ball well and producing, and there's another left hander going for the Pirates tomorrow. We're talking about a game or two here. This isn't about the "big picture", it's a temporary thing. Come back in off the ledge. Not really. We're talking 4 straight games after tomorrow, including against righties. 4 of 8 games does not equate to a game or two here and there, a breather, or little breaks. 4 of 8 is not a good sign, if it's a sign of anything. Exactly.

You can give the man metal limbs, but you can't give him a metal soul. He'd obviously just be a cyborg distracted by the trade rumors, which would lead to him accidentally crushing babies with his metal claws and enslaving humanity.

At the very least they need to let him get as many starts against righties through the ASB. Given the track records of Latin players around his age, at least a full year is ideal. If the Cubs wise up and upgrade SS, they can easily handle Pie's growth.

No; Pie needs regular playing time. He's not going to improve by sitting on the bench or going back to AAA. I would never prefer helping a player over helping a team. If the Cubs win with Reed, they should go with Reed. At least until a change is needed. This is a meaningless statement. It's like saying, "if the Cubs are winning with yellow shoelaces, they should keep wearing yellow shoelaces." Just because they've won some games WITH Johnson in the lineup in no way means they've won BECAUSE of him, and they haven't, and that argument shouldn't be used to yet again bench Pie when he should be playing as much as possible.[/quote I think you are overstating your case here. In spite of the small sample size, it can be argued that Johnson has contributed significantly to the CUBS' offense, while Pie's contribution has been marginal, at best. 03/31 - 04/07 AB R H 2b 3b HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS BABIP P/PA BDI LOB RBI% Johnson 13 2 4 1 0 0 2 2 1 .308 .400 .385 .785 .333 4.07 2 3 .400 Pie 16 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 4 .188 .235 .188 .423 .250 3.82 0 11 .000 With Pie starting in center field the CUBS are 1-3, scoring 3.50 runs per game. With Johnson, they are 3-0 and scoring 7.33 R/G. Nobody is going to claim that Johnson is worth the extra 3.83 runs per game over Pie, but the fact remains that Johnson has scored 2 runs and driven in 2 more (out of 5 RBI opportunities), while Pie hasn't scored a run and is 0-11 in rbi opportunities. If it were up to me..... I just might use the yellow laces for another game or two. Nobody is arguing that Johnson can't contribute, but the arguments to give him more starts end up too close to saying they're winning because of his contributions, as if having Pie in there would have guarenteed them losing. It all ends up being the big picture...do they give Johnson and his known ceiling more starts or do they deal with the growing pains of someone who could possibly be the productive (or better) CF starter for this team ideally for the next decade+? Sitting Pie more is just going to prolong that process or ultimately kill his chances of ever succeeding. It's easy to make excuses to not do it, but at some point he needs to just play as much as possible or they might as well just trade him while he still has value.

I just think it's especially dumb when you have situations like yesterday's where the thinking is clearly "OMG, IT'S A LEFTY BATTER, THEREFORE ME MUST SUMMON THE MYTHICAL LEFTHANDED PITCHER AND NOBODY ELSE LEST WE BE DEVOURED BY THE BASEBALL GODS."

absolutely not here -- Pie already has enough motivation to succeed, he should be given the chance I don't think starting Johnson for a spell is going to take the chance to start away from Pie. He may need a little breather from time to time. Especially if he is being overmatched. A little break may do a player like him good. But you already created a self-defeating scenario that strips Pie of playing time. You say you want him to get his time, but then you say Johnson should play if he's outproducing him. Well, Pie's clearly going to be ice cold for some long stretches while he learns the ropes...it's not going to be difficult for Johnson to outproduce Pie when he comes in against lefties. So that just sits Pie, which prolongs him taking his lumps even further, which means he's even more likely to suck when he does get a chance to play, which just gets Johnson more starts. Play Pie against every RHer unless he's hurt, period.

Exactly. It's just people making excuses to further put off the time that Pie will need to struggle and learn and see if he can stick around. He's gonna need that time at some point...we can't just wait for a time when the Cubs are going to be in a "better" position to do so, because knowing the Cubs, that time will never be around.

This is a meaningless statement. It's like saying, "if the Cubs are winning with yellow shoelaces, they should keep wearing yellow shoelaces." Just because they've won some games WITH Johnson in the lineup in no way means they've won BECAUSE of him, and they haven't, and that argument shouldn't be used to yet again bench Pie when he should be playing as much as possible. What the hell are you talking about? If a guy is producing (Johnson), why should a guy who is not producing (Pie) play? I play the hot hand. Pie will get his AB's and on the job training. Becase Johnson is a journeyman player who isn't ideally the CFer of this team for the forseeable future. Johnson contributes nothing in that #2 hole that at least a couple other people in the lineup can't do, and he should get no extra playing time unless Pie is hurt, which is supposedly the case over the last few days (and that one starting lefty was faced). It's ridiculous that the young player who needs playing time as much as possible to see if he can develop should be sat for a decent bench player. Reed Johnson isn't going to be enough of a difference maker that he should take away any extra playing time from Pie. For now, fine, Pie took the ball off of his hand...but I won't be surprised at all if more excuses crop up down the line to give Pie's time to Johnson. You can't wait for some possibly mythical time when the Cubs are "comfortable" to let Pie play...otherwise you're just prolonging whether or not he can make the necessary adjustments and stunting his development even further. For better or for worse, this is the team that's out there that Pie needs to be let start with as much as possible. He has zero left to prove in the minors or on the bench, and he needs to be given the time ASAP to see if he can make the leap to being a fulltime MLB player. There's zero argument that justifies giving prolonged starts to an ultimately average ballplayer like Johnson unless someone is hurt. None.

I don't usually do this, but: :roll: 1) I never said he should be benched; 2) Comparing him to Aramis and Fukudome is stupid. Roll your eyes all you want. I didn't directly compare him to either player...simply pointing out that "something might need to be done" (and what that possibly means besides playing him less, I have no idea) about a productive and generally reliable player having a couple of unfortunately costly errors this early in the season is pretty much an exercise in futility. Then it looks like you missed the point of my post. If he becomes a butcher at 2B what do we do? I dunno, I am just asking. And do me a favor, if you don't agree with something I post or have a contrary opinion, just respond as such. Save your sacrcasm for someone else. Why can't I be sarcastic? It's not like it's a complex question. If he becomes a defensive wreck, the Cubs have to replace him. If it's just straight answers, the thread was over before it started. Oh I get it, sarcasm is necessary for every thread that you deem unworthy. Forgive me for trying to start a conversation - there are plenty of threads that get started and go nowhere. If you feel this should be one of them, then simply ignore it. I think his defensive struggles thus far this year are interesting insomuch as they were not expected. Moreover, if he does become a wreck, it puts us in a very strange spot since he is a productive hitter. It's not a strange spot. If his "butchery" over the sample size of the first week was extended to the full season, he'd have to sit, period. He's obviously not nearly a good enough hitter to offset that many costly errors...but then again, the odds of him maintaining such an error streak are incredibly slim. There's not really much room for a lot of "discourse."

Between this and DeRosa, your psychological evaluations of professional baseball players is questionable at best.

a better player for about $2.5M less? Actualy, it's just another reason to hate Izturius...he's so bad, he makes another bad player, Theriot, look much better in comparison, so Izturius tricked Lou and Hendry into thinking that SS was fine once he was dumped.

No; Pie needs regular playing time. He's not going to improve by sitting on the bench or going back to AAA. I would never prefer helping a player over helping a team. If the Cubs win with Reed, they should go with Reed. At least until a change is needed. This is a meaningless statement. It's like saying, "if the Cubs are winning with yellow shoelaces, they should keep wearing yellow shoelaces." Just because they've won some games WITH Johnson in the lineup in no way means they've won BECAUSE of him, and they haven't, and that argument shouldn't be used to yet again bench Pie when he should be playing as much as possible.

Why would it? It's not like patient hitters are some kind of rare thing he's never been around.