With this article, all bets are off now with the lineup.  Soriano is saying he is ok with not batting leadoff at Lou's behest.  This throws the doors wide open for the Cubbies batting order this year.  Looks to me that The Riot will have the inside track unless/until his OBP falls off from last year's levels (or he racks up too many CS). If Dome comes back refreshed he could take the spot away from Ryan though, since he has the left handed thing going for him among our host of righty thunder.  My first instinct is Lee 2nd, although there is the amazing number of GDIPs last year, so maybe not.  Derrek came up with a novel way of dealing with that issue.

 ''I'll bat leadoff,'' Lee said. ''I really don't care.''

 Umm, nah.  In fact with all the quality bats, Soriano, Ramirez, Bradley, Soto ...  heck even LBR, Lee may have to move down in the order.  so here's my first cut at it.

VS Lefties

Theriot

Lee

Soriano

Bradley

Ramirez

Soto

RJ

LBR

VS Righties

LBR

Bradley

Ramirez

Soto

Lee

Soriano

Dome

Theriot

Assuming RJ/Dome platoon and LBR doesnt.  Man that was hard.  And I still have 4 righties in a row in that 2nd lineup.  Hmm.  Lou is gonna have a headache with this, but hopefully it is an embarassment of riches!

I counted three awful special teams plays by him.  He watched three guys go by him while on kick return.  He stopped and let his guy go by him as the left edge of the wal on another kick return after the half. And he had an awful punt coverage play where he didnt break down and ran right by the returner.

 Lovie, fix this or get his lazy weak butt off of special teams!

I have seen the assertion that Alfonso Soriano is a bad left fielder a number of times, and I don't see it.  In my opinion on the plus side he has a great arm and above average speed.  On the minus, he doesn't get good jumps, and is overly cautious at the wall.  This adds up to a decent defender to me.  Note that the bunny hop that bugs many people doesn't bother me in the least.  I have never seen it cause an error.  So I published this poll to see what the general populace of BCB thought. 

Just read this on the Cubs website:

***

Ward had 18 total at-bats in April. Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, on the other hand, had 105 at-bats. It would seem to be tough for Ward to get his timing at the plate.

"Sometimes it is," Ward said. "For me, once I feel like I'm comfortable in the batter's box, I don't need the timing part. I can get a hit. The timing comes in when you're trying to drive more balls. If I was trying to hit home runs, then I'd say, yeah, it'd be more difficult.

"In the role I'm in, I have to just get a hit. If it goes far enough to get out of the ballpark, good, but if not, I still accomplished what I wanted to."

Ward has a unique role on the team.

"I'm kind of like Kerry Wood on offense," he said. "I'm the closer on offense."

***

See, that's why I like Daryle Ward.  "In the role I'm in, I have to just get a hit."   But Daryle, that's role every hitter should be in!  Just get a hit.  And his approach should be everyone's approach.  At the very least, it should be people's 2 strike approach, and their close and late approach.  He has a .300/.400/.450 line as a pinch hitter the last thre years, compared to a .275/.340/.450 line as a position player, when he is in a different role than "just get a hit".

Tough to complain about the Cubbies O right now, but their are still some guys who should pay attention to what D Ward is doing.

I've seen a lot of dicussion thrown around about our shortstops, and I had a number of thoughts on the situation.  Therefore, I thought I would try and do a comprehensive comparison to get all the points out there for our consideration.

Continue reading this post »

With Marmol getting us out of tight jams, and Howry and Eyre pitching great as setup guys, and Dempster converting save chances ... I mean what a 'pen.  

Then you have Lilly and Hill going good, if Z can have another good outing ... man what a staff!

The hitters have been average with people taking turns getting hot.  Floyd and Fonzie are hot now, with Kendall and Theriot cold.  A month ago it was the other way around.

In April it was Lee, Ramirez, and DeRosa who were hot.  Cedeno, Izturis, and Murton were cold.  

In May it was Soriano who heated up and Pagan pitching in from the bench, while Barrett and JJ sucked.

In June Aramis, Fonzie, and little known Fonty were blazingly hot.  JJ stayed cold, and was joined by Theriot.

In July, The RIOT earned his nickname with his great play, but his LSU counterpart fell apart along with whoever we had catching.

That turned around in August for Kendall.  JJ and Mattie turned it around as well.  Both the LSU'ers hit the wall.

And now in September?  Only half the month is gone, but if they finish half as good as they started, Aramis, Derek, and Fonzie will have their best months of the year.  In limited ABs, Floyd, Fonty, and Mattie are all looking good too.  Theriot and Kendall have been slumping, and so has Monroe in limited ABs.

Up.  Down.  All around.  Different hitters, different heroes.  

Man, I am so psyched for the rest of this year.  Can you tell?