Vigilante Sports

Ok. I understand that Derrek Lee’s absence from the lineup for 6 weeks plays a huge role in why the Cubs offense has been so atrocious. But no more excuses can be made, with or without Derrek Lee. Below I will diagram the Cubs’ lineup (in general) and why I believe that there should no problem scoring runs.

1. Juan Pierre CF – Widely thought of as one of the top lead-off men in baseball. He’s had a terrible year so far. His numbers have picked up in the recent weeks (.414 avg over the last week), but his 25 stolen bases do not make up for an OBP of .307. He’s got to continue his hitting and I could stand to see him take some more pitches.
2. Todd Walker 2B – Has the second highest OBP on the team (second to Derrek Lee), third in RBI (33), and fourth in batting average (.291). Why he doesn’t play every day is a mystery to me.
3. Derrek Lee 1B – Best hitter on the team for pwer and average. DLee is a hitting machine. The loss of him changed the Cubs lineup. Now that he’s back from the DL he should get his average up to around .320 and hit about 12 HR a month. That’s just what he’s supposed to do.
4. Aramis Ramirez 3B – He proved when DLee went down that he can’t carry a lineup. That’s ok. He’s not the man, so now he can concentrate on his role. Aramis seems to be hitting his stride now that the pressure is off. He’s a solid hitter who can hit for power, but can also be a solid contact hitter who is able to drive in a ton of runs.
5. Jacque Jones RF – Currently the Cubs hottest hitter (hitting .429 over the last 7 days). He’s second on the team in doubles, home runs, and RBI (all behind Ramirez). However, only Phil Nevin has struck out more than Jones this year. I think the Cubs knew what they were getting when they brought Jones in. He can hit, but he also strikes out a lot. If he could cut down his strike outs he could possibly move into the number 2 slot in the lineup (but I’m not holding my breath).
6. Michael Barrett C – A solid hitter who is having his best years. Barrett has always been a solid hitter. I think that Barrett will continue hitting like he has been. He’s improved his stats every year of his career, there’s no reason to think he’ll stop this year.
7. Phil Nevin LF – I know he’s not really a leftfielder, but, offensively speaking, he brings more to the table than Matt Murton (at least at this point). Nevin will probably be gone by the end of this month, but he can swing a pretty good stick. He’s another one who strikes out too much, but he can give the Cubs some solid power at the bottom of the lineup.
8. Ronny Cedeno SS – A number 8 hitter who has 10 doubles, 5 triples and is hitting .270 is a luxury that few teams have. For now this is where Cedeno should be in the lineup. I can definitely see him in the 2 hole in the near future, but he should probably get some more experience before he’s depended upon for that. I’d take his current production in the 8 spot even if he were in the 2 spot of the lineup. I really like the way this kid plays.

Ok, there’s the Cubs lineup. There’s not really a hole in it. Or an easy out. Yet, the Cubs have only scored 331 runs all year, by far the lowest in all of the Major League Baseball (the next lowest is the Kansas City Royals with 351). They have scored the least runs but fall about the middle of the pack when it comes to batting average (16th with a team average of .264). Something doesn’t add up. Are they just not clutch hitters? Bad timing? Just bad luck? I don’t know, but something has to change. For as horrible as I think that Dusty Baker is, he’s not totally to blame. These guys are professional baseball players. I don’t doubt that they are trying, and giving it their all. But they must get better. They must drive in those runs, and put more runs on the board. The Cubs’ pitching staff would look a lot better if the team would score some more runs.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Baseball, Chicago Cubs, MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.