Thursday, February 1, 2007

Speed & Defense!

There are two things in baseball that never take a day off, they are speed and defense.

Unfortunately for the Cubs, speed and defense are two of the their more glaring weaknesses. However there are two positions in the lineup, one in the infield and one in the outfield, that the Cubs can address to help with both of these deficiencies.

Felix Pie and The Riot can bring the speed and defense necessary to overcome whatever if any, offensive shortcomings they may have. Defense, can and should be considered an offensive category as it helps prevent the opposition from scoring runs. Speed, more recognizably helps the offense as runners can create more disruption of an opponents pitchers and defenses, therefore helping the Cubs manufacture more runs without the big extra base hit.

The Riot playing 2B, could hopefully come close to duplicating last year's performance, at least in steals and plate discipline. This could eventually allow Pinella to move Soriano out of the lead off spot and down to a more run producing spot in the lineup.

Felix Pie playing CF or RF, could transform a suspect outfield defense into a superior one. Pie's inexperience at the plate would be offset by the superior speed and defense he'd bring to the team.

Remember Lou, speed and defense never go into a slump and with a respectable bench to provide some added pop if needed late in the game, The Riot and Pie help balance the team where they are weakest.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if i was gonna line it up with no regard to player wants and salaries:

2b- The Riot
LF- Thunder
1b- Lee
Cf- Soriano
3b- Ramirez
Rf- Jones
C- Barret
SS- Izturis

bench
DeRosa
Ward
Floyd
Hank
etc

Badass

Klute said...

I concur, but there is a possibility of appeasing Pinella's idea of getting Soriano as many AB's as possible by hitting him in the 2 hole, which would still be a damn site better all around than in the lead off spot.

Anonymous said...

My optimal lineup

RF-Sori
LF-Murton
1b-Lee
3b-A-Ram
C-Barrett
CF-Pie
@b-The Riot
SS-Suckturis


bench

Derosa
Ward
Floyd
(I hope Jack gets traded soon)