After watching tonight's 3-2 loss to the Pirates, I hope you can all see why The Riot should be hitting leadoff. Only one stat I really need to give you, 3BB's. Now don't give me this shit he's hitting at the top of the order in the 2 hole, because what he gives you is negated by the whiff machine hitting in front of him, unless Soriano makes the last out of the prior inning.
The Cubs have to get the free swinging Soriano out of the top of the order and get anybody that understands that when you bat one or two in the order, your main job is to get on base, anyway you can, period! Top of the order guys usually have good speed but they also have good plate discipline, which results in a high OBP.
Let me use the example of another power hitting left fielder to illustrate my point. If the Cubs had Adam Dunn in left field instead of Soriano, it would probably be a wash in the power department and strikeouts. Soriano has tons of speed but Dunn is a plow horse. However, Soriano has an OBP of 301 and Dunn has a OBP of 363.
Now you certainly wouldn't put Dunn in the leadoff spot just because he has an excellent OBP and the Cubs shouldn't put Soriano in the leadoff spot just because he has speed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment