Drastic Changes NOW

[SpinninHouse]

Up until last week, I've been hopeful that we just got off to a slow start. That hope has been diminished. We're a .500 team in 2009 and Pinella needs to prove a point. With ownership in the state it is, Hendry (I assume) cannot add any money via trades. So let's do what we can do internally. Bench the under-achieving losers.

1. never let Aaron Miles play ever again. cut him and eat salary. bench him permanently. whatever.

2. Bench Soriano. For the rest of the season.

3. Put Jake Fox into LF. It's impossible to be worst defensively than Soriano. And I guarantee he'll hit better.

4. Move Fontenot to 2B and re-call Scales to start at 3B.

5. start Reed Johnson every day for the remainder of the season. Fukudome is done.

6. drop Soto to 8th in the lineup. If Hill could hit at all, he'd be starting but he's as bad as Soto.


SS Theriot
3B Scales
OF Bradley
OF Fox
1B Lee
OF Johnson
2B Fontenot
C Soto


Quite frankly, the new lineup is terrible. But atleast we'd have a chance of scoring. The current lineup with Soriano, Soto, and co has no chance of scoring. None. And if we're still this terrible in 3 weeks, I'd bench Lee and play Micah for the remainder of the season. Why continue to play an over-the-hill Derrek Lee when Micah could get valuable playing time? If we're in the race, it's one thing but we'll be out of the hunt by July.

[WAYSA]

Fukudome has a near .400 OBP. Yes, when hes struggling he looks bad, but he is not the issue. Reed Johnson is pretty bad, nice bench player who is fun in the clubhouse, but please.

Scales is a nice story, but sucks as well.

Soriano is not getting benched for the year. He's making way too much money. It is pointless to speculate this.

I would try this:

Theriot - SS
Fukudome - CF
Soriano - 2B
Bradley - RF
Lee - 1B
Hoff - LF
Soto - C
Fontenot - 3B

I don't give a **** about Soriano being a hack at 2B. We need Hoff/Fox in the lineup. Just hope the ball isn't hit to Soriano.

[SportsWorld]

Please just fire Lou. It just doesn't look like he's into this anymore. I guarantee you he leaves at the end of the year anyways. And who knows, it might give the team a spark like it did in Colorado when they fired Hurdle.

[cold5]

Up until last week, I've been hopeful that we just got off to a slow start. That hope has been diminished. We're a .500 team in 2009 and Pinella needs to prove a point. With ownership in the state it is, Hendry (I assume) cannot add any money via trades. So let's do what we can do internally. Bench the under-achieving losers.

1. never let Aaron Miles play ever again. cut him and eat salary. bench him permanently. whatever.

2. Bench Soriano. For the rest of the season.- That would be stupid. Believe me, I'm pissed off as hell at Soriano and think he should be moved out of the lead off spot. But his upside is too much to throw him off the team.

3. Put Jake Fox into LF. It's impossible to be worst defensively than Soriano. And I guarantee he'll hit better.- Maybe? Fox is really slow and hasn't played otufield much.

4. Move Fontenot to 2B and re-call Scales to start at 3B.

5. start Reed Johnson every day for the remainder of the season. Fukudome is done.- Again irrational. Fukudome is not necessarily done. I know this seems hard to believe but even though our whole lineup sucks right now he just seems to be in a slump. Hitters go through slumps and it doesn't necessarily mean they are done.

6. drop Soto to 8th in the lineup. If Hill could hit at all, he'd be starting but he's as bad as Soto.


SS Theriot- how you bench soriano, fukudome, miles but keep the anti-clutch, stupid, bad fielder in the lineup puzzles me
3B Scales
OF Bradley
OF Fox
1B Lee
OF Johnson
2B Fontenot
C Soto


Quite frankly, the new lineup is terrible. But atleast we'd have a chance of scoring. The current lineup with Soriano, Soto, and co has no chance of scoring. None. And if we're still this terrible in 3 weeks, I'd bench Lee and play Micah for the remainder of the season. Why continue to play an over-the-hill Derrek Lee when Micah could get valuable playing time? If we're in the race, it's one thing but we'll be out of the hunt by July.

[cold5]

Please just fire Lou. It just doesn't look like he's into this anymore. I guarantee you he leaves at the end of the year anyways. And who knows, it might give the team a spark like it did in Colorado when they fired Hurdle.

Honestly, blaming the manager is extremely easy to do. We shouldn't just fire Lou because we're in a slump. We were even much worse two years ago in the first two and a half months and Lou didn't look to into it. We need to get an offensive upgrade at SS. I say get Tejada and move Fuku to leadoff. Sign Grudzielanek. Trade Theriot, Marshall, and Castillo to Stros for Tejada.
New Lineup
1. 2B- Grudzielanek
2. CF- Fukudome
3. RF- Bradley
4. 1B- Lee
5. SS- Tejada
6. 3B- Fontenot
7. LF- Soriano
8. C- Soto
Sign Pedro in pen to replace marshall. But this is just in a somewhat fantasy situation. But we seriously should get a new shortstop.

[SpinninHouse]

Fukudome has a near .400 OBP. Yes, when hes struggling he looks bad, but he is not the issue.

that statistic is terribly misleading. Fukudome's spin-o-rama is back. He's a sure-out (once again). He most certainly is part of the issue. Let's see what his OBP is at the end of the year. Then the stat will be much more telling of his true productivity. I'm speculating that his OBP will drop. A lot.

Soriano is a sure out. Fukudome is a sure-out. Soto is a sure-out. Pinella has to change take drastic measures immediately. If for nothing else but to atleast try to win. He is not giving us a chance to win right now by trotting out ineffective losers.

[GYBE]

Soriano has always been a streaky player. He's never quite been this bad, but at some point he's going to kill the ball for a few weeks. He should absolutely be moved down in the order, but benching him isn't realistic. He needs to get more days off. His knee will feel better and the Fox/Hoff duo will steal some AB's.

Unfortunately I think both are stretched way too thin if you expect them to play the outfield everyday. Fox especially would be horrific. I guarentee you he would be considerably worse than Soriano defensively. Soriano isn't fantastic, but he does have range. Fox is damn slow. That doesn't work with a limited Fukudome in CF. If I'm going to play Fox, I want him at 3rd. At least there's an obvious hole there.

Soto has been average for a catcher over the last two months. Considering he's cheap, good defensively and has the potential to recapture last year, we can't bench him.

I think Bradley and Fontenot will improve in the second half. Really, the offense just has to get better even if there are no changes. Regression to the mean says these guys have to come near their career numbers at some point.

My lineup:

SS Theriot
CF Fukudome
RF Bradley
1B Lee
3B Fox
LF Soriano
2B Fontenot
C Soto

Hoff is the big bat off the bench. The Cubs are 1st in park adjusted defensive effeciency (PADE). We've been the best fielding team in baseball so far, believe it or not. I'm willing to take the hit of Fox at 3rd for the offensive gains of leaving Miles/Blanco/Scales out of regular play.

[Posey H8er]

Aramis is almost ready to take batting practice and thinks he will be back before the All Star break. He is the X-factor to this pathetic offense. But Soto looks really good as of late, so hopefully he can get some guys to start hitting.

[SpinninHouse]

well, two come-from-behind wins against two terrible teams does not have me convinced. I will say that this is the best Derrek Lee has hit in two years. Soriano, Soto, and Bradley have more than a lot to prove. Glimpses of good play in not enough. All three need extended high-level production.

We'll see. 14 homeruns in July from Soriano would be a good start.

[WAYSA]

THE CHINAMAN IS NOT THE ISSUE!

[mattbulls]

What's Jacque up to?

[cold5]

well, two come-from-behind wins against two terrible teams does not have me convinced. I will say that this is the best Derrek Lee has hit in two years. Soriano, Soto, and Bradley have more than a lot to prove. Glimpses of good play in not enough. All three need extended high-level production.

We'll see. 14 homeruns in July from Soriano would be a good start.

Three comeback wins. Hey, beating terrible teams instead of losing to them is a start.

[SpinninHouse]

Agreed! And Derrek Lee is playing like it's 2005 all over again. Theriot super steady. Fukudome had a huge game, which, quite frankly he really needed. Soriano still sucks but whatever. We've made a start!