A "leadoff platoon" is a great idea for the Cubs.
Last season was a disappointment for Cubs fans, but I can think of at least one good thing that came as a result: Alfonso Soriano is no longer in the leadoff spot.
The guy was never leadoff material. But for some reason, up until last season he would always seem to struggle when moved down in the order as a Cub. According to Yahoo! Sports' situational stats, he was hitless in 10 lower-in-the-order at bats in 2008, and went 6-for-37 (.162 batting average) in similar situations in 2007. Of course, you and I know that's far too small a sample size to consider meaningful, but it was enough for Lou to keep Soriano at the top.
That is, until last season, when Fonzi hit .228 out of the one-hole.
With Soriano now seemingly entrenched in the 6th spot, Lou has an opportunity to place high on-base guys in the leadoff spot to start the season. Today, it was announced (to great tweetfare -- get it, like fanfare?) that Ryan Theriot and Kosuke Fukudome would get the bulk of that newly available action.
Piniella says he'll be using a leadoff platoon, putting Kosuke 1st against righties, and moving Theriot up against lefties. Do the numbers support Sweet Lou's decision?
Indeed, they do. Ryan and the Fukster have on-base percentages of .386 and .387 respectively against opposite-handed pitchers (with Theriot striking out just 35 times in 520 career plate appearances against lefties!). Compare that to Soriano's career on-base percentage of .326 -- bleh.
If the Cubs get 700 plate appearances out of their leadoff men this year, those 60 points of OBP translate to roughly 40 more runners on base in front of our two, three and four hitters.
That works for me.
runners on base are half the battle
Sure, runners on base are great on our 'very reliant on the three-run-homer' team.
Wouldn't it be nice, however, if we were able to MANUFACTURE runs out of the leadoff spot? A guy that caused havoc on the basepaths? A guy that could steal second, a guy that would get the pitcher thinking about him rather than focusing on the batter?
Neither Theriot nor Fooky are that guy. In fact, they may be our two WORST baserunners.
The team definitely lacks
The team definitely lacks speed.
Hey, is Brian Roberts available?
actually I like the idea
actually I like the idea theres no point in
bi**ing about something that we don't have
we just have to deal with what we have and
make it work I love the idea of a platoon in the
leadoff spot to utilize Fukudomes Leftyness
and hes pretty solid at getting on base
Love the idea hope it works
whats terrible about theriot
whats terrible about theriot and fooky is that the both HAVE the potential to be average-above average on the basepaths... but something (or someone) stops them from doing it... theriot's first step has gotten progressively worse since 2007...
That said, i probably blame Sinatro for one thing or another.
ya no kp ur right another
ya no kp ur right another reason we didn't score near as many runners last year is our base running was bad the difference between caught stolen and a stolen base is usually a step....that being said the first step is really important and can lead to many stolen bases thus increasing the chances of producing more runs!