The Grand Old Game

Pinella Drops Soriano From Leadoff Spot, For The Moment

In a moment of clarity, Chicago Cubs Manager Lou Pinella dropped OF Alfonso Soriano to 6th in the batting order, down from his customary leadoff spot, in Saturday’s 11-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. After having considered the move as recently as this past week, Pinella finally made the move, instead slotting CF and on-base machine Kosuke Fukudome at leadoff.

Soriano has mostly batted leadoff for the Cubs since he came to the team in 2007, and the results have been somewhat mixed. The team has acquiesed to Soriano’s desire to bat first in the order, stating that he is most comfortable with that spot, and Pinella seems to be in love with the possibility that Soriano may hit a hot streak and hit leadoff homers by the bunches. This, however, has yet to happen, at least with any consistency. As far as this year is concerned, the erstwile leadoff man is batting .226/.291/.416 for the year, and an anemic .198 for June. In first at-bats of the game, he has managed to bat .309 in 68 AB, with 5 HR, but leading off innings overall those numbers drop to .257 and 6 homers. His OBP is almost comical (.291), and while he’s managed to draw a few more walks than one might expect (26), his BB/K ratio is abysmal (.34/1).

In short, having him lead off is (almost) like giving an out away to start the inning. If Pinella really wants to help Soriano (and the whole team), he’d drop him to 6th or even 7th, take a little pressure off of him, and if nothing else put the idea of Soriano as a top-of-the-order sparkplug to sleep, once and for all. His days as a basestealer are over, he’s never going to make enough contact or draw enough walks to justify batting at the top, and he’s too undisciplined to drop into a cleanup slot, so 6th might be a good fit for him.

If nothing else, at least he’d be out of the one spot. Here’s hoping that Lou figures that out.

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