FanPost

Bring me the bat of Matt Lawton!

It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The thing is, it really makes a lot of sense. His OBP is .376, which would be 2nd highest on the Cubs behind D-Lee. His lifetime OBP is .370, so we can expect this type of performance from him in the future. Even though he's only 9 for 18 in stolen base chances, the fact that he is "fast" will allow him to bat leadoff in a Dusty-constructed lineup. Lawton also sees an average of 3.82 pitches per plate appearance, placing him 26th amongst OFs and only behind Lee and Burnitz of the Cubs position players. Lawton's OPS is .824, 29th amongst OFs and only smaller than 2 Cubs - Lee and Ramirez. As a matter of fact, Lawton is even out-slugging every other Cub except Jeromy Burnitz and Jason Dubois. Thus, if we azquire Lawton, he could hit leadoff, play LF, get on base for Lee and Ramirez, wear down the pitcher - in general, he would one of our 2 or 3 best hitters in almost every meaningful category for a leadoff hitter!

But wait!... There's more!

Lawton is signed to a 1 year, $7.75 million deal, and is playing for a team out of contention (for those that suggest getting Mark Kotsay from the A's instead, realize they currently have a better record than we do... besides, Lawton is putting up much better offensive numbers than Kotsay this year). This means we should be able to get Lawton without giving up much in return.

The only problem with this deal is that Hendry isn't looking to "rent a player" for the rest of the season, in case we can't dig ourselves out of the hole we're in. Well, i would say we should also upgrade another OF spot with the likes of Adam Dunn or Vernon Wells as a long term upgrade. But i can't think of any OFs we can acquire that are long term solutions to our most glaring weakness - the leadoff spot. So, i would acquire Lawton and let him leadoff for the Cubs until Patterson is ready to do so. STOP! I'm talking about Eric Patterson, who is certainly hitting like a leadoff man down in Peoria.

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