In defense of Jacque Jones

but he can't be hitting third. i would not trade him. i like him better than floyd. floyd's nice to have on the bench, but he can't be our starting left fielder. he can't run at all and is sure to injured.

The Cubs offense has two problems right now.

1. On Base Percentage. Everyone knows this. While we hope, over the course of the season, that Perry and Lou will help rectify this, it remains to be seen. Guys like Jones, as someone stated, are good compliments to a solid lineup. He's a great 6 hitter, and a passable 5 hitter. But with Soriano being the Sesame Street representative for the letter 'K' at the top of order, followed by Jones in the top third, nobody seems to ever be on base for 3-4-5. Jones isn't himself the OBP problem, but he is in no way part of the solution.
2. A whole lot of righties. I've seen, mostly on the Cubs message board, 'dream' lineups of all right handed hitters. I haven't bothered to post back to them how terrible that would be. THIS problem falls on the shoulders of Hendry. Simply that all of our good hitters are right handed. This really forces Piniella to play Jones, and now Floyd, almost every day, just to provide some balance. I believe balance is really important.

Jones would be fine under normal circumstances, if he could play LF and hit 6th. But as a lefty in a defensively inferior OF, he is forced to play RF and hit in the top half to provide some balance. I really like the idea of Jones being a 4th OF. He'd be one of the best in the game. Can play all 3 OF if needed, and has power from the left side. And he is pretty speedy to boot.

What I wouldn't give for Murton to be a left handed right fielder. Or for Lee to be a lefty, that'd be pretty good for this team too. Ah well.

Jones is what he is, a stop gap who is a below average OF'er (because of his errant arm), average batter against RHP'ing and below average in baseball intelligence. His AB on Sunday showed me he is pressing. His approach has always been using his natural talent and not applying his natural talent.

As I look at the lineup it is all screwed up:

Theriot is the leadoff hitter of choice and should be playing SS everyday.

Pie should be playing RF now and batting 2nd, against tough LHP'er play DeRosa in RF.

Soriano should be batting 3rd, I guess he is okay in CF for now.

Lee should be hitting clean up

Floyd playing LF most of the time and bats 5th to give Cubs lineup balance.

Ramirez at 3rd batting 6th gives the Cubs one of the best 3-6 power hitters in the game.

DeRosa at 2nd base except against LHP'ers where Cedeno plays 2nd and bats 8th

Barrett/Blanco catching and batting 8th

My guess is that Cubs trade Jones to KC, WASH, TB or SF and also find a home for Izturis. Bring up Pie and E Patterson and make DeRosa the utility player and begin grooming E-Patterson for a platoon at 2nd.

besides leadoff, he should be no higher than 4th or preferably 5th.  He just strikes out too much to be in the top third of the lineup.  He will whiff 60 more times than DLee and nearly 100 more times than Ramirez.  Soriano is struggling to get on base now because he's striking out on 22% of his PA's (granted, that should improve).  That won't look any better with runners on base if he's batting third. I personally don't think Soriano's best attributes are applied by leading off and would be thrilled if he moved to 5th.

This lineup is short on lefties, but if neither Floyd nor Jones is hitting in the top 5, then one of them will have to hit eighth (not gonna happen).  You don't want your only 2 lefties to hit consecutively, so a righty needs to be in the seven hole.

At the end of the day, if the roster is not very well balanced then you march your best 8 (right or left handed) batters out there with the occasional sub, i.e. Jones vs. LHP.

noticed the irony in the word Defense in the same sentance as Jones. The man still can not throw. And I am starting to wonder if he knows where to throw the ball once he gets it.