That was an outlier, and to expect that kind of performance all the time is unrealistic. He’s on track this season to be right around his 162 game career numbers, and I agree with MPH73 that we should continue to see this for the foreseeable future. No need to panic.

You look at his career stats, he is pretty much where he should be. He had that huge 05 and we expect that year after year. He is 25 HRs, 90 RBI’s and .290. He should get close to that.
 Little to early talking about Vitters, lets at least see what he can do at AA.

I can’t find it anywhere on the internet…

What worries me most about Derrek is his increasing GB%. I’d think about resting Lee tomorrow and starting Daryle Ward at first, just to get him out of the August heat and let him rest up.

A popeye-esque assesment, but his 05 was certainly an anamoly, and even then his RBI numbers werent outstanding. Hes not Pujols for sure, but like it was said above if he hits around 300 with 20-30 hrs for the remainder of his contract, then great. His speed was once an asset that set him apart from other 1B, but thats all but gone. He’s still and all star caliber player and far from a worry. Though youre right, he has seemed a bit off this year interms of his approach.

But there are no immediate solutions that would be an upgrade, and its unlikely he’d be move given his deal.

As far as Vitters, well lets hope we have that problem someday and he can buck the trend of cubs positional prospects becoming true stars.

With 79 wins, the Cubs are 14 wins ahead of last year’s team.

Derrek Lee is hitting .290/.358 and other than Berkman or Pujols, I wouldnt rather have any other NL 1B…

Relax.

D. Lee is fine, with two men on, and the game on the line, who do you want up to bat?

Talking about beating a dead horse. Every week we have a “Is Derrek Lee washed up?” discussion around here, and it’s really getting old. Derrek Lee is fine, leave him alone. He’s the heart of this team and contributes so much more than his statistics show. He rescues cats from Chicago-area trees on off-days and works as a midwife during the winter, delivering babies free-of-charge to Chicagoland low-income single mothers. I think it’s ridiculous that you’ve written a fanpost here, complaining about Lee, when the club is 29 games over .500 and is the best team in the NL. Lamest… fanpost… ever.

/sarcasm

THat’s obvious. He had a career year in 2005 where he not only hit everything in sight, but drove it. Even inside pitches, which was his weakness up to that point.

 Then he shattered his wrist in LA and quite frankly, he hasn’t been the same player since. Not a bad player mind you, but not the same.

He is still a good player but, definitely a player on the decline.

will be a thing of the past when theriot,soriano,fukudome, and lee carry us through the playoffs and help us to win our 1st big one…………..

that was asked about Thome and, to a lesser extent, Konerko. There is no way of knowing when it’s truly over, especially for a player who was at one time very productive, then struggles for an extended period of time, especially when age is a factor.

Thome & Konerko seem to have rebounded and, while they’re not back at career-best numbers, they provide solid offensive production and, in PK’s case, decent-to-good defense.

In addition, players like Derrek (and Thome and Konerko) create a problem for the opposition, given their history of success at the plate – they can’t count on them not getting a clutch hit or taking a well-timed walk, so they still may feel that they have to pitch around or intentionally walk them – which, of course puts them on base, etc.

We all know that you have to hit your way out of a slump, and that’s what Derrek’s going to have to do. He may have to be moved within the lineup, but he’s gotta stay in the game (literally) and take his lumps.

It’s interesting how people reply with things like, “Why question things? The Cubs are 29 games over .500?” Some people are borderline indignant about it — and some others cross over that line.

So, that means everything is perfect and there’s no room to improve? Taking that to a ridiculous extreme, I suppose there’d be no value in trading Jason Marquis for Brandon Webb, because the Cubs are 29 games over .500. Take off the blue glasses and put down the kool-aid — a post like this is not anti-Cub. No where in the original do I read any personal attacks or comments like “sucks” or “DFA”. Those would be uncalled for and worth some of the responses.

Getting to the original question, I’m concerned that this may be the beginning of the end. Derrek frequently watches hittable pitches go by or questions strike calls. The comment about him no longer going to RF as often is spot on, he rolls over pitches it hitters’ counts and I’ve mentioned his alarming GB/FB ratio twice before.

Given his April, I have a tough time believing that the wrist injury is the root cause, but I don’t have a valid explanation. The point that this year is nowhere close to the Florida Lee is also true.

Piniella isn’t stupid and I’m sure he sees these things, but maybe, as someone suggested above, he feels it’s better to keep it status quo for now.

The Cubs are, by far, my #1 sports passion but, over the years, I’ve learned that it helps to take off the rose colored glasses from time to time. Some times I’ve been right, other times I’ve been wrong. And incidentally, I’d love to be wrong about Lee because I really think it would be best for he and the team if he was moved down in the order-unfortunately, I don’t see that happening any time soon.

can’t be ignored. He’s a left handed hitting first baseman (a butcher in the outfield) who is obviously ready for the major leagues. I’d hate to see him traded and come back to haunt us. Some major decisions will have to be made in the off season and he’s one of them.

First, he was a .266 lifetime hitter when he came here in 2004. His first season was “OK” then he was IMHO over his head in both BA and OBP with that great 2005. 2005 was more of a positive anomaly than his performance now being a negative anomaly.

He’s a good complimentary offencive player and stellar defencively. He’s not Albert Pujols with a bat. I think he’s slumping a bit and needs to get out of his head that he HAS to play all 162 games. When he’s tired he tries to pull the ball, rolls over it and now leads the universe in GIDP.

He’ll be fine, just don’t expect a .335 BA and .400+ OBP like in 2005.

People want him hitting .300? i dc. he is getting 1 less hit every 100 AB’s if he were hitting .300. And his HR? Like Al said… Cubs have #1 run differential. This team finds ways to make runs 6/7 days of the week. The thing to be worried about… Double Plays The guy can obviously get hits, but when he doesnt, he is killing rallies.

A bade case of “The Grass is always greener” or something similar… I think its hard for someone of us (not myself) to look at DLee as a good 1B when we have to see the likes of Berkman, Pujols, and to a lesser extent Fielder, all of which play in this division. There really arent any first basemen in any other division that would be a leaps and bounds improvement over Lee…

So we see these guys on a regular basis and think “Golly, Gee, wouldnt it be nice to have someone like THAT?” The same thing happend with Aramis Ramirez for a while, when people insisted that Rolen was THAT much better than Ramirez, and now that he’s left there arent too many doubts that Ramirez is the best 3B in the NL Central.

Look around the rest of the NL and look at the stats too, and then come back and discuss this. It seems that most of you are going by what you see watching Cubs baseball, and NOT what everyone sees in the statbook or in other games.

The anti-D.Lee. His name hasn’t come up on this post, but here’s someone with a lot more HRs and RBIs. But he brings .220-.230 BA and poor defense, not to mention Sosa-like SO numbers. I’ll take D.Lee.

Frankly, I’m surprised the sabermagicians haven’t analyzed Lee to death to come to the same conclusion. He’ll remain a valuable player for a year or two longer, but beyond that I will be hoping for him to become an ex-Cub. It would help if he were moved down to the 6th or 7th hole in the lineup next year.

Remember when Doc Gooden had that ultra-sick 1985 season? 1.5x ERA, etc. In 1986, he posted a sub-.3.00 ERA and everyone wanted to know what had happened to him. In truth, his career year came very early in his career. He is not unique in that respect.

Most players peak at around 26-28 years old, are solid from 28-32, then start to decline — slowly at first, then more swiftly as they have more trouble keeping up their conditioning and healing from injuries.

The few like DeRo who seem to get better with age are usually players who didn’t get a chance (due to injury or being blocked) to prove themselves and establish their career year at an earlier age.

So, DLee turns 33 next month. He had his career year “way back” in 2005. He is starting to decline. That is to be expected.

The real question is: at this point (2008 or possibly considering 2009), what player can the Cubs reasonably get (via trade or FA) who would be better than DLee? Would you rather have Carlos Delgado? Would you rather the Cubs sign Texeira — even if it meant paying him the money that would otherwise go to Dempster and Wood, and paying part of DLee’s contract to dump him? Would you rather just dump him and move DeRo (who doesn’t have a 1B bat) to 1B so that you could play LBR/Cedeno at 2B?

The Cubs farm system cannot “groom Lee’s replacement”. All they can do is to try to develop prospects and hope that a few of them turn out to be major leaguers — with maybe a real star every few years. Maybe Vitters will be the guy, maybe he won’t — he’s still in A-ball!

Lee is still a very good major leaguer both offensively and defensively — certainly far above replacement and not easily replaceable. Perhaps he is no longer a classic #3 hitter, but I don’t think the Cubs have anyone who would be a “more classic” #3 guy. As long as Sori bats leadoff (and I like him at leadoff) and Ramy bats cleanup, who else is there?

Will we say the same thing next year about DeRo being washed up if he hits .275 with 15 HRs and 70 RBIs?

nothing to see here . . . move along