I don’t see these moves strengthening what has been an anemic offensive attack lately. The defense might not be any better than what a lot of AAA teams have with these changes. I think Soriano has improved a lot in LF. This is no time to put him back at 2B, a position he never played well. Hoffpauir is not a good outfielder.

Let’s say the Cubs score more runs with this new lineup. They could very well give up more runs because of bad defense. Is the supposed increase in runs scored going to make up for the increased amount of runs being allowed because of poor defense?

Prove the worth of Aramis Ramirez. And what his bat out of the line-up does to this offense.

maybe we should consider putting Z in the infield.

(And I would be willing to hold you, Worf, but I fear your walnutty forehead would keep digging into my shoulder. Or that you would bite me. :P)

This team needs something right now. After watching the last few games, our bats are completely cold. Lou needs to do something to spark the offense. Try it for one game, maybe lose it on a Sori error or two, but try to get the offense going, because that’s what is hurting this team right now.

This would be a really stupid idea and would basically be just a “Band-aid” approach to the season.

I think there are better ways to solve this problem.

Links anywhere? I cant believe they would do this

With 2 more hits last night, I’m convinced there is some sort of resurgence in Derrek Lee. His average over the last 10 games is .314 and he didn’t strike out last night. He’s making contact.

I don’t disagree with the calls to find playing time for Hoffpauir’s bat, but disagree the solution is to start Hoff in place of Lee. They’ve been so similar over the last month there is no upside. Derailing Lee as he appears to be getting on track may derail his entire season idea. Further, Lee’s defensive skills would have to errode much more to equal Hoff’s.

Hoff in left and Sori to 2b is a perfect experiment against the lowly Padres. If it happens, I will be watching through my fingers and chewing a towel Tarkanian style.

What happened to Lou playing the hot hand? Hill should be seeing much more time behind the plate and Hoff getting one start at first per series. Fontenot back to a platoon at second with the switchhitter Scales. Freel will have to handle third, yes he had the bad throw last night, but also the two real nice ones. He is a better option than Fonty.

just do one. Put Hoff in right if you’re going to insist on playing Lee at first. For the love of God it doesn’t seem that tough. Hoff’s bat NEEDS to be in the lineup with Aram missing.

Remember, at the beginning of spring training training when Lou said that he was going to try out moving Soriano down in the order? Then, in the next day or so he then said never mind, he was only thinking about it and had decided not to move him.

Also, remember how Lou wanted to move Ryan Dempster to the starting rotation in 2007 and later in the day decided not to?

I take anything Lou says (particularly anything radical or controversial) with skepticism. I think many times, he’s trying to get some kind of reaction from the media. In this case, I think he’s trying to get the media and fans to talk about moving Soriano to second instead of their dismal offensive production.

The bottom line is I think Lou is trying to take the pressure off his team by making this rather wacky statement about moving Soriano back to second base.

I was at the game last night, and I see it slightly differently.

Pressing:
Soriano, Theriot, Fontenot, Soto

Pressing but getting better, maybe:
Lee, Bradley

Playing well:
Fukudome

Shouldn’t be playing:
Freel

Should be playing(only walk of the game, I think):
Scales

I saw a bunch of outs last night that were hard-hit line drives on pitcher’s counts, and some solid contact. It’s a step, and sooner or later, some of those balls are going to drop. They had about five hits last night, and started to work counts deeper after the 5th. I think that focusing on good at-bats without worrying about hits as much might get the pitchers to throw them better pitches, and put the defense in a worse position to field those line-drives.

Just pose this question to yourself:
If Milton had hit his line drive 30 feet further, tied the game in the 9th, and the Cubs lost in EI, would you still feel the same way?

Because Milton was about 1/2" from hitting a scalding liner into the stands.

Lee had a couple nice hits, and Bradley hit the ball very hard his last time up. I see the seeds of hitting sewn, and maybe if Lou doesn’t start Hoff at 2B, we might get out of this funk.

(Obvious caveats)

Since everyone seems to be so hard pressed that these guys are underperforming because of defensive worries and adjusting…try leaving them in the same spot for a few games at a time? Or maybe a series against a weak team will fix all of our woes and after a 3 games sweep of the Padres will cure all that ails us.

Soriano at 2B or Fox at 3B?

and figured it was just Lou thinking out loud, and there’s no chance this will happen.

But then I remembered that if Soriano could get 2B eligibility it would help my fantasy team tremendously, since that’s my weakest spot. So I propose Lou plays Soriano at 2B for 10 games, and it doesn’t have to be the whole game, then we move him back to LF and forget about him playing 2B ever again.

Let’s get Jake Peavy and trade Zambrano for Ian Kinsler!!!

Dreams! Oh Wonderful dreams!