On the Cubs OF

One thing I’ve heard about the idea of a switch-hitter reverting to just one side is that after a career of seeing RHP deliveries from the left side of the plate, suddenly seeing them from the right side can be a difficult adjustment to make. I have no idea how true that is, it’s just something I’ve heard before.
Of course, there are cases where that doesn’t hold true, like when Zambrano felt he wasn’t getting a good look at Owings and turned around, or when Blanco felt discomfort from one side and switched.

For Fukudome, I’m really pulling for him, too, but I don’t think hitting third is the best for him. I’m pretty sure most of that hot April was spent at #2 in the lineup (someone correct me if I’m wrong), and when A-Ram went down and Dome took over a lot of the #3 duties, he slowed down.

You’re looking at Soriano toward the end (hopefully) of one of his prolonged slumps. He’ll bounce back with a monster few weeks. On aggregate, he’ll be better than he has been so far.

I think Fukudome’s May is indicative of what I’d expect from him moving forward. .270-.280 average, .400ish OBP, .400-.420ish SLG. I think his April was overperforming and the second half of last year was underperforming. But I do see the trend downward continuing – but just to a productive hitter level, not falling off the face of the earth again.

The Bradley stats are interesting. He’s basically on par with his career norms from the right side, but down substantially from his norms from the left side. Unfortunately, he gets a lot more AB from the left side. The good news is that hopefully it’s just an aberration and will get better. I expect him to play better once healthy.

So on aggregate, I think the OF will go up in performance, with improvements from Soriano and Bradley more than offsetting the (relative) decline in production from Fukudome.

If you go back to May 19, he’s hitting .171 (7/41). Still a relatively small sample size, but cause for concern. What worries me more though, is the way he’s starting to exaggerate spinning out on the ball. I know he always does that to a certain extent, but it looks to me like it’s getting out of contraol, like it did last year when he started to slump. After last year, I doubt Lou will cut him much slack. I think if he hits less than .250 in June, he’ll be in Lou’s doghouse and will get very limited at bats the rest of the year – unless our other outfielders keep going down with injuries.