Piniella continues to ponder every possibility with his Cubs lineup
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Pat Pieper, the old Cubs public-address announcer, used to instruct fans to get their pencils and scorecards ready so he could give them the correct lineup for "today's game."
With current Cubs manager Lou Piniella, the key word is "pencil."
Piniella did some out-loud thinking Friday morning, before the Cubs' 7-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
The upshot -- for now anyway -- is that Alfonso Soriano will not go back to leading off and that Piniella has toyed with the idea of batting Kosuke Fukudome first and mixing Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez among the 3-4-5 spots.
Most likely, however, Piniella will continue batting Ryan Theriot first, with Fukudome returning to the second spot, where he looked comfortable earlier this spring before being dropped down to fifth, where he has struggled.
"I haven't been all that pleased with the fifth spot," Piniella said. "I don't know what we can do. It's spring training, but we want to make it as comfortable as we can for Fukudome, also. We've just started to swing the bats a little better, which makes it a little easier to look at.
"It seems to me the 2-hole would be right now the best hole for Fukudome, too."
Any way it shakes out, it looks like Soriano won't open the season in the leadoff spot.
"Not right now," Piniella said. "The cold weather in Chicago, taking that responsibility away from him where he has to run, run, run, that's a recipe, I think, of looking for problems.
"How about Kosuke hitting No. 1? He's got a great on-base percentage. He's running better. He can steal a base for you. That might be a nice spot for him, too, in the No. 1 hole."
Neither Soriano nor Fukudome made Friday's trip to Tucson. Since being moved to the No. 2 spot last week, Soriano has gone 6-for-22. Theriot led off against the Rockies and went 1-for-3, making him 7-for-23 as the leadoff man this spring. His on-base percentage is .368.
Fukudome is batting .205 (9-for-44) with 1 homer and a .357 OBP. Piniella said he didn't think Fukudome was pressing.
"No, he's not pressing," the manager said. "When I had Ichiro (Suzuki) over there in Seattle, the first camp was a getting-used-to period. This is no different for this young man. He's learning the league. He's learning the pitching. We've faced some left-hand pitching."
Speaking of left-handers, Piniella's main concern seems to be that Fukudome and center fielder Felix Pie are his only to lefties in the starting lineup. That poses new problems if Fukudome leads off, according to Piniella.
"The only thing with Pie hitting eighth, we'll have our only two left-hand hitters hitting eighth and one," he said. "If it wasn't for that, I like the idea of Kosuke in the No. 1 hole, too.
"With the lineup that we have, we could do a lot of things with it. But regardless, once we get to Las Vegas (next Friday), I want to stay constant. I don't want to mess with it."