Hey Lou, is Soriano still the leadoff man?
It wasn't the below-zero temperatures that told Lou Piniella he was at the Cubs convention. It was the question about the Cubs' lineup.
Specifically, it's whether left fielder Alfonso Soriano would lead off again, as he's done most of the two years Piniella has managed him with the Cubs.
"If I didn't get asked that question, I didn't think I'd be in Chicago," said Piniella, looking a little thinner after a bout with a viral infection. "We'll see what happens there. Look, we won 97 baseball games, most games in the National League. We just didn't stay around long enough in postseason. Let's take a look at this thing. I like Alfonso in the leadoff spot.
"With the left-handed hitting that we have now and the fact that we've got a little more speed, it changes a lot what other teams can do to us. Let's just leave things alone right now, and let's go to spring training and take a look."
Of course, Piniella can and probably will change his mind 100 times between now and Opening Day.
He did mention that recently signed infielder Aaron Miles had "a really high on-base percentage" of .355 last year with the Cardinals, and that could be one possibility for the leadoff spot on some days.
Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot are others, but Piniella also cited middle-of-the-order hitter Milton Bradley and his American League-leading OBP of .436 as taking the pressure off Soriano enough to where batting Soriano first wouldn't ben an issue.
Soriano had an OBP of .344 with 29 homers, but he had his second straight poor playoff performance, as the Cubs were swept out of the division series by the Dodgers.
As usual, Soriano said it doesn't matter to him. He asked for just one thing, though.
"I think I want to take time because I have to learn how they want to pitch me in different positions," said Soriano, who long has cited a comfort zone batting first. "I'd like to know if they want to change me, do that in spring training, and I can learn my new position batting in the lineup, and I can be ready for the season."
The Cubs were 69-36 in games Soriano led off and 28-28 in all other games. Soriano opened the season as the No. 2 hitter, an experiment Piniella quickly scrapped. Two stints on the disabled list also limited Soriano.
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said he doesn't know what all the fuss is about.
"I just don't get it," Hendry said. "Streaky-type players like that, you get hot, you get cold. Hopefully you're hot more than you're cold. We wouldn't have won the two division titles without him, even with his game changing a little bit and taking away his ability to steal the 50 bags. We don't have him to stretch that leg (injury) issue more than he is.
"Once again, who's out there that you're going to say, 'There's our 1-guy, and we'll be better if we move Sori down a little bit?'
"At the end of the day, if we had won those three playoff games instead of lost them, we probably wouldn't be having this chat."
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