Game #66 Preview: A's (33-34) @ Cubs (29-36)

Though it sounds like Jim Hendry truly couldn't care less, it's the first day of the Ari Kaplan Era at Wrigley Field. As for the game on the field, mlb.com reports that Randy Wells is looking at today's start against the A's as hitting the reset button on his thus far rocky season.

The irony, of course, is that Wells's employers might not be able to overlook the past quite as easily: since the beginning of May, the righty is 0-5, 6.47. His first-inning troubles have been especially ugly. In 13 Wells starts this year, opponents are hitting .357 against him in the opening inning and Wells's first-inning ERA is a Grabow-esque 11.25. (Stats from Baseball-Reference.com.)

Moreover, all of this is happening while Tom Gorzelanny collects dust in the bullpen—since his last start 22 days ago, Gorzelanny has pitched just three times (1 2/3 IP) and thrown a total of 52 pitches.

The lineups have been posted. You'll note that with the A's starting another lefty, the Cubs' "everyday" right fielder will be sitting for a second consecutive day.

A's vs. Randy Wells (3-5, 5.15; first appearance vs. A's):
Davis 8, Jackson 7, Barton 3, Suzuki 2, Kouzmanoff 5, Cust 9, Ellis 4, Pennington 6, Braden 1

Cubs lineup vs. Dallas Braden (4-6, 3.95; first appearance vs. Cubs)
Theriot 4, Baker 5, Byrd 8, Lee 3, Nady 9, Soriano 7, Soto 2, Castro 6, Wells 1

From the FWIW Department, Marlon Byrd is the only Cub to have faced Braden and has gone 6/16 against him, including 3 doubles. As for Braden, he's 0-4, 4.75 in six starts since his perfect game against Tampa Bay.

Tags: 
Jim Hendry
Randy Wells
Tom Gorzelanny
Marlon Byrd
Ari Kaplan
Submitted by Cubnut on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 10:41am
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Comments

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:07am

That Hendry comment from that Herald link is bothersome. "Look at Carlos Silva's stats from last year, who needs stats?"

Far too long overdue to get a shift in philosophy in the Cubs Front Office.

Submitted by Rob Richardson
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:23am

"Chuck Wasserstrom and (now) Ari Kaplan can break down all the numbers they like, but those numbers won't mean much if the general manager isn't paying attention to them."

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/3...

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:40am

I'm glad the media is starting to paint the Hendry could be in trouble narrative.

Guy has gotten a pass for some questionable work for too long now.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:39am

you have a bad habit of not quoting what people are saying, but instead reformatting their quote to your view and slapping quotes around it.

cubs have had a stats guy...it's where those binders full of crap on the back of the dugout come from.

they just have a former wiz-kid "name brand" guy now.

hendry's quote was pointing out if he followed stats blindly we wouldn't have a guy like carlos silva doing what he's doing now. that's not too shocking or outrageous.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:41am

btw, a lot of people are flipping out over the prospect of a guy who's pretty much nothing more than an assistant to chuck w.

it's like expecting the team to turn a corner because they hired a new bench coach.

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:44am

Its a shift in philosophy.

Is it turning around 2010? Heck no

Does it signal that we might be looking for a competent GM to helm this ship? Heck yes, and we as fans should be thrilled.

I'd rather this thing be run right, and be set up for a 10 year run. Especially if the Hendry plan is to trade for 30+ name vets to save his own hide.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:47am

how is an assistant to a guy who's been there 20 years a shift in philosophy?

it's a too-common myth that the cubs don't "do" stats, look at stats, or have a guy who assembles them.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:00pm

The most important thing, isn't who was hired or what his reporting relationship is, it is who did the hiring. The farther down the totem pole he is (and crunch seems to be suggesting that he's pretty far down), the worse it makes Hendry's job security seem. It implies that Hendry can't be trusted to hire a need, and that his assistant can't either.

Submitted by Cubnut
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:03pm

Bruce Miles is characterizing the hire as more than just a functionary/assistant to Wasserstrom:

"Cubs owner Tom Ricketts put his first stamp on the baseball department with the hiring of Ari Kaplan as manager of statistical analysis."

From my own, limited, business contact with the Cubs front office, I know that the line between the baseball people and the business people is a significant one--more like a wall than a line. If Ricketts really had a hand in this hire and has chosen to impact the baseball part of his business, as Miles writes, I think this is a newsworthy development.

Submitted by garsky
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:01pm

I believe I also read Kaplan reports to Hendry -- so this assistant-to-Chuck-W stuff is dead wrong.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:11pm

the silva trade was a bag shit for a bag of shit trade. thinking hendry knew he had a diamond in the rough is revisionist history .

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:17pm

hendry and crew didn't know what they had...as late as a few weeks ago hendry said when he snagged silva he didn't know if he'd be a innings eater out of the pen or a starter.

there's nothing in the stats that point to what he's doing this year and the "inevitable collapse" of his "luck" is moving into the 1/2 way point of the season.

it's not good stuff in this era for a GM or manager to even look like they're dismissing stats even if they're not. scouting + stats are used by every team, but a lot of people seem to have the idea that only a handful of team have clued-in to the stats thing and it's all happened recently.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:39pm

You're confusing player evalutation with in-game management. Stats for in-game management have been used throughout the game since at least the 80's, and used by some teams probably from the 50's.

Using advanced statistics for player evaluation and valuation is just now fully taking hold in the major leagues, primarily due to Moneyball and the success of the Red Sox.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:46pm

"Using advanced statistics for player evaluation and valuation is just now fully taking hold in the major leagues, primarily due to Moneyball and the success of the Red Sox"

that book has a lot of dramatically blown up mistruths.

mlb teams have actually been developing and using priority stats for a long time. a lot of the work was subcontracted out to Stats Inc. or an in-house manager of stats much like IBM takes contracts to do "custom solutions" for customers.

when we got beane we got a GM in the fold of the game who didn't suddenly realize something new...we got a guy who championed and brought closer to the top advanced stats. there's more respect for advanced stats, but very few teams were clueless, not using them, or ignoring them.

those books of stats on are not just raw data of baseball-card stats left for a bench coach/manager to do quick evaluations in-game. there's notes/words/links on how the data can be best used along with those stats.

chuck w. isn't just making a binder full of stuff printed off from the internet the past 20 years. he's working with the data and analyzing trends...

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:00pm

You're still talking about in-game management statitics, not player evaluation.

The numbers that show college hitters have been safer bets than HS pitchers in the draft go back to the start of the draft. Why has this just been reflected in the draft over the last six years?

The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:03pm

you're talking about stat analysis of people using metal bats vs. 95%+ players who will never see a professional organized game on any level?

you can't use that stuff. hell, the wood bat leagues barely give a fair snapshot vs. how much weight it carries come draft time.

and the HS vs. college drafting thing is kinda flakey, imo.

Submitted by garsky
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:06pm

Dramatically blown up mistruths indeed -- what Moneyball was about, purely and simply, was using statistics to ferret out an undervalued factor (in this case, the value of OBP) and exploiting it. Beane was NOT a pioneer in the use of statistics, advanced or otherwise.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:11pm

moneyball was intentionally dramatized...some of this was to make beane look revolutionary rather than evolutionary.

some people just take too much from the book's dramatizing of events and concepts.

beane was smart enough to pay attention, but more importantly he was smart enough to hire paul d, imo.

Submitted by Stevens
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:28pm

"the silva trade was a bag shit for a bag of shit trade. thinking hendry knew he had a diamond in the rough is revisionist history"

Exactly. If Hendry is implying that his scouting acumen caused him to spot something special in Carlos Silva, I'd call bullshit. Scouts and statisticians should be equally surprised by what Carlos has done this year.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:33pm

i think hendry is trying to point out stats arent the end-all-be-all and guys like silva are doing things numbers say they probably won't do.

the jim edmonds scrap-heap pickup was a nice one, too.

just like scouting can "lie" numbers aren't absolute, either. it's not a war, it's a partnership.

Submitted by Stevens
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 3:17pm

i think hendry is trying to point out stats aren't the end-all-be-all and guys like silva are doing things numbers say they probably won't do.

That's fine. But the point is there's also no way any scout would suggest Silva would do this either. If Hendry implies that, it's inaccurate.

the jim edmonds scrap-heap pickup was a nice one, too.

Joe Borowski. Ryan Dempster. Taking a flyer on cheap guys is smart management, but it's just luck. Didn't work for Wade Miller or Chad Fox.

just like scouting can "lie" numbers aren't absolute, either. it's not a war, it's a partnership.

Agreed.

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 3:21pm

I hope Hendry doesn't pull a Dusty Baker and rebel against all things stats.

Trying to dump Fukudome because he takes too many pitches and such.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:53pm

Are you saying Carlos Silva's 2010 results don't matter? That statistically sound players are more important than actual results?

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:01pm

wooha.

stats vs. scouting vs. whatever vs. king kong vs. ponies vs. milton bradley

Submitted by Mitterwald
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:49am

I'm not sure if this was talked about, but why did the crowd give Soriano an ovation for laying down a sacrifice bunt last night? It's Soriano's job to drive in runs, not Soto's or Castro's. That was as selfish a play as Soriano has made in a Cubs uniform, and I have no idea why he received an ovation. The only way that's a good play is if Soriano beats it out, which he didn't.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:51am

well to be fair it was vs. an AL team with an incomplete scouting report on 2010. no one in the NL would expect soriano to try to bunt for a hit and no one on the As was expecting it. it failed miserably. a case could be made for it being stupid or a calculated gamble.

the Z-hitting in RBI situations the past 2 games has irked me a bit more.

Submitted by Charlie
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 11:58am

Short answer: Fans like "Hustle."

Long answer: Soriano was trying to bunt for a hit and would have had it if he could get the ball just a little farther down the third base line. The pitcher had to a make a fairly difficult play to get him, barehanding and spinning to throw to first. It's also pretty much the opposite of watching a high fly ball as if it was homerun and then getting a double on what should've been a triple, so I think Soriano's history has to be taken into account when trying to understand the fan reaction. It turned out all right, but I wouldn't want to see Soriano try it more than two or maybe three times a year.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:03pm

Because the fans are tired of seeing Soriano swing for the fences, regardless of game situation.

Can you go over again why it's not Soto's job to drive in runs? I'm a little hazy on that. Is he supposed to be bunting and stealing bases or something?

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:13pm

wells needs to quit the boozin'.

he's patrick kane without the talent and championship.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:36pm

I don't what he exactly does, but if it's putting the binders with splits and batter vs. pitcher matchups together, probably get someone here from TCR to do that for $15 p/hour

He's probably the genius that tipped Hendry to sign Aaron Miles because he was good in day games.

All in all, if he's been there for 20 years, he's probably not helping much or not being listened to and sounds like his idea of stats is just basic splits and stuff.

As for Kaplan, sounds like a database administrator more than anything, but maybe he'll give the Cubs a fresher take on stuff.

None of it matters with Hendry as GM, who will always defer to his scouts cause that's his background. For the most part it's served him well to be honest, Bradley and Fukudome being the major exceptions.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:38pm

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/h...

Theriot bobblehead?

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:45pm

it's life-size!

Submitted by navigator
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 3:03pm

It's out front of Wrigley next to the Green and Yellow "BP"-Ernie Banks statue.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:47pm

fishing?

oookay.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:43pm

theriot 's wife said he lives in that boat and he goes everywhere in it. She said he rarely walks.

~little rimshot ~

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 10:15am

Ugh. (I had to read it TWICE to get it, well-played, rimshot and all.)

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 3:35pm

Can you think of any other sport he does well?

[and no, i don't think fishing is a sport]

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:40pm

I dunno if this is a shift in philosophy or anything, but I do know that, in my job, if some young gun got hired under me, a guy who reports to me, no less, who sort of is well known for something I'm known to be indifferent to, I'd be stupid not to notice. If I was Hendry I'd have a hard time not looking at this as kind of a statement being made by his boss. I don't think it matters much whether this new guy is a stats guy or what the hell he does. The fact the owner hand picked a guy Hendry should be responsible for hiring is a pretty strong statement.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 12:43pm

very much agree.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:01pm

I agree so much I said the same thing in post #11!

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:05pm

and I said the same thing yesterday...

apologies for not giving credit to you for my fantastic insight :)

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:24pm

Your comment, however, was off-topic, and mine was more about the context of the hire.

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:10pm

Ha, I probably just skipped past your post assuming you were in a spat with Mike C!

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:24pm

IN THE LAAAAAAND OF THE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:26pm

HELP! HELP! SITE-OP ABUSE! HELP!

hehe...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:32pm

censorship is okay as long as I'm doing it.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:37pm

yeah, it's all good.

i returned to "fix" the formatting on that at the same time you were editing it i think.

also, jeff baker wtf?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:24pm

leadoff double...and so it begins

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:26pm

i had already re-edited my comment to not break formatting =p

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:32pm

byrd with his 100th diving catch on the season...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 1:43pm

according to MLB gameday

Soriano loves to face sliders, hates fastballs.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:30pm

That's gameday humor. No one actually believes it.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:03pm

i'm at work let me know when they litter the field with the floating keebler elf bobblehead.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 2:10pm

Cubs approach Red Sox, don't offer to pay much of his salary. Red Sox insulted, challenge Cubs to pistols at dawn.

http://www.csnne.com/06/16/10/-Daniel-Nava/v1...

Submitted by QuietMan
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:15pm

They're missing out on a lot of nickname fun.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 3:38pm

this Wuertz guy looks familiar...

-edit- and pitching familiarly

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 3:45pm

Ha..I was gonna make a similar comment before your edit. Great bodies think alike.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:13pm

WOO!!!

great game!

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:20pm

It's sad when you're watching and absolutely expecting a loss. Fukkakedome with the winner!

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:24pm

BTW:

"Randy Wells is looking at today's start against the A's as hitting the reset button on his thus far rocky season.
The irony, of course, is that Wells's employers might not be able to overlook the past quite as easily"

What exactly is ironic about this? Just curious.

Submitted by Cubnut
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:50pm

Ironic that the player is able to say, "What's done is done; time to start over," whereas management, if it's doing its job, couldn't possibly ignore everything that has come before.

Submitted by Tito
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:58pm

Ironic would be Wells saying that and then getting released. Or maybe that we just be unfortunate.

It's like rain on your wedding day.

Submitted by Rob Richardson
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:06pm

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:29pm

heh.

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:38pm

That is awesome.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:43pm

almost as awesome as Immortal Dog

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1937499

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 10:22am

Hilarious, and true.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 4:37pm

Fukudome's hitting coach security blanket seems to be working again. They need to flag him as a terrorist so he can't leave the country again.

I wonder if the Cubs can package Fukudome for $1-$2M each, but if you want him to work, you need to add his hitting coach at $12M a year.

Submitted by Jace
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:20pm

It sure seems clear to me that his hitting coach needs to be hired as a full timer for the Cubs.

Submitted by The Joe
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:34pm

Can he speak English? Everyone needs to get in on that action.

Submitted by navigator
on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 10:26am

Oh they would, but so far he can't get a visa that allows him to work for more that a couple of weeks twice a year in the United States.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 3:12pm

Do you have any actual info on this? Seems to me the reason he probably doesn't have a VISA that allows him to be in the US for more than a couple of weeks is because he is not a full-time employee of a US company, like Fukudome himself is. But if he were hired as a full-time coach, as Jace was suggesting, surely he could apply for the same type of work VISA.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 11:21am

It's not that easy. If you had a company, you could immigrate anyone by claiming they were "full time employees" that way. You've got to show that you have a skill that can't be filled by an American, and with the high unemployment rate we have now you can bet that there is pressure to not award a lot of long-term work visas.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 11:30am

Not saying it is easy. Just saying that so far I have seen NO evidence that the Cubs have tried and have not been successful. And I can understand that. The Cubs have a team hitting coach, they aren't going to hire another one just for one guy. Would love to see any link to issues about the Cubs trying and failing to get him another VISA.

Submitted by Newport
on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 1:55am

Fukudome could hire him as an employee, no?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 5:50pm

Hayden Simpson signed, no dollar amount mentioned yet

Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 9:51pm

Slot should be right about $1.5M.

Submitted by QuietMan
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:31am

Went for about $500K under slot.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:36am

cheapskates.

someone's lying though.

It's believed that the Cubs and Simpson worked out a deal shortly before the team made the pick official.

Simpson said he didn't know he was picked until he saw his name on the draft tracker, so who did they work the deal out with and why so long to announce it?

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 6:28am

The Cubs may have settled on 'parameters' for a deal with several players before the draft, or he may not have known they were talking about taking him in the first round. $1 million for a middle second round pick, would have seemed like a nice chunk of change, and then when he got drafted in the first round he wanted some time to re-evaluate his position.

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 11:47am

colvin leading off

baker
byrd
lee
soto
sori
castro
theriot

~2nd edit~

I like it

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 11:50am

You may like it, but Lou has just condemned us all to three years of crunch complaining about wasting his power batting leadoff ; )

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:07pm

at least colvin & soto are playing.

/taking small victories where I can

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:38pm

soriano vs. colvin isn't even comparable.

one is a power hitter...one is a hitter with a little power.

i still don't know, even in retrospect, how anyone could be even slightly happy with soriano leading off when he was hitting for that much power.

even the people who bought into the bull that he can only hit in certain parts of the lineup or he turns to crap can't be all up on that as an excuse anymore.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:40pm

i still don't know, even in retrospect, how anyone could be even slightly happy with soriano leading off when he was hitting for that much power.

you should have tried reading the hundreds of attempts explaining it to you...and the Cubs record and runs scored in 2007 and 2008.

~cue broken record~

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:57pm

i have read...and it still makes no sense.

any time you have a power hitter with more or as much power hits as RBIs you should re-evaluate a player's role.

high K rate, low walk rate, speed declining (it was just silly when he was hobbled and still leading off), 30+hr power, 30+ double power

yeah, let's get that guy his 70+ rbis and pay him 15m to do it.

what you guys like out of leadoff hitters don't jive with soriano's use over a couple years.

i've heard the "he can't hit there because he can only hit in 1 and 6 slots or whatever" excuses which are laaaame as hell...

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:11pm

Maybe you should write it on a post-it note and put on your monitor, then you will understand...

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:13pm

i understand.

i just think you people who think otherwise are retarded.

:)

Submitted by MikeC
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:30pm

Soriano was the answer to everyone bitching and complaining that Juan Pierre was a shitty lead-off hitter. So the Cubs went out and got the player who is different in every way from Juan Pierre.

I was one of the few who liked Pierre and thought he did a good job as a lead off hitter, i didn't like his noodle arm in the OF, but hey he still did his job as a hitter.

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 3:33pm

Did you like the .317 OBP?

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 3:40pm

it was .330 ob%.

204 hits...32 doubles...13 triples...58sb (20cs)

the guy was in scoring position (2nd/3rd) around 100 times that season waiting for someone to knock him in.

he played every game.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 6:38pm

Yes, he had a .330 OBP by the end of the season. Fine, but season stats can cloud major in-season variation. He was absolutely dismal early in the year and contributed greatly to the season going south. Through June 9th he was at: .231/.277/.295/.572 - and getting the most at-bats on the team. It was brutal. At that point the Cubs were 12 games under .500, and 12 games out of first already.

From then on out he put up a nice line of: .326/.359/.440/.799 , which brought his season stats up. But at that point, it didn't matter.

People here have been on the Cubs to bench or get rid of Theriot, and to give you an idea of how bad Pierre was, Theriot's OPS was nearly 40 points higher on June 9th than Pierre's was in 2006. And at least Theriot has been moved down to 8th in the order a few times and sat a few games. Pierre started and led off basically every game.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:44pm

If Colvin had the at bats to qualify, he'd be second in the league in slugging and his career slugging % is higher than Soriano's (as well as Soriano's with the Cubs).

Submitted by crunch
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:57pm

if ryan theriot could do what he did the first year we'd never hear many complaints.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:23pm

Yeah, and Albert Pujols first year was a fluke as well!

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 3:37am

Man, could you look any more stupid?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 12:03pm

no Nady vs. a lefty, surprise, surprise...

-edit- Wasserstrom strikes again

lefties with a 1.162 OPS off Kazmir this year...in 57 PA's. Righties with a .713 OPS against.

.751 (RHB) vs. .647(LHB) for his career though.

maybe Whatshisface can give Lou and the staff a quick lesson on sample sizes.

Submitted by rokfish
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 11:41am

The only thing wrong with this line up is Theriot is playing.

Maybe we are showcasing him.

Free Mike Fontenot

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 11:51am

Nothing can stop The Fountenaught... except a senile manager and a tough lefty.

Submitted by The Joe
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:14pm

Shouldn't Theriot be out fishing somewhere? His bobblehead told me that's his only talent...that and charming the ladies with his Gambit-accent. I wonder if he can also turn anything into a grenade?

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:28pm

gambit?

nerd

;-)

Submitted by The Joe
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 3:11pm

He was my favorite X-Man as a kid. What can I say?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:45pm

Infield single by Soto?

Did someone collide with someone?

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 3:18pm

Third basemen dove in the hole and got it, but threw 3 bouncer from his knees that Soto barely beat.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 1:47pm

on another note, if Colvin is leading off and starting because Kazmir has struggled versus lefties this year, shouldn't Tracy and Fontenot be starting as well?

Submitted by jacos
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 2:20pm

you and your logic.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 3:18pm

Baker playing a phenomenal third base today and Howry doing what he does best.

Submitted by Tito
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 3:38pm

I get the Howry hate, but he's been decent since they re-signed him.

Submitted by The Joe
on Fri, 06/18/2010 - 3:48pm

I don't hate him, I just like making fun of him. He reminds me of Barry Pepper, so he's cool.

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