Certainly that is a little too early to say, but their performance Saturday night was refreshing. The Cubs since 2003 have largely been built around their pitching and the performance of Aramis Ramirez, so lets hope this guy gets in a groove and stays there as he did tonight. Lets also hope Piniella starts, minimally, to rotate Colvin into the lineup two-thirds of the time, as I have recommended in an earlier post.
With respect to the lineup, the Cubs were successful largely because of the performance of their hitters two through five, something they have lacked on a consistent basis up until now. A note to Piniella though: achieving balance doesn't mean just playing two left-handed hitters and continuing to bat Theriot leadoff when Fukudome doesn't play. If Theriot plays, he should bat eighth. Balancing a lineup, ideally, means setting up righty, lefty, righty sequences as well as playing contrasting hitters back to back rather than similar hitters. So tonight I would have to say they won despite the lineup. Until his walk, Theriot saw maybe five pitches and it was his first walk since early May! Fontenot needs to play half the time as well.
I did not comment last night, but I thought Zambrano's performance was encouraging. He started badly, but once he settled down he got guys out until his exit in the fifth after exceeding some sort of pitch count. I should also have noted that Soriano, even when he produces hits and runs, generally gives away nearly as many in the field, as he did Friday night by misplaying Berkman's double in the fifth inning. I'm convinced that no team can be a serious contender with this mope in the lineup. If there is any way to trade this guy, the Cubs should jump at it now as there are people who think he is having a comeback year. How wrong they are.
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