Playing to the Competition?

It always seems to me that the Cubs, especially when they are mediocre, play to the competition. Yesterday was a case in point. A nearly perfectly played game on their part. Wind blowing out, so they got three home runs to account for four of the five runs. Their pitching held the slumping Cardinals in check, keeping them off balance most of the way. Granted the Cards pitcher was the hopeless Jeff Suppan, but still a nice game.

People are loving the Tyler Colvin leadoff experiment, but I am not that big a fan. To me, it is another indication that the Cubs in general have no idea what a leadoff hitter is supposed to do, which is to work the count and get on base, and put the pitcher on the defensive. I like Colvin as a player so far and I think he has a bright future, but right now he has an OBP of something like .314 and he hardly ever walks. So he's hit home runs to lead off the game and everybody thinks they have the reincarnation of Ricky Henderson or, dare I say it, Alfonso Soriano in his prime. Well, that's not the case, is it, and, geez, we spent years complaining about having a Soriano type leadoff man?

I mean, Soriano had blazing speed when he came up and was a dynamite base-stealer when he got on base, which was not often enough to keep him up there for Joe Torre who dropped him down into the 9-hole because he struck out so often. And Ricky Henderson happened to hit some leadoff homers but he also had an outlandish OBP. Colvin so far has not shown great patience as a hitter and he is not much of a base-stealer either, so the sooner they move this kid down in the order where he can hit for average and drive in runs the better.