Well in anticipation of the upcoming season I am going to try and figure out which lineup Lou Piniella will chose. Coming into this year we have many more left handed bats which will make our lineup more balanced. The addition of Aaron Miles, Milton Bradley, Joey Gathright, and Paul Bako may prove to be great or a huge bust. I really did not like to see Derosa traded because every team needs that guy who can do anything the manager asks him. Aaron Miles is supposed to take of this role. I hope he can pick up the role quickly. Milton Bradley is going to be a huge upgrade in right field. His left handed bat is added power to the starting lineup. The only down side to him is the worry about his attitude getting in the way. His past manager has taken his side saying that he should not be a problem in the club house. Joey Gathright is one of the fastest players in the MLB. I would love to see him come on strong and have a career year because his speed would be very helpful in center field. Below is my "probable" Cubs lineup.
1. Alfonso Soriano
2. Ryan Theriot
3. Derrek Lee
4. Aramis Ramirez
5. Milton Bradley
6. Geovany Soto
7. Aaron Miles
8. Fukudome
9. Pitcher
While this lineup seems solid I hope Lou will adjust some things to get the most out of the team. I believe Mike Fontenot is ready to be a start in the Major Leagues. I see him and Theriot being a great combination up the middle of the field since they played with each other in college. I also took a page out of our rival's playbook with moving the pitcher up to the 8th spot. I did this for one just to mix things up a little bit and two because I grew up with the mentality of the 9th hitter being a second leadoff man. I would only do this with Joey Gathright because I believe he is the only one fast enough to pull this off. Obviously you also have the option of Reed Johnson and Fukudome in CF so I would switch the lineup back to the pitcher being the 9 hitter in that case. I moved D Lee down in the order due to his lack of production last year. Below is my hopeful starting lineup.
1. Alfonso Soriano LF
2. Ryan Theriot SS
3. Milton Bradley RF
4. Aramis Ramirez 3B
5. Geovany Soto C
6. Derrek Lee 1st
7. Mike Fontenot 2ND
8. Pitcher
9. Joey Gathright CF
What do you think??
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You want to know what I think? Well I'll tell you. First off I think it is absolutely retarded to hit the pitcher in the 8 spot. The whole idea of batting the pitcher in the nine hole is so when he comes to the plate with two outs he gets out and you start with the top. If you put him in the 8 spot like your line up and then have Joey Gathright, a career .260 hitter batting ninth you start the next inning off with one out. Joey Gathright is a pinch runner at best. There is no reason he should ever start a game this year when we have both Reed Johnson and Kosuke Fukudome who are way better than him. I would say you could use him as a defensive replacement for the outfield but we have a solid outfield defense.
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