The Cubs have had a wild ride the past few days, somewhat masking the fact that the Cubs have a four-game winning streak under their belts. They haven't been winning pretty, but they've been winning.
And while Lou calls it simply "playing his bench," I don't know how many teams are sitting two starters on back-to-back days in this early in the season. Ryan Theriot and Felix Pie have been sitting in favor of Ronny Cedeno and Reed Johnson. Both Cedeno and Johnson have been taking advantage of their opportunities; Johnson is hitting .375/.474/.438 so far, for an OPS of 912, while Cedeno hits .333/.400/.444, for an OPS of .844.
Meanwhile, Pie has a .200/.238/.200 line to his name, and Theriot is at an amazing .207/.281/.241 batting line on the season so far.
I don't think either Pie or Theriot have precisely lost their jobs yet - Pie is probably in a platoon situation for the time being, with Johnson eyeing more of Pie's playing time. His game-winning hit probably helped his cause some.
Theriot, on the other hand, needs to seriously keep his eyes open for some infield predation at this point. Pie was a top prospect who was held out of a lot of trading talks by the Cubs this winter; Theriot's no better than a lot of minor league journeymen at this point and is lucky to have a spot on a 25-man roster.
[Yes, there may be some wishful thinking in that paragraph. When June rolls around and Pie is either traded or at AAA, while Theriot is still our starting shortstop, I plan on eating my own arm off for fun.]
Labels: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Felix Pie, Reed Johnson, Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Theriot
I find it very interesting that Lou's reason for playing Ronny is that Riot has a "sore hand". Riot says his hand is fine, and Lou uses him as a PH. If his hand is too sore to swing the bat at the start of the game, why use him at all? Hmmm.... Something I don't like about Lou -- making up injuries as an excuse to play backups (see Floyd, Cliff and Kendall, Jason). Lou, please just say that Riot is in a slump and that you want to see if Ronny can give the team a spark. Pretty please...
It is interesting, though, that Riot has done very well in the late-inning spark plug role -- something to which he is very well suited. It's tough to bring "high energy" to 600 PAs, and much easier to do off the bench. If "energy" is Riot's main contribution, maybe Lou is even starting to figure that out.
I'm not sure about Ronny as an everyday player, but I'd like to see him get the chance.