Reserve Day With the Wind Blowing Out
According to MLB.com's Gameday, the wind is blowing out at Wrigley today 18mph. And the Cincinnati Reds are putting Eric Milton on the mound, who allowed 5 more home runs than any other pitcher in the National League last year. The conditions for Cub home runs simply do not get any better than this. Except . . .
Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones are out with day-to-day injuries. Michael Barrett is sitting in favor of Henry Blanco, who is apparently the catcher Dusty Baker plans on matching up with Zambrano this year, opening day notwithstanding. And, with a lefty on the mound, Jerry Hairston is playing second base over Todd Walker.
The result is that the Cubs have Derrek Lee surrounded by perhaps the lightest hitting lineup a $100M team can field. Pierre, Hairston, and then Lee, followed by Murton, Pagan, Cedeno, Perez, Blanco, and Zambrano.
This is not a complaint of Baker's lineup choices, as there is nothing obviously wrong with them for this particular game. It is merely an observation.
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Guess this is a complaint
I'm a big Dusty fan and believe the Cubs should extend his contract. Howver, hindsight from the game, the Cubbies losing 8-3, yeah they needed more offense. With Z on the mound, I too would think that defense (Hairston, Blanco, Perez) would be the way to go, but the wind blowing out is a good point. I really don't like taking hot hitting Barret out of the lineup, on a day w/o Ramirez, even if he's not Z's cather. At least put Barret's bat in after Z exits. We still have Mabry as emergency catcher, right? Or if you're not going to use Barret, then how about Mabry at 3rd? His defense was terrible in the spring there, but I thought Dusty wanted to get him a start?
Blanco's 1 for 3 w/ BB was OK but, Hairston's 1 for 5, w/ 3 K's in front of DLee was poor. So I guess this is a complaint.