Just North of Wrigley Field

posted by James - 8:45 PM

"So if you exclude the times that he gets on base, his OBP is .000. Good argument."

Somebody wrote that in a happening-more-and-more thread bashing our beloved centerfielder Corey Patterson.

Unfortunately with Corey's performance so far this season, it doesn't take that much to get such a number... small sample size ya know.

I don't care how many games he gets hits in, I'm watching what he's actually doing while he's at the plate, and he's still swinging for the fences and failing miserably.

To be a good lead-off hitter you have to take pitches (something Corey doesn't do), especially leading off the game, so the rest of the lineup gets to look at what a pitcher has on that day and get on base two times in five at-bats, no matter how you do it.

He's not productive enough to be batting leadoff for this team, especially now that there's a position available for Jerry Hairston, who has walked as many times as Corey in less than a third of the at-bats.

Right now Corey is a blind squirrel who's found a nut in less than half of the Cubs' games to this point.

Corey needs to be getting his one single per game down in the six or seven spot in the lineup. He doesn't deserve his spot in the lineup right now... actually since August of last year. And if it weren't for his defense, he wouldn't deserve a spot in the lineup at all.

Hairston, Todd Hollandsworth/Jason Dubois, even Derrek Lee would make a better 1-2 combination than Bad Corey leading to Sucktastic Neifi Perez (even though he opened up a big ol' Can on the Padres today).

Here's what I suggest, as if anyone actually cared about my lineup fetish:

1. Hairston 2b
2. Lee 1b
3. Garciaparra ss
4. Ramirez 3b
5. Burnitz lf
6. Dubois lf
7. Patterson cf
8. Barrett c

If you think it's a waste of Derrek to bat him in a position where Dusty would foolishly have Derrek sacrifice himself to advance a runner one base, then switch him with Nomar, so they can hit and run more (which will be better with a lead-off hitter who can actually get on base), or Dubois or Hollandsworth.

By the way, although I don't condone Neifi Perez playing most of the games since Todd Walker fell victim to a Milwaukee-style whacking (CUBS FANS! Let's remember this next time the Brewers are in town and when we go up there in May), I agree with Dusty that this was a completely media-fabricated story, I agree with Hairston for not liking being on the bench and I agree with Len Kasper when he said today that it wasn't a big deal Hairston came out and said just that.

Didn't we trade a guy this offseason because he didn't like being on the bench and, instead of talking about it, just left... for Hairston?

I'm giving the guy a break. Dusty's pulling his chain because he's not one of "his guys" (I still can't figure out what makes Neifi Perez and Jose Macias his guys.), and the result of starting his first game at second since Todd Walker's injury was a Cubs victory. Hopefully, this will give Dusty a reason to follow through on his promise to start Hairston more as it just changes the whole dynamic of this offense to have a top of the lineup capable of providing runners for Aramis and Derrek and Nomar.

As far as wrestling goes... I purchased WrestleMania 21. I enjoyed WrestleMania 21. And I can't say the same about the two post-WrestleMania 21 offerings.

It's like they blew out all of their good ideas and storylines just getting to WrestleMania 21... which isn't a bad thing, but they need to have something to keep interest since they have a PPV coming up this month too.

They need to hire somebody just to revamp the ending of their shows. I think the wrestling is on cruise control right now. I can't remember the last time I saw a truly horrible match that didn't involve Chris Masters... but their endings lately have given me a huge case of the huh?s.

Last Monday (yeah, I'm talking about last Monday. It's my damn blog and I'm trying to clean out the closet a little bit.), they didn't have anything going on that show, but they had Randy Orton, fresh off a loss to the Undertaker at WM, running an injury angle and challenging newly-crowned World Heavyweight Champion Batista to a non-title match.

I loved the match, even though Tommy thought it should have been a bigger squash than it was (for you non-wrestling insiders: that's when a guy beats on a guy for two minutes or less and wins without the other guy taking off his feather boa).

Batista did win quite impressively as it was, and if they didn't give the match the proper build with Orton coming back from his injury he blames Batista for, which will hopefully lead to a SummerSlam Main Event in August, the post WrestleMania Raw, normally one of the biggest shows of the year, would have been meaningless and not worth watching.

They couldn't even have a good ending to the show with Triple H coming out and golf clapping to end the show for who knows what reason... I think we could have done a better job... by we I mean me, David, Chris, Tommy or the tree he likes to piss on.

It gets even worse with the ending to the latest edition of Raw... with Batista coming out for his first interview as World Champ with Good Ol' Jim Ross in the ring. Not to be left out of any spotlight segment, Trip comes down and Batista backdrops him completely out of the ring and to the floor for his trouble, which Trip then follows by challenging... Jim Ross, the older than dirt, Bells Palsy-ridden Oklahoma Sooner, to a match for the following week.

Let's look at this... Triple H vs Jim Ross is the main event for next week's Raw. The 10-time Worlds Champion competing against a play-by-play announcer. Questions abound!

Who the hell is writing this stuff?

How the hell can Triple H just come out and say JR has to get in a ring with him?

Under who's authority?

What the heck is in it for JR? He's not a wrestler. He doesn't want to be a wrestler.

And what exactly does Triple H get out of it? We already know he's a complete ass clown... the only way this match works is if it leads to Batista jumping in to save JR and taking the Pedigree, but they'll still have to justify having the match happen at all and it kind of ruins some of Batista's coolness by making him a guy who actually cares instead of a cool, tweener type.

The worst part is the whole segment scored a 4.8 rating, and it's probably 4.8 units worth of viewers they wasted on a nothing segment.

Maybe Batista has what it takes to hold on to those kind of ratings, but even he can't overcome the weak scripts they're handing him... just ask Kevin Nash.