How DARE You Make Me Say This, Lou?
Ronny Cedeno needs more playing time. Seriously. Why in the hell is Mike Fontenot doing anything but playing bass guitar with Animal behind him on the drums? Attention, Lou: MIKE FONTENOT SUCKS. He’s not good in the field. He’s not good at the plate. He sucks at bass guitar. For God’s sake, Lou, the Cubs have kept Ronny Cedeno on the 40-man roster for years, and he’s finally starting to show the fans why. The little moron is hitting .383/.473/.574 so far with SIXTEEN RBIs in less than 1/2 the at-bats of team RBI leaders Geovany Soto and Derrek Lee at 23. He’s leading the team in batting average, and he would play better defense than Fontenot even if he didn’t have a glove. Or arms. Or a pulse.
Look, Lou, you had a great chance to give Cedeno a bunch of playing time when Soriano went down, and you didn’t. You shifted DeRosa to left field (smart) but then used Fontenot and Patterson at second base for more than zero games (dumb).
Now, with Aramis Ramirez out, you have another great chance to see if Cedeno has figured things out. You could leave DeRosa at second base and plug Cedeno in at third base, which would be a decent option. Or your could move DeRosa over to third base and put Cedeno at second base, which would be acceptable. But you should put Cedeno at short, move Theriot to second base, and move DeRosa to third.
What you should never ever do, Lou, is use Aramis’ injury as an excuse to get Mike Fontenot at-bats.
At this point in the season, Fontenot has 55 at-bats. Cedeno has 47. I’m sorry, Lou, but even if you took away the massive defensive advantage Cedeno holds over Fontenot, at no point during the season should Fontenot have more at-bats than Cedeno. After seeing the two of them perform for the first month of the season, it’s even less acceptable.
I don’t know if you noticed, Lou, but Fontenot pretty much single-handedly cost the Cubs a win last night, sending Dempster to his first lost by committing a first-inning error which opened up the inning for the Reds to score three runs. The kid might as well be out there catching the ball with his teeth.
So, I’m begging you, Lou. You have been incredibly rational to this point in your Cubs career, playing the guys who deserve it and forcing Jim Hendry to trade the guys who don’t to San Diego. Cedeno deserves it. If, God forbid, Aramis is out for any significant period of time, GET CEDENO IN THE LINEUP.
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Looks like DeRosa may be losing ABs too. The Supersub has become an everyday regular and reminded so many….that he is a Supersub. Cedeno’s gonna get in there sooner than later.
God help me, this is a bizarro season. I REALLY want Cedeno to get some playing time…
so Kermit, is looking like a Muppet a BAD thing?
Fontenot has hit fairly well, to be fair, but yeah, you’ve gotta find time for Cedeno when he’s playing so well. What happened to Lou being the guy who always plays the hot hand?
Amen Kerm. There is absolutely no reason for Fontenot to be in the everyday lineup or even anywhere near a major league stadium. Get Cedeno in there.
And Keghorn, I disagree about DeRosa. He was an everday regular last year and did just fine. He’s just a bit of a streaky hitter, like Soriano. You can tell when he’s hitting well because he’ll hit the ball the other day and really drive it into the gaps. When he’s not hitting, he grounds out to the exact same spot at SS, or if he’s lucky, the ball gets through for a single. The difference between him and Soriano (aside from the power) is that DeRo will still take his fair share of walks. If you hit him 2nd, he’ll get on base enough to make a difference, even if he’s not hitting as well. Granted, that probably doesn’t matter as long as Soriano is leading off.
I agree. I think the rationale behind Fontenot is a left-handed bat. I have never quite loved the idea of batting someone just because what side of the plate he hits from. I’d rather bat a righty who hits .380 over a lefty hitting .290. I don’t care if having lefties in the middle of righties makes people like Tony LaGenuis pull their hair out. Plus if the lefty sucks in the field and costs you games what’s the point? It defeats the whole purpose of trying to screw with the other teams bullpen. Lou, do what you claim to always do: “Play the hot bat!”
Kermit urging more playing time for Ronny Cedeno is one of the signs of the apocalypse. Buy gold and start hoarding water and non-perishables.
Ron Cedeno is the best middle infielder the Cubs have. Print it.
Cedeno has started 11 games this season, Fontento 8. Cedeno has twice as many errors so far this season. At Short Stop, Cedeno has a career 27 errors in 183 games. That’s just not acceptable. The kid can’t play short, doesn’t have the smarts for it. I hate the kid and think he’s a joke in the field. I will admit he has been much more patient at the plate and is hitting smart this season and that alone should get him the start at second over Fontenot. At third I wouldn’t feel safe with him at all. It might be more instinct with him reacting at balls, but he’d screw up some double plays and slow dribblers, guaranteed. So put him at second, let Joe Dirt pinch hit, and keep Derosa as the second basemen unless he has to sub somewhere else which with this team something tells me he’ll be doing that 8 out of 10 games.
Don’t forget about Cedeno getting tagged out stealing second…ON A WALK. The kids a moron. He’s already got two errors this season showing he’s just not good in the field consistently. Let him play second, he can probably handle that. Keep him away from short. Put Ward at short before you put Errordeno there.
Oh yeah, also forgot to add that yes, Fontenots’ error in the first hurt us but not as much as the two different strike zones we saw during the first half of the game. Dempster was getting balls that on the same location Cuerto was getting strikes. Cuerto got away with some extremely bad strikes last night screwing over our bats.
You can bet that Fontenot won’t be getting any starts for the next few weeks unless Lou has no other real choice.
If it pleases the court, I would like it struck from the record that I ever said to anyone anywhere “Play Ronny Cedeno”, but I agree on starting him over FonteNot anyday. But just to clear the air, Fotenot’s line in the last 7:
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
15 3 8 2 0 1 7 3 6 0 0 .533 .667 .867 1.534
Looks to me like Lou done played the hot bat.
I agree BK. I was always a fan of TheRiot and Fontenot but all of a sudden, they have turned stupid. I have no idea why all of a sudden this is happening but it is pissing me off.
Truer words have never been spoken, sir.
You’re not seriously arguing that Fontenot plays better defense than Cedeno, are you?
Not better, equally as bad. Neither are every day players in the middle infield which is why Lou is having Cedeno taking so many flies during practice in center. He’d be the third centerfielder, but if pitching match ups happen where you want Ronnie’s bat in against a certain starter you could put him there instead of sacrificing our starting middle infield. What I was trying to get across, which I didn’t, is that taking Theriot out at SS for Cedeno is a big mistake. Theriot may not be your prototypical SS but he’s a very smart fielder. You have to admit it takes a lot more to play SS than it does second and I don’t think Cedeno has it to be an every day short stop. Honestly, Cedeno should probably wear his batting helmet crossing the street given the stupid decisions he makes on the field daily.
Correction…Fontenot hit out of this world these last few days (6 for 11), and that has brought his average up from down near the Mendoza line up to the .280′s.
Cedeno is hitting like everyone said he might years ago; Lou even said they want to get him more at-bats. With Aramis out is a perfect time to get those at-bats, but no.
DeRosa really hasn’t been doing anything amazing as of late either. Fukkake, Soto, Lee, & Ramirez are the only guys that have been great all around this season, and I’d give honorable mention to Johnson, Cedeno, and Theriot.
If we’re just going to leave the midget in there all the time, why not bring up e-patt and let him play? He’s actually going to be “the guy” eventually, and it’s not like he isn’t good…so we might as well have him up here instead of that douche, Fontenot.
I disagree that they’re on the same level, though I can’t deny that Ronny has been a total moron on the field in the past. I will say, though, his approach at the plate certainly looks like he’s learned something. Maybe when he was playing under an idiot of a manager, he played like an idiot. Now that he’s playing under a manager with a clue, maybe he’ll get a clue.
Also, if you want to account for stupidity, Theriot has been running the bases like a total jackass this year. Why he keeps insisting on trying to steal third when he’s already in scoring position with the Cubs’ sluggers at bat is beyond me. He’s stolen 7 bases and been thrown out SIX times this year. That’s pretty awful. If I were Lou, as soon as Theriot starts to regress (like he did last year), I’d give Cedeno a shot.
For now, if there’s a choice between Fontenot and Cedeno, I think it’s a no-brainer.
Since I can’t reply to you directly, it’s here….
Yes, Theriot has been sub par on the bases, but he NEVER GOT THROWN OUT STEALING ON A WALK (which he wasn’t under Dusty’s lack of a brain for). Theriot could get caught stealing 75% of the time and it still wouldn’t compare to that blunder. Honestly, Theriot shouldn’t be sent as much as he is, but that’s another ball of twine. Ryan does create problems on the bases for other teams but his big problem seems to be his sliding. He’s just sliding way to early. I actually think having Cedeno and DeRosa platoon at second some might be a good decision. Make those two fight for that starting spot while DeRo still gets the start at every damn other position besides catcher for subbing.
If Cedeno wasn’t being so patient at the plate none of this would even be an issue so really, it’s a good problem to have. We are all under agreement that Fontenot shouldn’t be getting any starts for a while though. He’s not worth trading because he’s a decent left handed bat where if we had to, we could get a very good starting pitcher for Cedeno packaged with a few other players in our farm system that aren’t needed which seems to be the bigger issue right now.
Eric Patterson? Weren’t we saying the same stuff about another Patterson a few years ago? This isn’t a lost season where you give the young guy a chance to prove himself or at least showcase him for trade bait. Patterson has no spot on a 25 man roster.
I don’t know if you were reading HJE when that CS on the walk happened, but believe me, I’ve been as hard on Cedeno for his stupidity as anyone. But I think right now he’s a better option than both Fontenot and Theriot (though Theriot has been very good so far this year), and I wish Lou would give him a shot.
Patterson has no spot on a 250 man roster.
Come now, people. Why are we taking out our frustration on Lou and our adorable little middle infielders?
If there should be an angry mob with pitchforks and torches at anyone’s door, it should be the base-on-balls machine that is Rich Hill… and the shit machine that is Jason Marquis.
I like Johnson, but you do realize that he has worse offensive stats than Fontenot in basically every single category, right? Fontenot only has 55 at-bats so this isn’t saying too much yet, but Johnson has tailed off after his hot start to .274/.355/.316 (that slugging percentage is pretty appalling, also), and Fontenot has the same number of walks as Johnson (seven) in nearly half the at-bats. If you’re going to say that Johnson is on the border of “all-around great,” you can’t turn around and say that Fontenot sucks. I agree that Cedeno should get more PT, though.
True, but unlike Fontenot, Johnson plays great defense, and there isn’t a better option on the roster for the position he plays. Fontenot plays with a cement glove and he’s at best 4th on the depth chart at 2B.
Yeah, it’s really been Soriano and the non-Zambrano-and-Dempster starting pitching that has disappointed so far. Aside from the occasional poorly-timed error and a couple baserunning blunders, there’s been little to bitch about in the infield.
I prefer to direct my hatred at the free swinging/no fielding A. Soriano myself. If Fontenot was making 136 million I might be a little more pissed at him.
Johnson plays good defense; great might be a slight overstatement, in spite of that catch in Washington. And I think Pie is being given short shrift – the guy is never going to develop into a major league hitter without at-bats, and I’m not sure Johnson is good enough to justify stunting Pie’s growth even further. And Pie is clearly the better defender in center. I’d like to see him play more; if you don’t want to start him against lefties, fine, but if you want him to work on that swing, he needs to keep playing. And since the supposed swing changes, he’s raised his average nearly 90 points (not hard, of course) and gotten hits in six of eleven appearances (and he’s only been allowed to play a full game in four of those eleven). It’s a start, anyway.
Okay, but as an all-around player as of May 6, 2008, I would say Reed is about equal to Pie, while Cedeno >>>>>>> Fontenot. I wasn’t really intending to comment on Johnson/Pie, as I wasn’t the one who brought it up, but Lou has a much better option for 2nd base right now than the one he’s playing. He doesn’t really have that luxury in CF.
Ronny with another two RBIs so far tonight. I’m not sayin’; I’m just sayin’.
Unfortunately I only found this site recently and the only thing that would make that Barrett/Hill/Cedeno exchange funnier is if he asked them if they wanted to go ride bikes at the end of it. I just have to disagree that he’s a better option than Theriot. Unfortunately I missed tonights game due to XP SP3 coming out and releasing an assload of work on me but box scores are still fun to read in this age of computer magic. Lil Rye is gettin on base early, gettin knocked in, and not striking out while Special Ronnie is knockin in some runs. Begs the question, do you keep that at those spots and just make DeRo super sub?
Poon, I could definitely get behind that idea. DeRosa REALLY looks like he could use a couple days off. Why not put Theriot as your starting 2B, Cedeno as your starting SS, and get DeRosa 4-5 starts a week among 2B, 3B, LF, RF, and 1B?
Cedeno isn’t smart enough for SS. Leave him at second.