They're fine batting fourth, but in my opinion you want your best power hitting player batting third and fourth. It's debatable whether Lee or Soriano is the better hitter, but I'd want Soriano batting in a position where he has a better chance at having people on the basepaths. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I would be curious to know how many homeruns he hit last year with no one on base compared to someone with similar batting average and homerun numbers who hit in the middle of the lineup. It costs the team rbi's. I'd bat Lee 3rd, Soriano 4th, and Ramirez 5th, but that's just me.
My biggest complaint in all of sports is the Davis Cup in tennis. There is no reason to hold this tournament every year. Like the World Cup and Ryder Cup it should be every four years. This is the reason why tennis players don't take the Davis Cup seriously, because it is every damn year.
1. Assuming everything would happen exactly the same, if something changed. For example, assume a runner is thrown out trying to steal and the hitter then hits a home run. Announcers invariably say the stolen base cost them a run, yet fail to mention that the whole pitching dynamic changed. 2. Batters sliding into first to try and beat a close play that doesn't involve a bad throw to the first baseman. There are two reasons to slide in baseball - to slow down and to avoid a tag. If sliding/diving head first got you there faster, I guarantee you would see sprinters do it in a 100 meter race. 3. Players with huge contracts saying "it's not about the money". (e.g. Roger Clemens, Kevin Garnett, etc.)
One-team national TV contracts (Notre Dame football), and programming decisions that make it seem like there are one-team national TV contracts (Yankees, Cowboys)
I'd rather have have Soriano and his speed on base for Lee and Ramirez. Soriano will drive in fewer runs, but the other two will drive in more. And pushing Soriano down two sports and the others down 1 spot each will cost them a combined ~50 at bats over the course of a season. Why give your best hitters fewer at bats just to put some scrubs at the top of the lineup? If the goal is to get more people on base for those guys, move the pitcher to 8th and put your "leadoff" guy in the 9 spot. But don't reduce the number of at-bats the big 3 get.
You bat Soriano 2nd, Lee 3rd, and Ramirez 4th. Sori might see more fastballs there which will only help his free swinging ass out and give one of my fantasy teams a boost as well.
I knew what bobrek's was going to be. Here's one I remembered this morning after watching a little Sportscenter. Highlights of random baseball games in the middle of the show where they try to add suspense by talking about a pitcher taking a no-no into the 6th or 7th. Hey numbnuts, if he'd actually pitched the no-hitter, it would've been the lead story, so don't try to act like we don't know that he doesn't. Actually just about everything regarding Sportscenter is dumb.
I just don't like the idea of the player getting on base the least getting the most plate appearances. Personally, I think Soriano strikes out too much to bat 2nd and doesn't get on base enough to warrant batting him leadoff or third. Put him 4th behind a high on base guy like Lee, and in front of an even lower OBP slugger in Ramirez. Granted, with the Cubs roster in the shape it's currently in, Sweet Lou doesn't have a ton of options (which is inexcuseable given the money they spent in the offseason... Who knows, maybe they'll trade Pie, Patterson, and Veal to the Mariners for Ichiro or something like that) Batting Soriano leadoff when he was with the Yankees when they had Jeter as an option was absolute insanity. Back to the original topic, I agree with whoever it was that mentioned holding the Davis Cup every year. Also, men should never, ever be allowed to wear capris, especially while playing a sport (even if it is tennis)
