Cubs Manager Lou Piniella announced over the weekend that Mike Fontenot will be taking over at second base for Ryan Theriot.
I think this move is well overdue. Honestly the moment that Starlin Castro was brought up Theriot should have been traded. His bat is acceptable at shortstop, but not at second base. The Cubs gave Theriot a chance to stick at second base. The results up to this point have been disappointing. He’s put up a line of .285/.313.314 so far this season. The batting average is nice, but he’s not walking or hitting for enough power to warrant a spot in the lineup. He’s walked only 3.2% of the time and that is inexcusable for a player with his skillset.
Mike Fontenot is off to a nice start this season so far. He has a line of .324/.373/.481. Some of his numbers can be attributed to a .343 BABIP, but given his line drive percentage of 31 percent his BABIP is not unexpected. That BABIP can be tough for some tough to sustain over a season, but he showed the ability in 2008 to sustain it. If he continues to hit line drives at a good rate he should prove to be a valuable player. His walk rate of 5% is a little low for my liking, but he’s swinging the bat well right now so I can accept him being more aggressive. He has shown the ability to walk at a decent rate when things are not going well for him. He’s also only striking out 8 percent of the time so part of me thinks he can keep this up. At worst Mike Fontenot has shown in the past he can get hot. With the Cubs offense struggling to score runs they need to play the hot hand. Fontenot is hot right now so I would ride this stretch out. If Fontenot can’t keep this up and the Cubs are still in contention maybe they look at some like Dan Uggla.
With the Cubs offense struggling right now I hope Fontenot can keep this up. Regardless of how he does the rest of the season the Cubs need Lee and Ramirez to hit. If those two don’t hit the Cubs don’t have a real shot of making the post-season regardless of who is playing second base.
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