A More Proper Offensive Thinking

Pet Peeve: Measuring a team’s offense by batting average. As in “the Cubs, with a team BA of .273, have the 3rd best offense in the National League.”

You know something? The purpose of an offense is to score runs, not maximize hits per at bat. The Cubs are 9th in the National League in runs scored: that means they’re a C- offense, not a good one. They’re merely average, despite a good BA, because they’re merely average at two far more critical elements of offense: on-base percentage and slugging.

This is the downside to signing Soriano…they still don’t have a legit leadoff hitter, in the classic set-the-table, get on base sort of way. For whatever reason, Soriano struggles batting lower in a lineup, so the Cubs’ hands are tied. This is nothing new, though, their offensive battleplan hasn’t included a legit leadoff hitter since, oh, I don’t know, Stan Hack? (Should –be hall of famer, by the way).