Lee = MVP, Infield Shuffle

May 18, 2005 by MikeJ

Derrek Lee is currently redefining the term "Most Valuable Player." He hits tie-breaking and game-winning home runs, gobbles grounders, and makes every other infielder, especially Aramis Ramirez, twice as good with his reaching and scooping abilities. He's leading the NL in home runs and the majors in slugging (.730 after 37 games!). He is the reason the Cubs have been able to withstand the plague of injuries as well as they have so far.

He's also the reason the Cubs won last night, driving in all 4 runs for the Cubs and hitting a single, double, 2 home runs (one to take the lead in the 9th), and an RBI sac fly. In a night where the Cubs garnered 13 hits, only Lee could produce something out of the baserunners.

Lee's performance overshadows some other good parts of the game, namely those that take place on the mound. Despite giving up 2 home runs in the 6th inning, Mark Prior pitched a pretty darn good game over 7 innings. Ryan Dempster closed the game without raising my pulse once. Something good even came from a LaTroy Hawkins appearance: he got yanked after walking a guy instead of being left to struggle through the innning! A prudent managerial move for Dusty, to be sure (yes, there is a first time for everything).

However, that's not all that happened yesterday. The Cubs signed former Yankee Enrique Wilson yesterday to fill the role of backup infielder in a move that sent 14-year-old Ronny Cedeno back to AAA. An extremely minor move, no doubt, but there's a little bit worth discussing here. Player by player, how does this affect:

• Ronny Cedeno? Well, he gets to go back to the minors where he's assured playing time every day. He did well in his short stint in the majors, batting .313 and racking up one more RBI than Jerry Hairston has all year (uh, 2). While he might do well given some more starts, I don't know if it's worth it to see him sitting on the bench the rest of the time. He's a young dude, and more time in the minors will be beneficial later on.
• Jerry Hairston? Hairy was supposed to be getting more bench time as of Sunday:
  

  Cubs manager Dusty Baker had hinted he would give Cedeno more playing time because Hairston has been scuffling. Hairston, who is batting .255 in 30 games with one RBI, is the first to admit the first month isn't what he expected.

  What happens now that Cedeno is back in the minors? Well, either Hairy gets another chance, like he did last night where he got on base in front of Derrek Lee twice to score, or he rides the pine in favor of Enrique Wilson. I'm not entirely sure his hitting is to blame (15 runs, .358 OBP), so maybe it's his fielding? He's made 3 errors in 22 starts at second base, which isn't great, but not damning. It'll be interesting to see whether Dusty sticks with him or gives 'Rique a chance.

• Enrique Wilson? See above: either he'll start at second base or Hairy will. I'd rather give Hairy more time, because Wilson's career numbers are awful- .246 AVG, .288 OBP, .352 SLG - and his fielding is nothing to write home about. Let's put it this way: he's the new Neifi, except he's worse. Maybe that's what Jim Hendry was looking for, a lousy infielder that might catch fire for a couple months until the starters are healthy. I think Hendry's just rolling the dice here, and all I can say is thank God the Cubs didn't have to give up a player for this guy.
• Neifi Perez? Well, Neifi moves back to shortstop and remains an everyday starter. For the first month this worked out, but Neifi is now experiencing what is known as regression, something we all knew was coming.

I'm interested to see the lineup for tonight, but I'm more interested to see if the Cubs can have two straight wins heading into the White Sox series. Also, as mentioned on the WGN Sports Baseball Blog, if you're in Chicago you can pick which announcers you want to listen to for this weekend. WGN and Comcast will be broadcasting games with either the Sox announcers or the Cub announcers, so flip back and forth to find which one you like. Or, if you're like me, find the one that won't have anyone telling you to "put it on the board."

(Originally posted at Old Style Cubs. Please read responsibly.)

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