Manager Dale Sveum has made it know that the top of his lineup this season will be:
1. DeJesus, cf.
2. Castro, ss.
3. Rizzo, 1b
4. Soriano, lf.
The rest of the order will be part time journeymen, old rooks and Barney batting 8th.
The key to the new top-of-the-order is moving Castro out of the uncomfortable third slot in the order. Castro never was comfortable in the third spot, even though he was the team's most consistent hitter.
This parallels a young Soriano, who demanded to lead off because as a fast ball hitter, he would see more of them in the first position. In certain respects, Castro hitting second is like hitting 1.B. because DeJesus is not a prototypical lead-off man with his low OBP and lack of steals.
For this lineup to work, Rizzo must not have a sophomore slump. The team is projecting a 30 HR- 100 RBI year from Rizzo, which seems very high expectations. Because the Cubs don't score that often to begin with, Rizzo would have a good season at 22 HR-65 RBI which seems like the norm for the middle of the order guys in the Cubs lineup the past few seasons.
And Rizzo's success is tied to how healthy and productive Soriano is batting clean-up. If he is hurt, Rizzo will not see as many fastballs. The biggest learning curve for a major league hitter is hitting a major league curve ball.
Soriano bats clean-up by default. The team has no other RBI producer on the roster.
