In today’s Daily Herald, Bruce Miles gives Jim Hendry some credit for finally assembling a team that knows how to get on base. Bruce credits two moves in particular.

Hiring Lou Piniella, a manager who has always emphasized the need to get your fanny on the basepaths, and signing Kosuke Fukudome, a legendarily patient hitter in Japan who has done nothing to contradict that in his first two months in the Major Leagues.

True to form, Hendry can’t take a compliment, and disagrees with Miles. Which just proves what we’ve known all along. Like the incorrect translation of the cloying “It’s Gonna Happen” sign into Japanese, “It’s Happening By Accident.”

Without even looking at the numbers from last year and comparing them to this year you can come up with a pretty good idea why the 2008 Cubs are second in the National League in on base average (it’s not percentage…it’s a three decimal number it’s an average), second in walks and consequently first in the big leagues in runs scored.

They got rid of Jock Jones, Cesar Izturis, Cliff Floyd and that assload of bad catchers and replaced them with Reed Johnson, Ryan Theriot, Fukkake and Geovany Soto. That’ll make anybody’s on base average go up.

And it’s proven by a comparison of the main starters at each position from last year to this year.

Catcher

2007 – Michael Barrett 211 at bats, .310 on base, 17 walks; Rob Bowen 31 at bats, .157 on base, 4 walks; Hank White 54 at bats, .193 on base, 2 walks; Jason Kendall 174 at bats .362 on base (who knew?), 19 walks; Geovany Soto 54 at bats, .433 on base, 5 walks

2008 – Geovany Soto 153 ABs, .414, 27 walks; Hank White 25 ABs, .393, 3 walks

Total walks for the position in 2007 – 46
Current pace for total walks in 2008 – 103

First off, if you’re starting five guys at catcher you’ve got problems. Secondly when Barrett forgot how to walk (and catch and throw and cover up while being punched) it sent the catching position into disarray. Kendall wasn’t a complete closet case at the plate though his throwing was just that from behind it, and Soto gave us a glimpse of what he was becoming. But for the vast majority of the season the Cubs got nothing out of that spot in the lineup.

This year? Soto is making a case that he ought to be batting third. I know it’s still early, and that catchers get beaten up and their production tends to tail off in the second half, but holy crap is this guy good.

First base

2007 – Derrek Lee 567 ABs, .400, 71 walks
2008 – Derrek Lee 193 ABs, .364, 20 walks (projected walk total – 69)

Lee traditionally hits better from June on so you can expect his walks to increase and his on base average to go up as the season goes on.

Second Base

2007 – Mark DeRosa 502 ABs, .371, 58 walks
2008 – Mark DeRosa 151 ABs, .403, 23 walks (projected walk total – 79)

You don’t see much change in Mark’s game from last year, which is fine because he was a productive player, and honestly, I think we all figured there was no way he could play as well as he had in 2006 in Texas, but he did. It’s a pretty good sign when the guy who bats seventh and even eighth sometimes is getting on at a .403 clip.

Shortstop

2007 – Ryan Theriot 537 ABs, .326, 49 walks; Cesar Izturis 191 ABs, .298, 13 walks
2008 – Ryan Theriot 173 ABs, .398, 21 walks (projected walk total – 72)

This time last year little Cesar Izturis was still mucking things up at shortstop (and the thing he was mucking up mostly were the offense and ground balls). Theriot took over for him, played well and we were glad he was anybody but Izturis. Then our gritty little guy wore out and we all wanted the Cubs to find another shortstop. Except, Lou was pretty comfortable with Theriot and never wavered in his support of him. All the little guy has done this year is hit and get on base and play a pretty solid shortstop. My only problem with Theriot is that he doesn’t have the range or the arm you’d like in that position. But honestly? I’m done harping on it because overall he’s doing a hell of a job.

Third Base

2007 – E-ramis Ramirez 506 ABs, .366, 43 walks
2008 – E-ramis Ramirez 158 ABs, .406, 28 walks (projected walk total – 97)

I love it that when writers talk to E-ramis about his increasing walk total he seems offended by it. Almost like he thinks walks are for sissies. Well, they are. And E-ramis is thriving since he embraced his inner sissy. There’s no doubt he bats in one of the cushiest spots in all of the big leagues. Behind Derrek Lee and in front of Kosuke Fukudome. It’s also no doubt that having him behind Lee makes Derrek a better hitter and having him in front of Kosuke makes Kosuke a better hitter. It’s true that the 3-4-5 in Houston of Tejada-Berkman-Lee is impressive, but considering it’s two fat guys and a 45 year old, I’ll take the three the Cubs have.

Left Field

2007 – Alfonso Soriano 579 ABs, .337, 31 walks
2008 – Alfonso Soriano 133 ABs, .315, eight walks (projected walk total – 28)

True story. When looking up the stats for this on Baseball Reference my cursor ended up parked over the walk total for Alfonso for this year and it made the eight look like a zero, and I didn’t even think twice. I just thought “wow, that’s even worse than I thought” and wrote it down. Then I scooted the cursor over and saw the real number. Patience is not Al’s bag.

Soriano is a pre 1998 Sammy Sosa. Prone to incredible hot streaks and then maddeningly unproductive at bats. Maybe Al could get on the Flintstone Vitamin regimen for a year or two? Nah. But here’s one thing he can do.

He can NEVER again, EVER swing at an 0-2 pitch. You know how it always seems that after two pitches he’s down 0-2? Why? Because nobody’s ever going to throw him an 0-2 strike. I mean, unless Sean Gallagher starts pitching for the Brewers.

Soriano’s batted 133 times this year. Twenty times he’s put the first pitch in play with impressive results. He’s hitting .450 with two homers and a 1.250 OPS.

OK, so throw those out. That leaves 113 at bats.

He’s been 0-2 nine times (seems like 109) and he’s 1-9 (.111) with a double. The pitcher who gave that up wasn’t just released he was executed and then released. Then claimed by the Padres.

You know how many times he’s hit with two strikes? Sixty-six. You know what his two strike batting average is? .188 with a .525 OPS.

Now you know why he’s already hit 20 first pitches. He’s afraid (rightfully so) of getting two strikes on him.

But take a deep breath. He’s really the only guy in the lineup who feels that way. The Cubs used to have seven of them.

Center Field

2007 – Jock Jones 287 ABs, .333, 21 walks; Felix Pie 177 ABs, .271, 14 walks; Angel Pagan 148 ABs, .306, 10 walks

2008 – Reed Johnson 129 ABs, .340, 10 walks; Felix Pie 63 ABs, .286, four walks, Lassie 15 ABs, .188, 1 walk

Total walks for the position 2007 – 45
Projected total walks for the position 2008 – 52

Guh. The good news is that in the last two years Reed Johnson has been the most productive Cubs centerfielder. The bad news is that in the last two years Reed Johnson has been the most productive Cubs centerfielder. I’m not holding my breath that Lassie is going to hit much, though I do think that he’ll hit enough to escape the ignominy of being released twice before the All-Star break. (I think he gets it in mid July, instead.) How hard is it to find a centerfielder? (Says the fan of the franchise that needed 30 years to find a third baseman.)

We interrupt this incredibly boring column to give you an Iowa Cubs outfielder update!

Speaking of center field, how’s Felix doing at AAA? He’s hitting .111 (3-27) with a homer and a .226 on base average. He’s walked three times already. Yay, Felix! Oh, and his homer matches Matt Murton’s total.

Right Field

2007 – Cornelius Clifford Floyd 282 ABs, .373, 35 walks; Jock Jones 146 ABs, .369, 14 walks, Ginger Murton 235 ABs, .352, 26 walks

2008 – Kosuke Fukudome 167 ABs, .409, 30 walks

Total walks for the position 2007 – 75
Kosuke’s projected walk total 2008 – 103

The first thing you notice is that Cubs right fielders got on base last year. Of course they didn’t hit for any power and when Jock got on base he got picked off or ran to the wrong base or thought the base was a pillow and laid down on it. Also, you notice that Jock’s on base average was thirty six points higher in right than in center. Further proof he was just as useless in either spot.

As for Fukudome? He gets most of the credit for the Cubs’ on base surgence (it can’t be resurgence it was never there before) and deserves a lot of it. It’s not just the walks he draws. It’s all of the long at bats he has and his willingness to slap away hittable pitches until he gets the one he really wants. I think the reason the team is more patient has more to do with replacing hackers with guys like Soto and Theriot and Fukudome than just one guy.

The overall numbers are startling.

Team on base average in 2007 – .333, ninth of 16 NL teams
Team walk total in 2007 – 500, 15th of 16 NL teams

Team on base average in 2008 – .368, second in NL
Team walk total in 2008 – 208, second in NL
Projected team walk total in 2008 – 717

It helps that even the bench guys are taking walks. Ronny Cedeno has a .410 on base average and nine walks in 68 at bats, the Fat Kangaroo has a .412 on base average and nine walks in only 25 at bats and even Mike Fontenot has a .365 on base average and 11 walks in only 63 at bats.

The reason I say that this is happening by accident is the same reason Jim Hendry isn’t taking credit for a shift in the team’s philosophy. He didn’t pay any attention to on base average when he went about putting this team together. Well, except maybe for Fukudome because it just jumped out at you, but even with him it was more a need to find a ‘real’ rightfielder, one who could play the position defensively and hit and the American free agent market didn’t offer anybody to do that in 2008.

But you look at the lynchpins of the Cubs’ offense the past few years, Derrek Lee and E-ramis. They’re both undeniably productive players and great moves by Hendry. He traded nothing for either of them. Ramirez had never shown an inclination for getting on base.

Lee had. It was one of the more impressive things he’d done in Florida. In his last two years there he posted nearly .380 on base averages and in three of his last four seasons there it was over .368 every year. But Hendry didn’t pay any attention to that. What he saw was a guy who had flirted with 30 homers for years in Florida who he thought would hit 40 every year in Chicago. Did you ever hear him talk about getting Derrek because of his patience? Nope. It was simple old “Damn, he’s gonna hit a ton in our itty bitty little ballpark!” I’m not complaining, but I can see why Hendry’s not quick to take credit for it.

Ramirez had only posted an on base average of .330 or better once in his six years in Pissburgh and it was .330 the day the Cubs traded for him in 2003. It actually went down the rest of the year, it was only .314 the rest of that season. But since then, it has never dipped below .352. So unless Hendry had a crystal ball he didn’t know E-ramis was going to learn how to get on base. One thing I do give Hendry credit for is the idea that Gene Clines could make a solid defensive third baseman out of him, and Gene did just that.

If Hendry really was conscious of on base average as a real weapon he’d have never gone after Soriano. Al’s the antithesis of that. However, there might not be a team in the big leagues right now better suited to take advantage of Soriano’s strengths and absorb his weaknesses than the Cubs. Let’s hope five years from now we can still say that.

Whatever the case, Hendry might as well start pretending it was all a grand plan. He can start talking about he knew Theriot was going to break out and forget that they’d moved him off of shortstop in the minors even though he and Ronny Cedeno never played on the same team in the minors.

I do give him credit for Soto. He drafted him out of the American Military Academy in Puerto Rico as an infielder and they immediately transitioned him to catcher. Like a lot of young catchers, especially ones converting from another position, Soto didn’t hit much his first three years. Then, in 2004 he put up a .357 on base average at AA West Tenn, he followed that with a .355 in Iowa in 2005, he repeated Iowa in 2006 and his OBA was .351, then last year it was .424 and he ended up starting in the playoffs for the Cubs.

It’s the kind of progression that gives you hope in Pie still. He’s still only 23 years old and his minor league on base percentage is .356. But the number you need to look at is that he’s only walked 186 times in more than 2200 career minor league at bats. Who does he think he is, Soriano?

Oh, wait. He probably does.