Earth to Dusty

There is a note on cubs.com about Clines and Mathews swapping their coaching duties this year(1st base and hitting coaches), but still both assisting the hitters. Here is a portion:

"They have basically the same ideas," Baker said. "We had some guys who had some good years last year -- Derrek Lee had his best year, Michael Barrett had his best year. Corey [Patterson] had his best year. Aramis [Ramirez] had his best year. We had some guys who improved. Geno will hopefully keep that improvement going."

Ummm Lee? Yes Ramirez and Barrett had their best years. Corey had a very hot/cold year and didn't pick up where he left off before the injury, but sadly it was his best full season. I'd say Aramis's improvement has more to do with him being 25 than anything else, but the coaches can take the credit for Aram and Barrett if they want to.

Lee, however, did not have his best year. This is the kind of information I would like the manager of my favorite team to know.

Year PA AVG OBP SLG SB
2002 688 .270 .378 .494 19
2003 643 .271 .379 .508 21
2004 688 .278 .356 .504 12

Lee's OBP was down 20 points from the previous 2 years with about the same SLG. 20 points!!! Can all of that have come from walkaphobic coaching? I certainly hope it was just a fluke and that our coaches can't hold down OBPs that much. Lee had stretches where he was incredible in 2004, but he also had very terrible stretches which the coaching staff shouldn't be bragging about. I don't see any way 2004 can be considered Lee's best season...can you?

If the manager of the team can't figure this out, how can we trust him to set proper goals for the players and team? Somehow it is not surprising that this is the same guy who lets Macias and Neifi play and abuses our starting pitchers.