Cubs-Braves: Strategy or the Wheels Coming Off for Lou Piniella?

I'm going to name the elephant in the room right out of the gate: I might be reading way too much into this one, but I have some fears.

Let me elaborate.

In the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday in Atlanta, Kevin Gregg uncorked a wild pitch that would have been a strike out. As he raced to get the ball at the backstop, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto slipped and planted his face into the wall, apparently hitting his lip pretty well.

But he stayed in the game.

Gregg would then groove a waist-high fastball to free swinging Jeff Francouer, and the great pitching of tough-luck rookie Randy Wells was again wasted.

Fast forward to the top of the eleventh inning.

Mike Fontenot led off with a single. Soto was set to bat next with late inning replacement rookie Andres Blanco hitting behind him.

On the WGN telecast, Len Kasper and Bob Brenly noted that Soto has not yet put down a sacrifice bunt in his major league career and had just 14 in over 600 minor league games.

So, Cubs manager Lou Piniella pinch hit rookie Bobby Scales for Soto, asking the long-time minor league veteran middle infielder to perform the sacrifice in Soto's place.

Scales failed in his bunt attempt, and the inning would end with Koyie Hill making the third out. He would come into the game to replace Soto behind the plate.

No big deal, right?

Just Piniella trying to create a run in extra innings.

I texted to a few friends immediately when it happened with my concerns at the move. Soto was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2008, and was as clutch as anyone not named Aramis Ramirez on the roster.

He was a huge piece of one of the best offenses in the league last year.

But this year, Soto's off to a rough start.

His batting average is almost .100 below where it was last year at this point, and his power has inexplicably disappeared. He's become an average catcher after showing superstar potential last year.

There are a lot of people in Chicago that are down on Soto right now.

Sports talk radio has postulated everything from the cliche sophomore slump to the impact of the World Baseball Classic on his preseason conditioning.

Many fans have asked a lot of questions, and Soto's performance has yet to answer any of them.

My fear, when I saw the move by Piniella, wasn't that Soto's face was hurt by the introduction it received from the Turner Field wall. 

It wasn't that he hadn't put down a sacrifice in the major leagues yet (Francouer put one down for the first time in his life in the bottom of that inning).

My fear was that Piniella was making a quiet vote of no confidence in his starting catcher by pinch hitting in a critical situation in order to ask a rookie, with fewer than a dozen major league at bats, to drive in a runner from second with one out.

If, twelve months ago, I had asked a Cubs fan who they would prefer between Soto and Blanco in the clutch...I would have been slapped in the face, laughed at, and perhaps sucker punched.

But on Tuesday night, Piniella chose Blanco over Soto.

If Scales had performed the sacrifice and Blanco had executed the run producing hit, my feelings would still be the same about this move.

In a game that already saw Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley hurt himself making an out, (has he done anything else this year?) removing Soto for Scales to put the pressure to plate a go-ahead run on Blanco raises all sorts of flags to me.

Have I mentioned that the Cubs depleted bench was going to be called upon after Blanco?

The pitcher's spot in the order followed the rookie second baseman.

Again, I might be reading too much into the swap.

It may have just been strategy.

But in a game that is centrally fixed on matchups and statistics, putting the game into the hands of three consecutive rookies instead of letting an All Star hit with a man on base makes me ask the question: has Piniella lost faith in Soto?