Wrigleyville23 invented a statistic last year called the “TOOTBLAN”.  For those of you not familiar with this stat, it was created to honor Ryan Theriot, one of the worst baserunners in the entire league.  TOOTBLAN stands for “Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop”.  This includes any kind of out made on the basepaths, be it caught stealing, getting doubled up, or caught trying to stretch a single into a double.  While Theriot was the most egregious offender of the TOOTBLAN last season, the entire Cubs roster has been getting in on the fun this year.  Here is the rundown from WV23:

Total TOOTBLANs: 15

TOOTBLAN Leaders: Kosuke Fukudome (5), Alfonso Soriano (3), Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot (2)

TOOTBLANs While Tied: 8

TOOTBLANs While Leading: 2

TOOTBLANs While Trailing: 5

TOOTBLANs At First: 0

TOOTBLANs At Second: 11

TOOTBLANs At Third: 3

TOOTBLANs At Home: 1

Record In Games With TOOTBLANs: 4-7

Multiple TOOTBLAN Games: 4

Kinds of TOOTBLANs: caught stealing (9), taking extra base on hit (3), doubled off on line drive (1), picked off (1), thrown out at home on infield grounder (1)

Of all people one would think that Kosuke would not be TOOTBLANed that often. He is usually a very smart ballplayer. While I love Sweet Lou, the fault for this lies with him.  When “being aggressive” on the bases leads to giving away massive amounts of outs, you are costing your team runs and thus wins.  This is only a minor problem for the Cubs compared to the power outage at the plate and the awful bullpen, but the Cubs can use all the help they can get.  Think about toning it down a bit, Lou.  Thanks.