Changes brewing

Lou Piniella says changes are coming Saturday. After watching Alfonso Soriano go 0-5 in the lead off spot Friday, Piniella has seen enough. Piniella mentioned to the media Friday that Sam Fuld is a “prototypical lead off man,” does that mean Fuld will have that role on Saturday? If so, does Fuld take at bats away from Koskue Fukudome?

Piniella also mentions the roster decisions he must make next week when Aramis Ramirez, Reed Johnson, and Angel Guzman return, and how he regrets not playing Jake Fox at third when Ramirez initially went down.

”We’ll probably make some adjustments in our lineup [today],” he said of Soriano’s continuing struggles. ”We’ll leave it at that.

Soriano’s struggles — and Fuld’s early success — could create more problems in a few days when Aramis Ramirez and outfielder Reed Johnson are due to return from their injury rehab assignments.

Piniella made no secret even before Friday how much he likes Fuld, and he admitted he has considered keeping Fuld in the lineup.

”I thought about it all night,” Piniella said. ”We recognize the young man has done a real nice job and deserves to be in the lineup, too. I was going to put Soriano back in regardless. We need for Alfonso to start swinging the bat. We have all the confidence in the world in him, but we recognize the job the young man [Fuld] has done, and he deserves to be in the lineup, too.”

Jake Fox, who had the winning at-bat in the 10th inning Friday, is another favorite.

”I’ve beaten myself up a little for not trying [Fox at third base] sooner when Ramirez went down,” Piniella said. ”But we had so many different guys working out at third base in spring.”

Next week won’t be easy, Piniella admitted.

”We’ve got Ramirez and Reed Johnson coming back on board in the early part of the week,” he said. ”[General manager Jim Hendry] and I haven’t talked about who or when, but we’ll have some roster changes by Monday.”Soriano will start hitting. I have confidence in the young man and feel he’ll hit. I have all the confidence in the world in him. We need to get him jump-started somehow.”

The expected route is dropping Soriano in the order and returning rookie Sam Fuld to the top, where he excelled in two games while Soriano watched. Like Piniella, Soriano seems ready to accept the move for now after hitting just .173 (27-for-156) over his last 36 games.

”If [Piniella] thinks that, he’s the manager. It’s just more important to be available for the game,” Soriano said. ”It’s fine. The most important thing is to be available to play.”

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