Last year, Mike Fontenot had a pretty miserable season.  For the first time in his career, Fontenot was given a shot at being a big league starter.  He began the 2009 season as the Cubs starting second baseman and ended the season hitting .236/.301/.377 with 9 homeruns and 43 RBI.  It was an ugly season.

In Fontenot’s defense, a lot was asked of him.  Being handed a big league starting gig is a lot of responsibility, especially for a guy who had never been given that chance before.  So you could say, Fontenot didn’t rise to the occasion.  He was given an opportunity and he didn’t take advantage of it.

But Fontenot wasn’t just asked to be the Cubs starting second baseman.  When Aramis Ramirez when down with a shoulder injury, Fontenot was asked to move over to third base — a position he had never played in the big leagues – to replace the former all-star.  To Fontenot’s credit, he played a credible third base, but his hitting never did take off.

I opined here on a few occasions that Mike Fontenot is not the type of starting second baseman that a team with a $140 million payroll should be giving a starting job to.  Despite that fact, he was given a chance in 2009 and failed to take advantage.  My hope was that the Cubs would make a move to add a legitimate big league second baseman for 2010, but that didn’t happen.  Jim Hendry didn’t seem to be interested in adding a second baseman during the off season and the Cubs have gone to Spring Training with Fontenot and Jeff Baker fighting it out for the starting gig.

But last week, Lou Pinella said that he would give Fontenot an opportunity at shortstop with an eye toward being Ryan Theriot’s back up.  In his career, Fontenot has played a total of four games at shortstop.  In those four games, he has had a total of four chances and has committed two errors.  He has a fielding percentage of .500 and a UZR150 rating at shortstop of -257.0.  In case you’re not familar with these stats, let me just say that they are really bad.

If Fontenot makes the team as the back up shortstop, he will likely displace Andres Blanco, a superb defensive shortstop.  Blanco has a UZR150 rating of 12.4.  In 2009, in 138 plate appearances, Blanco hit .252/.303/.341 with one homerun and 12 RBI.  Blanco is the very definition of a defensive replacement.  He’s the epitome of the type of player you want on your bench as a late inning replacement.

To make things even a bit more complicated, Blanco is out of minor league options, so if he doesn’t make the 25-man roster, he’s almost assuredly gone.  The Cubs won’t be able to send him to the minors unless he clears waivers, and it’s unlikely that he would clear waivers.  Some other team will view Blanco as a great option as a backup infielder, and they’ll claim him.

Meanwhile, the Cubs will have Mike Fontenot as their backup middle infielder.  A guy who barely hits better than Blanco (and there’s a good argument to be made that he doesn’t hit as well as Blanco), but cannot field anywhere near as good as Blanco.  Why would the Cubs do this?

There are a couple of reasons.  If Fontenot can make the team as the backup shortstop and backup/starting second baseman, a spot will be open on the 25-man roster.  That spot would likely be taken by Kevin Millar (assuming Chad Tracy already has a spot on the bench).

Fontenot also has the “advantage” of being left handed.  The Cubs are going to be overly right handed again in 2010, so they’d like to have Fontenot’s left-handed bat on the bench.  Forget for the moment that Fontenot isn’t much of a hitter.  He’s left-handed and sometimes, that’s all that matters.

I’m a big “team chemistry” guy, and keeping Millar around would likely be good for team chemistry.  At least that’s the general consensus.  But I’m also a big “let’s win some games” kind of guy and I’m not sure that losing the services of Andres Blanco in favor of Kevin Millar would be a good thing from a win-loss standpoint.  In my opinion, it’s more important for the Cubs to be successful on the field than it is for them to be fun and well-liked. 

It’s still very early in Spring Training.  A lot can change.  Giving Fontenot an opportunity to play some shortstop in Spring Training is much different than giving him a regular season job.  Who knows, the “Fontenot experiement” may be over this week.  But until it is, I will remain a bit nervous.  I remember what happened the last time the Cubs decided to become more left handed, and it wasn’t pretty.  I’d just as soon not see that mistake repeated.