Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Soriano
Is a putz.
And he's an overrated putz at that.
And this is all Major League Baseball's fault. It all started when they refused to decide upon an owner before the stadium deal was finalized (and that's a whole 'nother story). This left the Nats completely leaderless heading into the offseason. Oh. Wait. Not leaderless, they had super GM Jim Bowden at the helm. So Bowden decides to pull one of the most foolish trades of the offseason. They deal one of the bright stars of their franchise for a guy who will whiff 150 times, has no concept of the strike zone, and who is a terrible defensive player. Oh, and he's a complete crybaby on top of all that.
I had to laugh this morning as I heard some folks on the local talk station defend Soriano. I heard a couple of guys saying that we live in a day and age of specialization, and Soriano is technically proficient at second base and thus uncomfortable playing the outfield. Clearly they have never seen a major league baseball game. Soriano is a disaster at second base, and he'd be no worse off in left. What this is all about, plain and simple, is that Soriano's value as a left-fielder is vastly inferior to his value as a second basemen. Offensively speaking there is no second baseman on a level with him, despite his many troubles. But as an outfielder he would be in the middle of the pack. His monetary value thus would markedly decrease with a shift to the outfield.
I'm not sure what the Nats should do or what they even can do. There are certainly many teams that would be willing to take him (Walk away Omar. Just walk away.) But there is no way they can get full value for him. He's too expensive to merely bench, and Lord knows the Siths over that the player's union would attempt to block any efforts to suspend his pay for the entire season (oh how like a real union, making sure their guys get paid for not working). So, they're basically fucked.
But then again, that was the case when they made the deal in the first place. Have fun in the cellar, boys.
And he's an overrated putz at that.
And this is all Major League Baseball's fault. It all started when they refused to decide upon an owner before the stadium deal was finalized (and that's a whole 'nother story). This left the Nats completely leaderless heading into the offseason. Oh. Wait. Not leaderless, they had super GM Jim Bowden at the helm. So Bowden decides to pull one of the most foolish trades of the offseason. They deal one of the bright stars of their franchise for a guy who will whiff 150 times, has no concept of the strike zone, and who is a terrible defensive player. Oh, and he's a complete crybaby on top of all that.
I had to laugh this morning as I heard some folks on the local talk station defend Soriano. I heard a couple of guys saying that we live in a day and age of specialization, and Soriano is technically proficient at second base and thus uncomfortable playing the outfield. Clearly they have never seen a major league baseball game. Soriano is a disaster at second base, and he'd be no worse off in left. What this is all about, plain and simple, is that Soriano's value as a left-fielder is vastly inferior to his value as a second basemen. Offensively speaking there is no second baseman on a level with him, despite his many troubles. But as an outfielder he would be in the middle of the pack. His monetary value thus would markedly decrease with a shift to the outfield.
I'm not sure what the Nats should do or what they even can do. There are certainly many teams that would be willing to take him (Walk away Omar. Just walk away.) But there is no way they can get full value for him. He's too expensive to merely bench, and Lord knows the Siths over that the player's union would attempt to block any efforts to suspend his pay for the entire season (oh how like a real union, making sure their guys get paid for not working). So, they're basically fucked.
But then again, that was the case when they made the deal in the first place. Have fun in the cellar, boys.
# posted by Paul Zummo : 10:03 AM
