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Sunday, November 19, 2006 Soriano Headed to Chicago?Free agent Alfonso Soriano and the Chicago Cubs have agreed to terms on an eight-year, $136 million contract, a high-ranking Major League Baseball official said on Sunday. The deal is contingent on Soriano passing a physical. I'm sure we will hear a lot more about this on Monday. We will pass along all the details we can gather including some direct from the Cubs press conference. Just a little commentary here... There's been a lot of buzz about how bad a deal this is for the Cubs. But if the Cubs can afford Soriano, and money isn't a huge object to them, then I don't see the big deal. And who's to say that Soriano won't put up even bigger numbers in Chicago with the wind blowing out! I mean, if the Red Sox can pay $50 million just to negotiate with a pitcher who has yet to set foot in this country... This appears to be the market we're dealing with. Some people think the Cubs should have gone after JD Drew instead. Well, all reports have JD and Scott Boras looking for $15 + million a year as well. Maybe JD has been more consistent over the long run, but he's also been injured a heck of a lot more, and not exactly the model teammate. I mean, over the last 6 years, he's reached 400 at bats (or 500 PAs) just 3 times. One other thing about Soriano...for those of you who have read John Dewan's Fielding Bible last year and know about the +/- system, John and the BIS crew rated Soriano a +15 for his play in LF. That's tied for second among all LFs in baseball. I spoke to John last week and he and his scouts who watch thousands of video replays had nothing but extreme praise for the way Alfonso handled left field. Just some food for thought before you rip apart a deal we haven't even seen yet. Head on over to the BDD blog if you want to talk about Soriano and his new contract! posted by Joe Hamrahi at 3:39 PM |
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7 Comments:
Wow! That's just stunning. 8 years for that guy...wow!
Eight years is a lot for Soriano, but if thats what it takes to get him then I don't blame the Cubs at all. He'll hit lots of homers and play fine defensively. I don't think this is that bad of a deal for the Cubs.
Well, I hate this deal for a few reasons, but one of them isn't that he's overpaid. I personally find all the contract complaints to be silly. HENRY BLANCO is overpaid - complain about that. :>
With a very unscientific search, I concluded that Joe Carter is a reasonable comparison for Soriano. And his age 31-38 seasons would be fine with me, despite the terrible OBP.
The big question in my mind is whether or not Soriano can keep walking like he did last year. His obp was good, much better than any previous year. If he can keep that up, then he'll be a big success. But he walked twice as much last year as any season previous, was that Frank Robinson's influence, was it just a fluke or has his approach matured? That's the big question in my mind.
FWIW, here's a complete list of all outfielders with 22+ assists since 1970:
Dave Parker (26)
Warren Cromartie (24)
Ellis Valentine (24)
Gary Ward (24)
Jesse Barfield (22)
Joe Orsulak (22)
Richard Hidalgo (22)
Alfonso Soriano (22)
Yes, the big question is if Soriano had his big "walk" year and he is going to fall off and slack off. Of course with Lou Pinella as his manager, there won't be any lack of intensity...Lou just isn't the type of manager that takes that type of behavior.
So we will see...
8 years is a long time for anyone though.
If we could eliminate television, somehow, we could get the western world back to normal. Television vulgarizes EVERTHING it touches. This is just tv money these players are getting. I like them better when they were making $600 per month and never complained.
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