Alfonso Soriano - Which One is Real?

[WebHamster]

This thread contains comments on Bob Hoyng's Article "Alfonso Soriano - Which One is Real?", which was posted in the Cafe's Point of View section on July 3, 2006. The full article can be read here.

[Madison]

Solid read.

Have to admit I was a Soriano doubter this last offseason. Had Utley pegged as huge due to Soriano going to that massive pitcher's park, second base not being that deep (as far as star talent), and knew I wouldn't be drafting Soriano unless he fell a long way in the draft, or I could get him cheap at auction. If I had ended up with Soriano (or if I owned him right now), I'd have sold as high as I could. Oops.

[The Loveable Losers]

I felt the same way pre-season.

As I've mentioned in other discussions about my article the big shock is the run production...the home runs are starting to come a bit more in line with what I expected in the article but the run production has been an enigma. Even taking the home runs out of the equation Soriano just seems to be able to produce runs even on the Nationals. My suspicion is that the Nationals lineup isn't as bad as we think at the top...it's just that the bottom of and middle of the order drags down their overall production while still allowing Soriano to produce solid r/rbi numbers.

The big worry pre-season with Soriano was that he might end up getting suspended for refusing to play outfield. For the people that took the risk on him he's already given them a mediocre season of production in half of a year. The flip side to this is that if you trade for him thinking you're going to get another half-season to match the first 2 months of the year you're going to end up sorely disappointed.