Is Corey Hart better than Alfonso Soriano?

[kaiser]

I just offered a guy Alfonso Soriano to get Corey Hart and Dice K. Now, I understand why he didn't take it- I really didn't expect him too, but he has been offerING Dice around to everyone in the league, so I thought I would take a shot and start the conversation. He wrote back basically calling me crazy because, in his words, "Corey Hart is a better player than Soriano, at least this year."

I wrote back saying I thought he was dead wrong if he thinks Hart is better than Soriano. Now that I'm done raving like a crazy man at him, I need you all to tell me if I am right or not (maybe I'm not...). My argument:

Look at the stat lines:
Hart:
R HR RBI SB AVG
46 14 56 13 .296

Soriano:
36 15 40 7 .283

Hart has 129 more at bats than Soriano this season. In that time, he has managed a whopping 10 more runs, 1 less HR, 16 more rbi and 6 stolen bases.

Who is the better player?

[Yoda]

Soriano and I am a huge Hart supporter.

[oggy]

soriano. although in a non-keeper league I think an argument can be made for Hart. Soriano's injury may take a little of his value away if he suffers some sort of setback.

[Ender]

Right now I wouldn't trade Hart for Soriano. If Soriano looks healthy for a couple weeks then I'd take the deal.

[Bloody Sox]

This year to date: Hart
Remainder of this year: Hart (don't like hand injuries)
Next year: Soriano (barely)

[noseeum]

Soriano's hurt, and Hart his slugging's gone up each month. Soriano could be out for another month. You're talking more about talent, the other guy is talking about fantasy value.

Sure, Soriano is talented but I'd rather have Hart for the rest of the year. That doesn't necessarily mean if I had Soriano would I trade him trade up for Hart, but from the other guy's perspective, there's no way he should move Hart to take on a guy who's out for a month. Why take on that risk when you're happy with the guy you have?

[Yoda]

Soriano's hurt, and Hart his slugging's gone up each month. Soriano could be out for another month. You're talking more about talent, the other guy is talking about fantasy value.

Sure, Soriano is talented but I'd rather have Hart for the rest of the year. That doesn't necessarily mean if I had Soriano would I trade him trade up for Hart, but from the other guy's perspective, there's no way he should move Hart to take on a guy who's out for a month. Why take on that risk when you're happy with the guy you have?

Soriano should be back in a week.

[J35J]

Soriano's hurt, and Hart his slugging's gone up each month. Soriano could be out for another month. You're talking more about talent, the other guy is talking about fantasy value.

Sure, Soriano is talented but I'd rather have Hart for the rest of the year. That doesn't necessarily mean if I had Soriano would I trade him trade up for Hart, but from the other guy's perspective, there's no way he should move Hart to take on a guy who's out for a month. Why take on that risk when you're happy with the guy you have?

[Pogotheostrich]

Corey Hart is a better player than Soriano, at least this year.

I'd say that's accurate. Given what they have done so far I would have rather had Corey Hart on my team. But if Soriano can stay healthy he is the better fantasy player.

[freeling_prideful]

First off, let me say that even given the hand injury, Soriano is more valuable than Hart. However...

Soriano's a weird guy, b/c of his strikeout rates he can actually go for long stretches where he isn't even better than a replacement-level outfielder. Check out July/August of 2007, when he went .265/.276/.425/3 HR/5 SB and then .250/.294/.375/1 HR/3 SB in consecutive months. Of course, then he busts out in September with an absurd 14 HR and .320 average, essentially filling out about 40% of his season stats in a month.

He's done the exact same thing this year, essentially tanking a whole month (.192/.250/.327 in April, 2 HR/2 SB) and then destroying the world in May before being injured in June. In H2H leagues at least, his variance is so high that he actually hurts your team as often as he helps it, though the help he gives during good weeks is essentially able to win 4-5 categories singlehandedly.

So I can certainly understand not wanting to trade for him. It really depends on the other guy's team makeup...if he already has a pretty good offense, why take a guy who will actually drag you down half the weeks--and then in the other 8-10 weeks when he's really killing the ball, you might not even need his surplus stats to win?