Entries associated with the tag "Alfonso Soriano":

I'm going to begin a series of end-of-season "I told you so" posts by recalling how almost every writer and sports-talk radio host in town kept insisting this spring that the Cubs couldn't win with Alfonso Soriano as leadoff man. (Give you one guess who I'm making the poster boy for that knee-jerk attitude.) You don't hear that talk much anymore, do you? Even though it makes perfect baseball sense according to the new logistical book put forth by statheads who declare that a team needs a player with good on-base skills to bat leadoff. That most definitely is not Soriano, even though his barely respectable 41 walks (11 of them forced upon him as intentional, it should be noted) in 102 games have helped produce an equally respectable .352 on-base percentage on top of his .289 batting average. Yet manager Lou Piniella, an astute baseball man, has gone against the statheads and simply left Soriano in the leadoff role, and it's worked. Why?

As I wrote back in March, there's something about putting a player in a position of comfort, even a position he might not be perfectly suited for. Soriano likes batting leadoff because he sees more fastballs at the top of the order, and as he proved many times this season -- most recently against the Milwaukee Brewers' CC Sabathia last Tuesday (check out his solo shot in the video highlights) -- when he's seeing the ball well it's impossible to sneak a fastball past him. More likely, Soriano is going to send it into the left-field seats. His 29 homers are a key element of the Cubs' success this season.

So give Lou credit for understanding the stats, but also for knowing when the player's individual charms overrule logistics. Soriano is a beautiful player, with powerful wrists to match Ernie Banks's and an admittedly coltish manner in the field . And that's what he brings to the team, an infectious smile and a joyful mien -- when he isn't moping about being criticized for his defense or being moved down in the order. He embodies the "Cubbie swagger" -- a joyful rather than prideful elan -- that Lou said he was looking for from his earliest days here last season. So, hey, Lou's too big to say, "I told you so," at this point, but I'll say it for him.

Something changed for Cub fans in 2003, something etched into their outlook by the White Sox' world championship in 2005. Manager Dusty Baker urged his team and the fans to reject the old "lovable losers" stereotype, and they did, but when the Cubs came up five outs short of the World Series neither the players nor the fans were able to return to that earlier innocence.

If you want an illustration, look no further than Alfonso Soriano. A smiley player with speed and power -- a coltish manner in the field matched with the wrists of Ernie Banks -- Soriano is the present-day incarnation of the sort of star the Cubs have always turned into matinee idols with their TV deals and afternoon games. Yet in marked contrast with Banks, Ryne Sandberg, and most of all Sammy Sosa, Soriano hasn't been embraced by Cub fans. Sosa too was a skilled if flawed player, like Soriano with a fan-friendly demeanor, like Soriano with a weak grasp of the fundamentals, a largely selfish player incapable of hitting a cutoff man or giving himself up to advance a runner from second to third with a groundout to the right side of the infield. Soriano heard it from the boo birds when he made the last out in the Cubs' playoff sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and one gets the impression that it would take more than even a 60-homer season to win them over.

Cub fans want to win at this point, by next year a full century since their last championship. Pity Soriano for not arriving in town in less demanding times, but as it is he'd be well advised to learn how to talk a walk -- and hit a grounder to second base when necessary.

Is it worse to lose a game or a key player? The Cubs lost both Sunday, but the Brewers' loss to the Phillies might have been even more damaging. First the Cubs. When Alfonso Soriano pulled up lame going from first to third Sunday night at Wrigley Field, I thought his season was done -- and with it that of the Cubs. It had all the looks of a torn Achilles' tendon -- a season-ending and career-threatening injury. It turned out to be a strained quadriceps muscle, meaning Soriano is out for a fortnight to a month. That's a considerable loss for a key offensive player, but consider the plight of the Brewers. They lost Sunday in brutal fashion, blowing a 6-1 lead in the ninth inning. A couple of errors, one committed by third baseman Ryan Braun, who as I wrote fields as if he had a spatula in his left hand and not a glove, contributed to the Philadelphia rally, and the Phils went on to win 8-6 in 11 innings.

Which was worse? The Cubs lost 8-3, in the process presenting New York starter Tom Glavine with his 300th career victory -- no humilation in that. And the loss of someone like Soriano frequently prompts teammates to step it up. Eric Patterson, Corey's younger brother, joined the team today and will attempt to become another in a series of Cub rookies to make an impact this season.

True, Cub closer Ryan Dempster got lit up for the second time in a row against his old Met teammates, but the Cubs have three potential closers in waiting: Bobby Howry, Carlos Marmol, and Kerry Wood, who made his season debut in the same game Sunday night to a raucous crowd response. Compare that to the Brew crew. Bullpen closer Francisco Cordero blew the save Sunday, and nothing shatters a baseball team's confidence faster than a bullpen that can't hold a lead. (Just ask the White Sox.)

The Brewers still led the Cubs by a game Monday, and even as a Cubs fan I'm standing by Milwaukee as my team of destiny in the National League Central Division -- though not without qualms. I said they'd be good as long as ace Ben Sheets held the pitching staff together. He went down with a strained finger, but phenom Yovani Gallardo stepped right in for him, for instance winning a pitching duel Friday. Still, that puts strain on the pitching staff -- meaning no room for error should their bullpen go bad. We'll see how the Cubs and the Brewers weather their various struggles in the coming weeks as they head toward their showdown at Wrigley Field the last week of August.