Alfonso Soriano was the opening day left fielder for the Chicago Cubs. He has played a lot even though he has been struggling all season. Soriano is one of the streakiest hitters in the league so everyone including Lou says to leave him in the lineup so when he goes on his amazing hot streaks which we have seen in the past he will carry the Cubs. The problem is Soriano has only had one of those streaks this season. That was for the month of July where he batted .345 with a .409 on base percentage and a 583 slugging percentage. He had 5 homeruns and 3 doubles along with 16 RBI’s. Besides for July he has only batted over 200 for two months with starting the season in April batting .284. How can we actually play someone every day who batted .216 in May, then .198 in June, and .185 for the month of August? Soriano has played in 115 games this season. The Cubs have played 130 games. Soriano has the second highest at-bats of all Cubs behind Ryan Theriot with 470.
Soriano has not played the last few days because he has been bothered by some soreness in his knee. This has made it hard for him to run, especially in the outfield. It was hard for most Cubs fans to notice, because it didn’t look much different than the Soriano were used to seeing out there defensively in left field. The other day Soriano had a MRI on his knee and Lou said it was good news. He would get a cortisone shot, and be back in a few days. I want to know why were rushing him back to play when he hasn’t been good all season. Let him rest and let some younger guys play in left to see what they can do.
One player that comes to mind who could start in left field in place of Alfonso Soriano is Jake Fox. Jake Fox has shown in a small sample of at-bats that he can hit the ball. The Cubs are 10.5 games behind St. Louis in the division and have several teams in front of them in the wild card. They need to play Fox to see what they have. The Cubs need to figure out if he is the real deal, or if he will turn out like Mike Fontenot and Micah Hoffpauir if he plays more. The Cubs don’t have a place to play Jake Fox next year with Bradley and Soriano in the outfield corners and Lee at first signed through the 2010 season. The Cubs could try to shop Jake Fox this off-season and trade him for some good relievers or young prospects, but they won’t get much in return for him now because he hasn’t done much at the big league level and he isn’t a top prospect. So play Jake Fox so we can see what we have.
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5 comments:
we need to rush him back cause he is on my fantasy team, and i need to get 3rd place.
Also, Hendry needs to go. Not getting rid of some high priced players at the deadline was really bad and showed his loyalty to his players. He said on teh radio that he still believes the cubs will get hot and make a run. thats why he didnt trade anyone. As i stated before, that is hendry's fatal flaw and why he needs to leave
Cubs fan have a short short memory. Everything Hendry did up to this year was just one great move on top of another. Then he has one bad year and Cubs fan says he should go
Granted, essentially every move he's made this year has backfired but do you forget the signing of most of the roster now including A-Ram and Ted Lily have been b/c of Hendry and taking "risks" on guys like Jim Edmonds and Reed Johnson have paid off. Putting Kerry Wood as a closer (although i dont know how much credit Hendry can take for that one...) and making Dempster a starter, all Hendry. In his tenure, Hendry has done a great job for the Cubs
tell me about these great moves outside getting ramirez from the pirates, a franchise that has lost the most games in the last 10 years.
-Turning Dempster into a starter
-Signing Ted Lily
-Getting Derrek Lee
-Getting Fukudome
-Soto and Theriot have been pretty good call ups for the team
-Signing Lou Pinella
-Outside of this year (and again I said Hendry has made some great moves outside of this year), Soriano has been good
-Winning two division championships
-I don't know if Hendry did this but I'm assuming he got Mark DeRosa
-Signing Jim Edmonds
-Signing Reed Johnson
Last year and the year before, CUbs fans were praising Hendry, and rightfully so. And now that he's had one bad year (granted its been awful) and now fans want him gone. I look at this like Buerhle in '06. He was having an awful awful year and yet Kenny Williams gave him a damn fine contract anyway. But over the course of Buehrle's career, past and present, Buerhle deserved that contract.
I think Cubs fan need to give Hendry a break and see how he does in the future because of what he has proven in the past
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