Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 31, 2006
Soriano Staying Put

According to ESPNews, Alfonso Soriano is staying in Washington, and the Nationals are going to attempt to sign him to a long term deal.

The idea that Washington would flip him for talent after his great first half made me like the original deal that brought him to the Nation's Capital a lot more. Signing him long term doesn't appeal to me at all. He's past his peak and playing for a contract. Washington's likely seen the best they're going to get from Alfonso.


Posted by David Pinto at 04:35 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Why does Stan Kasten like Jim Bowden so much? Soriano could have netted the Nats many of the pieces they need to build a long-term competitive franchise. Instead, they're stuck with someone who wants way more money than he deserves and should see his production fall off the table before three years are up.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at July 31, 2006 04:44 PM

ah, THERE'S the bowden we were wondering about when the kearns deal was made...

Posted by: Jim at July 31, 2006 05:03 PM

Bowden needed to get that stick out of his ass. He wasn't going to get anything near what he wanted, and he should have settled for something at all. Too late. He screwed up the franchise for a few years without making a deal.

Soriano was playing for a trade. He won't do nearly as well now.

Posted by: Adrian at July 31, 2006 05:17 PM

Soriano is playing for a contract. Nobody quits in their walk year. there is no reason to expect any dropoff in effort.

Posted by: abe at July 31, 2006 08:02 PM

abe - they were working on getting an extension done as I posted that, which is what I was referring to.

Posted by: Adrian at July 31, 2006 08:20 PM

Gotcha, thanks.

Posted by: abe at July 31, 2006 09:49 PM

Having been to 13 games and counting already this year, on top of 22 last year--spread over the season, not just in the first half, permit me to disagree with both of you.

(1) Soriano is 28. Go to your date, per Bll James and you will find that a a 5-yaer contract for him will cover the rest of his prime production years, until he's 33. There is no reason to expect a huge falloff in production, though we should not expect 40-40 (projected) every year. That's reserved fo pepple like Willie Mays.

(2) I agree with you that Bowden is not the most sensible GM. I would tather have Kasten doing the deals, considering he did them (with John Scheuerholz) in Atlanta. Last year saw three free-agent signings which turned out to be a 1-year-wonder (the pitcher who then went to Oakland), a disaster (Guzman) and a guy playing on one leg (he was hurt all year--Castilla)--who still drove in 65 men. This year, the Soriano deal appears to have worked, even though you should not give up a guy who draws a LOT of walks (Wilkerson), the free agent signings were nil, the deal with San Diego was a bust for both sides and the Kearns-Lopez-for Bray-Majewski thing is not good (Lopez is mediocre and Kearns doesn't want to play here).

(3) Having said that Kasten should take over running the show, I would then suggest he break one of his own rules--against no-trade contracts--and sign two of them, one with Soriano for five and the other with Zimmerman for ten, at least. That's what, in essence, Cleveland did in rebuilding into a pennant winner in the 1990s after wallowing around in teh second division for 30 years.

I've probably writtten more than you want to read, but I base it on 42 years of going to ballgames, in Chicago, Baltimore, D.C.--the Senators and the Nats--and (briefly) new York. It''s called long memory...

Posted by: mark at August 1, 2006 02:03 AM

Mark,

You're working on old information. Soriano is not 28. When he was traded to the Rangers, the Yankees went public with information that Soriano was two years older than previously reported.

Posted by: David Pinto at August 1, 2006 07:19 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?