Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 22, 2006
Baseball Musings Radio Show

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EST. Check out TPSRadio's other sports programming as well.

You can stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.


Posted by David Pinto at 02:22 PM | Broadcasts | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Dave,

I plan to be chatting and listening in tonight but here is a question and comment that I hope you will address:

Regarding Soriano, Why has there not been more pointed criticism towards the Nationals front office for not trading him at the deadline in July? Instead, they believed that resigning him was a realistic possibility.

After the deadline media reports and Industry insiders (Buster Olney, washington post) had Soriano signing something in the ballpark of 5 to 6 years @ 65-75 million as a free agant. 3 months later the guy gets an 8 year/136m contract? Jim Bowden and Stan Kasten had to have known that the league was awash in cash and that signing Soriano would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible come the offseason. Plus, they kept talking about "rebuilding the farm system" and growing the team through player development.

Would it not have made more sense to get something in return for Soriano instead of the two draft picks that the Nationals received fromt he cubs? Moreover, this explanation of the compensation picks from MLB.com "the loss of Soriano means three things: The Nationals will get the Cubs' second-round and sandwich picks in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. Washington will not get Chicago's first-round pick, because the Cubs finished in the bottom 15 of the Major League standings." Wasn't losing out on a first round pick something they knew could have happened in the offseason?
I think they were extremely careless.

Plus, here is a quote from Bowden the day after the deadline passed:

"We felt the best deal that we could make was no deal for this franchise. We consider Alfonso one of the best players in baseball. It's a player that wants to stay in D.C., did not want to be traded. He wants to stay here long-term. . . .Our job is to make sure we explore every possible option to help build this team into a world championship club. It was our job to engage in trade negotiations with everybody in our organization in an effort to try to improve."

GIVE ME A BREAK!

The fact is, many deals were out there to be had and Bowden blew it, wishfully thinking that he could somehow resign Soriano. Bowden also knew that if they were going to resign him, they would have to agree to a no-trade clause, something team president Stan Kasten had and never will grant to a player. Instead they are left with a few measly draft picks as compensation. The Nationals have said they want a contending team when they open their new ballpark in 2008. Imagine if they had landed a Matt Garza or Howie Kendrick and Brandon Wood as reported at the deadline to build for their future.

I truly believe many have missed this story all together. Soriano was extremely popular in Washington. They will have a tough time explaining this move to their fans this offseason and next season when one of the most exciting and popular players in the game is no longer roaming around the cavernous left field of RFK throwing people out at the plate than coming up in the bottom of the inning and either hitting a homerun or stealing two bases. For the sake of my argument I'll leave out how many times he does strike out.

Thanks Dave. Look forward to the show tonight!

Posted by: Jason McAdams at November 22, 2006 04:25 PM
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