thurdl sports

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Today the Dominican Republic faced off against Cuba in the World Baseball Classic. One person who was not part of the face off? Soriano.

Soriano has been...well...how do I put this best. He's sucked. And blowed. Both in the same game quite often. He's sitting pretty with more errors (1) than hits (0), and has been letting balls get by him that are imminently playable. And this is at second base. The position he wants to play.

He's been at plate 14 times, with 11 official at bats and a trio of walks. Those walks represent the only times that he has made it to first base.

I know that it's in no way new to say that Soriano wasn't a good acquisition, but it's one thing to talk about it, but it's another to see it in action, to see him producing absolutely nothing for the Dominicans. It would be nice to hope this is a temporary slump (that's assuming that we plan to hold onto him, and not deal him to some other club, in which case screw it, he can suck as much as he wants). However, I can't help but wonder what this is doing to his trade equity. It's a player who is due a seven-figure salary this coming year, and has demonstrated for any scout to see that his fielding is just horrible, and that he can't get buy a base hit right now. We're to the point that he might have to actually prove himself during the regular season, which just means it's that much longer until the team can start getting fixed, and it brings the whole drama to a head about will-he-or-won't-he as far as moving to the outfield. I have no idea how his performance in San Juan will change that whole soap opera, if at all.

All I know is that nothing about his WBC performance is making me feel even the tiniest bit better about his acquisition.

posted by thurdl @ 5:08 PM