Tuesday, January 18, 2011

New Take on Soriano, Same as the First, but Written Slightly Differently

Thus far I have not tried to hide my disdain for this deal. I'm over it in the sense that I know he's our 8th inning guy, and we're opening the season with him. I'm not over it in the sense that it is a stupid deal that favors a player I don't particularly care to favor, and doesn't improve our team in a meaningful way. For Jeter it seemed like ownership had holes in their pockets, but for Soriano it seems like those holes had been patched with $100 bills, and stock options in Apple. The Lohud blog linked over to a pair of articles over the weekend one bringing up concerns about Soriano's attitude, and one saying that his attitude issues ended up not being an issue in Tampa. Rays pitching coach in the latter article praises Soriano. The former article mentions Joe Maddon growing tired of Soriano's hissy-fits over being asked to pitch in non-save situations, including a tantrum he threw when he was asked to pitch the 9th inning in game 5 of the ALDS while the Rays were down 3-1. He promptly gave up a single and a homerun that inning. The article in favor of Soriano doesn't really say much that makes me think his attitude isn't a problem. It basically says that when he showed up in spring training he told his coaches how he was going to get prepared for the season, and how he wanted to be used during the season. This obviously didn't go over well, but since he was so succesful they didn't really question him. There are hopes that Mariano will be a calming influence for Soriano, but this sounds like a pipe dream. Nothing about this deal is sounding promising to me. I would say that you can't argue with results and we should wait for the season to start to judge, but the truth is, if we win a bunch a games, it won't be because of our setup guy. Even if he posts a 1.00 ERA, that won't be the reason we're winning games.

3 comments:

The Red Queen said...

Listen, just wait till the season begins, OK?
Then we can officially decide whether or not our new 8th inning guy should be "off with his way too expensive head".
I know, I myself can't believe that I'm telling someone to wait and see if we really need to send another head rolling on the ground.

Fernando Alejandro said...

That's the thing though, even if he's lights out, we still overpaid, and we still didn't succeed in filling our needs. That's the problem with this deal, even if the player is succesful, its still a stupid deal.

Anonymous said...

I agree Fernando! They spent to much money on a guys who is only coming in for one inning a game! I wish I could do that. Work one hour per shift and get paid possibly some crazy amount for that short period of time! The dumbest deal in Yankee history if you ask me!