Soriano Retires

[Rob]

I'm reading through the original thread from when he was signed. I went a bit over the top with the doom and gloom. I'm glad I've mostly learned to wait a day or two before responding to big news now.

 

Anyway, the big debate at the time was JD Drew or Alfonso Soriano. Since both deals are finally over with, I guess we can compare them.

 

Alfonso Soriano signed an 8 year / $136M deal with the Cubs. For that production they got:

19.6 fWAR ($6.94M/WAR)

7.9 rWAR ($17.22M/WAR)

Corey Black

 

JD Drew signed a 5 year / $70M deal with the Red Sox. For that production they got:

12.4 fWAR ($5.65M/WAR)

11.4 rWAR (6.14M/WAR)

No prospects

 

I liked having Sori around. But we probably would have been better off signing Drew at the time, like quite a few of us wanted. Even if you buy into the fangraphs defensive numbers more and see them as pretty close, getting out from under the contract 3 years earlier would have been pretty nice.

[SouthSideRyan]

If you take straight up WAR for WAR(which I pretty much despise[HEY keeping Kris Bryant down for half the season will only cost you 1 win when you figure in whos ABs he's taking, so what's the big deal????]) wouldn't we miss the playoffs in '07?

 

And do the last 3 years really matter since we weren't trying? And if we filled Drew's spot with somebody more valuable, might that have cost us Kris Bryant?

[seanimal]

And if we filled Drew's spot with somebody more valuable, might that have cost us Kris Bryant?

 

you trolling bro?

[GlassCow]

Appreciate Soriano's contributions to the organization, and hope he enjoys his retirement. Oh, and I'd love to go to a strip club with him sometime and spend some change.

[Guest]

just stumbled onto this - Soriano hitting 2 HR in the 1999 futures game

 

[Rob]

If you take straight up WAR for WAR(which I pretty much despise[HEY keeping Kris Bryant down for half the season will only cost you 1 win when you figure in whos ABs he's taking, so what's the big deal????]) wouldn't we miss the playoffs in '07?

 

And do the last 3 years really matter since we weren't trying? And if we filled Drew's spot with somebody more valuable, might that have cost us Kris Bryant?

 

In my hypothetical situation where we got Drew, the Cubs never stopped trying. And we still got Kris Bryant because his pre-draft demands were that he wouldn't sign with anyone else. And my hairline isn't slowly receding.

[Guest]

I saw him play for the Clippers many times when I lived in Columbus. He was so much better than anyone on the field it was crazy. I thought he was going to be better than A-Rod.