Sammy Sofa

Agreed on all points. But you think he's not working through things.

You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're playing a character or something. The role he's playing is called "realist" and it's typically played by someone who isn't still infatuated with a former ROY. Motherfather, I will end you. Right in your face.

ACTUALLY, HE'S BEEN SHOWING LOTS OF SIGNS OF GETTING BETTER.

You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're playing a character or something.

Tiny sample size, but holy [expletive], Cardenas looks terrible trying to do anything.

[expletive], I go to haul the recycling out and I miss actual scoring?

Whoops, guess you backtracked already.

So is Maholm.

Man, this game is a thrill-a-minute.

I'm not mojo, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try LaHair in the OF this year whichever side of the debate you fall on. If you aren't able to get an acceptable deal at the deadline, I think you keep him at first the remainder of this year and keep Rizzo in AAA all year (until September callups). After the season, you work hard with LaHair and get him reps in the OF and monitor his progress that way. At that point you make a determination on whether you feel he's an OF or not. Trying him for 10-20 games after he's barely played OF in the minors and been a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now isn't going to give you the kind of sample size that will tell you conclusively either way. He's got over 260 innings logged in the OF between the minors and the majors, a bunch of those coming just last year, so he hasn't been "a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now." And no, I've never been saying they can't put him out there; they can put him out there all they want. He's just going to be terrible at it. Him succeeding at hitting despite many predictions otherwise is one thing; the guy has a skill set that shows that offensive success in the majors isn't out of the realm of possibility. Defensively, however, he has basically zilch to show he can succeed as a starting OFer. Some people are talking like he hasn't been "tried" out there before, and he has; he's not good at it. He's not even a very good defensive 1B. The reality of the situation is that he's a man without a position on the Cubs as of next year. If he can maintain consistent offensive ability there's no shortage of competitive teams that need that ability, especially at 1B or DH. With the FO we have I'd much rather see them capitalize on that and pick up someone like Upton than trying to shoehorn him in as a starting OFer.

Dude, the Braves can't even get a guy on base leading off today to do nothing behind him. They [expletive] SUCK.

This is getting ridiculous. Winter ball isn't going to "fix him;" he's just not an OFer.

So he's trending in the right direction. That's a good start but he's dug such a hole that a good two week period still has him sucking overall. I want to see the guy succeed, I honestly do, but his up/down nature with more down than up is growing old with me. What are you even talking about. Up and down, OK, fine, but he has by no means been "more down than up." And who cares about "sucking overall?" "Hey, it's the end of May and Soto's been pretty good his month." "Yeah, but he sucked in April so it cancels that out."

What th- I don't even... ... Nobody...NOBODY...was arguing that Soriano was some kind of long term solution in LF when they were bringing up his defensive abilities. What possessed you to think that you had to spell out the painfully obvious for the rest of us is just baffling.

He's OPS-ing .746 over the last 2 weeks.

Seems like a solid conclusion. A -0.3 dWAR and a -2.1 dWAR are basically the same thing.

Agreed but there are guys I want gone just because and I don't care what we get back. Johnson, Lendy Castillo, Barney...Wood and Soto aren't there yet but they're getting there. Yeah, that Soto is really trending in the wrong direction.

Just calm down and stop acting like a 6-year-old blasted out of his mind on Fun Dip.

You want to eat everyone and wear their faces.

HOLY [expletive], THAT MIGHT JUST BE HYPOTHETICAL.

This guy totally sweats and screams his posts out loud as he's typing them.

You understand that hypothetical arguments are legitimate tool of debating/arguing, right? Not everything is based off of some rigid, black & white notion of "we can only talk about what definitely did happen and not what didn't."

The other part of this is his age; just because he burst out at 29 doesn't mean that his prime years are going to conveniently shift along with that. Yeah, he's cheap for a while, but he'd be 30 starting next year. What about his skillset says he's going to age gracefully and you can justify riding out his decline and passing on younger players like Upton? Finding competitive teams that need production at DH and/or 1B isn't going to be hard. I trust our FO to get a haul for him by the deadline or in the offseason.

using zips' ROS (.274/.341/.499), he could still play -15 defense in LF and be an above-average starter over a full season my growing suspicion is that there's enough sorcery to Sveum's shifts (which have rated Soriano the best fielder in baseball, per UZR) that would cover up some of LaHair's limitations now i'd still be fine with trading him, but i think you're underestimating how bad the offensive climate is in the MLB now, mojo Fine, then hopefully they can hold out for more when they trade him. Again, comparing Soriano to LaHair is nonsensical; Soriano has been a bad fielder in the past because he makes terrible judgements in the field but has the athleticism and the arm to at times help compensate (or actually be good). LaHair has nothing of the sort. Those would have to be some pretty magical shifts.

Well said. Also well said. LaHair's defense would practically negate his offensive worth (and quite possibly then some) unless he kept hitting out of his mind.