Sammy Sofa

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.

What if we hold out for a top 5 prospect and another top 10-15, don't get the offer, keep him, and then he finishes the year with a sub-.800 OPS? Then we have an average bat and a below average glove on our hands - not a very valuable commodity on the market. While it's nice to think about your scenario, the sub-.800 OPS scenario is more likely. I'm not in favor of giving him up for scraps, but if we can get two of another team's top 15 prospects, I do that trade without thinking twice. This is a guy who had 0 value prior to the season. Is a sub-.800 OPS more likely at this point? No matter how much you attribute his start to luck, his numbers are so absurdly good that I have to think he'd have to really fall off a cliff to not end up with respectable numbers by the end of the year. The walk rate and LD% suggest he should maintain some production going forward. Overall, I think it's worth holding onto him. As has been documented, guys like LaHair do come out of nowhere every once in a while and have productive careers. Jumping at the chance to trade him for two C to C+ prospects seems premature, as those trades rarely work out and the consensus outside of this board seems to be that this is not a complete fluke. The concern with LF defense is a bit excessive, especially considering the LF defense this team has dealt with (and succeeded with) the past 6 years. Best case scenario, we have an Andre-Ethier like player for cheap the next few years. Worse case, we lose out on the ability to add two more Brett Wallach's/Abner Abreu's to the system. So you think Soriano has been a poor defender throughout his tenure as a Cub? Well, he was pretty awful for a couple seasons, and pretty close to awful for a third one.

Yeah, no kidding; the idea that the Cubs should of course hold out for more than two top-15 picks is ludicrous.

Man, you're a big, fat ball of crazy.

God only knows why you're talking about people "rushing him out the door." Obviously you wait to trade him until the demand is there, but other teams aren't stupid; it's plain as day that Rizzo is the ideal 1B of the future for the Cubs and LaHair effectively doesn't have a place as a starter on a team where he can't play 1B or DH. It's not an issue of "rushing him out" so much as moving him just makes sense once they want Rizzo up full time. Also: is redundant. Just accept it.

Wait, what? What the hell are you expecting?

Hahahahah!

Said who? Athlon Fantasy Baseball Magazine. Caveat: I was taking that to mean "best" as in good as opposed to "technical best in a shitty bullpen (which still would have been a shaky declaration)."

This X10000000000 And they throw strikes too... Unnnnngggghhhhh, yeah, him and his sexy 1.5+ WHIP, gets me so hot...