Sammy Sofa

Nope, try again.

Man, he shoulda dove. Sure, could have resulted in an in the park HR, but at least there would have been trying! What the [expletive] is Cusack wearing?

Because those are the hardest balls to catch and judge and he's not a very good OF and "going all out" would likely make things worse.

Yeah, I really don't know what people are talking about when they say he loafs after grounders or hits in the gap. He's slowed down in general, but I think it's just how he runs. He has this weird gallop that just doesn't "look" very fast for a guy with his reputation for speed. I remember when he was still stealing bases I never thought he actually looked very fast. But I could easily be wrong, since this is based off of the usually lame "eye check."

Well said.

So you think he regularly gives up on balls he should catch and regularly detrimentally loafs on plays (presumably turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples)?

So, wait, is this something you're going to back up only through anecdotal evidence? Because a player routinely giving up on balls they could catch would be something that, y'know, wouldn't just escape defensive metrics.

We're not talking about a 2% chance. And we're also not talking about "diving" into the wall. We're talking about running back fullspeed, gaining body control, leaping to catch the ball, and bracing for impact. OFs do that routinely (or at least attempt it). Soriano attempts it almost never. Heck he flunks the running fullspeed part most of the time, even when there's no wall in the equation. Yes, because he's not good at managing the wall, we've already established that. I have no idea why you'd want someone like that trying what you just described. You want him to "routinely attempt" something he's terrible at? Seems weird. I want him to routinely attempt to try his hardest to catch anything hit in his direction. Instead what I see is a guy that gives up quickly and is content to trot after the ball and pick it up when it stops rolling. Then your expectations are absurd. Why you would want a player with glaring OF weakness attempting whenever possible basically the most difficult thing an OF can do makes absolutely no sense to me. It would be one thing if Soriano was this talented defensive whiz who was just lazy, but he's not. "Trying hard" isn't automatically a good thing if it means trying for jumping and diving catches means you're giving up unnecessary doubles and triples. I mean, your argument is essentially "hey, guy who isn't a very good OF...I want you to be regularly BETTER than most OF by routinely attempting things that most guys actually don't routinely attempt (even though I'm convinced they do) and that are almost always beyond the realm of your defensive ability."

We're not talking about a 2% chance. And we're also not talking about "diving" into the wall. We're talking about running back fullspeed, gaining body control, leaping to catch the ball, and bracing for impact. OFs do that routinely (or at least attempt it). Soriano attempts it almost never. Heck he flunks the running fullspeed part most of the time, even when there's no wall in the equation. Yes, because he's not good at managing the wall, we've already established that. I have no idea why you'd want someone like that trying what you just described. You want him to "routinely attempt" something he's terrible at? Seems weird. And no, OF across baseball do not "routinely" do that. Most will opt to play it off the wall. You're conflating Web Gems with everyday baseball.

[expletive] THAT CORNER, BLUE.

Karma.

Shitty, shitty calls.

Wow. Great AB by Soriano. Time to be the hero, Blake.

Then you're not watching a lot of baseball. A 2% chance of making a catch diving into the wall is still chance. Most guys opt not to take that chance.

MIRACLE.

Christ, you know your pitching is worthless if you give up 10 runs to the [expletive] Giants. WALL FACTOR IN PLAY.

Man, losing like this is so annoying.

Bah. Davis is this close to farting this game away.

That's what I was thinking also. You could feel the silence fall over the game thread during that AB. I was praying harder for a HR in that Pena AB than I have watching any other game.

He couldn't help but see the wall as he was running for 2B and automatically started slowing down.

Come on, Cubs. The stakes actually matter today.

Damn you, Doug Davis.

ha! I'd be surprised if the Cubs got to 6 Because you're you. Because the 2011 Cubs are the 2011 Cubs And they've scored 6 or more runs like a dozen times or more and are beating the hell out of the ball today, so just stop. If you're so convinced just stop paying attention.

ha! I'd be surprised if the Cubs got to 6 Because you're you.

Damn, Davis is garbage. The Giants typically can't score runs to save their lives.