I don't see the big fuss about Soriano in the leadoff spot anyway. As far as I know, most studies on lineup construction have shown that the order doesn't matter all that much, anyways. Ideally, conventional wisdom aside, you'd want your best hitters at the top and worst at the bottom, mainly because the top of the order gets more at bats, not because of any preconceived notion about what type of hitter goes where in the lineup. Soriano might not be our best hitter, but he's one of the top 3, so him getting all those at bats isn't going to hurt us. Personally, I think the worries about wasting his talents in the leadoff spot are much ado about nothing. In a perfect world, sure, it'd be nice to have him in the middle of the order, but I don't think it'll amount to a very big difference in total runs scored. What we need to worry about is having good hitters in as many lineup spots as possible.