Rizzo Time May be Near

[koolhandlick]

I'm just going by what Kap said on KXNO. He said Rizzo won't be up before this certain date passed because of arbitration. Just passing it along.

You can take anything Kaplan says with a grain of salt. He is the biggest hack in the Chicago sports market. Most of the people on the Cubs message boards don't have on good word to say about the man and it isn't hard to see why.

 

[Hawkfromnorwalk]

You can take anything Kaplan says with a grain of salt. He is the biggest hack in the Chicago sports market. Most of the people on the Cubs message boards don't have on good word to say about the man and it isn't hard to see why.

That's understandable. I don't spend much time on the Cubs boards anyway. If you think some of the posters around here are giant tools you won't believe the douchenuggets that populate the MLB boards.

 

[sergeanthulka]

Soriano doesn't suck, he's 36. He's doing what 99% of all baseball players do after age 35, slow down offensively. The list of players who have produced offensively at a high level past the age 35 is almost nil (especially if you go pre steroid era). You have Ruth and Williams, and that's about it. Everyone else loses it right around age 35.

His "approach" is fine. He's done everything anyone's ever asked of him. His contract isn't his fault. If you want to be bitter be bitter at the right people.

No, he sucks...and blatantly so...and has basically his entire Cubs tenure. He was at least passable his first year, but not relative to his previous year, when he went 40-40 & scored 119 runs (in a *hitty lineup). Other than being by all accounts a great teammate, he is garbage. His K rate is unreal. He won't situationally hit. Won't take a walk. Coaches have begged him to change his swing & his 34 ounce bat unsuccessfuly, for 5 years now. His run production is alarmingly low, considering his HR totals...And (as last year will attest), he hit about 20 of his 26 HR's last year after the Cubs were 20 games out of first. And we haven't even mentioned the horrendous excuse for a fielder that he is.

Now, you are partially correct, that the majority of the blame falls to Hendry & the organization for the horrendous contract. However, that doesn't absolve Soriano's responsibility for his (massive) underperformance, relative to his contract. It's a free country & he was completely within his rights to sign that abomination of a contract & it's my right to boo my lungs out when I go to Wrigley & watch that imposter play...He should have trouble sleeping at night.

 

[DuffMan]

Again only a fool would blame Hendry for that contract. Again he's performing like almost all other 36 year old sluggers perform. The only way he could be considered not performing up to expectations is if the person setting the expectations is clueless. No one in their right mind expected him to do much more than this. His salary is meaningless in all this. He would have been crazy to turn that offer down.

 

[DuffMan]

Again only a fool would blame Hendry for that contract. Again he's performing like almost all other 36 year old sluggers perform. The only way he could be considered not performing up to expectations is if the person setting the expectations is clueless. No one in their right mind expected him to do much more than this. His salary is meaningless in all this. He would have been crazy to turn that offer down.

 

[sergeanthulka]

Duff...he wasn't 35 four years ago. He's played bad baseball for quite sometime now. (Truth be told, his numbers were always pretty 'hollow'). Why do you keep referencing his age? He should have been better at 31, 32, 33...The players on good teams execute in key situations, they learn the strike zone...Soriano hits solo homeruns in 5-run ballgames...

Even with the bad contract, notwithstanding, he clearly isn't even a middle of the road corner outfielder. And he wasn't brought in to be middle of the road. He was brought in to be elite.

But your logic seems to be that a player should be judged completely separately from his contract. I guess I disagree with that notion, if that's what you're saying...

 

[TigerHawk77]

Duff...he wasn't 35 four years ago. He's played bad baseball for quite sometime now. (Truth be told, his numbers were always pretty 'hollow'). Why do you keep referencing his age? He should have been better at 31, 32, 33...The players on good teams execute in key situations, they learn the strike zone...Soriano hits solo homeruns in 5-run ballgames... Even with the bad contract, notwithstanding, he clearly isn't even a middle of the road corner outfielder. And he wasn't brought in to be middle of the road. He was brought in to be elite. But your logic seems to be that a player should be judged completely separately from his contract. I guess I disagree with that notion, if that's what you're saying...

I could not agree more. The guy has simply broken down before our eyes since he signed that contract. Simply releasing him may be a little extreme because they still have to pay him. When Rizzo comes up, move LaHair to the outfield and bench Soriano. You arent going to get anything for him in the trade market anyways let him rot away on the bench. No reason to throw away those at bats in a rebuilding year when you have guys that you need to see what they can do in the big leagues

 

[ssckelley]

For me it is not about the money, they are not going to lower the price of a ticket when Soriano's salary comes off the books. So I could care less about how much they are paying him. If I was in his shoes I would have signed the deal as well and would not be laughing my *** off with every check I cashed. Not only is he the highest paid player but he also gets treated like royalty when they play games on the road and gets nice tickets to every game (part of his contract).

But for me it is about the at bats, I am done with Soriano and I do not want to see any more of him. This is a rebuilding year any way so give those at bats to LaHair and Rizzo and let's see what they have got. If he is that great of a clubhouse guy then great, put him on the bench for DH, right handed platoon, and pinch hitter.