As I noted in my blog on Monday, Soriano was booed louder than any other player on opening day at Wrigley during the pre-game introductions. On top of that, each time he made an out, he was booed loudly as well (he did have two hits that day as well). Look, I don't condone this behavior. Soriano has carried this team for times over the last 3 years...and, if fact, he was probably the single player that did the most to push the Cubs into a tie for first place at the end of July/early August last year.
Simply said, the Cubs need him to perform, and we as fans should be doing everything we can to push this guy to start producing. Instead, right now, he is in the early stages of being run out of town.
This team is not going to be successful with Tyler Colvin playing left field. We need Soriano to perform and must give him every possible opportunity to do that.
Ok...off my soap box.
I'm not going to look into the stats right now, but last season, this team was struggling for much of the first half of the season...and Soriano was very much in the middle of that as he was in a prolonged slump. After the All-Star break, the Cubs may a strong push and actually tied the Cardinals for first place. Soriano had started hitting during that short surge. Then he started to struggle again and the team quickly dropped out of contention.
Soriano's defensive struggles are another topic...
With Soriano offensively starting the season in a slump, Lou Piniella has made it known that he expects him to shore up his defense to compensate. That isn't happening.
Colvin and Nady are spending a majority of the time on the bench right now. Nady, at the very least, should be an every day player. Colvin is the current flavor of the month and appears to be solid in the outfield.
Could Lou actually be considering benching Soriano for either of these guys? Offensively, Nady could give you more. Defensively, Colvin could get you more. But Soriano is the closest thing that this club has to a superstar. I'll continue to say this, the Cubs are not going to the playoffs with Soriano on the bench. The Cubs need Soriano to play, and they need him to play well, otherwise October is going to be a Cubless month.
We need Soriano to start hitting. And we need to encourage his fragile ego and show him some love because without him, we're doomed.
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Heading off to Chicago again today...I'll do a recap when I get home.
Wells vs. Cubs' punching bag, Dave Bush. The weather is supposed to be great...and I'll be sitting in the lower deck for the first time since the 2003 playoffs today. Should be fun. (And thank you to the dealer who gave the tickets for today's game to my friends and me!)
