Posts tagged AlfonsoSoriano at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Alfonso Soriano is a fast healer. Last year, when the Cubs centerfielder tore his left quadriceps muscle, he returned from the 15-day DL and immediately had the best September of any Cub maybe, like, ever. It was that good. This year, he's trying to return from a broken hand, and he's already making process:

He didn't look timid as he hit one line drive after another, and launched two balls out of Busch Stadium over the center-field fence. Soriano was batting .283 with 15 homers and 40 RBIs in 51 games before he was injured. This is his second stint on the disabled list; he was sidelined earlier because of a strained right calf.

Soriano won't likely be back for the All-Star game, but whatever. That's not important, no matter what Bud Selig says. What is important -- to Cubs fans, at least -- is that he returns to the Cubs as safely and quickly as possible, so the dreaded Cardinal scourge doesn't creep up and do something truly unexpected in the NL Central. This is getting ridiculous.

Maybe the All-Star Game is a meaningless to the players and just an excuse for Bud Selig to admire himself for a week. That doesn't mean that the selections should be stupid. Today, the MLB 'Haus gives you All-Star Grievances.

Grievance: Nate McLouth over Jason Bay- It's not that McLouth isn't a deserving All-Star, because he is. The problem is that he's mired in a terrible slump, putting up a .209/.258/.355 line with two homers over the last month or so (prior to today's game). There's a decent chance that by the end of the year, McLouth will have faded completely. Still, he made the team over Jason Bay, who's already a two-time All-Star and is slugging along like he has every year of his career besides an injury-filled 2007. It should take more than a flash in the pan to make an All-Star team.

Grievance: Miguel Tejada? Really?- After a down year in Baltimore last year, Tejada got off to a decent start this year. That's all quickly gone to hell, as he's hitting .198 since May 30th. Tejada's not an All-Star, he's a guy in the twilight of his career that Ed Wade is going to regret trading for by the end of the season.

Grievance: Adam Dunn isn't even a snub- I get that Dunn's only hitting .228. Aren't we to the point of enlightened fanhood that people can look beyond that and realize that his .895 OPS makes him a snub?

Grievance: Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome are starters- Fan voting is stupid and unreliable. We say that every year. This year, these two are the reason.

Other snubs: Carlos Lee (unless he wins the final vote but let's be honest, dude's got no chance against David Wright).

The Cubs offense has been pretty phenomenal this season. They lead the bigs in runs scored (443), batting average (.284), on-base percentage (.361), and slugging percentage (.444). Really, if there's an offensive category that's important, the Cubs are either at the top of the National League, or very close to it.

While everybody in the lineup has performed well, the straw that stirs the drink is, and always has been, Aramis Ramirez. That's why it's no surprise that the Cubs were swept by the White Sox this weekend after Ramirez went 0-for-13 in the series, a week after he nearly swept the Sox on his own. It turns out he may have had an excuse the last few days, though, as Aramis has some personal issues back at home in the Dominican Republic that have been weighing on his mind.

Which is why he'll be leaving the Cubs for the next three days to attend to them.

This isn't very good timing for the Cubs, as they're already without Alfonso Soriano in the lineup, and they've lost five of their last six games. Ramirez originally asked the team for four days off, but was only granted three and is supposed to be back by Thursday's finale against the San Francisco Giants.

While he's gone the team will use a platoon of Mark DeRosa and Ronny Cedeno at third.

Living in Chicago, I haven't been able to escape the constant hype in the local media surrounding the upcoming series between the Cubs and White Sox this weekend. Every time I turn on the radio or turn the page of the newspaper (yes, I'm one of the 15 people who still read the print version) I'm faced with another story about the two teams. It's suffocating. I know that it's a somewhat bigger deal this year, seeing as how both teams will be in first place for the first time since this all started in 1997, but this series gets treated as if it is the World Series.

It's not, it's just three days in June. Of course, I don't think Cubs fans care at all about the series right now after Carlos Zambrano had to leave his start last night in Tampa thanks to his shoulder, and will be undergoing an MRI today.

"We'll see what happens [Thursday]," Zambrano said of a scheduled MRI on his shoulder. "Hopefully it's nothing bad. I feel good ... just tendinitis, hopefully, and they'll put me on some medicine."

"There was a funny pitch that I felt something in my arm, and then the last pitch I threw in the game to Hinske, I dropped my arm a lot because I couldn't go back to the top of my arm."

Obviously, if Zambrano's injury is anything serious, it really puts the Cubs chances of winning the NL Central (which I've been told is a sure thing for a while now, hell I've even said it) in jeopardy. While the absence of Alfonso Soriano is one that the rest of the Cubs offense can make up for, there isn't anybody on the roster or on the farm that can make up for Zambrano's absence.

Just this week there were two enormous injuries in the world of fantasy baseball: Alfonso Soriano and Albert Pujols. There were also significant returns in Jake Peavy and Matt Holliday. Those are four elite echelon players changing places in the span of only a three days.

They weren't alone. All around the league players are dropping like flies while also returning. It's been an onslaught. For the value machine, it actually makes sense at this point in the season. Sure, players are bound to get hot and cold, but for the most part we are approaching the dog days of summer ... most movement in fantasy leagues will be triggered by injuries.

We've covered Pujols, Soriano, Holliday, and Peavy already this week here on Fantasy FanHouse. Obviously the former two would have an evil next to their respective names while the latter two would have the nice, reassuring residing next to theirs. Here are the most notable of the rest:

Vernon Wells -- Returned Saturday to the Jays' lineup and announced his presence with authority on Sunday (3-4, HR). He stormed out of the gates this year, but he is a pretty inconsistent performer. Studly in 2003 and 2006 while disappointing owners in the other seasons of his career. Sell high time, as far as I'm concerned.

Jeff Bennett and Brian McCann swear they didn't mean to hit Alfonso Soriano in the face/hand during the second game of the Braves - Cubs series. Although, after getting the full-on broom treatment in Chicago and McCann getting beaned as well, it would not be surprising to hear them change their tone a little bit.

'Obviously we weren't trying to hit Soriano,' McCann said. 'But if they felt like they needed to get back, then we're even now and it's over.'

Bennett was shockingly confident too (basically saying he had Soriano K-balled).

'That's the last thing I wanted to do with a guy on second and with two strikes,' Bennett said. 'I mean, you've got him struck out. He always stands over the plate and dives over it a little bit. If you look over his [scouting report], he'll swing at that high fastball. That's what I wanted to do. It didn't work out that way.'

What he fails to mention is that he was all over the place all evening; as long as you can classify "all evening" as "hanging around long enough to cough up seven runs in two innings". In other words, it's hard to even remotely classify this as intentional.

The interesting thing is that it feels like the Braves and Cubs are developing a little bit of bad blood (I don't want to use rivalry, lest the in-House Blue Bleeders point out the one-sidedness of it) between the two teams. Or perhaps a tough fought sweep combined with 100 years of frustration are just blending together.

When the news that Albert Pujols might be out until the All-Star break hit yesterday, I wrote up a post insinuating that the Cardinals were probably going to be pretty screwed without their slugger. With the news that Alfonso Soriano is out for six weeks coming later last night, the same post is coming about the Cubs, right? Wrong.

Sure, Soriano's killing the ball and the Cubs will miss him. Still, the fact is that every single Cubs regular has an OPS+ of over 100 except Reed Johnson and everyone else except for Ryan Theriot is at 115 or better. There are still plenty of Cubs in the lineup to hit and score runs without Soriano there. in fact, Soriano's really only been the fourth best hitter on the team in terms of OPS+ this year, behind Aramis Ramirez, Geovany Soto, and Mark DeRosa.

In fact, the Soriano injury comes at the perfect time for the Cubs because of Pujols' injury. Taking Pujols out of the Cardinals lineup leaves them with Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus, Rick Ankiel, and that's about it. So while it seems like this is just the type of thing that happens to the Cubs whenever they get close to having a serious contender, this injury really isn't a big deal for them at all. I'll be shocked if they're not still in first place when Soriano comes back in late July or August.

On his second at-bat of the game tonight, Alfonso Soriano was beaned on the left wrist. ESPN just reported that he has a mildly displaced fracture of the fourth metacarpal. Translation: broken hand. He's reportedly out six weeks.

This is a blow to the Cubs, but hardly devastating. He's a stud and has been hitting as well as anyone in the everyday lineup, but the team is loaded with capable hitters and he's a defensive liability. They dealt without him for two weeks earlier in the season and played quite well, going 9-5.

For the Cubs, several guys will benefit playing-time wise. The options are plentiful thanks for the versatility of the bench and Mark DeRosa. Mike Fontenot or Ronny Cedeno can play second base while DeRosa shifts to LF. Micah Hoffpauir -- sure to get the call from triple-A -- will get some looks in LF as well. Finally, should Lou Pinella decide to stray from his CF platoon, Reed Johnson can play left while Jim Edmonds stays in center. There won't be an everyday lineup. Musical chairs is more like it.

According to Ken Burns' classic documentary "Baseball," a sportswriter once wrote of Ty Cobb, "He would climb a mountain to punch an echo." It's an excellent piece of sentiment, but I kind of wish it had been saved to describe Cubs manager Lou Piniella.

Piniella's mug and gut managed to find their way to Google Maps via its Street Level feature. The shot catches him crossing Wrigleyville's Clark Street, presumably to punch an echo. Oh man. He's going to be so mad. Oh man.

Today's Dugout is after the jump.

The "news" (read: rumor/speculation) that Evan Longoria could land some time at shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays got us Fantasy FanHouse people kind of excited. Nerdy? Perhaps. But it would still be freaking sweet. Especially when you consider how frustrating it is to see some of the game's best hitters underused at a certain position (sure it doesn't matter to real baseball, but whatever).

1. Alex Rodriguez, (3B to SS) -- Sadly, this is just logical and the Yankees should have done it when he came over and was a better offensive and defensive shortstop than Derek Jeter. Unfortunately, he just didn't possess the intangibles that Captain November True Yankee did, and we're left to wonder what might have been.

2. Alfonso Soriano, (OF to 2B) -- Sweet Lou actually played him at second once this year (right after I traded him), which was spicy, but the days of Fonsy challenging Chase Utley for top two bagger are long gone. Which is a shame, because it's not like a) he's great in the outfield or b) the Cubs can't just swap he and Mark DeRosa. Either way, Matt Murton gets jobbed. Good times!

3. Albert Pujols, (1B to 3B) -- Although he wouldn't surpass our fictional A-Rod (see above), he would be a stone cold lock at second overall if he played third base, as he has in the past. The defensive needs of the position would probably take more of a toll on his offense, so Pooey is probably better at first, but since we don't care about defense, it's nice to dream.