I think most of us felt this Cubs team WAS built for a short series, with (supposedly) dominating starters and a solid bullpen.

If they can trade this attitude away, I’d be all for that.

kind of ironic coming from the guy with 2 trips to the DL this year.

It’d be interesting to read.

What he doesn’t understand about his comments, which have a real shred of truth, is that the reason he’s not built for a short series is because in a short series, you face #1 and #2 starters. Soriano makes his money hitting 3-5 starters and crappy middle relievers. This is why his career playoff stats (and frankly Aramis’s playoff stats) suck.

intestinal fortitude.

ok i just wanted to say “intestinal fortitude.”

(GUTS)

i think it’s a team wide thing. unless you have mikey lowell or someone of that gangsteresque win on one-leg caliber.

It just seems that Soriano has that belief that for a team to win in the playoffs, they have to have a Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) style of player to step up and carry the team upon their shoulders. I like Soriano, but that is a shallow view of Major League Baseball. I still don’t think the Cubs needed anything in the playoffs, but to remember their how they played their style of baseball. It all came down to their lack of self-confidence and patience, but they needed both to play their style of baseball… which is to take pitches, walk, get people on base, etc…

That style totally contradicts the Mr. October style, home run, home run, etc…

I think it just boils down that they forget who they are. What they needed was somebody who could kick them in the pants and remind them who they were.

Or course, having a Reggie Jackson style of player wouldn’t have hurt either… but they didn’t need it.

With the Cubs, Sori is 3 for 28, with 1 walk and 8 K’s. During the season, you can have the guess-hitting hack up at the leadoff position because he will hit some dingers and with our current club, we had enough boppers and hitters to compensate. Out 7-8-9 guys did a hell of a job.

One stat that blew me away was that Sori and ZERO triples this year. NONE! Even Z had at least one. Yes, he did have some leg issues, but my Lord, give me a break. If we get to the playoffs next year, you HAVE to leave him off the postseason roster.

He is the one not built for October.

platoon big z and derosa in right and let fontenot play 2nd. except when z is pitching then derosa and 2nd and fontenot in right.

fontenot and z both batting 500 in postseason.

oh yeah!

The Cubs were built to win, period. I don’t care if it’s over a 162 game season, a postseason, whatever. They go into Milwaukee for a crucial 4 game series, they face C.C. and Sheets, and they sweep. Wasn’t that a short series against Aces? The players just buckled under the pressure, especially Sori.

Link

Soriano is taking a lot of heat and, obviously, the comments he made justify some of it. Also, people like to point to his post-season numbers and recent performance as evidence that he does not possess the mystical qualities of a “clutch player”.

I too have looked at his post-season performance and, on balance, it’s pretty bad. He’s put up a .213/.263/.299 line. But rather than just leaving it at that, I also looked at the game logs and I noticed something very odd…

…he has come through in some huge situations. He had a walk-off homer in Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS, which gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead in that series. In that year’s World Series, he again had a walk-off hit, in Game 5, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead. After that, he hit the go-ahead homer in Game 7, on the road, in the 8th inning, off Curt Schilling. Of course, the Yankees wound up losing that game but it was Fonzie that had put them in a position to win.

So what do those examples show us? Not much, IMO. He’s come through in the past and he’s also had some real ugly at-bats, as we well know. I just think we should hesitate before completely dismissing a player based on six games or an ill-considered comment.