christ’s SAKE.

Baseball is a mental game. Screw with the routine, and you could kill a streak.

WHO CARES why Soriano hits first. We won NINETY SEVEN FREAKIN’ GAMES last year with him in the leadoff position!

But, never mind. You’re right. The guy who took a 94mph fastball to the back of the head, then got up, shook it off, made several good plays in the outfield, hit a double, a single, stole a base, and scored, HE’S A FRAKKIN’ BABY.

ARGH.

but he does hit better as the one hitter cuz it is where he wants to be so we just need to not mess wit him

3 posts. I’m not surprised by substance of this post.

1) drewishdrewid is right. It really doesn’t matter if Soriano hit’s first or third, the Cubs will still score about the same amount of runs.

2) I really don’t think that he is being a “baby” because he prefers to hit first. It may be a tangible thing (maybe he sees a higher percentage of fastballs in the 1 hole) or it could just be some weird mental thing, but I really doubt that he is saying “put me first or I will hit like crap”.

3) There is really no evidence that he would hit any worse in a different spot in the lineup. His numbers have been worse when he has not hit leadoff, however, the majority of his plate appearances have come while hitting leadoff. If he had an infinite number of at bats in the third hole, I guarantee that his numbers would be almost exactly the same as they would be in the leadoff spot.

THIS POST SUCKS

I’m partial to Coke, A&W Cream Soda, and Dr. Pepper.

and the Cubs won today. A bit of a surprise since a loss usually brings out the worst ones.

When he leads off an inning, or hits with nobody on base: pitchers challenge him more with the fastball. He’s a “guess hack fastball hitter,” as some would say on this site.

When he’s hitting with runners on base: pitchers start “pitching” to him, and make him look foolish.

what else do you want?

He hits there better than anywhere else in the lineup.
 This is old, Lou and Sean leave it alone.

I’m not going to re-look up the stats, but here’s what I remember finding when BCB had this monster debate about this a year or so ago (and probably before that, too).

Soriano, for whatever reason, does not hit well with runners in scoring position. So, it’s not directly a problem with where he hits in the order, it’s a problem with how he hits when people are on base. Soriano hits worse when he hits down in the order, because there are more people on base when he hits down in the order.

That means that all the times you hear, “His solo HRs are killing us” it’s just wrong. Better to have solo HRs than bases loaded Ks. I hope I’ve remembered this right, statistically speaking. I’m sure if I’m wrong, someone will correct me soon enough.

Speaking of which, Sean, a word to the wise, since you seem new – sometimes the debates that have been had the most often on BCB are the most tiring to bring up and can elicit rather negative responses. If you’re new to the community, you may not know which subjects have been debated to death. Oftentimes BCBers will give newbies a break on that. I think your fanpost drew even more negativity because you concluded Sori is whiny, which we don’t really have any firsthand evidence to backup.

I’m really not sure how Soriano got this reputation for whininess, because there’s really no accounts of him doing anything other than doing what his managers tell him to do. I think it goes back to his days with the Nats when he wasn’t particularly excited to move off of 2B and resisted the move for a day or two. If you think about it from his perspective, it’s very understandable. He was just about to hit free agency and being a 2B would open a lot more doors for him than being a LF. He was being asked to move off of 2B to accomodate a guy (Jose Vidro) who ended up a DH not long after, a guy whose 2B defense was just as poor, if not poorer than Soriano’s. Sori had no control over the trade that brought him to the Nats and was not exactly welcomed very well, especially not compared to TX, where Michael Young offered to move off of 2B for Soriano. I doubt very many of us would take that situation well right off the bat.

that forever were the Cubs looking for a good leadoff hitter, and then when they get one, they want to move him down when the guys who do hit 3, 4, 5, don’t produce. Fix the so called power hitting RBI men, and leave Sori alone.

Please back this statement up. Cite even one example of Soriano being “whiny” about hitting leadoff, or really saying anything other than “I don’t care where I bat.”