Oh man I'm surprised old Frank didn't fight him right there on the bench. The Nats are gonna give him one more chance to play OF today and if he doesn't they are going to ask MLB for permission to put him on the DQ List.

I hope they do. That way he doesn't get paid AND he doesn't get the service time neccessary for free agency..

3/21/2006 9:18:49 AM

you are just being a greedy homer, you know the bum ass mets are not better than the nats so you hope they lose a vital piece of their team

3/21/2006 10:06:36 AM

Soriano is definitely being a dick, but Washington is just as much at fault here.

I really don't get it. How do you not ask to be sure he's OK with playing outfield before you try to trade for him?

I bet the Yankees knew A-Rod was OK with third before they got him. I bet LA knew Nomar was OK with first before they got him.

Unbelievable.

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 10:14 AM. Reason : here]

3/21/2006 10:13:55 AM

If baseball were the NFL and Soriano was good this would be the TO situation all over again...but instead Baseball sucks and Soriano sucks

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 10:14 AM. Reason : f]

3/21/2006 10:13:57 AM

^^ Texas didn't give Bowdoin (sp?) permission to talk to him. I agree he needs to share the blame but Soriano is paid to PLAY baseball, not to play 2B. Personally I think Sori was going to be horrible this year anyway in that park. He K's too much, he plays HORRIBLE defense (and that IF is one of the worst), and power is his only asset and RFK is huge.

^^^ weak troll. nothing to see. move along..

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 10:20 AM. Reason : f]

3/21/2006 10:20:16 AM

Oh I agree with you. But all it would have taken was for the Nats GM to say, "Hey Alphonso, we want to trade for you, but you're going to play OF. How's that sound?"

All this could have been avoided and neither would look like complete morons.

3/21/2006 10:27:15 AM

^^ so if Sori is going to struggle so mightily this season why would you personally want him DQ'ed as his bad defense and multiple Ks would ultimatly benefit your team?

3/21/2006 10:30:35 AM

I could care less if he plays well or shitty. My position has NOTHING to do with skill. I hope he is on the DQ list because he is a selfish prick..

The Nats are a nonentity in the NL East this year. It's a Phils, Mets, and Braves race...

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 10:34 AM. Reason : f]

3/21/2006 10:33:56 AM

I dont think its selfish for him to not want to play OF. He is probably taking this whole thing to far but I dont have a problem with him standing up for himself.

3/21/2006 10:40:00 AM

The Nat's are definitely at fault for this move.


Maybe the Nat's will come crashing down and move to NC.

3/21/2006 10:42:04 AM

They arent moving, they just got the deal done on their new stadium. Which should be the shit

3/21/2006 10:44:49 AM

^Damn, I forgot about that. I've tried pulling for the Nat's since I wanted a more local team to follow. (I've been an A's fan for years, but the reasons I became an A's fan aren't there anymore: Hudson, Tejada, Mulder, etc.)

Still an A's fan, just wish we'd get us a team here in NC.

3/21/2006 10:47:39 AM

^ just switch to the braves, they are close and they have Hudson

3/21/2006 10:51:15 AM

I agree with NyM410 on this argument. Soriano is a shitty defensive second baseman and should do what's best for the team and put his shitty glove in the outfield. One of his main assests is his speed and it will be more valuable to his defense in the OF than at 2B.

Also it has been written by about every baseball sports writer this preseason that Soriano is going to have a huge drop off in offensive production hitting in the Nats stadium this year. He is already a SO king and his BA has been dropping like a rock, plus his power came from hitting in Texas (25 hrs & 656 slug at home vs 11 hrs and 374 slug on the road). He is also now in a terrible lineup and won't have guys like Young and Texeira protecting his free swining, overrated ass.

3/21/2006 11:19:38 AM

I hope the nats dq him just because he's been totally unwilling to make the switch. he's acted like this from day one and it's fucking oooooooold.

3/21/2006 11:21:57 AM

If they DQ him to make a point its idiotic. What point are they making, that we dont care about winning? Its not like he agreed to play OF and then welched, he has never wanted it and they had to know. But somehow he is being selfish by not swtiching.

3/21/2006 11:28:10 AM

Quote :

"Soriano is a shitty defensive second baseman"

He's only a 4-time All-Star second baseman.

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 12:22 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2006 12:22:46 PM

And? ESPN said last night he has the worst fielding percentage at 2B for anyone with more then 650 starts there in the last FIFTY years...

Everyone knows the prereq for being an AS is simply offense..

3/21/2006 12:38:22 PM

^^ Man you are a dumbass. I clearly wrote shitty DEFENSIVE second baseman. His bat has always been strong for a 2B, but his defense is horrible. Being a 4 time all star just means he can hit well. Defense does not matter when it comes to all star selections otherwise Andruw Jones would be an AS every year.




[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 12:59 PM. Reason : as]

3/21/2006 12:54:47 PM

offense or legacy one

3/21/2006 12:55:01 PM

Quote :

"just switch to the braves, they are close and they have Hudson"

Baltimore and DC are easily 2 hrs closer than Atl.

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 1:14 PM. Reason : f]

3/21/2006 1:14:00 PM

close is not equal to closer, also living in MD i have a pretty good idea about how far DC and Baltimore are from raleigh. thanks tho

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 1:16 PM. Reason : no shit]

3/21/2006 1:15:20 PM

He has ALWAYS rebuffed being moved in the past, why on earth would he do it now?

If you don't want him at 2nd, don't trade for him.

He doesn't want to play for Washington anyway, so why should he have to play for a team he a doesn't like in a position he doesn't like?

Learing a new position could hurt his offense, & therefore his future earning power. Good for him, for standing up.


Piazza wouldn't switch from Catcher, until the end of his career, even though he is terrible on defense, so why should Soriano?

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 2:46 PM. Reason : ]

3/21/2006 2:43:59 PM

you could cut the irony with a knife.

3/21/2006 2:45:17 PM

He was originally an OF. He was slated to play in LF his first season until Chuck Knoblauch decided to lose complete control of his bodily functions. It isn't a 'new position' to him.

Piazza DID move to 1B. If the Mets offered him an ultimatum, which they never did, I'm certain he would have moved to 1B at that time.

Soriano should respect Frank Robinson and the organization and play. He is only hurting himself if he doesn't. Chances are he'll be DQL'ed and then traded to an AL team for next to nothing.

Quote :

"He doesn't want to play for Washington anyway, so why should he have to play for a team he a doesn't like in a position he doesn't like?"

Tough shit. Maybe if he didn't constantly dog it in Texas they would've preferred to keep him. He is a HORRIBLE defensive 2B and his manager HATED him there...

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 2:51 PM. Reason : f]

3/21/2006 2:50:21 PM

I'd never "switch" to pull for the Braves. I only considered the Nat's because they were somewhat new. I'm not a bandwagon fan. My reasons for being an A's fan are gone, but that doesn't change the fact they are still my favorite team....

3/21/2006 2:53:52 PM

Piazza didn't move to 1st until he was fucking 35. Can you tell me for certain, that it was never brought up before then?

3/21/2006 2:55:06 PM

No of course not. I can tell you for certain he was never written in at 1B and stayed in teh dugout while his 8 teammates took the field.. I don't see how Piazza has anythign to do with this though. If he (or any other player in the game) did something like this I'd have the same feelings, no matter if that person played for my favorite team or not..

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 2:57 PM. Reason : f]

3/21/2006 2:56:08 PM

Because they never bullied him into doing so.


It's the same thing with Piazza. Mike said he wasn't comfortable moving to 1st (as did Soriano), so they decided to let him stay at Catcher though. The only difference is the Mets discussed this with Mike professionally & didn't just say go do it.

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 3:02 PM. Reason : ]

3/21/2006 2:57:49 PM

That is besides the point. Soriano SUCKS at second base and they have a better option. Was it a stupid trade by Bowden? Yes. Does that mean that Soriano can moan and cray without punishment? Fuck no.

I hope he refuses to play and his DQL'ed. That way he STILL won't be a free agent next year and he won't get paid this year. One year in the OF isn't going to hurt his contract next year if he performs. He will likely be signed by an AL team anyway at 2B...

3/21/2006 3:01:02 PM

he isnt going to play the OF today because the nats dont have a game today. haha

I heard he had til the end of the week on cold pizza....


anyway, he is trying to force a trade to the mets, but it isnt working out. He should just go play LF and ask to be traded to a contender at the deadline if Wash. isnt in it. But I have a feeling he will not be traded...he will be DQL'd

3/21/2006 3:09:35 PM

An interesting read about Soriano from Buster Olney's blog:

Quote :

"You can already get a sense how the winds of sentiment are shifting in the Alfonso Soriano matter. Some folks are talking about him as if he's baseball version of Terrell Owens, and that is simply untrue. He is a good guy, easygoing, and in the seven years I've known him, I never heard him utter a negative word about anyone else. He's not going to start dumping on Jose Vidro, taking teammates down with him. Soriano's a tough and determined person. When he was a teenager, Soriano signed his first professional contract with a team in Japan, and upon arrival there, he found, much to his chagrin, that not a single member of the organization spoke Spanish extensively; one teammate exchanged a few rudimentary phrases with him. Soriano could only call home about once every two weeks, because of the cost, and the conversations lasted about 10 minutes, invariably making him more homesick, rather than easing his pain. I think back on myself at age 16 or 17, and try imagine going someplace halfway around the world where I have no family and no friends and no one to talk to, and I have no doubt I would have been on the first flight home. Soriano stayed, and forced himself to learn Japanese as quickly as possible. When he first came to the big leagues, he would greet some of the players from Japan with great enthusiasm -- Tomo Ohka, Ichiro Suzuki -- chatting in Japanese. He had a great spring training in 2001, and the Yankees, in an effort to find a place to play him, shifted him to left field. Soriano enthusiastically embraced the opportunity and played terrifically at the position, running down balls in the gap; he seemed like a total natural, as if he was the next Mickey Mantle, who had shifted from shortstop to the outfield, like Soriano was trying to do. After just a handful of games, Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch surrendered in his effort to conquer his throwing jitters, and he and Soriano flip-flopped positions, with Knoblauch moving to left field. Soriano is a poor second baseman; this is indisputable. He's made 105 errors since the start of the 2001 season, 46 more than any other second baseman during that period. He has little range on grounders to his left, and on balls hit to his right -- his backhand side -- he does not go at them cleanly. If he played second base once a week, a few times a month, it wouldn't be a big deal. But the toll on your pitching staff because of plays not made, day after day, is significant. But he came to enjoy second base, and every year, when there was another rumor that somebody wanted to shift him to the outfield, I'd ask him whether he was moving, and he'd shake his head no and say through a big smile that he wasn't moving. Talked to him about this in Minnesota last summer, before a Twins-Rangers game. It would have helped the situation markedly if the Nationals had talked to Soriano about the shift before penciling him into left field. The club is saying that they were not given permission to talk to Soriano, but back-channel talks go on all the time in baseball. They could have posed the question through a friend, or off the record through the agent, or through a mutual acquaintance. This apparently did not happen. "

3/22/2006 10:21:53 AM

He's going to play LF.

3/22/2006 1:08:29 PM