Over the past four seasons, no Cubs players have been talked
about more than Carlos Zambrano and Alfonso Soriano. For Zambrano the talk has
been about his antics and confrontations both on the diamond and in the dugout
with teammates and umpires, his bouts with anger issues, and oh yeah, his play
on the field. For good or bad, Zambrano has been the central figure around
which the Cubs media has circled.

Almost just as much talk has been focused on Alfonso
Soriano. His play, his defense, his contract, his spot in the batting order;
all of it has led to continual chatter.  And during this time Soriano has seen his
popularity with Cubs fans steadily decline. The question is, has all the
negative energy directed at Soriano been warranted?

Let’s look at some numbers.

Over the past four seasons Soriano has averaged just over 26
HR’s (106) and 13 SB’s (52).  To put
those numbers in perspective, his HR total is tops on the team for this period
of time by 13 and he is second in SB’s to the now departed Ryan Theriot.

Looking at it further, he is 11^th in the National
League in HR’s since joining the Cubs. Now certainly HR’s aren’t all that make
a good ball player, far from it, but being able to drive the ball over the wall
and into the seats can make up for other deficiencies.

Defense has not been Soriano’s specialty. He clearly has
issues with balls hit deep over his head near the wall. We’ve seen Reed Johnson
and Aaron Rowand give up their bodies to make a play, but Soriano is not going
to run into a wall, brick or otherwise, to make a catch. But let’s at least
give some credit when due, Soriano has 42 outfield assists during his time with
the Cubs.

When you look outside the overall numbers, the two biggest
issues have been his place in the batting order and his contract. When Soriano
came to the Cubs, he was a leadoff man. And that’s where he wanted to stay.  In ’07 he batted from the leadoff spot in 125
of his 134 starts. He put up solid numbers that year with 33 HR’s and 19 SB’s.
The next season (2008) he also predominantly batted leadoff, but that year he
hurt his hamstring muscle and only played 109 games.

In the late fall of ’08, Lou Piniella suggested that Soriano
move down in the order for the 2009 season,  his running game was basically gone after the
leg problems and his OBP was not what you should expect from a leadoff guy.  The ‘suggestion’ didn’t really go over to well
and Alfonso started Opening Day in the leadoff spot. He played 70 games in the
1 hole with just a horrible .295 OBP before Lou finally made the switch and
moved Soriano down in the order. Last year Soriano never hit leadoff and spent
most of the season batting sixth.

The entire “leadoff” issue created a lot of conversation
about Soriano from the end of the ’08 season until Lou finally removed him from
that spot late in the summer of ’09. Nearly 12 months of should he/shouldn’t he
be leadoff. During this time most of the blame fell on Soriano. He wanted to
bat leadoff, he didn’t want to move, and he was being the obstacle. But he was
not the one making out the lineup card, Lou Piniella was. I really put the blame
on Lou. For over a year he kept suggesting that Soriano should move down in the
order, as if Alfonso was just going to walk into his office and say “bat me
sixth today coach”. Piniella was the manager; he is the guy that makes out the
lineup card. If he wanted Soriano to bat sixth, all he had to do was right it
down. When Lou finally did move Soriano down, he was very defensive to
questions about the change, in the end he basically just said that I’m the
manager and this is what I think is best. Unfortunately, he was 6 months to
late with his decision.

The last issue is the biggest issue, Soriano’s contract. Over
the past 4 years the Cubs have paid Soriano a reported $60M. Over the next four
seasons, including 2011, they still owe Soriano $72M. Last season Soriano was
the 3^rd highest paid player in the National League.

Let’s face it, most Cub fans do not believe that Soriano has
lived up to his contract. And that’s the biggest problem. When Soriano signed
an 8 year/$132M deal, he was coming off a 46HR/41SB season in Washington. That’s
what we wanted here, that’s what we thought we paid for, and we haven’t gotten
it. And now most fans will always look at Soriano through the prism of his
contract and what he did before he was a Cub and not what he’s done since he
became a Cub.

But if you could magically wipe his contract from your mind,
Soriano has probably been the Cubs best player over the past four seasons, at
least in total. From what I’ve read and the numbers I’ve seen this spring,
Soriano is supposedly in better shape than he has been in two years and he’s
hitting the ball all over the field.

I for one am still a fan of Soriano, and I am expecting him
to have another good season.