TSN's Deveney's Take on Roberts-Cubs

[skiba7]

To think that Chicago would lose 3 or 4 talented players or prospects and move DeRosa to a utility roll to bring in Roberts to do anything other than lead off just doesn't seem feasible to me.

Well, if a Roberts trade happens, you'll get to see for yourself.

[skiba7]

And yeah, I'd much rather have his 2007 numbers and low RBI totals than drop him down in the order and watch wall his numbers drop just for more RBI's. Call me crazy, but if I'm paying a guy 136 million, I'm going to want to use him where he performs best, regardless of how it affects the lineup. The performance of the players themselves is more important than the order they bat in. Also, don't act as if the fact that this numbers dropped when he was lower in the order was because he "didn't like texas". That sounds ridiculous to me, especially considering the park factors published in the 2 years he played there had that park ranked 2nd and 6th among best hitter's parks. If you take a look at his career numbers with runners on, and especially risp, you'll see that they drop dramatically. He's just not a clutch hitter. It's no surprise that he doesn't perform as well down in the order. Actually, it makes perfeect sense. All you have to do is watch a week's worth of Soriano's at bats and you'd realize that batting in the middle of the lineup is not the best place for him. I'm not saying I love him as a leadoff hitter, but like I said, if we've got him, we might as well use him where he performs best.

[Number5]

And yeah, I'd much rather have his 2007 numbers and low RBI totals than drop him down in the order and watch wall his numbers drop just for more RBI's. Call me crazy, but if I'm paying a guy 136 million, I'm going to want to use him where he performs best, regardless of how it affects the lineup. The performance of the players themselves is more important than the order they bat in. Also, don't act as if the fact that this numbers dropped when he was lower in the order was because he "didn't like texas". That sounds ridiculous to me, especially considering the park factors published in the 2 years he played there had that park ranked 2nd and 6th among best hitter's parks. If you take a look at his career numbers with runners on, and especially risp, you'll see that they drop dramatically. He's just not a clutch hitter. It's no surprise that he doesn't perform as well down in the order. Actually, it makes perfeect sense. All you have to do is watch a week's worth of Soriano's at bats and you'd realize that batting in the middle of the lineup is not the best place for him. I'm not saying I love him as a leadoff hitter, but like I said, if we've got him, we might as well use him where he performs best.

Skiba, I'm just saying that OPS is not necessarily the best way to judge where he is performing best in this case. I don't think that you or Rob or Dave can argue that it is certainly unusual for a player with Soriano's OBP and slugging percentage to be hitting first. I can't think of another one, can you? My point is that in an unusual circumstance such as this, applying your same measures of performance may not be the best ways to look at it. OPS is most often a telling stat, but for this case, given the unique circumstance, I would submit that runs produced may be more significant. He's not scoring runs and he's not driving them in, yet he's hitting the ball a ton. That tells me something.

[Mashed Potatoes]

I didn't read what Gordo wrote this way, but now that I go back and read it again using your take, I can see why it riled him up. I would take back this paragraph now that I've thought about it more. My apologies.

That's right you best apologize vatech, don't be bringing that weak ass stuff up in this humpty bumpty! You kill the joe, you make some mo! http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/5946/detail/

I wasn't advocating that they can't.

I wasn't saying that you were advocating that they can't.

Weaver obviously proves it can be done. I was just saying that his analogy missed the best case scenario - experience and study.

Touche salesman.