Corny, Wily, and Sory

Been a little bit since my last post, but we all know what's happened. Bronson "Hometown" Arroyo got shipped to that oldest of baseball towns with a last place team, Cincinnatti, for Dominican uruk-kai (see: Saruman, Orcs, Ricky Williams) Wily Mo Peña. Everybody was upset, we lost one of our boys, one of the 25, the rail-thin rockstar. As sad as it was to see someone I liked as much as Arroyo, I was also thrilled about the ability to turn a pitcher with base-jumping peripherals into a player with the potential for 40 home runs. At least Bronson had the class to not say he was 'disrespected' (cough, Johnny, cough).

After seeing last night's game against the Yankees, it really is true what they say. Wily's bat is a freaking CANNON. Every ball he hit last night looked like it was shot out of a gun. It could've just been my imagination, but with some plate discipline (which he looks to be aiming to gain), Peña could be hauling around some serious lumber in the Red Sox lineup.

On a completely non-Sox note, there has been a lot of discussion and controversy surrounding Alfonso Soriano these days. On Monday, Friend of the Hot Corner Frank Robinson penciled Fonsie's name in at left field, but when game time arrived he was sitting in the dugout doing his best Nomar impression. The Nats announced they would give Fonsie until Thursday to play the outfield, at which point they would file an official motion to place him on the disqualified list, depriving him of his money and his upcoming free agency. Fonsie played left on Wednesday, showing that he's not too proud to refuse a hefty paycheck. You could hear the sigh of relief flying out of DC from all the way up here.

Still, does Alfonso Soriano make the Nationals better? The prevalent opinion on talk radio is that it does, but really, I'm not sure. I'm so unsure that I spent 50 minutes on hold while waiting to call into XM's Baseball This Morning show to enlighten them, but eventually the bell to first period rang and I had to hang up. They're a fun bunch, but the best they seem to offer as far as insight is "Well, he sure does look good, and he's got a fastball that will surprise a lot of hitters. This could really be t he year he turns it around. His experience as a veteran makes him valuable" (speaking of Al Leiter before the WBC).

Here's the thing about Fonsie: he's been riding a sweet statistical slide for the last number of years, having peaked with the Yankees in 2002 (.300/.338/.525). He's known as being a power threat, which is a relative truth since he's been at second base most of his career, but now as a LF he's little more than average. We know he's the Error King at second, and his short stint in LF with New York (so short most don't remember it) was terrible. But that's ok, because he's a legit hitter isn't he.

No. He's not.

To the likelihood of Soriano hitting his wait in DC, look no further than his home/road splits from last year:

HOME: .315/.355/.656
AWAY: .224/.265/.374

Yikes. Even with a good-hitting lineup like Texas' Soriano was absolutely rank in his away appearance. And with him, K's are the name of the game (125 Ks vs 33 BBs in '05). Aside from some empty power and some stolen bases, Soriano is just going to continue to get worse. The Nationals can't provide him with protection of any sort beyond Nick Johnson, so you can bet he'll see a lot of breaking balls low and away. This whole fiasco, the questionable logic, all of it brings us back to a question I've asked several times before:

Why is Jim Bowden still allowed to be a general manager?