Cu-hubs, Soriano, 8 years, $136 mil...wow

[Providence A's]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2668465

Wow

[General]

Yuck.

[Dry1313]

Dayum.

17 mil per? Thats a ton of money...

[CincyRedsFan30]

And the Reds don't go after the real talent.

How surprising.

Castellini REALLY wants to win. It doesn't matter we now need offense though.

[McKain]

One more year than Beltran got, and Soriano is a worse hitter, a worse fielder, and three years older.

Hopefully they put him at second or center instead of dumping Murton like I know they want to.

[GiantsFanatic]

Soriano is a career 280 hitter, and Beltran is a career 281 hitter.

In 06 Beltran hit 275, Soriano hit 277.

IMO both of these players are overpaid.

[Halladay_is_God]

wow thats horrible but expected

[McKain]

Chicago Tribune reports Soriano will play center and bat leadoff.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune....home-headlines

Good move on the centerfield thing, the leadoff thing should work out pretty well.

[Kingdom]

Hypothetically, he'll be "38" when the deal ends? Or "39" ? ..

[rockin500]

i think im going to be sick. while the signing shows they are serious about winning "now" this contract is going to be harsh in the somewhat near future.

[Molina00]

I don't know about Soriano batting leadoff. He had a career high in OBP last year but still, I wouldn't think you would want a guy who strikes out 160 times a year batting leadoff, regardless of his speed.

I can definately understand $17 mil a year since he had a 40-40 season last year, but 8 years is just horrible for someone his age. Something like a 5 year deal would have made a lot more sense for the Cubs. Great contract for Soriano though. Not many guys who can no longer produce (late 30's) make $17 mil a year.

[McKain]

Soriano had such immense success batting leadoff for the Nationals, that I think it makes sense for the Cubs to do it, particularly when they have no one else capable of doing it.

He showed incredible strides in his eye last year, plus, since he'll likely be batting ahead of a hitter who is much weaker than him in Mark DeRosa (or Royce Clayton or whoever the hell the Nats put behind him), he'll automatically be pitched to a little more carefully.

Some numbers from 2006:
Soriano batting leadoff:
AVG - .294
OBP - .368
SLG - .588
39 HRs, 38 SBs.

I think those numbers are just too enticing for a manager to go "Well, let's bat him between Lee and Ramirez" when they have no other player who could leadoff.

[rockin500]

certainly much better numbers than pierre in our leadoff spot, that much is for sure!

[McKain]

Yeah, that's true, too. No matter how bad Soriano's eye may be, he'll be better than Pierre and his 30 walks in 700+ PAs.

[redsfan28]

This deal is along the lines of the A-Rod deal with Texas in terms of its ridiculousness.