Man, oh boy!!
I wanted to come home from work and add to this thread so badly that "a body smell is coming out of me", lol. It will be a long post so if you don't want to read a long post, STOP READING JUST ABOUT NOW!:
Why is it that SOME og you guys think that Soriano can just be put at any position?. He is not a factory worker. This is a man making million of dollars and whose's only fault is HIS employers NOT doing their jobs when they signed him.
As sportwriter, Michael Morrissey, from the New York Post said: " According to published reports, the Nationals requested to speak with Soriano over the winter before consummating a trade with Texas, in order to discuss a potential position switch. The Rangers, who owned Soriano's rights at that time, refused the request. The Nationals pulled the trigger anyways. The fact that the team traded for him knowing it was an issue is helpful to Soriano. They knew there was a risk, they took that risk. They may have the right to pay the player and have him sit on the bench, but to not pay him?, that's a real legal issue".
Let me make something very clear, When a player is signed, the contract does not say: "we are signing this player to play any position we see fit". We are not dealing with 2 pesos here. We are talking about million of dollars. Player, nowadays, have agents, lawyers and a whole bunch of other people that are looking over every single letter on their contract.
When I used to play 2nd base in Junior High, the application that I signed said "2nd baseman". When I played 2nd base in High School, the application that I signed said "2nd baseman". When I played 2nd base in College, the application that I signed said "2nd baseman. When I played in about 15 different leagues, after school or in the summer, when I signed the appication, THEY ALL SAID "2ND BASEMAN". Trust me, if I was making no money at all and they all specified a position, imagine when we are dealing with million of dollars and a whole bunch of people reading and making you understand your contract. Let the Socks try and make Manny Ramirez a 1st baseman. Let's see how happy he will be!. Crap, once they needed my bat (hits) and they tried to put me to play catcher and I told them, point blank: "kiss my axx, you "singned" me to play 2nd, not catcher".
Unless you have been in his same position, your "views" really means nothing. As I said before, to make a change from the infield to the outfield is not as easy as it seems. Just ask former Yankees player, Chuck Knoblauch. From personal experience, when I was forced to play the outfield, not only did I "smelled", I was so unhappy that my numbers began to suffer. I love baseball and playing in a position that I knew nothing about and that I "smelled", used to take all the fun out of me.
toneloc24, you are more than right, unless someone knows something we don't know, when the Yankees traded Soriano, it was because they wanted Rodriguez.
carlos, one of the reasons why I hate to "debate" baseball with Cleef is because he is not objective when it comes to players that he does not like. I believe that when one is having a discussions about certain players, one needs to be objective at all levels, even if you don't care for the player. Can you imagine if I say/write "the alcoholic and cocaine addict and now guess instructor for the Mets, Darryl Strawberry" every single time I say something about Strawberry?. . Give me a break!.
I hope to God that Soriano sticks to his guns but it's well known that not only he is fighting management, he is also fighting the media and the fans and when you put those 3 together, ganging up on you, you will see things their ways. Let's not forget that management, the media and the fans are way bigger than ANY baseball player. Plain and simple!.
I just hope that management have a plan B just in case he stinks in the outfield. That would be interesting!!.
