What Should You Do with Soriano?

August 7, 2007 @ 16:00:00

By Art Morath
Edited by Ryan Dodson

Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano was placed on the disabled list on Monday with a quadriceps injury after an MRI revealed a very small tear in his right quadriceps. Soriano pulled up lame running between second and third base in Sunday night's loss to the New York Mets, which was Tom Glavine's 300th win. He is expected to be out four to six weeks. 

For the season Soriano is hitting .297 with 18 home runs, 42 RBI, 74 runs and 18 stolen bases. In April he hit .270 with zero home runs, one RBI, nine runs and two stolen bases. Since then he has produced much better for fantasy owners, although his power numbers are way down from last year when he hit 46 home runs for the Washington Nationals.

It seemed likely that the Cubs would call up 22-year-old centerfielder Felix Pie, although Pie struggled in his two stints this season with the big league club after a positive start. In 48 games with the Cubs Pie has hit .216 with two home runs, 18 RBI and six stolen bases. Pie has not struggled in the minor leagues though. In 54 games with Triple-A Iowa, Pie is hitting .360 with nine home runs, 42 RBI and nine stolen bases.

Instead of calling up Pie, the Cubs called up 24-year-old infielder Eric Patterson. Patterson, the younger brother of Baltimore Orioles outfielder Corey Patterson, has played mostly second base at Triple-A Iowa this season. However, the last 10 games he been playing both corner positions in the outfield. Patterson had been batting leadoff at Triple-A, where he was hitting .299 with 14 home runs, 62 RBI and 16 stolen bases. The fact that he had been batting leadoff, Soriano's spot in the order, and playing left field, Soriano's position, made him a more favorable addition than Pie.

Patterson and outfielder Matt Murton are the two candidates most likely to start in place of Soriano. Murton is hitting .256 with one home run and 10 RBI in 57 games for the Cubs. Neither of them is a viable option to replace Soriano in fantasy lineups. 

One possible replacement is Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Chris B. Young, who has been on a hot streak since the All-Star break. The 23-year-old Young is hitting .240 with 19 home runs, 40 RBI and 17 stolen bases on the season. Other than batting average, his numbers are almost identical to Soriano's. Another Diamondback worth a look is 19-year-old phenom Justin Upton, who was recently called up from Double-A. Upton, the younger brother of Tampa Bay Devil Rays centerfielder B.J. Upton, was batting .309 with 13 home runs, 53 RBI and 10 stolen bases for Double-A Mobile.

Another possible replacement is New York Yankees outfielder Melky Cabrera. The 22-year-old Cabrera is hitting .298 with seven home runs, 49 RBI and nine stolen bases this season. Cabrera bats ninth, which is usually a bad sign for fantasy owners. However, because of the Yankees potent lineup, Cabrera can still produce out of that spot for owners. In his last 10 games Cabrera has two home runs and 13 RBI.

Soriano has too much value to release him. If you have a trade option, getting just about anything is probably beneficial. You could have Soriano's services for as much as a month or as little as two weeks. There's also a chance, depending on how the pennant race plays out, that Soriano misses the rest of the regular season.

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Art Morath
Art Morath has been a contributor to KFFL since 2007.

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