Soto’s Remarkable Season
The best offensive catcher in baseball this season with at least 200 plate appearances has been Geovany Soto, and it’s not particularly close. Soto has a .284/.399/.521 line with the Cubs this season – impressive for any player, but much more so at the catcher position. That line is good for a .395 wOBA, 15 points above Brian McCann,13 points better than the injury shortened season of Carlos Santana, and 20 points above Joe Mauer.
Soto has particularly excelled at taking walks and hitting for power. His 16.4% BB rate trails only Jim Thome and Jack Cust among players with 200 plate appearances, and his .236 ISO is in the top 30. His BABIP this year is a solid .320, 11 points above his career mark and 22 above the league average. The only area in which he hasn’t been great is in making contact, as he has struck out in 24.6% of at bats, about five percentage points more than average. That is slightly exaggerated, though, as his high amount of walks lowers his AB total – his K% in terms of plate appearances sits at 20.4%, three points above the league average.
Soto’s performances is worthy of praise and over the course of a full season, those could be MVP quality numbers. However, Soto has only appeared in 97 games this season, compiling 353 plate appearances and 3.4 WAR. Part of that has been injuries – recently, Soto has suffered a knee injury, and he had a DL stint in early August. However, a bigger part of that is simply former Cubs manager Lou Piniella‘s reliance on backup Koyie Hill and reluctance to hit Soto high in the lineup.
Unless they’re Jason Kendall, most catchers can’t play every day, and as Jason Kendall shows, they probably shouldn’t. However, sometimes, a players skills necessitate that he is in the lineup more often than others. Geovany Soto, despite his poor 2009, was still projected to post a wOBA in the .350s, an excellent mark for a catcher. His backup, Koyie Hill, is not good. Hill has a .254 career wOBA and was projected for a slightly more serviceable .290 mark. However, Hill has forgotten how to take a walk (3.8%) and as such, his wOBA is all the way down to .236. Despite the fact that Soto is clearly the superior player and didn’t miss any injury time until late July, Hill already has appeared in 65 games and compiled 186 plate appearances of -0.7 WAR baseball. This is inexplicable – Soto may have needed rest, but there should be limits to the amount of time a star-level player as Soto spends on the bench.
Even when Soto is in the lineup, he doesn’t get his full dosage of plate appearances. Soto has seen the cleanup slot twice, the fifth slot eight times, and the sixth slot twice. The other 78 times that Soto has started the game have seen him in the seventh or eighth slots. Soto’s profile suggests that he should be hitting 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Given that each slot sees about .11 more PAs per game than the one below it, Soto has missed out on anywhere between 30 and 50 plate appearances thanks to this relegation to the bottom of the lineup. With similar performance to his season to date in those PAs, that could be another half-win added to Soto’s line.
Geovany Soto has been incredibly productive for the Chicago Cubs this season, and if it weren’t for a number of factors keeping him out of the lineup, he could be having an MVP quality season. It’s hard to blame his injuries on Cubs management, but there is no excuse for Soto remaining in the 7th or 8th slot in the batting order or seeing Koyie Hill constantly spot starting.
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Geovany Soto is the Chicago Cubs 2010 season summed up in one player: Even when something’s going right, they still manage to find a way to screw it up.
Cubs benched him because his BA sucked in April, despite a .400 OBP and good ISO. I’m glad Lou “Micromanage” Pinella is gone
Its stupid, inexplicable mistakes like these that make me wish that we could have a robot manage baseball teams. Or, better yet, have Dave Cameron make the baseball decisions!
I remember Old Lou saying that he didnt like batting Soto high in the order because his clutch hitting is poor. It was something to the effect of ‘He walks too much with people on base, I want him to swing the bat”.
Looking into it:
BB% K% wOBA
2010 Low Leverage 17.1 % 24.7 % 172
2010 Medium Leverage 15.3 % 21.1 % 152
2010 High Leverage 17.1 % 36.4 % 2
SSS and all, but Lou gripe is backed up for the year. Fortunately for Soto, this information is not predictive and is no reason for him to be benched or for Lou to think that he would be this bad in the future. It really is a fascinating situation, as stupid as the benching was/is.
Whoops, used wRC+instead of wOBA.
wOBA 2010
2009 Low Leverage .435
2009 Medium Leverage .406
2009 High Leverage .181
wOBA 2009
2009 Low Leverage .319
2009 Medium Leverage .313
2009 High Leverage .268
wOBA 2008
2009 Low Leverage .400
2009 Medium Leverage .341
2009 High Leverage .366
Proof its a fluke of SSS, to the believers of stats (not TLR/Lou/JoeM)
Yeah, Soto’s real good. And the craziest part is, if you DON’T want a guy to walk with men on base, don’t but a guy with a stellar eye in the 8 hole. That’s the most likely place for a pitcher to walk you with men on. If you want him to swing put him in a position to see strikes when there are men on, not a place where pitchers are going to pitch around you. Lou’s logic is not only counter-intuitive but also completely asinine because he thought it made sense.
Add “self-reinforcing” alongside “counter-intuitive” and “asinine.” I guess the thinking goes something like “since Geo has had success batting low in the order, that success must be due to where he was batting in the lineup, not his skills. Therefore, we must continue to bat him low in the order.”
Brilliant. This is how you never win.
Soto was only hampered in 2009 because of serious injuries the cubs did not let heal which zapped his power and because of bad luck.
As I pontificated on my blog a year ago, in two part (so the gap between them may not have a transition)…
At the first and foremost level behind “the slump,” Geovany Soto’s 2009 season has been marred by a series of shoulder and oblique injuries. Injuries that, especially early on, the Cubs never let properly heal. After straining his shoulder in the beginning of the season, a look at Soto’s game log reveals that the Cubs only sat their backstop out for five games (pinch hitting him once in that span). Shoulder injuries, as anyone named B.J. Upton or this Orthopedic study will attest, can unequivocally disable a player’s performance level. I’m no Doctor, but from what I can gather, the shoulder muscles (specifically the supraspinatus muscle) are essential to arm elevation and stabilization of dynamic arm motion. Additionally, injuries and pain in the shoulder “may manifest throughout the body.” This is not to even mention the fact that hitting for power comes from the torque generated by the hips and from the oblique muscles.
So what does this all mean? It means you absolutely don’t rush someone with a shoulder strain (or an oblique injury) back to the lineup; you give them time to heal and recuperate, rather force them to play hurt and potentially aggravate minor injuries (for more information on aggravating minor injuries, check out what the Mets did to Johan Santana this season, despite an All-Star break evaluation that indicated Johan was pitching through persistent soreness). A look at Soto’s monthly splits from 2009 highlights the effect of injury on a player’s game — the .398 OPS in April and .731 OPS in May clearly indicate that Soto’s power stroke was greatly affected by the early season injury that was never allowed to properly heal. He looked healthy come June (.916) and early July (.841), until a oblique injury in the beginning of the second half sidelined him over a month and again affected his power stroke (.492 OPS). Soto’s been strong in the EXTREMELY tiny sample size of September PA’s he’s been given (1.214 OPS in 9 PA’s), but with the Cubs disasterously disappointing 2009 season almost over (11.5 games back of the Cardinals), the Cubs (and Geovany Soto) should focus more on resting their all-star backstop for next season rather than “breaking him out of his slump” — especially because Soto’s core skillset has improved each season in the majors, including this year.
Outside the power aspect, which I strongly account to mismanaged injury, Geovany Soto’s peripheral statistics have simultaneously improved and been the subject of poor luck this season. In 2007 and 2008, Soto has respective K rates of 25.9% and 24.5%. This season, Soto has continued to shave down the strikeouts, posting a 23.2 K%. Over this same time frame, Soto has increased his BB rate from 8.5% to 11.2% to a current rate of 13.4%. Soto has gone from a batter with a giant hole in his swing (0.36 BB/K in 2007) to a hitter with quality command of the strike zone (0.67 BB/K, 0.50 MLB avg). Soto has largely accomplished this step forward in his game by gradually cutting down on his hacks at pitches outside of the zone (22.3% O-Swing in 2007, 20.5% in 2008, 18.1% in 2009; MLB avg is around 25.1%). Soto has also increased his contact rate this season (77.6% in 2009, 74.7% in 2009).
The usually elite line drive rate is down a significant chunk (from 21% to 19.8%) compared to last season, but that may have a lot to do with his shoulder injury early in the season (it is difficult to drive the ball when you have lingering soreness and pain lifting the shoulder). This may account for some, but not all of the 86-point plummet in BABIP — the rest has been pure bad luck. Even at his depressed seasonal LD%, Soto’s quick XBABIP (LD%+.120) is somewhere around .315 or .320 — well below the .251 mark he’s posted on the season. The massively low BABIP (and consistent 1.9ish speed score over 2007-2009) screams for better days ahead. It’s not like smoking marijuana slows down your reflexes or anything, right?
Put this all together and you get the portrait of a productive player who has been hampered by injury and bad luck. Geovany Soto’s minor and major league numbers indicate that he has the legitimate power — even if his true maintainable ISO is only around .180 (Matt Kemp territory), well below the .200 career average mark, he’s still a 20+ HR hitter — and quality eye (13.4 BB% this season, 11.4% career average) to provide the Cubs lineup with the necessary offensive production required for success. 2009 may be a lost cause, but if the Cubs can keep Soto healthy going into 2010 and get some positive luck regression from Geovany Soto (in addition to Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley), the Cubs prospects for success in 2010 look pretty good. Not as good as they appeared going into this season, but Cubs fans should have some hope going into next season — especially if pre-wrist injury Derrek Lee is back for good. Let’s just hope the re-sign Rich Harden in the offseason.
Despite all of his failures last season, Geovany Soto improved his walk rate (13.1 BB%) and decreased his strikeout rate (23.3 K%). He swung at more pitches inside of the zone and less outside of the zone in 2009 compared to 2008. Soto also increased his contact rates on pitches both in and outside of the zone. These factors point to improvement and Soto’s 2009 seemingly would have been equally good, if not better, than his 2008 rookie season if not for injury and bad luck.
First, let’s look at the injury aspect. As previously noted, shoulder and oblique injuries are deadly. They limit movement and range, which limits strong contact and power. Beyond the dip in ISO, this is noticeable in Soto’s change in runs produced per 100 pitches for each and every pitch type between 2008 and 2009. Soto’s ability to drive fastballs decreased by almost a full run (also visible in Soto’s -2.9% change in LD% last season), while breaking pitches –most of which Soto had success with in 2008 — became almost “unhittable” (clearly Soto was making contact with him, as evidenced by the increase in contact percentage, but he was unable to drive the ball with sufficient authority due to his injuries, which the Cubs rushed Soto back from, that gave him limited mobility). With no WBC in 2010 and plenty of time to recuperate from a long and injured 2009, Soto should be back in full health next season and — assuming he retains his gains in K%, BB% and contact rates — he should be ready to return to form.
The second problem with Soto’s 2009 season was plain old poor luck. From a .337 BABIP in 2008 to a .251 BABIP in 2009, it is no surprise that Soto’s OPS fell by a whopping .166 points. Soto’s 2009 xBABIP (screenshot of the xBABIP calculator pictured right) was a significantly higher and more palpable .314. By adjusting Soto’s 2009 triple slash line by utilizing his .314 xBABIP (assuming all additional hits would have been singles), we find that Soto’s luck-neutral (but still injury affected) 2009 triple slash line would have been .269/.365/.432 (.797 OPS). Had Soto not been limited by injury, that .797 figure would have easily approached his .868 rookie season OPS (which was slightly inflated by good luck).
Assuming that his shoulder and obliques are healthy in 2010, there is much reason to expect big things from Geo Soto. Between a rebound by Soto, a full season by Aramis Ramirez and an expected rebound by Milton Bradley (if he is not traded) and Alfonso Soriano (he can’t been 2009 bad next year…can he?), there is no reason the Cubs cannot compete and win in 2010. In 2008, they had one of the league’s best offenses. The Cubs 2009 was marred by injury and bad luck to many core players. With their rebound and perhaps D-Lee’s return to form, the Cubs should be the NL central force to fear next year.
And just in case you are like Jim Hendry and not big on Milton Bradley, let me do a quick luck adjustment for his .257/.378/.397 (.775 OPS), as his .311 BABIP was lower than his .326 xBABIP. Assuming that Milton Bradley’s power outage (his 2009 ISO was .035 pts below his career ISO) continues, his 2009 luck neutral adjusted line (assuming all additional hits would be singles) would have been a much less ugly .270/.390/.410 (.800 OPS) line. That’s an .800 OPS hitting for power like Juan Pierre. Bradley normally doesn’t hit like Juan Pierre. Hate him all you want; that .390 OBP is valuable at the top of the order even without power.
MVP caliber? Gotta disagree there.
no, he’s dead on. A full 650+ PA season at this pace is 7-8 WAR. obviously no non-kendall catcher gets that many PA, but still
Lots of players are “on pace” to accomplish all kinds of things they’ll never accomplish.
“dumb question”
Can anyone explain why “K%” is a percentage of AB, not PA? I understand that you cannot strikeout in non-AB situations, but you also can’t hit a home run in non-AB situations. Given that K%, being a function of AB, is biased by BB%, it seems a poor measure of evaluation compared to K% as a percentage of PA. For example, comparing Geovany Soto and David Eckstein or Bengie Molina becomes an exercise in apples/oranges comparison because even though Soto does strikeout a bit, his denominator is depressed by a very good BB% (a function of PA). Meanwhile, guys who do not walk, keep the denominator high and depress their K%, as currently expressed (K/PA).
Does this make no sense to anyone besides me? The counter-intuitiveness here seems on par with WHIP including IBB but excluding HBP (viva mBB!)
With most of these different bases, it doesn’t really matter what one we pick because they all correlate really, really well. However…
I really wish the saber community would pick one basis and stick with it. It’s annoying that for BB (hitters) it’s per PA, K (hitters) it’s per AB, K (pitchers) it’s per three outs, etc. I’d like to know one stat, like “MLB plate appearances end in a strike out 17.7% of the time” that applies to everyone and then use the batter/pitchers personal rate for all analysis. (It’s very useful to keep them all on the same basis for log 5 analysis too.)
I personally think that having K% and BB% both be done based on PA as well, as I think it is a better indicator of how often a player Ks and BBs as well. Personally, I also like to have HBP counted as a walk in both WHIP and in BB/9 and therefore K/BB ratios. You aren’t the only one!
A good example probably is Barry Bonds, his K% per AB was 15.5% rounded but his K% per PA was 12.1%. Compare this to Miguel Tejada who has about a 12.9% K per AB but only drops to a 11.8% when done by PA, using AB per both is a disservice to those who walk a lot.
The repetitive presence of the above phrase was revealing. I don;t mean that to mean that it’s poor authorship. Far from it. Only that Soto’s “goodness” had to be repeatedly quantified by reduced parameters (Wow, that sounds dorky). In other words, we had to keep lowering the bar.
The point is made. Soto was productive good, actually) when he played. He didn’t play that much. So, his goodness really isn’t that significant in regards to what it tells us much about his future performance. It does allow us to retain the opinion that Soto will probably be the good offensive player we thought he could/will be. Health problems at the catcher position are very concerning, especially in his 3rd (?) season.
Tyler Colvin will soon learn what it feels like to be Geovany Soto. Hope Colvin is prepared to hit 40 HRs next year, and lead the team to impossible to reach expectations.
Daryl Ward says hi
Classic.
For the love of Rick Wilkins
Even before we look at Geo’s walk rate, I have to point out that he has a 24.7 – yes, twenty-four point seven – LD%. One of four balls he puts in play is a line drive, and that doesn’t take into account any foul line drives (a missing stat that bothers me to no end; if a guy drills a ball 450 feet, but just to the wrong side of the foul line, and then grounds out to short, we have no record of the blast that would have been were it not for a split second of bad timing). Back on topic, Soto’s taken more of those liners away from his GB rate than his FB rate, allowing him to maximize his potential as a hitter. He’s a slow-moving catcher – he’ll take his chances on a well-placed fly falling in the gap rather than a grounder to the hole.His HR/FB is over 19%.
Heck, at 41.6%, we might have to consider adding him to the (illusory concept of) Three True Outcomes leaderboard [ask Peter Moylan about the trueness of home runs and check Juan Francisco's game log against Carlos Zambrano in early April for the veracity of the strikeout].
Soto also doesn’t like to swing. He works the count and sees lots of pitches. Let’s look at his 3 full seasons:
2008 – 563 PA – 2243 pitches (3.98/PA) – 915 balls (39.8%) – 1328 strikes (59.2%)
2009 – 389 PA – 1508 pitches (3.88/PA) – 626 balls (41.5%) – 882 strikes (58.5%)
2010 – 353 PA – 1434 pitches (4.06/PA) – 628 balls (43.8%) – 806 strikes (56.2%)
Soto in 2010 has a Luis Castillo-ian 37.2 Swing%, chasing out of the zone less than 17% of the time and swinging at only 3 of every 5 balls in the strike zone. He has a modest 8.2% SwStr%, making contact with 50% O-zone and 85% Zone.
He has accrued 3.4 WAR despite playing in only 97 games and heading to the plate 353 times. This also fails to recognize the contribution of his pitching staff toward his negative defensive value. Outside of Carlos Zambrano, all of the Cubs pitchers, from rotation through Marmol, are incredibly easy to run on. Gorzelanny has a decent step-off move, but it really isn’t much of a threat. I believe there has been one (1) CS recorded by the Cubs with a reliever in the game: if it’s open season, the catcher can only do so much. Add in the additional wear and tear of catching a pitching staff where only four pitchers who’ve been on the roster have found the zone at or above 50% of the time, and we could actually be seeing a 5+ WAR year from Geo.
The lineup point is also well taken. It’s clear that Ramirez and Soto, when both are healthy, ought to be the team’s 3-4. Castro probably ought to lead off. DeWitt, Byrd and Soriano can fill 2-5-7, respectively. Fukudome/Colvin slots at 6, below Byrd because their streakiness is much more pronounced than Marlon’s. And the gaping hole at first currently filled by Nady would do fine in the 8 spot.
If the Cubs really don’t want to have Soto in the line up, I’m willing to bet the Red Sox will throw em a bone with those stats… ;) They seem to be fine with the strategy of: “They can’t walk us all…”
I realize as I re-read my comment that I made it seem like Soto had willed his statistical shifts. I definitely didn’t mean to imply that. But it is worth mentioning, now that I think about it, that Rudy Jaramillo’s whole thing is getting guys to hit line drives early in the count. Perhaps Soto (like Fontenot and a few others on the team) have benefited from his philosophy much as Byrd did while in Texas.
To the person who pointed out “With at least 200PA” it’s not as though Soto only has 205PA and is doing this. He will end the season with over 400PA, which is perfectly useful in terms of making a prediction about the future. Certainly his much higher number of PA’s in his years before should be weighed more heavily but it certainly isn’t like Soto has played 1/3 of a season either.
not a single mention of buster posey and his 3.1 WAR in just 86 games, his .376wOBA, or his 13% k rate?
Interesting note – according to the stats compiled on this site, posey has not hit a single pop up on the infield this year… pretty amazing
His clutch stat is the most remarkable stat of the season.
I wonder if there’s a way I can influence Hendry to make a Soto for Jeff Marquez deal? Garland for Matt Karchner happened so why not?
The Cardinals … interesting roster management has led me to a question which could also be asked about the Cubs, apparently: How many wins has the manager thrown away by suboptimal management of the pieces on hand? I’m not sure how to answer such a question in a comprehensive way, but it is something interesting to think about.
y = {[(Aaron Miles+Brendan Ryan)^(Pedro Feliz)] / [Geovany Soto-(Koyie Hill^3)]}*[(John Grabow+11*rookie pitcher + (Kyle Lohse/Jeff Suppan)]
I haven’t been able to adjust for Mike MacDougal, Allen Craig, Nick Stavinoha, Bob Howry, and the refusal to put Xavier Nady on the DL when everyone and their mother knew that he wouldn’t be healthy until July even back when they signed him. Maybe a statistician can help us solve the mind-boggling crap on the rosters of two teams that, on paper, should both be a bit closer to the median than they each respectively are.
If I never read the phrase, “…and it’s not particularly close” again it will be too soon. Not to single Jack out, but this is officially hoary cliche at this point.
And yes, Soto is excellent. Anecdotally he gives a good AB almost every time I see him, which is less than I’d like due to the injuries. It’s depressing that I’ve seen as much of Koyie Hill as I have with Soto as an option.
People act as though Soto never starts. He has started 74.2% of the games he has been on the roster. Thats a fine number to me. I don’t particularly want my starting catcher playing more than that anyhow.
Mauer only starts 84.2% of his games and he gets to DH.
Soto starts enough I do not want to see him starting more. A better backup maybe, but I don’t want my catcher starting more than 75 or so percent of the time, especially one who has been injured quite a bit the last two years.
Ridiculous comments.
Joe Mauer is soooooooooo much more a complete player/hitter than Soto or any other catcher in baseball.
I bet you’re a very religious guy. You have to be religious to be this stupid.
there is so much out-of-town stupid in this article and forum. it’s a true statement that you can’t fake a remarkably good OBP but there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the numbers here.
do you know where Soto hits in the lineup most days? 7th or 8th, which coincindentally, is always right before the pitcher spot. if you put Miguel Cabrera or Brian McCann or Joe Mauer in the 8th slot then a) the manager is a damn dummyhead and b) his OBP will also be above .400. i would even argue, it would be closer to .450.
so to say that Soto has been a better offensive catcher than mccann and mauer is a farce.
Is it now? Do you know how plate discipline works? Soto sees 47.7% of pitches in the zone, Mauer sees 47.4% and McCann sees 40.9% of pitches in the zone. That means they both see less strikes than Soto does, and Soto still walks way more.
Do you know why he does that? Because he doesn’t swing at pitches out of the zone, as the article pointed out, 16.5% OSwing% to Mauer’s 24.6% and McCann’s 29.9%.
Soto’s not faking anything. And this year he’s been a better offensive catcher than both of them. Going forward he and McCann are pretty close I would say and yes, Mauer is almost certainly the better offensive catcher. But this season Soto has been better, and the 8th spot, while it should in theory improve his walks, he’s still seeing more strikes than either of them and still manages to walk more than either of them.
Mauer is not even close to better. It’s like Sean Casey vs Pujols.
Soto is, and will continue to be the best C in the game.
3-5 years from now, it will be comical that Mauer was even compared to Soto, who will be widely considered vastly superior.
It seems amazing to me that catchers as batters could have poor plate discipline.
I mean, geez, if they can’t read the pitches, who can? *grin*
Lol, Soto is my favorite player and even I think that’s crazy.
Buster Posey has been better. How the hell can you not mention him in this? Ridiculous.
No he hasn’t.
.375wOBA for Posey .395 for Soto.
i see what you are saying and i disagree with you, doog. while having a good batting eye and walking (or getting on base in any capacity) certainly adds chances to your team scoring more runs it does not equate to being a better offensive player.
i do like your argument about not swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone. however, how do you account for mauer striking out 11% of his ABs vs. Soto, who strikes out in almost 25% of his ABs? perhaps that, despite swinging at more bad pitches, Mauer is a better contact hitter. and because of making contact he helps his team by just putting the ball into play (is there a simple way to see how many times a hitter reaches by fielder error?).
i was always bad at geometric proofs and i know that i tend to sometimes lean on anecdotal evidence to make my points but it gives me a headache to hear arguments that Soto is better offense than Mauer. Soto has a better OPS which leads to a better SLG but its hard to make the point when they are different players to their respective teams (stadiums come into play, too). Mauer is a fixture in the heart of the Twins lineup. While not his fault, Soto is easier to overlook at the bottom of the Cubs lineup. I’d like to see what kind of player Geo is in a situation as a 4 or 5 hitter.
This season Soto has been a better hitter than Mauer. As I said earlier, yes, Mauer is almost surely the better catcher going forward, but this season Soto has been the best offensive catcher in baseball.
Sure, it sucks that Soto is hitting low in the lineup and yes, Mauer is hitting higher up in the lineup, but that wasn’t even my point, my point was just that Soto has an absolutely fantastic eye, by any standard no matter how you look at it, it’s better than Mauer’s, it’s better than McCann’s.
Bah, sorry, accidentally hit reply. I wasn’t done, so to continue:
He strikes out more because he doesn’t have NEARLY the contact ability that Mauer does AND because he gets caught looking at borderline pitches a good bit. Mauer’s contact rate is tremendous, I think it’s something like 89% to Soto’s 77%.
As to reaching on an error:
Soto: 5
Mauer: 2
ROE is extremely random in baseball. And yes, Mauer is absolutely indisputably a better contact hitter and as I said, almost surely the better hitter on the whole, but this season so far, Soto has been better.
And just to reiterate: I was not saying Soto > Mauer because of the walks. What I was saying was that Soto has a far superior eye to Mauer and that his walks are absolutely not a product of him hitting 8th but a product of the fact that his eye is amazing.
went to the cards/cubs game last night. soto went 3-3 with a walk.
he would….
Regarding the comment, “Soto was only hampered in 2009 because of serious injuries the cubs did not let heal which zapped his power and because of bad luck.”
Soto came to the 2009 season overweight and out of shape. Plus, he missed part of spring training playing in the World Baseball Classic. He made up for this in 2010 by getting in shape in the offseason, and he’s had a great year. Hopefully that is a lesson learned for each year going forward.