Good game for opening day, solid play all around. the game pretty much demonstrates the Cubs are just a much better team than the Brewers, who really have only Braun and Fielder as first-rate players. If Doug Davis is an upgrade to their pitching staff, they are in serious trouble.
It was disappointing to see several Cubs booed in the introductions. This is bush-league stuff, but the fans here have changed a lot since I was a kid. Granted that the team is now expected to contend, but at least the boos in the past were reserved for times when a player really messed up, not the pre-game. I've certainly been critical of Soriano and Grabow, but come on, booing a rookie pitcher like Caridad?
On the subject of Soriano, I saw a couple of interesting pieces, one by Rick Miller, traces the history of the Soriano signing and his career here, along with some options. Miller's thesis is the Cubs signed him to put themselves on the map as big-money players and bump up the value of the franchise when it came on the market. More of a marketing ploy than a baseball decision, and I have to agree. Maybe that's why McCullough is working for the Black Hawks now. Somebody had to take the fall, though it should have been Hendry. I remember seeing all those billboards and stuff with Soriano's face plastered all over the place and wondering, this guy is the savior of the franchise?
They do not have many options with Soriano. Ultimately, they are going to have to try to peddle him off to the AL and eat a lot of salary. He is a real albatross if he doesn't start hitting, and that is a distinct possibility. After all, he is 34 now, has had some injuries, seems to be impossible to coach, and his bat is definitely slowing down. Carrying him another four years just completely screws up any planning you can do, so sooner or later somebody is going to have to bite the bullet.
On a more amusing note, it appears that Piniella has finally discovered what an awful outfielder Soriano really is and intends to work with him and also replace him defensively in the late innings of close games. This spectacular lack of observation is pretty astonishing, although when you factor in the idea that Soriano was a savior and Lou is in the final year of his contract, maybe not that surprising at all.
Discovering the weaknesses of players who get substantial undeserved contracts is often difficult for management to accomplish. It took 2 1/2 years to determine that Soriano never got on base and therefore was ill-suited to leading off. Now we find out that he is afraid of the wall, which is what he has been saying out loud for a while, but which most fans have observed in the past since he just stops running as soon as one foot hits the warning track. You can teach players how to play the warning track - and it is kind of weird that no one has worked with him on this before - but in Soriano's case, I just cannot see a lot of room for development in his disposition or attitude.
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