Expanded Soriano Commentary

A couple days ago I said we should not` dismiss Soriano as a future Padre. He isn't the prototypical San Diego (Moneyball) type guy, but he could flourish here. Ken Rosenthal posted an article today mentioning Soriano’s impending free agency. In discussing potential 2007 suitors for Soriano Ken mentions the following teams: Cubs, Orioles, Giants, White Sox, Red Sox, Angels, Cardinals, Astros, and Dodgers.

Here are four reasons why San Diego may be interested:

• He's a pull hitter. And as tough of a place as Petco is to hit, right-handed pull hitters actually do well.
• Secondly, with $20m+ coming off the book the Padres have money to spend.
• Third, while everyone expects SD to chase the hometown guy, Zito, the Padres lead the NL in runs allowed right now without a bunch of big name, big price tag pitchers, where the Padres need help, is in offense. And while Soriano doesn't take many walks, he does have 66 BB and has the 2nd highest VORP among LFers in all of baseball (Manny has 60.1 rating compared to Soriano's 53.2).
• Fourth, while SD has gone after a bunch of Red Sox' "idiot"-type good-clubhouse guys since Alderson's arrival, Bochy has a history of effectively managing guys with questionable clubhouse demeanors (Kevin Brown, Greg Vaugn, Nevin, Ricky Henderson, Klesko, etc.)...
  

Food for thought…