"I don't want to change," Soriano said Monday night at a dinner held for major-league players by Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez. "If I haven't done it before, I won't do it now."One sort of desperate, Dunkirkesque defense of the Soriano/Wilkerson trade was to point out the public relations value of the move. It got people talking, the argument went, and that's important! Just look at how happy Tom Boswell is!
Soriano said he had a greater comfort level in the AL, and he plans to become a free agent after next season and sign with an AL team.
Obviously, a bad trade doesn't become a good one based on PR value. Yeah, Boswell batted his eyelashes at Bowden again, but he's not hard to impress. Anyone with a W on his cap is an "all-star" or "100-RBI man" or "promising rookie." Of course, the moment a former Nat dons another hat, he's a sucker and Boz knew it all along. Beyond Boswell, it's not clear the Nats even got any good PR out of it. Soriano is proving why he hasn't been popular anywhere he's played: he's overpaid, selfish, and has already stated his desire to get out of here the moment he can. Consider that his numbers will almost certainly look bad in comparison to his production with the Rangers and that Frank Robinson will clash with him and will not be discrete about it, and Soriano's arrival could prove to be the best thing that ever happened to Cristian Guzman's self esteem.
The nice thing about Soriano's frequent and petulant pronouncements is that they give us more proof, if any was needed, of Bowden's incompetence. Soriano had already turned down at least two requests to move to the outfield: both the Yankees and Rangers asked him to. Bowden, without any plans to dump Jose Vidro off on someone, went ahead and acquired Soriano without talking to him, his agent, a family member, his priest, or anybody else about it. It wasn't a secret that Fonz wanted to stay at second, and a general manager who knew what he was doing would have done a little groundwork before pulling the trigger. Or, more likely, a general manager who knew what he was doing wouldn't have seriously considered the trade at all.
Here's another reaction to Will Carroll's disphittery. Warning: salty language, fucker!
3 comments:
Well, this might actually force me to go to Camden Yards for a game against somebody other than the Nats. It would be nice to show Wilk that Nat fans haven't forgotten him!
BTW, if Boswell is right, Fenty and the others are going to soon realize MLB has them over a barrel when it comes to arbitration.
I was actually hoping that Wilk would get moved to Toronto so we could see him next year. You don't what you got til it's gone. Joni Mitchell never lies.
wow, this deal looks worse and worse by the day. on a separate note, at least wilkerson won't be around to kill the phils game after game.
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