Soriano Surprise

I was combing through fantasy trade possibilities today, and noticed something interesting: Alfonso Soriano is probably better than I thought he was. Much grumbling surrounds his impatience at the plate. And while he did strike out a whole lot last year (160 fans, good for fourth in the league, Ryan Howard-MVP went down 181 times). So that's no surprise. But here's what caught my eye: Soriano walked 67 times.

For all of the talk about his wandering eye, that's a high figure indeed. Vernon Wells, who no one can seem to praise enough, only walked 54 times last year (90 K), with a minimally better OBP explained by a better average. Same goes for the OBP of Carlos Lee, though his strikeout rate is much, much lower.

All this to say that Soriano is not some strikeout freak whose career rests on the reputation for stealing bases and hitting bombs. His hitting approach has matured (albeit a little strangely), in that as his strikeout numbers have gone up, so have his walk numbers. In 2002, as a 26-year-old third place MVP vote-getter, Soriano Ked 157 times and walked 23 times.