By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer
Who was hitting on Seikaly?! I’ll kill him! I swear!
Moving on, position scarcity isn’t a good enough reason to draft Chase Utley in the top five, Ryan Howard’s numbers are sure to regress, and Carl Crawford’s low counting stats and reliance on speed to produce scare me a bit. Therefore, with the fourth pick in our upcoming draft, I’m looking at a likely decision between Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano (I’ll take Reyes or Santana if they fall to me). While A-Rod is coming off a tumultuous, down season, Soriano put up some absolutely monster numbers and was rewarded with a spot in a high-powered lineup in a bandbox park and, oh ya, a monster contract. In choosing between two evenly matched players, the simplest way to decide is to project their respective stats and nab the guy with the better numbers. Easy enough.
Let’s start with Soriano. His numbers have nowhere to go but down, but hitting in a better park and a better lineup should mitigate those declines. And as the leadoff guy for the Cubs, he should still be expected to run a good deal. Projected line: 117/37/102/36/279
Alex Rodriguez has disappointed in two out of his three years in pinstripes. However, a full season of Bobby Abreu in the lineup should enable A-Rod to approach his gaudy 2005 numbers. Projected line: 121/42/134/16/302
So the question remains, are Soriano’s 20 extra SBs worth more than the extra 25 runs/RBI, 5 home runs and 20+ points in average? It’s a close call, but I would say so.
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