Oh how the mighty have arisen

Now that the Washington Nationals baseball club is playing closer to its average, rather than far below it, I thought it appropriate to list the exploits of everybody's sudden favorite player.

Executive Summary

Batting 20-40 points above his career averages and smokin' the ball out of the park, while his shaky defense has been improving. Assigned permanently to left field.

Narrative

According to Nats Nation, Mr. Soriano had recently equaled Nick Johnson in total home runs at RFK (in about 1/4 the number of games there and 1/3 the number of at-bats) since the franchise has played there the past two seasons. As of this typing, NJ has one more homer than Alfie at RFK, but the homers just keep on coming on the road. Today, Soriano went 3-4 with 5 RBI and 2 HR (including a grand slam) for a total of 21 home runs this season. I, for one, never had a doubt! [1] Why move the fences closer at RFK when you can just hit the ball over them?

Even though he is still somewhat shaky in left field, he has improved noticeably. When he does botch a play, he often makes up for it at the plate. He did make one very memorable play by racing back, catching a fly ball, then throwing out Brad Ausmus attempting to retreat back to first base to tag up; apparently nobody in the park expected him to catch that fly ball.

Dirty Details

Quick Splits

per MLB.com

vs. Left: .414 / vs. Right: .277
Home: .319 / Road: .307 
Day: .352 / Night: .294
Current Month: .583 (June)
Last 30 Days: .340

per ESPN (BA/OPS)

vs. left:  .400 / 1.185
vs. right: .273 / 0.877
home: .319 / 1.122
away: .294 / 0.841

Stats

Last 10 Games

18 hits/43 at-bats = .429 (hot streak, small sample size).

HR=5, RBI=11, BB=3, SO=8, SB=3, CS=2.5 (dislodged ball during tag-out)

At least 1 hit in 9 of his last 10 games.

Season

Offense

BA=.312, OBP=.364, SLG=.628, HR=21, RBI=43, SB=13, CS=7

Defense

POS GP  GS  INN   TC  PO  A  E  DP  FPCT
LF  55  55  474  112  98  9  5  3   .955

The Requisite Wilkerson Comparison

Leads the Texas Rangers in home runs (11) and runs scored (41).

 G   AB   R   H  2B  3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB  CS   AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS
50  179  41  45   7   1   11   27   22   67   2   2  .251  .341  .486  .827 Wilkerson
57  231  43  72  10   0   21   43   18   50  13   7  .312  .364  .628  .992 Soriano

Analysis

You want MY analysis? Well, I suppose that it's better than what you might get from that old windbag Peter Gammons.

Soriano is said to be the spark of this offense, and I am forced to agree. In a few games he was the offense, every bit of it. It would be nice if the Nats could score runs the old fashioned way, without needing dingers to be hit, but if he continues to hit 'em I'll be happy to take 'em. He needs to continue to improve his patience at the plate, as he should be striking out less and drawing more walks as the leadoff hitter. By the same token, I'm happy that opposing teams haven't figured out that he is a home run threat—yet—and happily pitch to him. He is knocking on Pujols' door in the home run department, and with Albert's injury Alfonso should take sole posession of that honor.

An interesting quote after today's game against the Brewers: “I like stealing bases better,” Soriano said. “I've never seen myself as much of a home run hitter.” I would rather have the homers than the steals; who wouldn't??

I also am coming around to the approach to the game that eschews base stealing, the hit-and-run play, and other costly plays, so I would hope that Soriano chooses his base stealing opportunities more carefully if he has a permanent green light. In his last 10 games he stole 3 but got caught twice and would have been caught in Sunday's game against the Brewers except that his slide knocked the ball out of the glove of Rickie Weeks. Had he been caught stealing that would have been a 50% success rate, which is too low to be of value to the team in scoring runs. Scoring runs is all that matters; scoring runs wins ball games. Outs are precious and should be avoided by the offense whenever possible.

Conclusion

The Nationals got the better end of the bargain in the trade that brought Soriano here.

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Notes

[1] I never had a doubt after he started hitting 'em outta the park, that is.