Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

[BGarrett7]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Lets say at your job, you have been getting paid $50,000 per year, and have been spending money at a good rate according to your pay. Then, your employer says that you are going to get paid $40,000 per year for the same job. You would be pissed.

The difference? You're comparing a reasonable salary in $50K to an astronomical one in $10M. Yes, losing 20% of your salary would greatly suck. But only if that percentage would significantly effect your way of life. When your salary is shifting from $10M to $8M that simply is not the case. You would have a very good point if we were only talking about normal family wages here, but based on your $50K salary example, we are actually talking about the equivilant of 200 people losing taking the 20% paycut just to match up to Soriano's. There are companies who don't even have a payroll like that.

And the Chipper comparison is a joke. He has been a Brave for how long? And how long have they been paying him? There is loyalty there. Soriano has been a National for a few months.

The need for Soriano to be a team player still holds true however. It doesn't matter how long you have been with a team, doing what is best for the organization starts on day one. There is no grace period for trying to better the team you are on. He is looking out for #1. Nothing more, nothing less. Baseball is a team sport for a reason, it takes a team to win a World Series, not a single player. This isn't the Olympics where it is every athlete for themself.

[elicoleman]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Completely wrong.

Lets say at your job, you have been getting paid $50,000 per year, and have been spending money at a good rate according to your pay. Then, your employer says that you are going to get paid $40,000 per year for the same job. You would be pissed.

And the Chipper comparison is a joke. He has been a Brave for how long? And how long have they been paying him? There is loyalty there. Soriano has been a National for a few months.

How can you possibly compare 50K to 10 million?

[Stoud]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Completely wrong.

Lets say at your job, you have been getting paid $50,000 per year, and have been spending money at a good rate according to your pay. Then, your employer says that you are going to get paid $40,000 per year for the same job. You would be pissed.

Well, unlike everyone else, I will take that comparison. There's obviously huge differences between playing a professional sport and working a middle class job, but we'll just put that aside for now.

1. Who is to say that he would take a drop in pay by that much?

2. A drop in pay that much is much more important when you're talking about the difference between possible home ownership and a lifetime of renting (often the difference between 50k and 40k). If you're talking about a drop from $10 mil to $9 or $8, there's simply no comparison. You're still making so much damn money that it doesn't even matter. With the way that the prices keep getting driven higher and higher? Soriano really has nothing to fear. It would be a miracle if he took a price drop just for switching positions. I'm not saying he doesn't care, I'm saying he doesn't really have a legitimate reason to care.

3. It's more likely you'd get fired than take a drop in pay by a whopping $10k. Then you could go look for a better job somewhere else, a job you like. What is really happening here (if you want the comparison to continue) is that the boss is asking the employee to change job titles. Nowadays, whether or not you get hired to that kind of job relies highly on how many transferrable skills you posess. Transferrable skills? Well, those are skills you can utilize in many different jobs. Kind of like a utility man for the "lineup" of employees. The problem? Soriano probably has transferrable skills, but he doesn't want to use them. He's happy with his current job. The solution? Transfer him somewhere where he is needed.

[dacubys]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Why is everyone on him so much about this? have any of you ever played the game well let me tell you the positions are very different and take different skills. i don't blame him at all they traded for soriano the 2nd baseman not soriano the outfielder or catcher or picher. some people just here the media downing someone and that is automatically there opinion. the only problem i see in the whole thing is that he had to bow down so he didn't end up getting screwed out of money (even though he is already getting paid to much)

[jmw1137]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Why is everyone on him so much about this? have any of you ever played the game well let me tell you the positions are very different and take different skills. i don't blame him at all they traded for soriano the 2nd baseman not soriano the outfielder or catcher or picher. some people just here the media downing someone and that is automatically there opinion. the only problem i see in the whole thing is that he had to bow down so he didn't end up getting screwed out of money (even though he is already getting paid to much)

Yep...I've played since I was 5 (and I'm 25 now). Yes the positions are different but he's HORRIBLE at 2nd...it's not like he was an all-star defensive player and they want to move him to a new position. It's not like they want him to pitch or catch...they want him to play the outfield...meaning catch-pop flys and field line drives. Yes there's more to that but the coaches could help him if he'd take it.

[dacubys]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Yep...I've played since I was 5 (and I'm 25 now). Yes the positions are different but he's HORRIBLE at 2nd...it's not like he was an all-star defensive player and they want to move him to a new position. It's not like they want him to pitch or catch...they want him to play the outfield...meaning catch-pop flys and field line drives. Yes there's more to that but the coaches could help him if he'd take it.

yeah he may make alot of errors but the point being is that he was and is a
2nd baseman not an outfielder. and out field takes alot more skill than just standing around and catching pop flies and a field a few linedrives. and if these coaches could just easily show him how to be a good outfielder then why can't/couldn't they do the same thing for him at 2nd?

[BGarrett7]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

You act like it's absolutely impossible for someone to make the transition from middle infielder to the outfield. There is already quite the precedent for middle infielders making the transition. Look at Robin Yount. He made the move from short to center at the exact same age that Soriano is now, and still managed a HOF career. Or how about Pete Rose? Ron Gant? Chuck Knoblauch? Hell, how about all those players who have made a successful transition from behind the plate to elsewhere on the field? That seems like it would be slightly harder, don't you think? The Nats aren't exactly asking him to re-invent the wheel here, it is quite possible for him to make a very smooth transition to left if he puts forth the required effort.

[keRplunK]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

yeah he may make alot of errors but the point being is that he was and is a
2nd baseman not an outfielder. and out field takes alot more skill than just standing around and catching pop flies and a field a few linedrives. and if these coaches could just easily show him how to be a good outfielder then why can't/couldn't they do the same thing for him at 2nd?

You don't think teams have tried that already? How many years has he been in the league?

He is just flat out TERRIBLE at 2nd base.

[rsox]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

Craig Biggio went from Catcher-to-Second Base-to-Center Field-to-Left Field-back to-Second Base. You can't possibly tell me that moving from 2B to LF is harder than moving from C to 2B.

[dacubys]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

no i am telling you that he should not be forced to move to the outfield he should be asked and like i said they traded for soriano the secon basemen not soriano hte outfielder. and you all compare him to yount, biggio, rose etc hall of famers or future hall of famers well soriano isn't in that catagory of talent so don't go there find another comparison.

[DGetz]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

no i am telling you that he should not be forced to move to the outfield he should be asked and like i said they traded for soriano the secon basemen not soriano hte outfielder. and you all compare him to yount, biggio, rose etc hall of famers or future hall of famers well soriano isn't in that catagory of talent so don't go there find another comparison.

It's not his right to play wherever he wants. His contract is to play for whatever team holds his right when they put him in the lineup. If it were so important to him, he should have had it put in the contract he has to play the infield.

And your point about they fact that he isnt as good as those other players is a good one - for the opposite argument. The less skill a player has, the more willing to acclimate to different situations he must be and let me tell you, no middle infielder in the majors has less fielding skill at second base than Soriano.

[dacubys]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

It's not his right to play wherever he wants. His contract is to play for whatever team holds his right when they put him in the lineup. If it were so important to him, he should have had it put in the contract he has to play the infield.

And your point about they fact that he isnt as good as those other players is a good one - for the opposite argument. The less skill a player has, the more willing to acclimate to different situations he must be and let me tell you, no middle infielder in the majors has less fielding skill at second base than Soriano.

so what you are telling me is that when you go to work tomorrow and they tell you that you are no longer driving but instead you have to ride on the back of the garbage truck and dump cans you would be ok with that.

[DGetz]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

so what you are telling me is that when you go to work tomorrow and they tell you that you are no longer driving but instead you have to ride on the back of the garbage truck and dump cans you would be ok with that.

If I were a garbage collector, yes. Especially if I were under contract. Soriano's contract is to play as a baseball player for whatever teams holds his rights, not to play second base. So yes if I were under contract to a company if they were to change me to a different role I would be okay with that. For example, if I were under contract will Microsoft as an accountant and they decided to move me from accounting in the Xbox department to accounting in the Windows department, I wouldnt complain.

[BGarrett7]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

so what you are telling me is that when you go to work tomorrow and they tell you that you are no longer driving but instead you have to ride on the back of the garbage truck and dump cans you would be ok with that.

I've been there.

My first job out of high school was working at an elementary school as a computer lab assistant. It was essentially an IT job, nothing more, it's what I was under contract to do. That was my desired field at the time, you see, so this worked out for me perfectly, it just happened to be at an elementary school. However, after my first year there, I was told that the following school year I would be running my own computer lab -- including teaching grades three through five, something I wasn't exactly keen on when told about it. I knew absolutely nothing about teaching, obviously had no knowledge of what I was supposed to do, didn't long to enter the teaching field, and just knew I was going to end up embarassing myself. But I went for it. And you know what? It worked out perfectly. My interest dropped in going an IT route and increased greatly into an education direction. Four years later, I'm a couple semesters away from becoming a high school math teacher.

[CMH]

Re: Soriano Refuses To Play Outfield

so what you are telling me is that when you go to work tomorrow and they tell you that you are no longer driving but instead you have to ride on the back of the garbage truck and dump cans you would be ok with that.

Even though I don't think you are doing a good job of defending yourself, I have to agree with you.

Though, Soriano is not under contract to play 2B, he does have the right to refuse having to move to another position. A team having his rights does not mean they have to make every single decision for him. Soriano is still his own person and if he strongly believes he wants to be a 2B, more power to him.

Comparing other jobs to this is ridiculous. Baseball isn't like other jobs. So stop trying to make it feel like it is.