Alfonso Soriano lost that gloving feeling, and calls it quits.

[bankshot1]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11823539/alfonso-soriano-says-retiring-baseball-lost-love-passion-play
 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Seven-time All-Star Alfonso Soriano says he is retiring from the major leagues after a season in which he was released by the New York Yankees in July.
"I've lost the love and passion to play the game," Soriano said in a radio interview Tuesday in his native Dominican Republic. "Right now, my family is the most important thing."
Soriano, 38, completed in 2014 the final year of his eight-year, $136 million contract he signed with the Chicago Cubs before the 2007 season.
 

 
The guy was was undisciplined, and never saw a slider down and away he didn't hack at, but he could hit.
 
And was the player that brought ARod and additional glory to the MFY.

 

[Laser Show]

Holy crap, he had 412 home runs? I knew he hit a lot but damn I didn't realize it was that many. It was a lot of fun watching him and his high leg kick when he wasn't a Yankee.

 

[TheYaz67]

Will always love the fact that the guy's very best season in his entire career was the single year i got to watch him play all year as a member of the Nationals in 2006 - 6.1 WAR, scored 119 runs and hit 46 HR (playing half his games in a poor HR hitting park) for a team that finished 71-91 and only scored 746 runs.
 
Everyone will forget about that single season b/c he spent 7 years in Chicago and 7 in NYC, but it will always be his greatest year as a player, and it certainly earned him that obscene contract....

 

[Bozo Texino]

I always liked this dude for some reason.  I think it was the leg kick/high socks combo.
 
I too was surprised to see he had over 400 homers.  Wow.

 

[m0ckduck]

The Yankees sure sold 'high' on him (back in the days when they were still mostly hitting the right moves with personnel decisions). Age 26 season: 4.8 bWAR, led the league in hits, runs and steals, finished third in the MVP voting... then followed that up with a similar campaign the next year before getting dealt for ARod.
 
From that point on, had two standout seasons in '06-'07 and 9 fairly forgettable ones.
 
Baseball is a strange sport in terms of career arcs. 

 

[bohous]

I hate the way he chewed gum. It was almost impossible for me to sit through an entire Soriano at-bat.

 

[cromulence]

For Yankee fans, there was always a duality when it came to rooting for Soriano. He was extremely talented and fun to watch, but you were always preparing yourself for the (seemingly inevitable, especially in the playoffs) flail at a breaking ball down and away that never had a chance of being a strike. If he'd been able to recognize and lay off that pitch, I think he could've been a HoF level hitter. Instead, just a great hitter with some exceptional physical tools.

 

[curly2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2xYrmRojJw
 
His homer of Schilling in Game 7 was amazing. It was a good splitter and he killed it. But in the end it only made the loss that much tougher for the Yankees. 

 

[mt8thsw9th]

Holy crap, he had 412 home runs?

 
Wait until you see how many Adam Dunn has hit.
 
What was always amazing about young Soriano is just how light the bat looked in his hands, especially given how wiry he was. Like he was holding a wiffle ball bat. I spent much of 2002 insisting (to myself, largely) that his bat had to be corked. His bat speed was unreal, and he was one of those rare players that was able to make up for a complete lack of plate discipline with off-the-charts bat speed.
 
Curt probably should have used a bit more pine tar on that one, but truly a great piece of hitting down 0-2.

 

[cromulence]

 
Wait until you see how many Adam Dunn has hit.
 
What was always amazing about young Soriano is just how light the bat looked in his hands, especially given how wiry he was. Like he was holding a wiffle ball bat. I spent much of 2002 insisting (to myself, largely) that his bat had to be corked. His bat speed was unreal, and he was one of those rare players that was able to make up for a complete lack of plate discipline with off-the-charts bat speed.
 
Curt probably should have used a bit more pine tar on that one, but truly a great piece of hitting down 0-2.

 
Also, as I'm sure you know, he always used the heaviest bat in the majors (I think it was the outright heaviest, if not it was among the heaviest). Makes the bat speed even more ridiculous.

 

[Leather]

He was sort of taken for granted during the early 2000s in New York. Like, even NY fans didn't really acknowledge how good of a hitter he was.
As a Sox fan going to Yankees games a ton between 2001 and 2007, it just seemed totally unfair that they had Jeter, Bernie, Posada, Giambi...and then THIS guy who came out of seemingly nowhere to be a legit star anywhere else but he was hiding in plain sight in NY.

 

[Dan to Theo to Ben]

To me he will be Eric Davis without the defense and without the likeability, but with more power.

 

[TheYaz67]

The other great thing about that year in DC was that it was the year Soriano "learned" to play left field (poorly) after having been a 2nd baseman his whole career prior - rapidly aging Jose Vidro was the Nats veteran 2nd baseman and could not play anywhere else at that point in his career, so Soriano had to go to the outfield, and he was none to pleased about it, threatening at one point in Spring training to essentially boycott the outfield (despite having put up a -2.2 dWAR as the Rangers 2nd baseman the year before).  Manager Frank Robinson, who does not suffer fool gladly, had a little "sit down" with him to discuss, and it ended the "boycott" of LF fairly quickly...
 
He actually was not awful due to his natural athleticism, but holy hell did he take some "creative" routes to balls - really made some relatively easy plays look quite difficult because of his initial inability to read the ball off the bat...  he made 11 errors in left, but guys also tried to challenge him due to his inexperience, and as a result of his strong arm he ended up with 22 outfield assists, a career high for him and a lot of assists for any OF....

 

[loshjott]

The coda to Soriano's year in Washington is that the team was criticized for not dealing him by the deadline when it was obvious to everyone that he wasn't going to resign with the Nats. However, according to the Post:
 

But in baseball’s compensation system at the time – it has since been overhauled – the Nationals received two draft picks because Soriano left. The first, sandwiched between rounds one and two, became lefty Josh Smoker, who has never played beyond high Class A. The second, in the second round, turned into right-hander Jordan Zimmermann,
 

 

 

[foulkehampshire]

To me he will be Eric Davis without the defense and without the likeability, but with more power.

 
Revisit that. 
 
Soriano:
 
HR%: 4.9 %
HR/FB: 11.7 %
 
Davis:
HR%: 4.6 %
HR/FB: 15.6 %

 

[Laser Show]

 
Wait until you see how many Adam Dunn has hit.
 
What was always amazing about young Soriano is just how light the bat looked in his hands, especially given how wiry he was. Like he was holding a wiffle ball bat. I spent much of 2002 insisting (to myself, largely) that his bat had to be corked. His bat speed was unreal, and he was one of those rare players that was able to make up for a complete lack of plate discipline with off-the-charts bat speed.
 
Curt probably should have used a bit more pine tar on that one, but truly a great piece of hitting down 0-2.

I mean, I expect it with Dunn. He had so many years with 40 home runs in a row. Soriano, off the top of my head, I would only say 2006 was a 40 homer year with any confidence.

 

[SumnerH]

I mean, I expect it with Dunn. He had so many years with 40 home runs in a row. Soriano, off the top of my head, I would only say 2006 was a 40 homer year with any confidence.

Just that one over 40, but 6 more over 30 including 39, 38, 36 and a bunch over 20.

 

[Laser Show]

Just that one over 40, but 6 more over 30 including 39, 38, 36 and a bunch over 20.

Yea I was referring to 04 to 08 when he hit at least 40 each year. Combine that with 4 other seasons over 30 and I'm not surprised.

 

[SumnerH]

I was talking about Soriano, who had just the one year you mentioned over 40 but a whole lot over 30 including several high-30s, and a number more over 20.  

 

[dynomite]

I never had anything against Soriano, especially after the '03 ALCS in which his hilarious hacking at any breaking pitch made him an automatic out.  I remember getting thrilled every time he came to bat.
 
EDIT: Just looked it up.  Here was his line in that series: 4-for-30 (.133) with an 11/1 K/BB ratio, 0 HR, and 1 2B.  

 

[Laser Show]

I was talking about Soriano, who had just the one year you mentioned over 40 but a whole lot over 30 including several high-30s, and a number more over 20.  

Ah apologies. Didnt realize he had that many high 30s campaigns.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

I never had anything against Soriano, especially after the '03 ALCS in which his hilarious hacking at any breaking pitch made him an automatic out.  I remember getting thrilled every time he came to bat.
 
EDIT: Just looked it up.  Here was his line in that series: 4-for-30 (.133) with an 11/1 K/BB ratio, 0 HR, and 1 2B.  

 
He really was terrible in the postseason, though he hit a walkoff homer against the Mariners in Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS. And then the bomb off Schilling in the 2001 World Series Game 7 mentioned above. Two pretty huge homers amongst a whole lot of striking out.

 

[JimRiceHOFer]

Will always love the fact that the guy's very best season in his entire career was the single year i got to watch him play all year as a member of the Nationals in 2006 - 6.1 WAR, scored 119 runs and hit 46 HR (playing half his games in a poor HR hitting park) for a team that finished 71-91 and only scored 746 runs.
 
Everyone will forget about that single season b/c he spent 7 years in Chicago and 7 in NYC, but it will always be his greatest year as a player, and it certainly earned him that obscene contract....

That was also the season he got 40 steals to reach the 40/40 plateau as well.

 

[pedro1918]

I never had anything against Soriano, especially after the '03 ALCS in which his hilarious hacking at any breaking pitch made him an automatic out.  I remember getting thrilled every time he came to bat.
 
EDIT: Just looked it up.  Here was his line in that series: 4-for-30 (.133) with an 11/1 K/BB ratio, 0 HR, and 1 2B.  

 
At the end of that series I was ALWAYS happy when he was up.  I think he struck out 4-5 times in the last game.
 
I still hate Gump.

 

[mt8thsw9th]

To me he will be Eric Davis without the defense and without the likeability, but with more power.

 
They were not similar players in the least. Defense and plate discipline were pretty big parts of Davis' game. Justin Upton is probably the best modern comp to Davis, but he doesn't have the speed on the basepaths Davis did. Soriano doesn't really have a peer, he was that rare of a player. I can't imagine there are any others in the 400+ home run club that walked as little as he did in his prime.