Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

Alfonso Soriano became the 4th player to hit 40 HR and have 40 SB in the same season. The others are Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez. This is also his 4th 30/30 season, which is the most by a person not named Bonds.

Most 30/30 seasons:
1. Barry Bonds, 5
1. Bobby Bonds, 5
3. Alfonso Soriano, 4
4. Howard Johnson, 3

The list of players who made it twice: Willie Mays, Ron Gant, Sammy Sosa, Jeff Bagwell, Raul Mondesi, Vladimir Guerrero, Bob Abreu.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

he is good.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

i foresee a ridiculous contract in alfonso's near future

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

Wow, I never would have guessed that Bagwell could steal 30 bases.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

he should have had it when he went 40/39, but the season was shortened by 1-game, because the standings were already set. he could have hit a hr in that game and already been 40/40

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

I was ridiculed and flamed before this season when I said he would have a good year. He may have been the biggest surprise this year ONLY b/c of how many of you said he would fail, but you cannot deny talent.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

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I was ridiculed and flamed before this season when I said he would have a good year. He may have been the biggest surprise this year ONLY b/c of how many of you said he would fail, but you cannot deny talent.

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He's playing hard for a fat contract. He won't repeat his 2006 production.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

It should also be noted that he did this in RFK stadium, which is ridiculously hard to hit homers in.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

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Wow, I never would have guessed that Bagwell could steal 30 bases.

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He's got 202 career SB's with 78 CS. He may not be the fastest guy around but if you can guess what pitch is about to be thrown (curve, changeup), can time his delivery, look for a high front-leg kick, take advantage of a poor-throwing catcher, catch the D sleeping (mainly steals of 3rd), etc. you can swipe plenty of bags.

Re: Soriano joins 40/40 club
 

Boris,

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He's playing hard for a fat contract. He won't repeat his 2006 production.

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Standard comment and an extremely safe one as well. Of course he won't repeat this year's production, he is what the 4th person ever to put up these numbers? If he does what he did this year next year then he will prove even the supporters wrong.

As far as playing hard for a fat contract goes. This stuff always annoys me, like big leaguers can turn it on and off b/c all of the sudden numbers are in their face. You can say what you want to argue but I know dozens of big leaguers and have had these conversations with them and they all think it is just [censored] that the media etc. likes to bring up just to have something to talk about. They forget the fact that Soriano is one of the most talented offensive players in the game and even during his struggles his roof/ceiling was as high or higher than most of the league. Remember that when he went through those patch of rough times he was just still a kid trying to figure it out, and even then he was damn good. The game isn't that easy to where you can coast along playing badly and then all of the sudden decide to turn on a switch and do something that only 3 others in the history of the oldest game have done.

Still, fat contract year or not it doesn't change the fact that I said the big ballpark wouldn't matter and that he would still put up big offensive numbers like he always does--maybe not as huge as Texas, I was wrong, but that he would steal more bags b/c of the situation he was now in...which turned out to be slightly true. If you look at his numbers, he has had this potential to be a 40/40 guy all along. With NY he stole 40 bags twice but this was early on and his swing was very immature, long, loopy, very susceptible to breaking stuff away (still is at times). He was one homerun away from 40/40 with the Yankees in 02' and and 38/35 the next year with them, you see it is there and then with the Rangers there wasn't a chance even if he hit 40 HR's...he wasn't stealing 40 bags with that lineup and that ballpark. So it's been there all along, just has been a matter of time.

So next year, when he has that fat contract if he is still a National I see him hitting 34 HR's and stealing 40 bags. A little down from the previous year, but again he isn't playing hard for that fat contract...he figures he will take a few days off.

~td