But, like Ol' Granny said, "All sickness is not death."
The fractured finger of Alfonso Soriano will not doom the Cubs' 2008 season.
Here's why:
- The Cubs have already played well without him, going 9-5 when he was out with a strained calf early on.
- To further flesh that out, yes, Soriano does produce an unusually high number of runs out of a no. 1 hitter. However, his OBP is not what you necessary look for out of that spot. Theriot, Fukudome or Reed Johnson would have a better OBP.
- Soriano doesn't pitch, and thus won't affect the NL's best ERA.
- I started making a list of players who would be a bigger loss to the team right now than Soriano: Zambrano, Lee, Ramirez, Wood, Marmol, Dempster, Soto(?), Fukudome(?).
- The lineup right now -- and virtually all season -- has been clicking from spots 1 through 8 and even 9. There are too many professional hitters on that roster to let this team go into a 25-man funk.
- With the steadying hand of Lou Piniella, I can't see this setback snowballing into another "OH NOES! IT'S THE CURSE AGAIN" moment.
- Micah Hoffpauir, secret weapon. Wait and see.
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