Joakim Soria appreciation thread

[TheJON]

The Mexicutioner with save number 22 tonight. I thought this would be the perfect time to have a Joakim love-fest. So I'll start!

That dude is about as good of a relief pitcher as I have ever seen. Nastiest curveball in the bigs. You know it's coming and you still can't hit it.

So now I ask the question.....

Who wants to sex Joakim!!? (i mean in a non-gay kinda way!)

[M Club]

does non-gay mean no reach around?

[Goober McTuber]

Nice job sashaying out of the closet, NOJ.

[jiminphilly]

I'd rather have Brad Lidge.

[Goober McTuber]

I'd rather have Brad Lidge.

Than Linda Cohn? Sinner.

[Shoalzie]

Considering K-Rod, Rivera, Nathan, Papelbon and Sherrill along with Soria are having strong years at closer, it's going to be a tough choice to pick closers for the AL all-star team. You have to believe that Jose Guillen will make the team from the Royals...could they get a second guy on the team? I'd pick Soria over Sherrill but Rodriguez, Rivera, Nathan and Papelbon's numbers too gaudy to pass over in favor of him.

And I voted for watching Soria...

If the option was Chris McKendry, Michelle Bonner or pretty much any other female SportsCenter anchor as the option...I would choose them. Linda Cohn likes hockey and that's about all she's got going for her.

[M Club]

linda cohn looks like she could enter the kentucky derby. i hope, for her sake, that she doesn't finish second.

[Goober McTuber]

Buncha fellers stepping out of the closet here. I never suggested that Linda Cohn was a fine piece of tail, maybe a 5 or a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. I’m sure Shoalzie’s got better looking cousins, and M Club has, well, he has Petrus. But, sheesh, I’ll confess to having the lonely vote for getting busy with a female over watching baseball.

[M Club]

my girlfriend and i have a move we call the linda cohn: i wear a jockey hat and ride her from behind while she whinnies like a horse. after a lap or two i shoot her in the face for cumming in second. then she reads me the baseball scores.

[ucantdoitdoggieSTyle2]

Can we please add a third option?

I think I'd rather have Chuck Liddell repeatedly punch me in the nuts before watching any royaaals game or nailing that cohn wildebeest.

[TheJON]

Shoalzie,

You're right, the closer role in the AL has been outstanding and there's great choices, but Soria has as good or better overall numbers than anyone in the league.

K-Rod.......yeah, he's got 32 saves but overall Soria's numbers are better. ERA nearly a full point lower and a WHIP quite a bit lower along with a higher strikeout per inning ratio.

Nathan's numbers are pretty similar to Soria, but again Soria gets the SLIGHT edge statistically here too. Both with 22 saves, but Soria's done it in 1 less chance. Soria's ERA is 1.25 vs 1.34 for Nathan. Soria also has pitched 2 1/3 more innings and had a couple more strikeouts. WHIP and K/9 is pretty much identical though.

Rivera I will give you. Overall numbers slightly ahead of Joakim, so can't argue this.

Sherril......not even in the ballpark as the others. He has more saves than the others besides K-Rod, but he's just 26-31 in saves with an ERA of 3.68. His WHIP is also much higher than the others.

Papelbon has also put up nice numbers but has 4 blown saves (24 saves overall) and an ERA of 2.00. Overall numbers slightly favor Soria here too.

The rankings should go

1.Rivera
2.Soria
3.K-Rod
4.Papelbon
5.Nathan
6.Sherril
7.Jenks
8.Percival

I think Soria gets the Royals lone All-Star selection. Guillen is fading a bit. Greinke had a chance to make a run at the All-Star game but his performance last night really hurt his chances. If Ron Mahay wasn't in the most underated role in all of baseball he'd be a strong candidate too but a middle reliever/set-up man isn't going to make the All-Star game. 4-0 with a 2.13 ERA in 42 1/3 innings and a decent amount of holds ain't too shabby!

Whoever gets selected I'm just glad we actually have a representative that's deserving this year. No Mark Redman or Ken Harvey this time!

[War Wagon]

So Jon... does this mean that you're not demanding Soria be made a starter anymore?

[TheJON]

War Wagon,

No, I still think it's insane to have a guy with Soria's talent being wasted away in the bullpen. How valuable is Joakim when he spends MORE THAN HALF of the games sitting out there in the bullpen spitting sunflower seeds while bums like Luke Hochevar and Brian Bannister are getting tow up?

Your closer has no value when your starters can't get anyone out. He has the makeup to be a 20 game winner and a perennial Cy Young candidate. I have NEVER seen a pitcher as talented as him in KC. I know, someone's gotta close out the games. Well, we've now played about 90 games and Soria has pitched exactly 37 innings. Doesn't that bother you at all considering how bad this pitching staff is? Think about it......we've played about 90 games and our best pitcher is avering barely 1 inning every 3 games. There's something wrong with that.

Guys with his skill level don't become relievers. He throws too many good pitches, consistently throws strikes and gets guys out. And on top of that, he stays pretty level headed on the mound. Doesn't get too emotional. Just goes out there and gets the job done. Mariano Rivera is a fantastic closer, one of the best of all-time, but he could never make it as a starter and that's why he's a reliever. Same with Joe Nathan. Same with K-Rod. These guys couldn't be effective starters because they don't have the make-up to be one. Soria does. And not only does Soria have the ability to be an effective starter, he has the ability to be as good as ANYONE in baseball.

Luke Hochevar is a career reliever and I think that's where he'll end up. He needs to go to the bullpen and just come out throwing nothing but a fastball and a sinker. He can be an effective 2 pitch pitcher out of the bullpen, but he doesn't throw enough strikes to be a starter. I think Hooch has the ability to be a good closer for this team down the road. If he just sticks to throwing that sinker and his 90-93 MPH fastball he'll master those pitches and be more effective. But he's NEVER gonna make it as a starter and I think it's time Dayton and Trey relize this. I'm not giving up on the kid, I'm just saying he's not going to make it in this league as a starter. That's not a knock on the kid, it's just a fact. He is what he is.....a relief pitcher. But I think he can really be a good one. The faster they move him to the pen the better off he and the team will be.

So you move Hooch to the pen, groom him to be the future closer (and like I said, I have seen a lot of signs that lead me to believe he can be a damn good one), send Soria to AAA to work his arm into shape and call him up in September and let him get a few starts under his belt before next year.

I guarantee you without a doubt this team will be better off for it. This pitching staff really does have a lot of potential and the thought of Soria-Greinke going 1-2 is reminiscent of Maddux-Glavine (except they're different types of pitchers). Bannister is a decent #5 starter. Meche is a quality #4 starter. Now we just have to hope someone like Carlos Rosa or Dan Cortes can jump in and be an effective #3 starter. But the bullpen will be fine without Soria. Hochevar is gonna be a good closer in this league, I truly believe that. HoRam, RamRam, and Nunez are also quality relievers. I still think Gobble can be a good lefty only reliever. He'll bounce back next year once the slate rubs clean. He's pretty much just quit on this year. But he'll be fine next year, so even without Soria I'm confident in this bullpen.

I'm telling you man, you mark it down.........in a year or 2 this pitching staff is gonna be lights out with Soria as a starter and Hochevar as either a set-up man or closer. I guarantee you Soria's days in the bullpen will be short lived. And this ballclub will be much better for it. You'll see!

[Shoalzie]

Props to Soria on being named to the AL All-Star team...

[War Wagon]

Solid take for the most part, Jon. Nevermind that Soria blew a save today and gave up not one, but two HR's... he still got the win.

I just have a few bones to pick.

I have NEVER seen a pitcher as talented as him in KC.

Huh? How old are you?

Bret Saberhagen
Danny Jackson
Dan Quisenberry

Were those guys before your time? Let's go back a bit further. I watched these guys as well.

Steve Busby
Dennis Leonard
Larry Gura
Paul Splittorf

Just to name a few off the top of my head. Soria's outstanding, but he's hardly the 1st pitcher in KC to post great numbers. Let's also not forget, he's only 24 years old and barely has two years in the league. All those guys listed above pitched for years. Let's not label him a Cy Young candidate just yet

...send Soria to AAA to work his arm into shape and call him up in September and let him get a few starts under his belt before next year.

Say What?!?!

That's fucking insane and isn't going to happen. If they really want to make him a starter next year (doubtful), they can go with that scenario in spring training

I guarantee you Soria's days in the bullpen will be short lived. And this ballclub will be much better for it. You'll see!

Alrighty then. We will see. I think you're high on crack, but you have been right about several other things, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this.

[TheJON]

I was born in 1980 and have been a Royals fan since I was a little kid. I don't recall the year, but I think my first Royals game was in 1985. So I barely remember any of those players. Know plenty about them, but don't ever recall actually seeing them pitch for the Royals except on highlight films as I was too young. My first actual memory of attending a game was 1986 the Royals played the Red Sox. I just remember seeing Jim Rice and Wade Boggs and I also recall going to a game that same year against Oakland. I remember George Brett hit an inside the parker and my dad was pissed that he missed it because he was in the bathroom cleaning my little sisters dirty diaper! Other than that my memory of watching Royals baseball in the 1980's is pretty slim.

Now guys like Appier, Cone, Montgomery, Gordon, Gubicza.......remember seeing a lot of them. And they were all very good. Just not as talented as Soria.

The only reason I said to send Soria to AAA is because it's difficult to go from reliever to starter while in the majors unless you do it during spring training. This season is over. We're long out of the race with this recent bad streak. So it's time to get ready for the future (yeah, I know, it gets old having to do that every year about this time). If you send Soria down to AAA in late July, he can get a month of work in down there and get a good 5 starts under his belt before bringing him back up in September. Then he can get 4-5 more starts in KC before the end of the year. That way next April he wouldn't be making his first career start. He'll have a little bit of experience going into next year.

But it's time to gut this thing and start preparing for the future. The quicker we do that, the quicker we contend. Allard Baird's draft picks were just complete busts and we need to accept that. Alex Gordon is going to make it in this league as a long-time #6 hitter, but he's just not going to be a middle of the lineup guy. Butler I'm still not sure about. It's possible he could become the hitter we expected but I'll be able to more accurately answer that about this same time next year. Teahen is a bum. He has to go. Tony Jr.......worst hitter ever. Joey Gathright is a 4th outfielder at best. Ross Gload is a utility guy. DeJesus is a stud. KEEP HIM! Aviles needs to move to 2nd base because he can't hack it at short, but I think we may have something with him at 2nd.

The good news is we have as good of trade bait as any team in baseball. Meche, Mahay, Guillen, Grudzielanek, German, and Gobble all could land at least something before the trade deadline. Cubs desperately need a reliever but don't have great prospects. However, maybe a Ron Mahay for Eric Patterson and Sean Marshall deal could be made. I think that would benefit both sides. I've gone back and forth with trading Meche and Guillen. I really think Meche bounces back next year with a better year but there's a lot of contending teams desperate for a quality starter and they may offer better prospects than he's worth simply because of that. Guillen is a talented hitter, but he's a fucking piece of shit and a terrible team guy. I loved his rant the first time, but his act has grown tiresome and he needs to go. We could get some really good prospects for him. We'll have to eat quite a bit of that contract, but we may be better for it in a couple of years if we trade him.

Grudzy also could get us a decent prospect. A team like the Dodgers could use his bat.

If we get to work immediately on a rebuilding job and mix in a couple of quality free agents in 2009 and 2010, maybe by 2010 we're a contender. But one thing is certain......we ain't never winnin' with this roster!