WHY THERE ARE ISSUES WITH SORIANO

It is very rare for me to ever question a Yankees players’ loyalty while he is wearing the pinstripes and in all years as a Yankee fan, I don’t think I've ever have. But that is about to change. Does anyone reading this think Rafael Soriano wants to be a Yankee? What's the deal with this guy? He wasn't around for the Red Sox, then he had a statement to the press about how he wasn't going to pitch in the Rays series. Suddenly I was getting annoyed. Then, we find out today that he's headed to the DL with elbow discomfort. Come on!

From what I am reading and hearing, and I know it's still early in the 2011 season, but RaSo may go down as one of the Yankees costliest mistakes! Now, on the Bleeding Yankee Blue record, Casey has stated numerous times how he loves the Three Headed Monster of Joba, Soriano and Mo, but I think even he's getting pissed. To me, I think we need to give David Robertson that spot, replacing Soriano. Jesse Schindler, one of BYB's writers even wrote a stellar piece titled WHY ROBERTSON DESERVES MORE CREDIT. It's true, Robertson has proven himself.
He seems to actually want the ball unlike RaSo.

Okay, so here is what we know about RaSo in his short time as a Yankee:

• STRIKE 1: He told the team in spring training he did not want to face AL East opponents? I remember reading this two months ago in the New York Post HERE. When I read it then, I couldn't believe it. Even Girardi said he was okay with that. I found that to be a cop out. In fact, he called it “smart” for RaSo to “hide his stuff” from AL East opponents until regular season. Wait, didn’t RaSo pitch in AL East in 2010? I don’t know about you, but the first red flag was raised for me on RaSo when I heard that story.
• STRIKE 2: So far in 2011, RaSo stats are AWFUL. He is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. Remember when he blew his first gamer earlier this year and left his teammates to clean up the mess with the press? I do. The fact that Soriano blew the game bothered me a lot, but I was certainly not fearing it was the end of the world. What got me was his disregard for his teammates and the fans. When he refused to answer media questions after that game, his teammates were forced to try and find a silver lining in his performance and make excuses for him when he should have been man enough to face the music on his own.

• STRIKE 3 Yer out! Now here we are in an awful losing streak, we just finally got over the Posada/Jeter mess, and when the dust settles, we still have no Soriano available. Today we are told that the Yankees want Soriano to take two weeks off and be put on the DL because of a swollen elbow... um what? Why? Check this out from Mark J. Miller of Yahoo Sports who posted this today: “New York Yankees reliever Rafael Soriano has been having trouble with his right elbow." According to the New York Post, the hurler is taking medical advice from an executive vice president for the Yanks, Felix Lopez, a son-in-law of George Steinbrenner.(ESPN story HERE.)
  

Okay, Yankeeland, so here’s my question… Who really thinks Soriano will be helping the Yankees in any way, shape or form this year? As for my opinion…well, RaSo will collect his paycheck this year and be shown the Yankee clubhouse door and be given a one way ticket to JFK for a flight out of New York! This whole mess with Soriano started out bad, hopefully cutting ties with him at the end of the year would end up being the best decision the Yankees made. See ya!

--Mikey Blue, BYB Senior Writer
Twitter @MikeyBlu23


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