The Curse of Wrigley Field

In her regular mailbag column, MLB.com beat writer Carrie Muskat answers readers questions and she touches on everything from Ryan Dempster’s move to the rotation to whether Brian Roberts could still be coming to Chicago.  These are always interesting reads and Carrie does a nice job.  One interesting fact in the column is that the Cubs have led the majors in pitcher strikeouts in the last seven years.  Even with Mark Prior and Kerry Wood out for extended times, the Cubs hurlers still punch the oppositions’ hitters out.

Pitch Black release

In a nicely done piece, John Walsh at the Hardball Times takes a look at the best outfield arms in baseball and amongst left fielders, Alfonso Soriano is in a class by himself.  His kill rating of 266 is by far the best in his class with Emil Brown’s 190 a distant second.  His hold rating of 108 was second to just Jason Michaels and you figure at some point, that number will go up as more and more people begin respecting Alfonso Soriano’s arm.

You wonder why Soriano was so hesitant to move to the outfield.  In 2007, he had his first double digit fielding runs above average mark (18) of his career by far and it broke a streak of two big consecutive negative seasons.