Why Won’t Soto Swing?

Visits: 2

My fingers furiously punch into the keyboard as I watch Juan Soto pass on 2 consecutive mash-able hanging breaking balls. We can all agree on one thing. Juan Soto is a MASTER of being walked. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is absolutely out of this world! That’s cool and all, but… why don’t I like it?

The dude is on the verge of a record-breaking contract, and justifiably so, I get it – he’s a generational talent. He has numbers that are comparable to Ted Williams (stop me if you’ve heard that one before). Which is why the rate in which I see him strolling down to first base is so infuriating. I can’t even keep track of how many times I’ve seen the 200 million dollar man watch a fastball go right down the middle. And for the sake of what? Helping the team out? Most of the time he is stranded out there on first, or moves to second – at best.

Let’s face it. Our offense has been struggling. Our RISP average is currently 10th in the league. But if you’re a Padres fan – it feels much worse than that. Much, much worse. Like, excruciatingly worse. And to make matters worse, we have a young stud who can knock the seams off of the ball looking to walk. Remember when Barry Bonds was in his his hay-day? He was getting walked every other at-bat. But, the major difference here is – Barry wasn’t looking to walk. He was looking to hit a dinger, but just didn’t get the pitches. Juan Soto, on the other hand, seems like he’s scared up there. And that scares me.

Now, let’s set the record straight, I LOVE small-ball. Despite my age, I’m an old-school guy. Get a guy on, bunt him over, then use the remaining two outs to knock him in. That’s great! But, the fact is, we’re not even doing that. It’s somewhere in-between. A purgatory of baseball paradigms. Luckily, Soto has Manny behind him, but after that – who? Bell? Croenenworth? These guys are great players – but they’re certainly not playing so well in the brown & yellow this year.

Juan Soto is a GREAT player, and I can understand why he does what he does. Consider this an outcry to Mr. Soto – if you’re reading this, please – please, just swing the bat some more. You’re a great hitter, and we all know you have a great eye – but we want to see a different stroll down the line. One that continues around all 4 bases, not just one. The high-prized acquisition has been getting boo’ed of late. Do I think that’s an overstatement? Yes. But one thing is for sure – he better start performing, or else it’ll make A.J. Preller look like a fool. Which, to me, is a negative chain reaction – considering Preller actually gives a crap about the team’s success, something we haven’t been used to in years of late. Get it together and swing the bat, Soto – the whole city is counting on you…