2000's MOST EXCITING PLAYER: CANO OR SORIANO?

When most of us see how great Robinson Cano is for us, we tend to forget that the Yankees had a player who was a 30/30 player every year, just missed the 40/40 mark and was always a threat for the lone member of the 50/50 club. His name is Alfonso Soriano.
(In Photo: Alfonso Soriano)
Soriano played second base for the Bombers regularly in 2001 until the end of the 2003 season. His best year was in 2002 where he had 209 hits, 39 homers, 41 steals, 102 RBI, and an even had a .300 average. That's pretty damn great! Soriano missed out on the 40/40 club that year by 1 home run, and later achieved that feat in 2006 with the Nationals as he recorded 46 Home Runs and 41 stolen bases.

Soriano had a huge future ahead of him in the Bronx and was only 26 in 2002 during his monster season. He was one of the most sought after players in baseball for his great display of speed and power. He was traded along with a player to be named later, which became Joaquin Arias, and cash for our current 3rd baseman, Alex Rodriguez.

For 2 seasons the Yankees were without an everyday second baseman, shuffling between Tony Womack, and Miguel Cairo while trying to find a permanent solution.(In Photo: Tony Womack/Getty)
The solution was in their own farm system. His name was Robinson Cano. Cano came in 3rd place in the AL MVP voting last year, and is a staple in the current Yankees lineup much like Alfonso was about 10 years ago.Now, let's compare Cano and Soriano.

• Soriano definitely wins the battle in speed as Cano has never stolen more than 5 bases in a season and Soriano's lowest single season steals is 9.

• Soriano also wins the power category, as he averaged 31 home runs per year as a Yankee, and Cano's most home runs in a season is 29.
  

• Cano does own the 2 most categories for a second baseman though and Cano is also by far a better fielder as Soriano committed countless errors. Cano also wins the batting average battle, as Soriano's highest averaged in 1 season is just .300, and Cano's has batted over .300 4 times between 2005 and now.

Finally know this. This comparison was done calculating Cano's stats from the beginning of his Yankee career in 2005. Alfonso Soriano's stats were pulled from 2000 when he was a Yankee to 2006 with the Nationals. We did this to keep it relatively equal. So, now you know, if you were to choose between Soriano or Cano, who would you choose and why?

Let me know by emailing me, will.cohen.bleedingyankeeblue@gmail.com, hitting me on Twitter, @Wccohen11 or adding me on Facebook. I will respond.



--Will Cohen, BYB Staff Writer

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