I know it’s not even March yet, but here’s my candidate for the Cubs’ biggest concern for 2010. If the Cubs are going to improve on last year’s 83 wins, they need improvements from Zambrano and Soto, which hopefully they will get because both of these guys reported to camp in great shape.
On the injury/surgery front, they need Ted Lilly to be ready as soon as possible – and they need Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano to come back from last season’s injuries, Ramirez’s shoulder and Soriano’s knee. I am not particularly worried about Aramis. He’ll be fine.
But when I read on Cubs.com today that Soriano was "surprised" about how good his left knee felt, I was concerned. As Carrie Muskat said, "[t]he biggest hurdle for Soriano to overcome is mental, not physical." "‘I need to trust it [the knee] more,’ Soriano said. ‘That’s the biggest thing. I think my knee is good, but now I have to trust that it’s 100 percent.’"
When he is hot, Alfonso can carry a team all by himself, as he did at times in 2007. But when he is cold, he can drag a team down, too.
If the Cubs are going to do well in 2010, they need Soriano to be hot, and for Alfonso to be hot, he needs to be able to trust his knee. Which means that not only does his knee have to be healed, but also he has to play like his knee is healed. If Alfonso can’t do that, it could be a long season.
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