Bob Brenly stood by his criticism of Alfonso Soriano’s outfield play Tuesday, while Soriano staunchly defended his defense.
Brenly criticized Soriano during Sunday’s WGN-Ch. 9 telecast in Pittsburgh after the Cubs left fielder dropped a fly ball in the sun with two outs in the ninth inning, allowing the tying run to score in a 12-inning loss. Among the comments were that Soriano was not a “superstar,” and that you could “throw a dart” in the Cubs dugout and any player you would hit could play outfield better than Soriano.
“If you do go back and listen to the tape, I think the entire thing was initiated by Len [Kasper] saying Lou [Piniella] said you don’t take a superstar player out late in the ballgame,” Brenly said. “My comment was ‘He’s a superstar hitter. He’s not a superstar defender.’
“So once again, if it gets to the point where Lou feels we’re not giving ourselves the best chance to win ballgames, then he’ll make a change. But so far he hasn’t felt that. It’s his ballclub.”
Soriano said he doesn’t feel the dropped fly means he has to work any harder on his defense than he already does.
“Not really,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about that ball. If it was something I had to work on, I’d work on it every day. But a ball in the sun? I can’t work on that. That’s just part of the game. Like a routine grounder, and I drop it. I’m working on it. But with the sun, I dropped it because I didn’t see it.”
Soriano said he had not heard of Brenly’s criticism.
“Who’s Bob Brenly?” he said. “The guy that used to be the manager for Arizona?”
Asked about the “dart” comment that suggested he was the worst fielder on the team, Soriano said he wasn’t bothered by the criticism.
“I don’t pay attention to what they say because they pay them to say that,” he said. “I don’t take it personally. I do my job in the game. Whatever he says, that’s fine for him. I don’t have any control of that. I just have the control to play my game.”
Does Brenly at all regret the “dart” comment?
“Part of my job is to entertain up here,” he replied. “I thought it was a funny line. I’m sure some people probably took it the wrong way. I could’ve said the same thing and worded it a little differently, but I think everybody got the gist of what I was saying.”
While Brenly had questioned Piniella’s strategy not to use a defensive replacement for Soriano, he said Piniella never has had a problem with his blunt analysis.
“Not at all, and I think it’s because Lou has been up here [in the TV booth],” Brenly said. “I’ve been down there [in the manager’s office]. He understands there’s a definite separation. There’s a job to do up here. There’s a job to do down there. I’ve had no problems with Lou. None at all.”
