When the news that Albert Pujols might be out until the All-Star break hit yesterday, I wrote up a post insinuating that the Cardinals were probably going to be pretty screwed without their slugger. With the news that Alfonso Soriano is out for six weeks coming later last night, the same post is coming about the Cubs, right? Wrong.Sure, Soriano's killing the ball and the Cubs will miss him. Still, the fact is that every single Cubs regular has an OPS+ of over 100 except Reed Johnson and everyone else except for Ryan Theriot is at 115 or better. There are still plenty of Cubs in the lineup to hit and score runs without Soriano there. in fact, Soriano's really only been the fourth best hitter on the team in terms of OPS+ this year, behind Aramis Ramirez, Geovany Soto, and Mark DeRosa.
In fact, the Soriano injury comes at the perfect time for the Cubs because of Pujols' injury. Taking Pujols out of the Cardinals lineup leaves them with Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus, Rick Ankiel, and that's about it. So while it seems like this is just the type of thing that happens to the Cubs whenever they get close to having a serious contender, this injury really isn't a big deal for them at all. I'll be shocked if they're not still in first place when Soriano comes back in late July or August.
