Dominican player of the week: Alfonso Soriano

Dominican player and Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano has been named the Dominican player of the week here at the Dominican Baseball Guy blog. Soriano is no stranger to awards. Since he first appeared on the MLB scene back in 2000 with the Yankees he has made seven All-Star games. He has won the player of the week in his league six times, and the player of the month three times. And he has four Silver Slugger awards.

Last week was a short week due to the All-Star break, but in just three games Soriano had two doubles, two home runs, and five RBI, while hitting .545. He actually did most of the damage in just one game, with both doubles and both home runs, and the five RBI all coming one game.

His average has declined in recent years, but he was never a high average hitter. But he is still on pace for around 30 home runs and 90 RBI, right around his career average. Pretty good numbers for a 36 year old player in his 14th MLB season.

He had two World Series titles with the great Yankees championship teams and made the playoffs with the Cubs in 2007 and 2008. Other than that, he can be said to be a player that has had all these great numbers on bad teams. He put up great numbers on some really bad Rangers teams, and perhaps his best year came with a horrible Nationals team in 2006.

Soriano is one of the few Dominican players to be signed as a free agent into the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NIPON) where he played for three seasons before being picked up by the Yankees. He is from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic.

Dominican player of the week Alfonso Soriano, photo by EmmyMik on Flickr