Bill Conlin makes a case against Soriano. Although he starts with some Bill James statistics, it's really the strikeouts that bother him:

That's how 473 strikeouts look all lined up to march into box scores, ready to kill rallies. That's how many times Ryan Howard (181), Soriano (160) and Utley (132) walked slowly back to the dugout last season.

You're talking about the 3-4-5 spots in the Phillies' batting order. And, yes, the thought of the 136 homers they hit last season is intoxicating. However, the mind boggles at the stranded RISP numbers all those strikeouts represent. Abandon all hope should general manager Pat Gillick be stuck with Mr. Irrelevant in leftfield. Pat Burrell had an amazing 131 strikeouts last season in just 462 at-bats. That raises the 2006 total for the quartet to 604. That's three mortal-lock Ks in the bank for each of 162 games.

The basic premise at work is the menace of Soriano on deck would keep managers from pitching around Howard, particularly with an open base. Remember, Soriano racked up his 160 while mainly leading off for the Nationals. If the guy was swinging at paper cups blowing past the plate in a spot where getting on base any whichway used to be the idea, imagine him in the four hole.

That returns us to baserunning, of course. If Charlie Manuel sticks Fonzi's righthanded bat between his lefty swingers, Howard would have to hit No. 3.

That is simply flawed thinking. If you had to clone a prototypical No. 4 hitter, you would come up with the current Ryan Howard model.

But you also would be stuck with the sixth-least efficient baserunner in the majors. Howard runs hard. He runs with good judgment. He just runs slower than bulk-rate mail. Utley is a plus 27. Ryan is a minus 21, which ties him with Burrell and reflects 4-for-24 going first to third, 9-for-16 second to home and 8-for-14 first to home.

So now assume Charlie has 40-40 man Soriano hitting behind Howard. So they single back-to-back with one out. No stolen base there - Howard is camped on second. Utley lines a single to right. Howard is held at third. Soriano is forced to slam on the brakes at second. Bases loaded, one out. That's three stranded runners waiting to happen.

Of course, if Soriano is actually going to put up a .360 OBA, he's a better leadoff hitter than Rollins. So one way around this is batting Soriano leadoff and Rollins 8th. Or bat Utley third and Howard fifth, or just don't worry all that much about batting lefties back-to-back. Utley 3rd, Howard 4th, Soriano 5th will work just fine.