Love The Bomb Part I: Sell on Soto

Detective Batista over there is getting outperformed by a catcher many thought was organizational depth after hitting just 21 HRs over 2000+ plate appearances in the minors in the last six seasons. Steve Clevenger also seems to be outperforming Soto behind the plate. Per Doug Padilla of ESPN Chicago:

"Clevenger has made just five starts and has only 22 at-bats, but still leads the club with five doubles and starting pitchers have a 1.88 when he starts, compared to a 5.29 ERA when he doesn’t." 

For a guy with a defensive skills of the average replacement (-0.1 career dWAR), Soto needs to be providing value from the plate. In his breakout rookie year of 2008, he had an oWAR of 4.0 on a .285 average with 86 RBIs. While also a function of the declining lineup around him, Soto has fallen off since '08, not breaking 500 plate appearances or 55 RBIs in the last three seasons.

2012 Cubs Season Preview Part IV - Bench

DeWitt, Reed, Baker, Mather, Clevenger. Names that may inspire a night at the bottom of the bottle if they're in your team's starting lineup. But if they're available off your bench? Not that terrible, especially when considering the reinforcements (Rizzo, Jackson, Castillo, Sappelt) that will likely push them off the roster by the end of the summer.

Below are summaries on what each of the current bench players brings to the roster and who is pushing for their job in the upper reaches of the system.