Sammy Sosa Joins the AL East
Or was that Sammy Sooser? The Baltimore Orioles continue to ignore starting pitching and concentrate on getting big name hitters by acquiring Sosa this evening. Orioles owner Peter Angelos probably feels pressure to stock up on some superstars to compete for fan attention with the Washington Nationals coming to the area, as well as keep up with the Red Sox and Yankees. Sosa was traded for Jerry Hairston, Jr. and players to be named later. Some batting match-ups between Sosa and a few Red Sox pitchers:
| Pitcher | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Curt Schilling | 52 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 2 | 21 | .327 | .339 | .788 | 1.128 |
| Wade Miller | 24 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 10 | .292 | .346 | .375 | .721 |
| Matt Clement | 16 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | .188 | .350 | .438 | .788 |
| David Wells | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .300 | .364 | .300 | .664 |
The Clement and Wells sample sizes are small and hardly relevant, but I have included them anyway. Sosa gets a lot of extra bases off Curt Schilling, but his strikeout rate is also fairly high at 40%. I imagine he’ll be batting behind Miguel Tejada, providing the shortstop with some protection.
He can’t pitch, though.
