Clack,

We both will turn out to be wrong to me then. The problem with Lee is that his agent knows that he and Soriano are the ONLY marquee free agents this off-season, so someone will pay him marquee bucks. I do think Lee will be a consistent 30 HR threat, but consistent 30 home run threats aren't worth 13 million a season. In fact, the Brewers are really offering him more money than he's worth. If I were them I'd trade him, get some prospects and count my lucky stars.

Just a quick look at Soriano and Lee this year and with career averages (per 162 games)

2006
. . . . . . . .AVG. . .OBP. . .SLG. . .HR. . .SO. . .BB
Soriano. . .289. . ..364. . .597. . ..32. . .91. . .45
Lee. . . . ..286. . ..347. . .549. . ..28. . .39. . .38

Seasonal per 162
. . . . . . . .AVG. . .OBP. . .SLG. . .HR. . .SO. . .BB
Soriano. . .281. . ..325. . .511. . .35. . .138. . .36
Lee. . . .. .284. . ..334. . .494. . .30. . ...89. . .50

I'll be damned if we're going to pay Berkman money to either of these two. Let's face it, neither are going to win a Gold Glove anytime soon and neither play a difficult defensive position. Honestly, compare these numbers to Berkman's career line and tell me they compare.

However, if someone held a gun to my head and said pick one, I'd probably pick Lee. His 2006 is more in line with his career numbers, so you can expect close to this level of production from here on out. Soriano's season screams CAREER YEAR. Signing him to a long-term deal would be akin to the Mariners signing Beltre a couple of years ago.

It would be great of Lee could continue to cut his Ks like he has this year, but I'm not too optimistic. Plus, as someone else pointed out, he will need to be moved to first in a few years. That will be great during interleague play in AL parks, but bad elsewhere. I suppose we could guess that MMP's short left field could prolong that some, but looking at these possibilities just points me more in the direction of Tejada.
I'm down with OBP (yeah you know me).