I live in NY, and I have seen a lot of the Yankees. Soriano is VASTLY overrated. Did you see the guy in the playoffs? He is horrible defensively and has no plate discipline whatsoever. And Soriano will have not have nearly the protection in the Rangers lineup that he had in NY. If you think this trade is good in any way for Texas, I have some swampland to sell you.
I watch probably 100-140 regular season yankee games a year on tv, so I have seen him play a lot. If he has more years like last year, I agree with you completely. Despite decent number during the year, he seemed to swing at everything. In the post season he was awful...for the second year in a row. Ever since he began pressing late in the 2002 season to get his 40/40 season, he has been a mess. Previous to that he, he was awesome. I expect he will return to that form and develop the discipline. His fielding certainly could improve, and I expect it will, or he will be in the outfield soon.