Dumbbutt media 2010

Why is Chris Rose allowed to do play by play? This is a development that I find completely disturbing.

jon heyman:

• Ichiro, with 179 hits, will need to hustle to get to 200 again.

why would he need to "hustle" to get to 200, he had 179 hits through 138 games, i think he can get 21 hits in the final 24....

(now at 183 through 140)

heyman hate maths

sometimes i wonder if heyman's just a big troll at this point, since his opinions via twitter are 100% of the time the 'wrong' ones by sabermetrics and associated logic. no one can be that perfectly imperfect without trying, right?

http://espn.go.com/mlb/notebook/_/page/bbtn100910/baseball-tonight-clubhouse

As the postseason draws near, however, there are also pressing reasons not to believe in the Rays. They don't hit very much. Yes, they've scored 57 runs in their last 10 games, but Tampa Bay is 23rd in the majors in batting average and 25th in hits.

Or you could say they are THIRD in what matters most: runs scored (behind the Yankees and Red Sox). But that wouldn't fit into the story.

there are questions without clear answers

Welcome to baseball.

Ichiro really had to throw it into overdrive to pick up 21 hits in 16 games.

If he could somehow harness that momentum and maintain it over the course of a grueling 162-game season, he'd end it with 213 hits. And he'd have to play every game to do that.

I am sorely tempted to create a Worst Sportswriter Poll -- y/n?

Uh Plaschke holds the title for this already. Sorry guys.

becuz hat guy just died, right?

Mitch Albom is worse in my opinion.

Lee, how about worst sportscaster? cuz listening/watching JT Snow enduces more awkward cringes per minute than I thought possible.

JT doesn't bother me much. I mean, compared to the Rob Dibbles of the world he is a saint.

Stuart "Left Eye" Scott

stuart "gonna just hold this football while i talk about football" scott

btw i know these aren't sportswriters, but this exec has some awesome old-school opinions:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jon_heyman/09/19/daily.scoop.monday/index.html

Here's one AL exec's well-reasoned explanation why he would favor Price or Sabathia slightly: "I think wins should factor in. I'm not a big proponent of wins counting for a lot, but it is a factor. I'm not into the extreme that wins are totally circumstantial. But I don't totally discount wins.

"Clearly, a bunch of guys are having superlative seasons. But it comes down to three guys -- Sabathia, Price and Felix, with (Clay) Buchholz, (Trevor) Cahill and Weaver in the next tier. I would probably go with Price. The peripheral numbers have been extremely impressive. Felix has the best peripheral numbers. ... But when the team needed him to win, I'm not sure how much winning he did at that point. If you're going to give it to a guy on a last-place team, the guy has to perform when he is needed most.''

billy beane?

the funny thing about that quote is that "second tier" guy weaver is having a *slightly* better season than sabathia except weaver just doesn't have what it takes to get those extra few wins.

I've seen/heard a few Felix-versus-CC discussions/arguments and JUST ONCE I would like someone to mention that, yeah, CC pitches in the almighty AL East, but he doesn't face THE YANKEES. Felix has faced the Yankees three times: 26 innings, one run, one earned, 31 Ks.

dan shaughnessy is so far and away the worst sportswriter in america that he makes mitch albom & bill plaschke look like gary smith

Good call, Jordan. Hate that guy.

i generally can't stand boston sportswriter homers

what lil weav lacks in cy youngs, he makes up for in his wealth of tacos

Has Shaughnessy ever written moralist articles in which inanimate objects talk to one another?

no but he writes the same 'red sox are a boring team this year' article the first week of EVERY season which pisses me off more than anything for some reason

i wonder how many more decades/championships it's gonna take for boston sportswriters to stop having auch a massive hard-on for the 2004 red sox that they can't fully appreciate any current players

it's kind of some weird reverse w/NYY where there are always one or two players on the current incarnation who are not "true" yankees, and in boston there are only one or two players who are "true" bosox.

*inverse

Uh Plaschke holds the title for this already. Sorry guys.

Lee, how about worst sportscaster? cuz listening/watching JT Snow enduces more awkward cringes per minute than I thought possible.

It's October, so everybody line up and give blowjobs to Derek Jeter:

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/columns/story?columnist=matthews_wallace&id=5645405

broken wrist (right arm): Typing this lefty (but not as well as Clif Lee!) -- Do you see the Mariners going after Jorge De La Rosa this offseason, they need another good pitcher even with the putrid offense.

Steven Goldman: Man, I did a similar thing when I was 16, broke my left thumb playing baseball and had a cast on up to my elbow for forever. There was one upside, which is that I got very good at unsnapping bras with one hand, a skill that has not deserted me to this day. Is that TMI?

uh, FUCK YES. Why am I reading about this in a baseball chat?

that's a joke son

TMI police (TMIville): So you've been cross-dressing for 20+ years?

Steven Goldman: Un-dressing. Others. Not cross-dressing. Not that there's anything wrong with that. If you've seen me, though, you know that the only possible upside to me in a dress is a potential career as the mother in the national touring company of "Hairspray."

Not 100% sure it's a joke, all of the BP guys try to channel Gammons and talk about music/gaming/books during their chats. A comment here and there, sure, but sometimes half of the questions in these chats are about some video game or crappy indie band these guys are listening to. Anyway, the point stands: I don't want to read this crap in a chat.

Maybe I'm coming across as an asshole here, and obv there is a section of BP's fanbase who enjoy mixing in a little gaming talk with their baseball. Plus it's not like I'm paying money to read these chats. But usually these diversions are obnoxious. Use Twitter if you want to make gaming recommendations.

No I find it kind of irritating too, but it depends on the % to me. Kevin Goldstein answers a billion questions so I care less when he has one or two questions about Naked Raygun or whomever (he's probably desperate for a diversion at that point.) Other guys it seems like every other question is about gaming or what to read and that's usually when I just give up and read something else.

i like steven goldman, don't think there's really anything to see here

he's not a klaw type who's going to go on about his shitty taste in music afaik

Yeah I can't read Law chats any more. The few insights about prospects are sprinkled with so much nonsense about shitty bands, books, cooking, and snark about Yankees/Red Sox's fans (who admittedly totally deserve it) that it's like "I just wanted to know what scouts think about Mike Trout! Why are you talking about Dostoyevsky??!?!"

Baseball journalists -- the ones on Twitter, at least --- could probably band together to publish a Paste-type magazine. The only time I've seen chatter about anything other than MOR indie rock was when Amy Nelson and Howard Bryant discussed Cameo and Funkadelic.

And I suppose we have Derek Jeter to thank for that.

(Not like I've expected someone like Jon Paul Morosi to tweet about a shipment from Hardwarx, but...)

Hardwax, even.

fakejonahkeri
This Raime 12" is dope.

klaw's big find of the year was fucking mumford and sons

Goldman likes to work in Star Wars and Preston Sturges

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/yankees/2010/11/scout-jeter-deserved-gold-glov.html

"Before, he was above average range-wise, and now he’s just average. I don’t think his defense is going to become a negative for him for quite some time," the scout said. "They say that great outfielders never have to dive, I think that applies to Jeter, too.

"Because he’s older, a little more wise and he knows opposing hitters, how infields play, his catcher, his pitcher - all those factors. Good shortstops have instincts, and I put an 80 on his instincts this year.

"If you were going to create a baseball player, you’d want him to have Derek Jeter’s brain. That’s part of who he is and that’s never going to change, even if he’s a tick slower. He’s smarter than he was when he was younger."

there's a lot of dumb scouts out there y'know

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/510665-derek-jeter-the-ridiculous-stupid-clueless-speculation-continues

<3

god where do they dig up the people who write on bleacher report, that site is seriously the worst.

He led the league in plate appearances.
He was 10th in the league in times on base.

John Jaso goes through life to a little different beat.

Take his iPod for starters. Rather than filling his ears with rap music that's so popular with most of his teammates, he's listening to classic rock, including a lot of stuff from the 1960s and early '70s -- like The Beatles, Neil Young and Led Zeppelin.

what a lede

yeah that's been going on for almost two years; it's not very good but will no doubt get there eventually

Oops. Turned up on my FB wall yesterday--I ought to check dates.