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Media criticism
Snark Weak
Snark is the blogging equivalent of pennies: easy to throw around, but no matter how much is thrown, it doesn't buy much. Using too much of it in one place is a real jerk move, but when one just don't have any currency more valuable to offer, for a short while you can make due with each.
That weak analogy aside, let's snark up the Cubs sports media. From the headlines at the Sun-Times, I learn...
Bench player doesn't mind the opportunity to play every day
Pitcher has a tired arm, therefore he will rest it.
Player would prefer not to hold an unflattering record.
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Tribune Shows How Not To Write an Online Poll
The latest article from Phil Rogers also discusses the Cubs interest in Mark Teahen. I still can't fathom why the Cubs would be interested in a player with a 98 and 91 OPS+ the last two years. Rogers suggests that Felix Pie for Teahen would get the deal done or Mike Fontenot and Ronny Cedeno. I suggest that Phil Rogers finds a new profession and the Cubs actually acquire someone who might help the team.
The best part of the article though is the poll at the bottom of the page.
Awful Reporting
From this morning's Tribune and Steve Rosenbloom...
If you're rating the last 10 games for each team, the Sox get more style points than the Cubs. Sure, the Cubs went 8-2 while the Sox went 7-3, but the Sox did that on the West Coast, while the Cubs were at home.
Sure, the Cubs played better, won more games, faced teams with a higher combined winning percentage (.488 to .455) and outscored their opponents by a wider margin (+27 to +13), but the White Sox did it while they were sleeping with their road groupies and the Cubs players got to sleep in their own beds. That makes all the difference in the world...because this is the NBA all of a sudden.
The Sox also did it against the one good team that either team played, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the United States of the Northern Hemisphere of Earth,
Haha, see what Steve did there? He took a joke that's three years old and recycled it.
coming back in the last two games to get a split.
Wow, the White Sox split a four-game series on the road versus a good team that just got back its best starter for that series and is still missing Kelvim Escobar, Howie Kendrick and Chone Figgins. That's incredible work there by the White Sox. I mean they managed to play .500 baseball versus a depleted team. Print up the playoff tickets for winning 5 of 6 against two teams with winning percentages at or below .400.
To be fair, The Cubs did play against some lightweights in the last series, the just-below .500 Pirates, the woeful Padres and the Diamondbacks, who just happen to have the best record in baseball.
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Recent comments
crunch (view)
bases loaded for the cubs, 0 out...and no runs score.
cubbery.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Walker was a complimentary piece who was well past his prime. Edmonds, Holliday, Ozzie Smith and a few others were good trades. Notably, they have almost always been quiet in the free agent market. But the fundamental workings of the organization were always based primarily upon the constant output of a well oiled minor league organization. That organization has ground to a halt. And when did that hard stop start to happen? Right at the beginning of the Goldschmidt/Arenado era, perpetuated by the Contreras signing, followed by the rotation purchases during the last offseason. The timing is undeniable and, in my mind, not coincidental.
Again, we are all saying that player development became deemphasized. I’m just linking it directly to the recent trades and involvement in the free agent market. I don’t see how the two concepts can be decoupled.
Charlie (view)
The Cards also traded for both Jim Edmonds and Larry Walker. It's the developing part that has fallen off. Of course, it could also be the case that there are no more Matt Carpenters left to pull out of the hat.
Childersb3 (view)
Cubs sign 28 yr old RHRP Daniel Missaki. He was in MiLB from his 17yr old to 19yr old years and did pretty well.
He's been in Mexico and Japan the last four years and has done well also.
He's supposedly Japanese and Brazilian.
Interesting sign. We obviously need to RP in the system
Injuries are mounting everywhere!!
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Sure, they made generally short term trades for established players to enhance what they already had or traded for players early enough in their careers that they were essentially Cardinals from the start. What they never did was to try to use the more established players as foundational cornerstones.
Essentially we’re saying the same thing. They have given up on player development to the point that even their prospects that make it to the bigs flop so that they have to do things like buy most of their rotation and hope for the best.
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
I don’t buy that. They had been doing that for years.
They did it with Matt Holliday. They did it with John Lackey. They did it with Mark Mulder. They did it with Jason Heyward, who had a great year for them. I’m sure there’s more but those come to mind immediately.
I attribute it more to a breakdown in what they’re doing in terms of development than a culture thing.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
They won those trades and sacrificed their culture. That’s exactly their problem.
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
The other part that’s kind of crazy is they made two very high profile trades, one for Goldschmidt and one for Arenado, and they very clearly won those trades. They just haven’t been able to develop players the last handful of years the way they usually do.
I guess the moral there is it’s hard to stay on top of your game and be good at what you do in perpetuity.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Marmol was extended at the beginning of the year. Two years I believe.
crunch (view)
Jesse Rogers @JesseRogersESPN
Craig Counsell doesn’t have a timetable for Cody Bellinger who technically has two cracked ribs on his right side. CT scan showed it today.