Five Questions: The San Francisco Giants, by Steve Treder, March 25, 2008 is posted on THE HARDBALL TIMES. This is an excellent piece, worth your time. In fact, it is your homework assignment!
(And a hearty "thankee" to me bhoyos for keeping RMC's pulse a-pumpin' during my lovely Bend mini-vacation.)
3 comments:
As Mr. Treder says, "The entire works is in disarray." However, keep in mind that baseball is not just about winning ballgames, although that would definitely help. (Man, would it help.) It is also about marketing an entertaining product, and, by so doing, getting a lot of money flowing through the gates. That product was very much based around Barry Bonds and the number 755. There are always other considerations. How much money are the owners willing to spend? How much do you want a big name on your team? How badly do you want to sign a free agent to entertain the chattering masses? Are you throwing way too much money at Barry Zito because Soriano snubbed you? Who was it who said, "It's all about Bonds"? Seems wiser words were never uttered.
But sigh. They are even dissing us in Cleveland! From The Diatribe" at www.clevelandtribeblog.blogspot.com, "June 26th vs. San Francisco
Jake Westbrook goes all nine innings against the Giants, giving up an astonishing 14 hits…but only one run, perhaps aided by the seemingly impossible 8 GIDP that the geriatric Giants put on the board. Amazingly, the outing constitutes one of Westbrook’s worst of the season as he goes a long way to establishing himself as a viable #2 pitcher, posting a sub-3.75 ERA and an improved K rate. Westbrook will finish the season 2nd on the team in victories with a new career high of 17 victories, second only to Fausto Carmona’s repeat of 19 wins and just ahead of Sabathia’s injury-shortened total of 16."
I'm pretty sure my Brother is going to take credit for the "It's all about Bonds" quote.
So you might want to re-think that "wiser words were never uttered" comment.
As a terminal teacher, I figured my "homework" was to grade the article. My score is C-, at best.
I completely agree that this team has as many questions as roster spots. And picking out the top 5 is a tough task. But to use the #1 question to snark at Zito's contract was silly and almost blew the whole article right there. He's our #3 pitcher AND that makes him the big question BECAUSE???? Obviously the Progress of Matt and Tim (his question #3!) is THE QUESTION of '08. I also could not justify #5, another snark attack, at Omar this time. I suppose this is his attempt to question Sabean AND THAT is probably the other big question...how much longer til heads start to roll?
So, overall I thought about 3.5 out of 5 questions were "worth my time"...not very impressive. Keep sending along the fresh articles there buddy...and I'll keep ripping them up!
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