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Friday, July 25, 2008

How Little BP Pays Attention to the Giants

I've complained before about what I see as Baseball Prospecutus' bias against the Giants - I like their work but that's how I see it. They seem like they are run by A's fans because they like to take pot shots at the Giants whenever they can - and ironically they fully supported the A.J. Pierzynski trade that every Giants fans lambaste today but nobody seemed to notice that.

With Free Week at BP, I ran across this article at BP, won't bother linking because it'll end soon, I realized. Here is the text, which analyze transactions made by the team:
The pity of having Roberts back is that while it's worthwhile to get him straight back into the lineup to showcase him as much as possible before the deadline, and while it's equally sensible to keep Randy Winn in the lineup for the same reason, the problem is that starting both and playing the club's best corner outfielder at the same time is a mutually exclusive proposition, because Fred Lewis has done nothing that merits his getting taken out of the lineup. Still, this should pass, since the odds that both Roberts and Winn are still on the roster on August 1 have to be less than 50-50, because failing that, one of the vets will have to sit, and that's going to lead to complaints, and that isn't going to help Brian Sabean get anything close to value.

Anybody who has bothered to read up on the Giants in recent weeks would know that the Giants plan on playing Lewis and that Roberts will come off from the bench. In fact, this has been basically acknowledged in the press for a few months now, as Roberts gave an interview to sfgiants.com where he was asked what if he comes back and Lewis continues to start, and Roberts said that he knows that is a strong possibility and that he's OK with it, he would find ways to contribute to the team from off the bench. In fact, I've read that even while he was in rehab, he was working with young players.

Now, whether he means that or not is another thing. But at least his story has been consistent, when it was closer to him returning, he again noted the same self-less aim to help the team in any fashion that he can. And he seems like a very sincere and open fellow, appreciative of the benefits that being a major league baseball player provides, so his response rang true with me on my B.S. meter.

In addition, anybody reading up on the Giants recently would know that Fred Lewis is battling a painful bunion that is so serious that if it were operated on to take care of it, it would take 8 months to recover from it. So, it would actually make sense to give Lewis some rest right now in particular, to give his bunion an extended rest, heck, DL him for two weeks to give Roberts extended play and showcase him while letting Lewis get some relief. They should have just dropped him and brought up Roberts at that point, though I still wonder if I'm right with my speculation that they would finally put him under the knife in August so that he's ready around the start of the 2009 season - wait any longer and he's gone for a big part of the 2009 season.

So the questions that immediately comes to my mind is multi-fold. Do they care about the quality of what they write? Perhaps this was a glitch, but anyone following the Giants carefully would know this. Perhaps they feel that they don't need to follow any team that carefully, but then why are they selling their services for very good money. Perhaps they simply don't care about the Giants but that is not a healthy position for an organization that should be objective to take. Maybe they just don't care about their customers, they will just accept what they do or "No Stats FOR YOU!", in the tradition of that soup server in Seinfeld. I do wonder.

4 comments:

  1. I agree that BP takes cheap shots at the Giants. I wonder why?

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  2. woah woah woah.. Is fred lewis going to miss the rest of the season?

    How serious are they about operating on that thing?

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  3. Since Lewis sounds like he is great pain caused by this affirmity, though his performances don't appear to show it, I assume they are pretty serious about it.

    But I'm no doctor, is there a way to recover from a bunion completely without surgery? With an 8 month recovery period, I assume this is serious stuff.

    Thus far, they don't sound like they are going to operate on it. But if they wait for the off-season, 8 months mean from October to May, so he won't be back until June at the earliest, then you never know when there are setbacks in the recovery process.

    Not sure how much of that 8 months include Lewis rehabbing in the minors, though...

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  4. About why BP does that, I know that some of them were located in the East Bay of SF Bay, so I've always suspected that they are A's fans.

    I've yet to meet an A's fan who wouldn't throw their World Series in my face when I was growing up in the East Bay as a Giants fan, they like to rub it in. Any true baseball fan should understand how we Giants fans feel about that and sympathize and/or empathize. And they pop up regularly on Giants sites to do that as well, though I know those are trolls, but still, not very pleasant. I've had a few on my blog as well.

    I rooted for the A's in the early 70's when they were winning those, but don't really care about them either way now, other than as a baseball fan I follow all the teams (plus now as a fantasy baseball GM). But I do take secret pleasure when they disappoint their fans, I must admit. Still, I don't root for that to happen, so It's not like I want them to do bad, I just don't care either way, whereas if the D-gers go 0-162, I would be very happy.

    If there are nice A's fans, I haven't been lucky enough to meet them yet, though now I recall that the Catfish A's website (Catfish Stew?) was nice to me, I asked a question about Zito and he was very civil with me.

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