If You Are Going to Comment On the Giants, Please Be Up To Date

One of my pet peeves is media people who like to comment on the Giants and talk authoritatively as if they know everything.  That's part of the joy of being obessessive and compulsive, I can't stand being wrong and so I try to learn as much as I can about whatever subject it is I hope to know.  I once knew probably 80-90% of every movie that had come out, who the major stars were and what the general plot was, but marriage and particularly parenthood has stopped that passion.  So I really hate when media people get their facts wrong.

For example, the KNBR Sportsphone host has, for a long while now, typically received my ire here and elsewhere because they act like they know everything and while I'm a relatively tolerant person (for example, I enjoy listening to Ralph Barbieri in the afternoon still, after all these years; not everyone would do that), they would invariably say something that is patently not true about the Giants within 6-8 minutes and I would have to change my radio to another station, just to get away from that.   And I love sports, for example, I used to watch basketball, bowling and golf back in the 70's, when most people didn't, I mean, the NBA playoffs AND championships were so bad that they were broadcast after midnight, so as not to disturb prime time TV.   I frequently broke my bedtime curfew to watch the games.

Particularly galling since they are the Giants radio station, they should at least find somebody who can speak knowledgeably without mis-speaking "facts".    I can understand that they are under more scrutiny because of being the Giants home on the radio, and thus they can not be and should not be homers, but there is a way of being the Giants home without getting facts wrong.  Constantly.   That's part of being in the media, speaking to the true facts, not basing your opinions on things that are frankly not true.  That's the job of any media talking-head, speaking to the facts, they should be able to find someone who can do that, that should be the lowest the bar can be placed. 

Today's Whipping Horse is Baseball Prospectus

Another who gets on my nerve is Baseball Prospectus.  I believe they are biased against the Giants and I've written on it before.  They use every (or a lot of) opportunity they get to bash Sabean.  Here is a recent posting on their free Unfiltered blog, talking about a rumor from Chicago about the Giants:  

Phil Rogers is reporting that the Giants are looking for a First Baseman and are willing to give up one of their young starters to get one. He mentions Paul Konerko and Derrek Lee, but … really? Why give up Matt Cain for that when someone like Adam LaRoche is almost as good (on a straight VORP comparison) for much less. Previous rumors of a Prince Fielder for Cain deal must have died down.

As any good Giants fan should know, Sabean stated, unqualified and categorically, Cain and Lincecum are untouchables and  he believes he can trade other pitchers for what the Giants need, which he did not define other than middle-of-lineup power hitter, plus said that Sandoval was the probable starting 1Bman.  Now, of course, that's probably in pencil and he could be looking for a 1B, but I would have to assume 3B is his first priority.

Still, the main point is that any Giants fan with interest in the team would have known that Sabean has already pointed out these two as untouchables.  And any media pundit, or "expert", who feels qualified enough to comment, particularly on another media person's open speculation, should at least inform himself of what the situation is before he goes talking off a high horse about how the Giants shouldn't do that.  Or do they really believe that Dewey won the presidency long ago because the headline told them so?

And, thinking further on why they might write this anyway, if they don't believe that Sabean is telling the truth on that, then they should explain why they don't and give reasons why.   I don't accept them as experts on the Giants if they are not going to even get their facts straight.  

And I love Baseball Prospectus, I buy their book every year, I like getting their stats, and their commentary on individual players are pretty good and comprehensive.   I would subscribe but prefer to spend my money elsewhere, like food, CDs, movies, and the technology to do stuff like this.  But I still like their work.  

Giants Thoughts

And if I were to speculate based on what they reported, I would say that there is probably very little likelihood that the Pirates are going to trade with the Giants,  they have been burned twice, badly, in recent years by Sabean, first the Schmidt trade, then the Morris trade.  They are trying to rebuild their reputation with their fans and fans have long memories (just ask any of us :^), so if they were to make another trade with the Giants, they will probably burn some of the goodwill they have earned as new on the job people, and if the trade turn out badly - again - they would have probably lost a large portion of their fanbase who were willing to give them a fair shake (and particularly any of those fence-sitters who are still mad over the Pedro Alvaraez fiasco).   

And that Jason Bay trade isn't turning out so well so far, with Andy LaRoche and Craig Hansen doing so poorly, and Brandon Moss doing OK, but not great.  Even Morris, who is still in the minors, did poorly.   Unless the Giants made an offer they couldn't refuse - which they won't - they are not going to trade with us, there's too much bad history and too much that has gone wrong already in their short tenure. 

In addition, the Giants are looking for long-term solutions, not  short-term like Derrek Lee or Paul Konerko, and they might not even perform in the short-term.  For Lee, he has had pretty average seasons twice in the past three seasons, though an injury was part of it, but his GIDP almost doubled this year, which could be a sign that he is starting to physically slow up, as part of his value is his speed at the position.  And his power is way down from his peak years, he looks like he on his decline already, both in terms of power and speed.  

And for Konerko, he has had two straight years of decline, particularly in 2007 from his peak years, and he's basically been average the past two years.   In particular, he was way below average on the road in 2008 - he was horrible, .204/.295/.331/.626 - whereas before he was good both at home at his homer-happy park and on the road.  I would not give up much for him, he could be horrible for us at our un-homer-happy park for two years.  

And both for around $12-13M.  No thank you.   Again, it was media speculation based on media speculation, with Strum und Drang layered on because the first media speculation was pretty stupid when you look at it, but then the second media speculation gets to look good as if they were complaining about the team, when really they are complaining about the other media.