phdave wrote:

smitty wrote:I enjoy laughing at Baumann's writing but the last thing is just plain weird. Can't make heads or tails of it. Maybe he should stick to comparing his prospect evaluations to his failed attempts at getting some trim.

You must not finding comparing other bloggers to Nazis humorous.

Not if it stops kids from coming out, agreeing to deals or giving indications pre draft and then screwing over a team by getting greedy. Or if the agent flat out lies.

Or if it leads to changes in the system.

I don’t care if they ratted someone or not. I care that they got screwed out if their pick.

And that happened because the kids illegal agent gave them false information.

I’ll admit that I’m biased here, but I have a reason for that. I played by the NCAA rules. what no one understands is from the time you’re given a jockstrap you are ingraned on how to do things properly with regards to agents, and representatives.

And while a lot of people keep spouting off about how there are “unwritten rules” in regards to baseball players, that works both ways.

You don’t negotiate with a team in good faith, allow them to draft you, and then change your mind. thats part of this flawed system. I don’t care what the reasoning behind it is. It’s not this kid who got screwed, its the Phillies. plain and simple.

they were 100% in their rights to “rat this guy out” if thats how you want to term it, and the counterarguement that they should report everyone else who negotiated with an agent is ridiculous because every single one of those kids willingly gave up their eligibility to go back to school when they had someone begin to negotiate a contract and entered into an agreement to go into the draft.

The second that kids agent whoever it is, spoke to any team and said “he’s willing to sign for x dollars” that right went away. And as soon as a team drafted him, and started to negotiate in good faith he lost any right to bitch if this happens.

It’s flawed as F%$k. trust me. I know plenty of guys who were exploited in college and made zilch and never had the opportunity to be drafted, and I know some who have made millions of dollars.

and no, if this was purely out of spite? I’d feel differently and say so, but I know enough about how this shit works to believe thats not even remotely the case.

smitty wrote:

phdave wrote:

smitty wrote:I enjoy laughing at Baumann's writing but the last thing is just plain weird. Can't make heads or tails of it. Maybe he should stick to comparing his prospect evaluations to his failed attempts at getting some trim.

You must not finding comparing other bloggers to Nazis humorous.

Is that what he was doing there? I see Axis Sally mentioned. But I don't know what the hell is is writing about. One of the worst paragraphs of nonsensical combinations of words since they put those 1000 monkeys in a room with typewriters hoping to get the complete works of William Shakespeare out of them.

Ben Badler‏
@BenBadler 9h
Phillies Low-A shortstop J.P. Crawford had four hits with a home run today. Going to vault himself into elite prospect status very soon.

Michael Baumann
@MJ_Baumann
The modal outcome is failure.

I am so pissed. I don’t know that there’s any sports outcome that I’d trade a real-life thing I value for, but Fernandez is so awesome I’d come close. I’ll say this–I’d trade the health of a non-trivial Phillies player for a healthy Fernandez. Anybody but Utley, Lee and Hamels I’d give up in a heartbeat, and those three guy’s I’d have to think about.

Grotewold wrote:

I am so pissed. I don’t know that there’s any sports outcome that I’d trade a real-life thing I value for, but Fernandez is so awesome I’d come close. I’ll say this–I’d trade the health of a non-trivial Phillies player for a healthy Fernandez. Anybody but Utley, Lee and Hamels I’d give up in a heartbeat, and those three guy’s I’d have to think about.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:He'd rather see WFC Hamels getting TJS than Jose Fernandez?

pacino wrote:why we still track this guy? he's not funny, smart or irreverant. QUITE FRANKLY, he sucks

i bet he steals twitter posts

Relievers, Particularly Middle Relievers

(Glen Perkins, Pat Neshek, Francisco Rodriguez, Tony Watson)

These guys are the reason why only one of Chris Sale and Corey Kluber, two of the AL’s five Final Vote candidates, will go to Minnesota. Perkins and Watson in particular. Random variance practically demands that every year some quad-A washout will stumble into 40 innings with a microscopic ERA before falling back to Earth like a stricken albatross, and that’s Watson this year. And while Perkins is hardly a scrub, the standard of excellence for a reliever is a far cry from a 125 ERA+ in 36⅓ innings.

Can you explain exactly why Tony Watson is such a puzzling All-Star? Look at what he is doing! ERA, Strikeout rate, and all of the other appropriate stats (old school or new) show 1 of the best relievers in all of baseball, let alone the NL. He handles the 8th inning role and is far from a lefty specialist (splits arent severe at all). He is/will be murder on any AL lefty hitter late in the ball game. Just because he isnt a closer (yet) or a big name doesnt mean he isnt deserving. He has simply been the Pirates best reliever and one of the best in the game. If you watched him this year to any extent, you would see a guy who has utterly dominated in his role. He is absolutely deserving and I am not sure why you would think otherwise.

Not to mention the dude compares Watson being taken to the reason Chris Sales was left out. Except, you know, Sales plays in the American League and Watson in the National League. Basically does the same thing with Harrison comparing him to a guy who plays catcher for the Twins. But hey its the Pirates. They already were sending Cutch. How good they possibly have 3 All-Stars. I mean they suck, right? Oh wait, you mean they were in the playoffs last year? And wait, what? They are in second place in the NL Central this year just 4 1/2 out of first and know you don't say they have a better record than the Reds who have five guys going to the All-Star game. No, no that must be some misprint. My god this is the height of arrogance to write a column like this without any actual facts.

But I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering the dude writes about Philadelphia teams. Probably thinks Jimmy Rollins is still an All-Star. Maybe Ryan Howard too.