Cubs Trade Tom Gorzelanny To Nationals

Er, ThePenismightier, we mean. Revisit exciting memories from the 2009 season here!

Look for the second edition of BtI before the 2011 season starts!

As swipes go, Sully’s definitely leaves a bit of a mark. But I have to agree with elgato, and I’ll go a bit further:

Al does start from the point of reflexively agreeing with everything that the Ricketts and the front-office higher-ups do.

Sometimes, he eventually comes around to disagreement. But not lately. Even when he had disagreed with a proposed move the day prior – when it becomes an actual move, he’ll change his opinion and vociferously defend the front office’s decision.

Take, for instance, the Ricketts’ request for $200M in taxpayer funds. Al came out with a front-page story on Day 1 strongly in favor of the deal, calling it a “win-win”, despite the fact that (and I’m being charitable here) he didn’t have a full grasp of all the facts and details of the deal. (Frankly, I’m not sure anyone did at that point.) Still, that first story (11/16/10) contained statements from Al like:

“It’s not quite as simple as some make it out to be when they say, “This is public money for a private project”, and

“The proposal made today by Tom Ricketts … I believe addresses this without taking money away from anything else”, and

“Cubs president Crane Kenney told me that tax revenues that would be generated by the economic activity that is created by these projects is projected to be many times over the amount of amusement tax that would be used to retire the bonds.”

Even several weeks later, when the plan had been soundly rejected, Al still disputed that the $200M in public money was a “gift” to the Cubs, claiming that “it was going to be paid back somehow.”

Now, I know that Al is not a journalist per se. But Al does have a very large readership, and it seems fairly obvious that a sizeable chunk of the BCB community tends to rely on him as an opinion leader.

I think that in many cases, BCB would be well served to hold back on the “We agree with Hendry/Ricketts!” pronouncements until BCB understands all of the angles in play – and even when making such pronouncements, BCB would be well served to strike a little more of the analytical tone Josh77 did in his “What We Gave Up” post on 1/7, as opposed to the “Why the Matt Garza Trade Is A Good Deal For the Cubs, Part One/Deux” posts that flanked it. (But that’s just my personal preference – I am sure that others love cheerleading.)

More to my point – There’s no question that, in recent years, Al has been granted more access to the Cubs than any other independent blogger. There’s also very little question that he’s advocated on behalf of the current front office more than any other (prominent) independent blogger.

It goes without saying that there’s no quid pro quo in play – that would be silly. But as an “ad hoc” thing, at some point, it starts to look like relaying the party line in exchange for enjoying this continued access.

And I can’t say that I wouldn’t be swayed in the same way. I probably would. That kind of access would be a blast.

But you have to be willing to absorb the slings and arrows from the Sullivans out there if you’re going to take that path.

When he sticks to passing along factual information about the team, he’s adequate. But he’s taken so many unwarranted, unfunny shots at various Cubs players that his objectivity is dubious at best. And his shot at Al above (and ridiculous blocking of many of his Twitter followers) reveals a very condescending, out-of-touch attitude regarding bloggers and the Internet at large.

I think Garza will have an ERA below 3.50 with the Cubs. That’s a significant difference.

Cain’s career ERA is 3.45; his FIP, 3.84.

FIP takes into account only the things he can control—homers, walks, and strikeouts. The rest (grounders, flies, liners, errors, etc.) are included in ERA. FIP is helpful because (at least in my mind) I envision the pitcher against the hitter and nobody else. Every other outcome depends on a defensive teammate. Since Cain has been in the league (2005) the Giants have been a pretty good defensive team.

Differences in ERA/FIP are accounted for by stuff like BaBIP, pitching with/out runners on base, liners, luck, etc. If I had to make a somewhat-educated guess, Cain benefits from a good defensive team behind him.

Dan

But he’s much, much closer to being Paul Maholm than being a TOR.

But that’s the power of FIP: 5.06 ERA/3.35 FIP/3.28 xFIP in 2009. Career high (thus far) BABIP of .336. Ricky ran into some very bad luck.

I also can’t help but notice that Randy Wells was more valuable than Nolasco in 2010. Interesting…

That always happens right?