Slobberin' to Criticize
Phil Rogers, the Tribune "baseball expert" who picked Detroit (currently the 26th-best team in the majors) to win the Central Division this year, is so desperate to drag down the White Sox that he creates two new presumed fictions in his "Whispers" column in Sunday's Tribune.
Rogers quite fairly trashes Detroit Tigers infielder Miguel Cabrera, whose marks of .218 with runners in scoring position and .107 in close-and-late situations are simply pathetic. But Dr. Phil can't resist tweaking the South Side faithful, whose money apparently isn't green enough to help rescue his flailing, conflicted "newspaper" out of a debt that has mounted to billions. Asks Phil:
Remember when White Sox fans were angry [Ken] Williams didn't trade for Miguel Cabrera?
Yeah, Phil, White Sox fans were positively freaking out over the fact that Detroit sozzled the Florida Marlins with blue-chippers and didn't so much as sneeze at absorbing twiglegged BP tosser Dontrelle Willis in the process. Yeah, there was some surprise that Detroit would feel a need to augment its Motown Murderer's Row with yet another big bat. Certainly after the Tribune and other media outlets painted White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as nothing short of Cabrera's favorite uncle, best baseball bud, and personal Jesus all rolled into one, the Migster's swap to a division rival was a shock.
And who could blame Phil for his outrage over the White Sox not being able to just go out and get whatever player they wanted? After all, his employer has committed more than $300 million in salaries to players, deserving or not, in just the past two offseasons. Apparently, if you're not rocking free agency old-school Yankees style by dumping $18 mil a year on an outfielder who is as mobile on the Shrine's green grass as a tree sloth, you're not doing much to GM a ballclub.
But as dumb as Rogers' Miggy-baiting was, worse still was the low blow on Williams and his son, Wichita State outfielder Kenny Williams Jr.
Rogers claims that a "draft source" called the White Sox's sixth-round plucking of Junior "a reach." (Far be it for us to expect real detail here, Phil, particularly when you're dissing the GM's son.) Dr. Phil cites no statistics or context for either the source's dismissal of Williams Jr. or his own decision to pad his column with a blind attack on Williams himself. Of course, this is nothing new; citation is Rogers' Kryptonite.
And worse, Rogers completely ignores the drama behind the situation. In its draft-day story, the Associated Press reports that, essentially, the entire White Sox draft war room had to persuade Williams that he shouldn't pass up picking his son in the sixth round.
All Rogers had to do in order to offer a more legitimate analysis of the pick and duck the sort of criticism he's getting here was read the wire story that everyone and his hamster had access to within hours of the pick.
Because it's pretty clear that research and reporting aren't Dr. Phil's strong suits, the Chicago Cubune Watch will make an exception and run to his aid before he slags Williams or his son off in a second straight "Whispers":
Shame on him for lazily extending his apparent personal vendetta against Williams, and moreso his sham newspaper for allowing such pseudo-journalism to run unabated, week after week, year after year.
Why is Dr. Phil so agitated? Shouldn't he celebrate the lone successful GM in the city of Chicago?
And by the way, memo to the Trib editors--next time Phil inserts one of his presumably fictional, anonymous sources to discredit the ballclub across town, at least change the dopey label "draft source." They're called scouts.
(And if they're not scouts, why the hell is Rogers "quoting" them in the first place?)
--William Melvin and Brett Ballantini
Rogers quite fairly trashes Detroit Tigers infielder Miguel Cabrera, whose marks of .218 with runners in scoring position and .107 in close-and-late situations are simply pathetic. But Dr. Phil can't resist tweaking the South Side faithful, whose money apparently isn't green enough to help rescue his flailing, conflicted "newspaper" out of a debt that has mounted to billions. Asks Phil:
Remember when White Sox fans were angry [Ken] Williams didn't trade for Miguel Cabrera?
Yeah, Phil, White Sox fans were positively freaking out over the fact that Detroit sozzled the Florida Marlins with blue-chippers and didn't so much as sneeze at absorbing twiglegged BP tosser Dontrelle Willis in the process. Yeah, there was some surprise that Detroit would feel a need to augment its Motown Murderer's Row with yet another big bat. Certainly after the Tribune and other media outlets painted White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as nothing short of Cabrera's favorite uncle, best baseball bud, and personal Jesus all rolled into one, the Migster's swap to a division rival was a shock.
And who could blame Phil for his outrage over the White Sox not being able to just go out and get whatever player they wanted? After all, his employer has committed more than $300 million in salaries to players, deserving or not, in just the past two offseasons. Apparently, if you're not rocking free agency old-school Yankees style by dumping $18 mil a year on an outfielder who is as mobile on the Shrine's green grass as a tree sloth, you're not doing much to GM a ballclub.
But as dumb as Rogers' Miggy-baiting was, worse still was the low blow on Williams and his son, Wichita State outfielder Kenny Williams Jr.
Rogers claims that a "draft source" called the White Sox's sixth-round plucking of Junior "a reach." (Far be it for us to expect real detail here, Phil, particularly when you're dissing the GM's son.) Dr. Phil cites no statistics or context for either the source's dismissal of Williams Jr. or his own decision to pad his column with a blind attack on Williams himself. Of course, this is nothing new; citation is Rogers' Kryptonite.
And worse, Rogers completely ignores the drama behind the situation. In its draft-day story, the Associated Press reports that, essentially, the entire White Sox draft war room had to persuade Williams that he shouldn't pass up picking his son in the sixth round.
All Rogers had to do in order to offer a more legitimate analysis of the pick and duck the sort of criticism he's getting here was read the wire story that everyone and his hamster had access to within hours of the pick.
Because it's pretty clear that research and reporting aren't Dr. Phil's strong suits, the Chicago Cubune Watch will make an exception and run to his aid before he slags Williams or his son off in a second straight "Whispers":
- This season, Williams Jr. hit .325 with 16 stolen bases for Wichita State.
- White Sox scouting director Doug Laumann calls Williams Jr. "somewhat of a project" and a "high-risk, high-reward guy."
- Laumann says Williams was not in the draft room when the White Sox picked his son, saying the GM really struggled with having him join the team. Reading between the lines, all indications are that Williams disassociated himself from the pick--at least as much as a GM can on draft day.
Shame on him for lazily extending his apparent personal vendetta against Williams, and moreso his sham newspaper for allowing such pseudo-journalism to run unabated, week after week, year after year.
Why is Dr. Phil so agitated? Shouldn't he celebrate the lone successful GM in the city of Chicago?
And by the way, memo to the Trib editors--next time Phil inserts one of his presumably fictional, anonymous sources to discredit the ballclub across town, at least change the dopey label "draft source." They're called scouts.
(And if they're not scouts, why the hell is Rogers "quoting" them in the first place?)
--William Melvin and Brett Ballantini
Labels: "Draft Source", ken williams, Personal Vendetta, Phil Rogers, Pseudo-Journalism, Sozzled With Blue-Chippers, Twiglegged BP Tosser Dontrelle Willis
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