Odds and Ends

AllCubs.com discusses the Mark Prior saga.  It was interesting to see two very similar articles in two different newspapers this morning (Mariotti and Ladewski).  Of course, the Sun-Times and Daily Southtown are owned by the same company, so maybe it was a corporate mandate.  I don't understand the argument for the Cubs to cut ties with Prior and/or Wood.  Because they remind you of 2003?  These guys aren't expensive right now, so if there's a 10% chance they help you, you keep them around.  The Cubs aren't poor.  Any argument to release or trade these guys at 0.50 on the dollar so we can all "move on" is just irrational.

The big story today is Pete Rose admitting to betting on the Reds every night as their manager.  He's pretty careful to make sure we realize it was every single night.  If he took even one night off from betting, his gambling had a detrimental effect on the team overall.  That's because you'd expect him to save his players for the games on which he did bet.  For me, it's not just the gambling with Rose...it's all the lying.

RotoAuthority remembers 2005, which may help you find some undervalued players for your draft this Sunday.

 

Comments

[RotoRueter]

These Cubs writers are making the Prior/Wood saga much more complicated that it actually is.

Dusty Baker ran their arms into the ground, just as he's done with countless other pitchers. That's it.

[ReflectionEphemeral]

I agree, Tim. Rose's track record of lying makes anything he says subject to doubt.

"I never bet on baseball"/"I'll sign a statement that I bet on baseball"/"I never bet on baseball"/"OK, I bet like maybe a little on baseball"/"I bet on the Reds every night."

The only common thread is that it's all self-serving. Who the hell knows when his perception of what makes him looks best intersects with what actually happened.

Mariotti is the worst sort of sports journalist-- like Dan Shaugnessy in Boston. Always looking to generate heat not light. Fantasized and false controversies are real, real easy to write about. It's not like he's going to write a column about, say, Wade Miller looking to work with a new pitch and what that might mean. That would require (1) knowledge, and (2) reporting. Neither is his strong suit.

[RotoAuthority]

Agreed...Mariotti and the Sun-Times know his job is to incite controversy. And he's good at that, so I shouldn't let myself get caught up. But I do, because a lot of people read and believe his words.

[ReflectionEphemeral]

He should be held accountable for his factless, controversy-seeking articles until he's as irrelevant as he ought to be. You're doing Good by calling attention to his poor argument here.

[coolpapabell]

Ozzie was right, Mariotti is an idiot! Even with Prior's struggles, I wonder how he would fare in the open market?