Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 18, 2004
Pounding Plaschke

In my roundup of LA Times stories on the hiring of Paul DePodeta, I pointed to this negative story by Bill Plaschke. I didn't comment on it much, other to say that Plaschke was dismissive of DePodesta. The greater blogosphere has taken up the slack and given it a right fisking, mostly on the idea that Plaschke doesn't know that Branch Rickey used statistical analysis in making his baseball decisions.

Aaron Gleeman attacks on this front.

Matt Welch invents a new award, the "Moneyboner of the Day," and gives the first to Plaschke.

Baseball Primer has a whole thread dedicated to this article, again, ripping Plaschke for the Rickey reference.

Just to add my two cents on Rickey, one of my favorite quotes of his is, "Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late." That seems to be a philosophy adopted by the Oakland Athletics, and I'm sure one that DePodesta knows very well.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:41 AM | News Media | TrackBack (1)
Comments

Plaschke was on Around the Horn on ESPN (most entertaining show on TV: I love watching people just out-shout each other. There's something really perverse about it) yesterday defending himself, claiming that Moneyball looks good on paper, but still hasn't won a playoff series. Didn't the Red Sox beat the A's last year? Last I checked, Theo employed Bill James.

Posted by: Daniel at February 18, 2004 10:19 AM

Aaron Gleeman's column today on Branch Rickey is excellent. He took the time to look up the 1954 Life article in which Rickey expounded upon the importance of OBA and the worthlessness of RBI and errors as performance indicators. Gleeman's final quote from Plashke's 2-year-old column on Barry Bonds is hilarious as well.

I look forward to the day when sports journalism ceases to be a refuge for 4th-rate hacks that couldn't pass muster in "real" journalism. Blogs such as yours, as well as sites such as Primer and Prospectus are helping to accelerate the trend towards higher standards and quality in sports reporting. Thanks for your efforts!

Posted by: Mark B. at February 18, 2004 12:45 PM

Maybe we have an inflated perception of our imprtance, but some of us in the Mariners blogosphere believe that we have influenced the Seattle P-I Mariners coverage.

Since the Mariners blogosphere went into hyperdrive this offseason. P-I coverage has become decidedly more skeptical. They at times actually present a contrasting viewpoint to the information released by the team.

Several of us have corresponded with P-I reporters, so we know they are looking at some of our material. Echoes of our posts show up in their coverage. And the P-I Mariners blog regularly points readers to other bloggers.

The Seattle Times, OTOH, ....

Posted by: Steve at February 18, 2004 03:24 PM