This Andy Van Slyke radio rant is making the rounds. It seems his son told him that Clayton Kershaw wants Yasiel Puig gone from the Dodgers. Van Slyke also blames Robinson Cano for everyone on the Mariners getting fired:
“Your highest-paid, supposedly best player — I mean, Robinson’s not a bad guy. Let me just say that before I say anything bad about how he played. But Robinson Cano was the single-worst, third-place, everyday player I’ve ever seen — I’ve ever seen for the first half of a major-league baseball season. He couldn’t drive home Miss Daisy if he tried. Couldn’t do it. He couldn’t get a hit when it mattered. He played the worst defense I’ve ever seen at second — I mean I’m talking about the worst defensive second baseman EVER, I’ve ever seen in 20 years in the big leagues.
“He couldn’t catch the ball, he couldn’t … well, I take that back. Any ball that was hit to him, it was an out. Any ball that he had a chance to turn a double play, he’s still maybe one of the best in the game today. Great arm. But I’m telling you Frank: Robinson Cano cost the GM his job, the hitting coach got fired because of Cano, and the manager and the coaches got fired because of Cano because that’s how much of an impact he has on the organization.”
The problem, of course, is that Cano was sick the first half of the season, suffering as a result of a parasitic infection. Maybe he should have sat down until he was better.
Van Slyke didn’t do anything in that rant that will encourage another team to hire him.
I’m sure the M’s are hoping for more from Cano, but if Van Slyke truly believes that a 3 WAR season is the worst everyday performance he’s ever seen, then he has no business in a clubhouse—even if he didn’t give an unhinged interview on sports talk radio.
Wow, Van Slyke comes off as quite the jackass in this interview.
The thought occurred to me, listening to his “analysis,” that Van Slyke is rather like Joe Morgan — a guy who as a player was a sabrmetric model of smart, winning play on both sides of the ball, but who in thinking and speaking about the game evinces very little understanding of what made him such a good player. Instead, a lot of palaver about the importance of intangibles, “protection” in the batting order, and other such rot. Morgan, though, isn’t a jerk.
Jack » I agree.
I like SVS, but if he’s gossiping to his father about Puig and Kershaw he needs to be gone. That crap should not be tolerated.
People talk to their fathers, especially if they’re in the same business. It’s on the father not to hang his son out to dry by going to the media.