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Totally Trashed
I have been writing about baseball at ArmchairGM for over a year now and have had a few negative comments about my articles but today I was totally trashed by one of the Armchair people. I don't believe in making negative comments about another writer's articles and never have and never will. I am just a 63 year old man that likes to write about baseball. I don't claim to be an expert on baseball and am not trying to convince anyone to think the way I do about baseball. Everyone is free to state their opinion but when they take an article paragraph by paragraph and trash it that is going overboard. I am not planning to leave ArmchairGM but a few more negative comments like the one below may cause me to rethink that position. Niteowl
Manny Stiles Draft Pick [[]] 33 minutes ago Score 0 [[]] [[]] I appreciate your effort on explaining the Rays pitching staff to the world, but you're essentially doing what the entire national media has done - PROVING you don't know what you're talking about.
It's nice to regurgitate stats but if you don't know what you're saying maybe it's best to say nothing.
It's insulting to REAL Rays fans and insulting to the players that you're just spewing nonsense about them.
Want examples?
Sonnanstine: "that doesn't matter that much with the Rays' offense hitting the way they have been this season." - The Rays HAVEN'T been hitting well yet this season!!!
Jackson: "he could easily be 8-6 with any kind of run support in those games." - See? Now you've completely contradicted yourself - because the Rays HAVEN'T been hitting well (yet)
Kazmir: AS "great" as his numbers say he's been any Rays fan will tell you he's prone to allowing the big inning in the middle of every game. Maddon lets him fight through it, because he's Kaz but it's concerning. Eventually one big inning turns to two.
Matt Garza's best game of the season was the start BEFORE the Red Sox game when he struck out 10 and only gave up one hit against the Marlins.
JP Howell - "He has pitched 51 innings, both last season and so far this season." - He was a starter last year. If you were paying attention to the Rays, you would still shudder when you think about it.
Birkins and Balfour in the same breath????? How DARE you???? Birkins sucks donkey balls and Balfour has been amazing. It's sentences like that which can get you booed heartily in my house!
Scott Dohmann sucks - "he was sent back to the Minors when Al Reyes returned from the disabled list." Yeah, and Al Reyes has been on the DL again since Dohmann went down. And Mitch Talbot (who just was called up whenPercival went to the DL) will go down when Reyes gets back. Dohmann got his wins thanks to walkoffs, not because of anything he did...
Where's Trever "Don't call me Casey Fossum" Miller??? He's Maddon's favorite pinch pitcher! Where's Gary "Gasoline" Glover? These two guys are vital in Maddon's systematic bullpen approach.
The rest of what you said was simply statistical regurgitation.
It's nice that everybody wants to be a Rays fan now but to just throw stats out there isn't saying anything of worth. Besides this team is a statistical anomaly. They aren't winning games on stats. They are winning it on timely hits, awesome defense, taking walks, smart baserunning and believing in themselves.
They are playing like a team. No one individual is carrying the club - EVERYONE is adding their effort to the cause.
They have a bunch guys that deserve an All-Star nod this year (Navarro, Upton, Shields, Sonnanstine, Longoria, Iwamura) but I bet Crawford and Kaxmir go instead...
Don't mean to sound so harsh, Niteowl. Yes, I get VERY defensive of the things I love and how they get misinterpreted and mauled over by shortsighted analysis but any monkey with a keyboard can spew stats - it would be nice if you read into them a little more... there's ALWAYS more to what's going on than the numbers say.
And it's going to be a while before I forgive you for lumping Birkins and Balfour together...
