White Sox (Minor League Deal complete) -- not "Tony Gwynn", the original thread topic

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, I mean did you actually expect the Brewers beat writer to report on a Brewers transaction? Clearly you're an idiot.

 

 

I really don't see how a player can be told he's been traded and have zero news on any move come out in four days.

 

Well, now we know the answer. TH is not good.

 

TH, you're a jag

[NorthSideSox72]

well, I'm glad I wasn't the victim of some sort of misinformation. I could understand your guys' skepticism, though, with no info out there. Believe me, I was starting to doubt it

myself.

 

I don't know who this hardicourt fellow is, but, I'd have to disagree on his assessment of Miranda being a non-prospect. He'd moved up 3 levels in 2 years, and some of his peripherals show a lot of potential. But, who knows, I'm not in the organization to know their outlook on things. These sorts of minor league deals happen all the time in ST.

 

Glad I didn't get banned or something!

[endaround]

Yes the market for a 26 year old CFer out of options who hit .275/.328/.331 in AAA last year is so huge Tom!

[jwill535]

In TH's defense, this kind of transaction happens weekly if not daily around the league, not exactly something that is worth the ink to write about it, especially since 99% of his readers couldnt care less about a A-AA spot filler.

[ILuvDaBush]

How does he compare to an Irribarren or a Brantley, in terms of their bats? Moreover, is it his bat or his batting eye that makes his offense so appealing? I like the move, though. As for TH, I would rather have Hunter S. Thompson covering the Brewers, alive-good, dead-just as well.

[logan82]

TooLiveBrew wrote:

TH is not good.

 

TH, you're a jag

True on both counts. I would put odds at 50/50 that TH even knows TGJ is out of options. It took him 3-4 weeks to figure out Lawrie was switching to 2B permanently and he even had to be told about the switch. I know this is probably piling on, but with TH's previous and continued lack of civility towards readers I feel no remorse.

 

Here's all that happened. The White Sox were going to release this kid and the Brewers needed a middle infielder for one of their mid-level teams, so they purchased him, I believe. Nothing more to it than that. The Brewers aren't going to trade Tony Gwynn for a non-prospect, low-level infielder.

This is a surprisingly mostly civil response from TH. He didn't even call you a name or question your intelligence.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't know who this hardicourt fellow is

 

He's covered the Brewers for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel since 1985 (Brewers fans, please excuse the technicalities there with the MJS merger...), with a brief interlude where he went to NJ to cover the Yankees for a local paper there (iirc). He is a total jerk when interacting with his readers, and makes glaring mistakes regularly enough to warrant the feelings of disgust many Brewers fans have for him.

 

Glad I didn't get banned or something!

 

Your input is welcome, and as you can tell, you've been able to supply better information than our beat writer. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif Thanks for sharing.

[Mass Haas]

Couple of quick points --

 

We are hearing that this deal was extremely minor in nature -- it's not like the Brewers took the $25,000 they did not spend to get Lou Palmisano back and spent it on Sergio Miranda. It was, in effect, nearly a "courtesy" transaction, as in the $1 territory conceptually. A few years back, the Brewers were in need of a AA arm, and after putting the word out, "acquired" RHP Gerrit Simpson from the Rockies, who actually posted decent numbers in Huntsville for one and a half seasons. The Miranda deal was along those lines.

 

I think what happend here was a combination of the initial post from our NorthSideSox friend being in a Tony Gwynn thread, rather than one of its own. Obviously, we here at Brewerfan knew nothing of Miranda, and while NorthSide accentuated his positives, it's apparent he wasn't in the White Sox plans.

 

There's no way that without any prompting, this sort of acquisition makes it on to the Journal-Sentinel, certainly not in print. It just doesn't, and folks should not be expressing displeasure in that regard. But that doesn't excuse Tom's somewhat snotty tone in simply getting back to an individual who took the time to email him.

 

There's a long line of players with extremely unheralded beginnings who became factors on the big league level -- players who were undrafted like Mike Adams and Joe Thatcher, and grabbing Mark DiFelice out of independent ball. Haudricourt was nowhere in sight on the day of the DiFelice acquisition in late January '07, but we were, so take pride and have fun that you were on top of that one before he was.

 

Personally, I think it's pretty cool the way we learned about the Miranda acquisition. Can't remember being notified quite like that before...

[liveforoctober]

I guess in my opinion... Brewers' news is Brewers' news. Of course there are varying levels. When the Brewers make the playoffs, it belongs on the front page of the entire paper. When they win a game, it belongs as a sub column depending on the rest of that days news. When they win in dramatic fashion, it gets bumped up. So when they sign a low level prospect to fill a void, then just add it as an addition to a different story. Write your story about Trevor Hoffman possibly starting the season on the DL, and at the end of the column, in an "additional notes" section... mention that the Brewers purchased the contract of infielder Sergio Miranda from the White Sox.

 

When the Packers release someone from their practice squad... we hear about it the next day. I guess I don't see how this is different. When I see Miranda's name on one of our roster's when the season starts, I'm going to wonder who he is and where he came from, as will most serious Brewer fans. Especially, in this case, those who don't frequent this website.

 

Is this relevant news to the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers roster? No. Is it relevant news to diehard Brewers fans? I would think yes. I also assume that it is only us diehard fans who frequent TH's blog enough that he has been able to keep this part of his job all these years. *shrugs*

[JJHardy7]

Is this relevant news to the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers roster? No. Is it relevant news to diehard Brewers fans? I would think yes. I also assume that it is only us diehard fans who frequent TH's blog enough that he has been able to keep this part of his job all these years. *shrugs*

 

Agreed. TH's tone just seems to be 'I didn't hear that before you...so why should anyone care?' The guy drives me nuts. He brags about how he's the 'minor league expert' and ranks the guys for publications and then gets upset that someone knew a minor league thing that he didn't. The bf.net nation knows a ton more than TH and his prospect polls are a joke. If the dude wants to brag about his minor league knowledge, he should be somewhat aware of the players in the minors. I'm also not knocking the bf.net minor league posters either. There is a ton of knowledge on that forum and IMO that forum would post the best prospect poll...TH is too busy looking at high draft picks and numbers and posting his 'knowledge'. Sorry if that's harsh, but TH doesn't know all that much about the minors IMO even though he's argued in his blog he does. Now if Miranda becomes a prospect I'm sure TH will say he found this transaction first http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[sbrylski]

It would be amusing to me to put together a little petition in response to TH question addressed to liveforoctober:

 

"The guy played in Class A ball last year. Is this a big deal for you?"

 

Yes.

 

Signed,

Brewerfan.net

[TooLiveBrew]

Of course everyone knows that A-ball isn't really baseball. No good players ever play in A-ball.

[Fatter than Joey]

I don't know who this hardicourt fellow is, but, I'd have to disagree on his assessment of Miranda being a non-prospect. He'd moved up 3 levels in 2 years

 

I think TH gets embarrassed when he is beaten to a story -- and rather than thanking the poster, he insults them. If Ned Yost and Tom Hardicourt started a public relations firm, it would probably fail.

 

I guess in my opinion... Brewers' news is Brewers' news.

 

Absolutely. We had posters last year from WV -- big Power fans -- while I personally don't care about this transaction, I certainly understand that there may be local fans of our farm teams that may really like hearing about this news.

 

Glad I didn't get banned or something!

 

Me too. You seem to be a decent guy, and I like the fact you guys don't pee in troughs like your south-side brethren.

[TooLiveBrew]

If Ned Yost and Tom Hardicourt started a public relations firm, it would probably fail.

 

That's the nicest thing you've ever said about Ned Yost... I mean, 'it would probably fail' -- you're giving him a chance! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[sheetskout]

Conspiracy theory: Melvin is acquiring Miranda in anticipation of trading Escobar or Lawrie.

Although I have absolutely nothing concrete to go on here, I heard (second-hand) over the weekend that XM (Ken Joyce) interviewed either Macha or Melvin and stated that he sees the Brewers going after a top flight arm before the season starts. Again, I didn't hear it myself, but the timing of getting Miranda sure is weird. Moving Hardy or Escobar in a deal for a big arm? BTW, they explicitly named Jake Peavy in the segment......This was on the baseball channel on XM radio.

[TheCrew07]

He's replacing Mike Bell who was released in a surprise move, he's not MLB ready.

[endaround]

Miranda isn't replacing Escobar. Miranda is replacing Counsell in two years at best.