Trade chatter heating up (6/11)...

[Hate those Rodents]

I think we should focus on getting Cain (or Sanchez if he's not too expensive to trade for) and focus our energy with San Fran since Peavy is likely not an option now.

[kramnoj]

The Giants are currently the Wild Card and actually have a better record than the Brewers. They are actually looking for a bat to keep them in the playoffs. I don't see them trading away part of the reason that they are having the success they have right now.

[Invader3K]

What about Jarrod Washburn? He would probably not cost too much since I believe he's a free agent after this season. Not really an ace, but he could help a team like the Brewers right now.

[jvrocksaz]

The price may be going up as we speak, but Cliff Lee would be soooo nice!

[TooLiveBrew]

Do you really want [TH] to track down DM on every little internet rumor so we can have a daily blog of denials?

 

The thing is, this wasn't an "internet rumor". It was a valid tip that first got reported on the internet. You really can't hold it against anyone that Peavy & Halladay both got injured.

 

TH just takes extra, spiteful joy in claiming that it was all always nonsense. That's why we didn't hear it from him!

[lcbj68c]

Latest Trade Chatter per Ken Rosenthal, as posted on mlbtraderumors.com:

 

Scouts are reporting that Brewers scouts have been following the outings of Erik Bedard. The scout believes the Brewers will make a "strong play at him"

JJ Hardy, despite the slump, remains appealing to several teams, however Escobar gets "constantly" asked about.

Red Sox sniffed around for a Hardy-Penny swap, but the deal would not work for Milwaukee.....(thank you Doug), though a Hardy or Escobar for 4+ years of Bucholz I could do.

[brewmann04]

How healthy is Bedard?

[lcbj68c]

Per his manager taken at face value, "We felt missing a start would rejuvenate him a little," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "He's fine."

[sargennm]

Do you really want [TH] to track down DM on every little internet rumor so we can have a daily blog of denials?

 

The thing is, this wasn't an "internet rumor". It was a valid tip that first got reported on the internet. You really can't hold it against anyone that Peavy & Halladay both got injured.

 

TH just takes extra, spiteful joy in claiming that it was all always nonsense. That's why we didn't hear it from him!

OK, I've bit my lip on this long enough. How is it a valid rumor? There were absolutely no specifics of where the information came from or who was involved. There's only one guy in the Journal sports department who gets away with running stuff from anonymous sources and that's Bob McGinn. What is TH supposed to do? Write, "According to Brian the Automator on the Web site brewerfan.net..." He's a reliable source to people like us who frequent this site, but the general public don't know who he is.

 

Read McCalvy's blog of the interview he did with Melvin. You can tell that Doug was really irritated - borderline pissed - to have to do that interview. Both McCalvy and TH need to talk to Doug on a regular basis to do their jobs. Asking questions and doing blog posts on every rumor distracts Melvin from the other aspects of his job. Imagine all the the phone calls he takes from ownership, other executives, other GMs, when a story like that runs. No imagine if there was nothing to the story. That really irritates guys like Melvin, and when they have to answer those kind of questions every day they just stop taking calls from all reporters. That makes it tough on a guy like TH or McCalvy because then they have a much harder time doing their job, but then they also get crap from other reporters who weren't invovled in ticking Melvin off in the first place.

 

I've worked in newspapers on a much, much, much smaller level, and I've experienced the pressure to investigate every unfounded busienss rumor in a small town. I trust that Brian had something that was reliable, or that he thought was reliable. But even if TH talked to the same sources, unless they would go on the record, he probably couldn't print it.

 

As far as TH being mean to readers: You don't get to see the baseless, vitrolic e-mails or hear the nasty phone calls reporters and editors get every day. I don't like the way TH treats some people and their questions, but I understand why he does it. The fact is that the anti-TH stuff on this site is just as bad as what he pulls on readers.

[Invader3K]

Well, Brian prefaced this whole thing very early in this thread by saying "rumor has about 50% believability, so believer beware", or whatever. It's not like he said "This is a sure thing that's going to happen!!!"

[sargennm]

Well, Brian prefaced this whole thing very early in this thread by saying "rumor has about 50% believability, so believer beware", or whatever. It's not like he said "This is a sure thing that's going to happen!!!"

Look, I get your irritation with TH, but really, considering everything that he has to do, what is he supposed to say to Melvin and then report on the blog or in the paper? I'm sure these guys have off the record discussions with Doug all the time about what's going on and either there's nothing to report or they can't print it yet because things are in the works or whatever. Again, I trust that Brian was on the right track here, or that he has good sources but 50% believability is hardly a valid rumor. TH and McCalvy are really in a no-win situation.

[Invader3K]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm actually not that irritated with Haudricourt. I understand the difficult position he is often in as a beat writer. I just think his need to rub it in when the people here were apparently wrong is kind of unnecessary. I would guess that posters on this forum are some of his most frequent readers.

[lcbj68c]

I don't know where the confusion is sarge. 99% of the people posting here don't give two beans where TH covered the rumour or not. The problem is with his attitude towards his readership. I can't excuse his whiny attitude based upon the attitudes that he has to deal with others, that just doesn't hold water for me. That's his profession and he chose it. That's like excusing the behavior of a police officer who uses excessive force unneccessairly. "Well, he deals with bad attitudes of citizens all day and his supervisors get on him and he has lots of stress from other co-workers to make a lot of arrests and write a lot of tickets, yada yada" No! Be a professional is all we are asking. I don't find TH to be the epitome of a professional and certainly can't excuse it because of "what he has to deal with".

[lcbj68c]

Well, Brian prefaced this whole thing very early in this thread by saying "rumor has about 50% believability, so believer beware", or whatever. It's not like he said "This is a sure thing that's going to happen!!!"

To add to that, the freakin' title is "Trade Chatter Heating Up". To me that means, "Hey it's late June, the buyers and sellers are getting aligned, teams are starting to talk" Nothing more.

[Invader3K]

Right. I also think there is enough circumstantial evidence out there to draw a conclusion that Melvin and Towers were probably talking about Peavy, but the injury derailed that possiblity. I'm not 100% sure that was what was being hinted at in this thread, but it seems likely to me.

[sargennm]

issue was the fact that people were criticizing the beat guys for not wanting to follow up on this and I just wanted to point out how difficult it is to serve readers and sources when you have to go on the record with most of the stuff you write. The thing that tripped by trigger was invader saying it was a valid rumor.

 

If you don't like the way TH handles people, I completely understand that. The impression I get is that he gives readers the respect he gets. If you're sarcastic or rude, he'll return the favor. Frankly, I don't have a problem with that. If people have gone to him respectfully and gotten junk from him, that would change my view on that. But again, my main issue was the criticism in this forum of the way he handled reporting the rumor.

[lcbj68c]

I dont think TH should have handled the rumor at all, IMO. TH may very well get no respect, but this argument is going in circles. To get respect, you have to give respect. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I reckon the people "disrespecting" TH are 1 to 99 that just want to read what he says. Take my grandmother for example, just got into the internet for her news and a frequenter of jsonline. She couldn't tell the difference between a blog and a newsstory on there, just reads every story there is regarding the Brewers. She hasn't once, to my knowledge, posted something nasty to Haudricort in his blog replies. Shame on her if she did http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif . But does she, as a reader of his blog (just a news story in her opinion as I doubt she knows the difference) deserved of his attitude because of "what he has to put up with"?

 

This will be my last comment regarding this in this thread. There is a Haudricort thread somewhere and I'll go there if need be.

[molitor fan]

If people have gone to him respectfully and gotten junk from him, that would change my view on that.

 

Seriously, there are about 20 threads floating out there with eveidence of this and has happened to me personally. The guy deserves no quarter for being nasty...he has, however, done a much better job with the major league team since the interest level in the state has risen. He continues to have a very poor grasp of the minors however.

[TheCrew]

It's part of TH's job to deal with the readers - rude, considerate and everyone in between.

 

Does he get a lot of crappy emails, phone calls, etc.? I'm sure he does, but it doesn't excuse his actions. I stopped reading his blog for the most part around spring training when he felt the need to post an entry about one of the guys leaving comments about a possible Peavy trade........ He seems to take it personally when someone doesn't agree with him or if they ask him about something he hasn't reported on.

 

If he can't handle people disagreeing with him and act like a professional during that process, he needs to find a new line of work.

[TooLiveBrew]

I understand the difficult position he is often in as a beat writer. I just think his need to rub it in when the people here were apparently wrong is kind of unnecessary. I would guess that posters on this forum are some of his most frequent readers

 

This is my stance on it too.

 

As for not reporting the rumor, I have no real issue that TH didn't do it, but the 'I TOLD U SO!' attitude is just juvenile & obnoxious. Like TheCrew just said, if TH can't handle sophomoric idiots on the internet, he needs to find something else to do. And I was going to post but others already have... TH often handles intelligent, thoughtful queries like crap too.

 

 

The guy deserves no quarter for being nasty...he has, however, done a much better job with the major league team since the interest level in the state has risen. He continues to have a very poor grasp of the minors however.

 

I agree on all three points there, molitor fan. I'm just trying to imagine 'what if?' Tyler Kepner/Peter Abraham didn't report on a Yankees rumor that had the legs this Brewers one did. Firstly, it would never go un-reported. Secondly, they would manage to blog (yes, the informal medium of the blog) about it in a respectful & professional manner. TH is just grandfathered into the gig at this point, and as a fan who is stuck with him as a primary source of first-hand information on the team, I think that sucks.

 

At least Adam McCalvy is a gem. That guy is the definition of a good beat writer.

[Teatoe993]

I clicked on this thread because I thought there was some more trade chatter. But all I have read is discussions whether TH sucks or doesn't suck. Are the Brewers thinking of trading Haudricort for Gammons?

[logan82]

ESPN would have to get Witrado in trade as well and I think we would still be getting the better end of the deal.

[Invader3K]

I clicked on this thread because I thought there was some more trade chatter. But all I have read is discussions whether TH sucks or doesn't suck. Are the Brewers thinking of trading Haudricort for Gammons?

You're missing the obvious trade...Haudricourt to MLB Network for Trenni.

 

(Someone was going to say it).

[BrewCrewRising]

ESPN would have to get Witrado in trade as well and I think we would still be getting the better end of the deal.

 

 

Witardo has pretty good grammar, and some baseball talk speed, but I think he'll level out as a AAAA-blogger type. I don't know if ESPN has a need for him.

 

And they don't have anybody to fit JS needs; The Journal-Sentinel doesn't report on the Yankees and Red Sox, generally speaking.

[logan82]

I was just hoping to unload the Witrado contract. it is really hampering our JSOnline roster flexibility. Witrado seems to have all the tools, but just needs to put it all together. I think he needs a little more AAA seasoning to work on his mental approach. Not sure with where our club is at that we can afford to keep a guy like that around.