The JS Sports Staff [Latest: Witrado leaves for Sporting News, replaced by Todd Rosiak]

[Invader3K]

Well, hard to criticize spelling in an online chat that much. He did spell "hire" correctly in the same paragraph.

[trwi7]

From today's jsonline chat:

 

Q: scott , withee - Anthony, You're thoughts, regarding the off seasons moves with coaching staff to players etc. I myself don't think they change, hope I am wrong. Can shed some light?

A: Anthony Witrado - I think you'll see a different manager. If the Brewers higher in house, than you could see some of the same faces in the dugout now. If they hire outside of the club, I think the team has to let that guy pick his own staff, which could mean losing Dale Sveum and Ed Sedar, guys that have been around for a long time.

Should be then.

[crewcrazy]

While AW continues to be brutal, Tom H. was on fire last night when it came to the Covey news. Kudos to him...he continues to be very good when he's breaking news.

[Funketown]

From today's jsonline chat:

 

Q: scott , withee - Anthony, You're thoughts, regarding the off seasons moves with coaching staff to players etc. I myself don't think they change, hope I am wrong. Can shed some light?

A: Anthony Witrado - I think you'll see a different manager. If the Brewers higher in house, than you could see some of the same faces in the dugout now. If they hire outside of the club, I think the team has to let that guy pick his own staff, which could mean losing Dale Sveum and Ed Sedar, guys that have been around for a long time.

You forgot to bold than.

[GAME05]

if the biggest complaint i got as a writer was my spelling, then i'd be very happy. i guess there's pretty much no winning for AW--he either makes mistakes from answering a lot of questions in a hurry, or he proofs his answers and gets blasted for not fielding enough questions.

[Oldcity]

Typos and whatever don't bother me too much, but the writing is a different story. That sentence that Russ posted is practically nonsensical, and you see that type of thing from Witrado fairly regularly.

[SenatorShriv]

I have stayed out of this thread for a long time because random typos, occasional grammar issues, and the like don't bother me too much. Anyone who is forced to publicize that much material on a daily basis (which gets edited by several others along the way) will have some of those issues from time to time. I have always thought it was off-base for people to criticize the occasional language flubs from politicians, radio hosts or tv anchors who have to speak everyday to large crowds of people who are recording and hanging on their every word. I have to do a lot of public speaking for my job and there are times when the brain just goes wondering and you screw something up or say something that you don't really mean. I'm willing to cut the MJS writers some slack on these issues. They are putting out a lot of words every week for diehards like us to rip apart.

What I'm not really willing to cut the writers, editors and managers at MJS much slack on any more is the overall lack of creativity in their Brewer's coverage. MJS seems to lack the ability to tell an interesting story when the season isn't interesting and that shouldn't be the case. In order to keep me subscribing they are going to have to start getting a little bit more creative than giving me a game summary, box score and two quotes from Melvin or Macha. Cruise the minor league forum and there are tons of interesting stories there that would make for an interesting article or two. Why not occasionally feature a couple of Brewer's experts having a "debate of the week", trying to do a weekly prospect ranking / update, doing a breakdown of classic debates (example - who is the best Brewer's 3rd baseman of all time?), come up with random articles that do stupid things like breakingdown baseball slang but find ways to relate it this year's Brewers, polling the players to find out which teammate has the worst case of jock itch, where their favorite hangout is, etc... There are so many other things that could be covered that would help make the season more interesting for the average fan...

I came to the realization a long time ago that being a Brewer's fan was going to require me to care about and find enjoyment from of a lot of other aspects of the team than just knowing what happened in the game. If the MJS were better at helping me stay interested over the course of consecutive long and disappointing seasons I would appreciate it.

[yoshii8]

Maybe I was being a bit nitpicky, but I thought it was kind of funny that a sports writer from a major newspaper would make that mistake.

[bigredrobbo]

Just to show that it's not only the JS, and perennial favorite whipping boy ESPN, that display journalistic facepalm moments - did anyone else see MLB Network last night? From the coverage of the Brewers game you'd have thought the Cards won. The Pujols homer and slick fielding on a Cards double play were featured, but it was the studio commentary that blew my mind. Effectively they started by saying (and I'm paraphrasing a little) "down 3 runs, Pujols and the Cardinals almost came back to win it, so here's some highlights of them being awesome in defeat".

 

Even their bias is classy!

[GAME05]

What I'm not really willing to cut the writers, editors and managers at MJS much slack on any more is the overall lack of creativity in their Brewer's coverage.

can't deny that at all, though i wonder how much of that has to do with universal cuts in journalism staffs. although i'd be more satisfied if they just used a wire recap of the game and had AW writing different articles. i like what they have Haudricourt doing with his blogs and articles.

[Ennder]

I haven't really posted in this thread but every time I read a jsonline entry by Witardo I get the feeling he doesn't like the team and can't wait to find some reason to rag on the players.

[Invader3K]

I haven't really posted in this thread but every time I read a jsonline entry by Witardo I get the feeling he doesn't like the team and can't wait to find some reason to rag on the players.

Yeah, with his latest blog post regarding Parra, he seemed almost gleeful in ragging on him.

[rluzinski]

Witrado in Friday's paper:

 

"Ill-timed walks, poorly placed pitches rapped for crippling hits, fundamental mistakes children are scolded for making and the all-too-familiar two-out rallies by the opposition were some of the pigments used to paint an ugly picture over the past three games."

 

Could a high school English teacher read that without wincing?

[jeffy]

Today the Sports section of the Journal website has the headline:

 

Brewers look to salvage series finale

 

and then further down:

 

Right-hander Dave Bush gets the nod for the Brewers in the rubber game of the three-game series against the Pirates.

 

I went and checked that I was not nuts and that the Brewers had in fact won the first two game of the series. They aren't even consistent "salvage" implies they lost the first two while "rubber" implies that they split the first two.

[TooLiveBrew]

"9th inning: McClendon walked Andrew McCutchen to start the inning and Young singled with one out, causing Macha to bring in Trevor Hoffman. He got the next two outs without trouble to earn his 599th save."

Yeah. Unless you call that mammoth shot off the bat of Garrett Jones, in a 2-0 count... which narrowly missed being a 3-run HR... "trouble".

[Schlitz001]

Today the Sports section of the Journal website has the headline:

 

Brewers look to salvage series finale

 

and then further down:

 

Right-hander Dave Bush gets the nod for the Brewers in the rubber game of the three-game series against the Pirates.

 

I went and checked that I was not nuts and that the Brewers had in fact won the first two game of the series. They aren't even consistent "salvage" implies they lost the first two while "rubber" implies that they split the first two.

Wow. I don't get to worked up over bad spelling, bad grammar or even overstated opinion, but when they start throwing out incorrect facts then it becomes a problem. How lazy do you have to be not to check how many games the Brewers have won in the series? This is your job.

[EbbaStClaire]

At least the JS staff didn't declare that today's starting pitcher wasn't outrighted the day before. That is bad journalism and is an embarrassment to brewerfans and brewerfan.net.

[logan82]

Wow. I don't get to worked up over bad spelling, bad grammar or even

overstated opinion, but when they start throwing out incorrect facts

then it becomes a problem. How lazy do you have to be not to check how

many games the Brewers have won in the series? This is your job.

 

I think that is the whole problem. If it was only an occasional misspelling, incorrect fact or grammatical error I don't think it would be a problem. The problem is that it happens on a weekly if not daily basis.

[ttsather]

Today the Sports section of the Journal website has the headline:

 

Brewers look to salvage series finale

 

and then further down:

 

Right-hander Dave Bush gets the nod for the Brewers in the rubber game of the three-game series against the Pirates.

 

I went and checked that I was not nuts and that the Brewers had in fact won the first two game of the series. They aren't even consistent "salvage" implies they lost the first two while "rubber" implies that they split the first two.

Oh, wow, that's bad. So misleading.

[Principessa21]

At least the JS staff didn't declare that today's starting pitcher wasn't outrighted the day before. That is bad journalism and is an embarrassment to brewerfans and brewerfan.net.

To be fair, this isn't a professional newspaper and battlekow is usually very good, but...

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g93/britpanda/Moving%20GIFs/Men-on-Film-2-Snaps.gif

ETA: ugh, what jeffyscott wrote is just terrible. I have now given up complete hope for the JS.

[thebruce44]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/102017398.html

 

Another example of the JS writers seeming personal hatred of Mat Gamel. I am sure Tom asked Mat how he liked playing 1st base, to which he gave an honest answer where he said nothing wrong:

 

"It was a lot easier for me (in right field) than first base. It's a lot less stressful...."It's tougher than people think. First (base) ain't easy. I have a lot more respect for those guys knowing what they do....Whatever they want me to do, I'll do. I've got another option left. If (Nashville) is where they send me, I don't have any choice...I'll deal with it like I do every year -- be happy I've got a job. A lot of people don't have jobs these days."

 

Yet Tom manages to spin it and make Mat sound like a whiner with a misplaced sense of entitlement. The sad part is if you look at the comments, most fans continue to follow hook line and sinker.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, that's a pretty crummy way of dragging a guy down unnecessarily. Even if Gamel sounded unexcited in his responses, objectivity shouldn't include trying to badmouth him in a passive-aggressive way.

 

Further, why should Gamel be excited about moving to 1B or RF? He could earn more money in his career if allowed to stick at 3B (assuming he developed into a passable defender, of course). I wouldn't be excited about that move either. I don't care if he's not excited about moving, he said all the right things about the move & didn't badmouth the organization in any way.

[JumpinMacFlash]

I didn't see anything wrong with the blog post. Haudricourt said Gamel wasn't excited about first base. Judging by Gamel's comments, he isn't excited about it. I don't think he sounds like a whiner at all. I don't think Haudricourt painted him as a whiner. To me, it comes across as nothing more than relaying what was said in an interview. I don't see anything to get up-in-arms over.

[Invader3K]

I agree with JMF above. Kind of much adieu about nothing. I'd rather have a player give an honest but diplomatic answer than read another, "I'll do whatever the team wants", type of generic baseball response.

[thebruce44]

I didn't see anything wrong with the blog post. Haudricourt said Gamel wasn't excited about first base. Judging by Gamel's comments, he isn't excited about it. I don't think he sounds like a whiner at all. I don't think Haudricourt painted him as a whiner. To me, it comes across as nothing more than relaying what was said in an interview. I don't see anything to get up-in-arms over.

Really? The title Gamel Not Excited About 1B doesn't make it sound like he is being picky? That may be how you read it, but if you look at the comments you are in the extream minority.

 

In fact, he didn't say he was not excited about 1B. He said he would play anywhere and be happy to have a job, just that he has more to learn at 1B than in RF. Saying an upcoming prospect isn't excited about something at the MLB level is always going to get fans up in arm since most of them would die for the oportunity to be even a groundskeeper. Gamel didn't say that and gave the right responses, but had Tom paint the picture of someone disappointed.

 

I'd rather have a player give an honest but diplomatic answer than read another, "I'll do whatever the team wants", type of generic baseball response.

 

The thing is he did say "Whatever they want me to do, I'll do." But that gets overshadowed by him "not being excited about playing first."