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

[JumpinMacFlash]

Really?

 

Yes, really. There could also have been more to the interview that wasn't explicitly posted. Gamel could have said that he wasn't excited, we don't know. Haudricourt may have just written it as a statement and then given Gamel's justification by providing the quotes you read. If you look at how it was printed in the published article, Haudricourt says Gamel stated his preference. "There has been speculation he might move to first next year if Fielder

is traded over the winter for pitching, but Gamel said he preferred

right field." It's followed up by the quote in the blog post. It's not the injustice you're making it out to be.

 

That may be how you read it, but if you look at the comments you are in

the extream minority.

 

Judging by comments like "Play where your told" or "getting choosy about his position" or "He comes off like a big dumb ingrate," it looks like a lot of the people commenting didn't even read the post. If that's the case, should I really be taking their comments seriously?

[MJLiverock]

I don't think anyone should ever take the comments in the Journal Sentinel seriously or as a good judge of opinion with thought behind it.

[thebruce44]

Judging by comments like "Play where your told" or "getting choosy about his position" or "He comes off like a big dumb ingrate," it looks like a lot of the people commenting didn't even read the post. If that's the case, should I really be taking their comments seriously?

 

You are right, they probably just read the headline and got mad at Gamel. Thats what I was afraid of.

[GAME05]

plus TH might very well have not written the headline for the piece. hard to argue that the headline as it is, is a lot more catchy than "Gamel just happy to be playing." and in the media, the dividing line between catchy and misleading is a thin one.

 

it was from an earlier post, but i don't think the JS has an obligation to be objective at all. maybe in a game summary, sure, but certainly not in a column. those would be boring columns to read.

 

i think there's also a lot of reader bias that comes through. generally, everyone on bf.net really likes Gamel, so when TH says something negative, that gets a "TH stinks!" reaction. but if Haudricourt was ripping on Gomez, that probably wouldn't get a reaction.

 

in the end, we're all sure animated about what TH writes, and his articles are drawing a lot of reaction, whether that's positive or negative. and isn't that the whole point of his job?

[And That]

in the end, we're all sure animated about what TH writes, and his articles are drawing a lot of reaction, whether that's positive or negative. and isn't that the whole point of his job?

In the same sports section, I'm always very excited to read Bob McGinn's articles, and it's not because of his lack of objectivity.

 

You might have a point about the title of the blog post not being Haudricourt's doing, though as it's just a blog post, my guess is TH is responsible for that. I doubt those blogs go through much of an editorial process.

[TooLiveBrew]

in the end, we're all sure animated about what TH writes, and his articles are drawing a lot of reaction, whether that's positive or negative. and isn't that the whole point of his job?

 

I just don't like yellow journalism much. TH doesn't go that far imo, but the statement you make to me implies yellow journalism should be the goal of any newspaper.

[thebruce44]

in the end, we're all sure animated about what TH writes, and his articles are drawing a lot of reaction, whether that's positive or negative. and isn't that the whole point of his job?

You might have a point about the title of the blog post not being Haudricourt's doing, though as it's just a blog post, my guess is TH is responsible for that. I doubt those blogs go through much of an editorial process.

He wrote the title, because if you read the comments he came back on and defended the post when people started to question his slant. He said something to the effect that Gamel didn't say he wasn't excited about playing first but you could tell he felt that way by the way he talked.

 

Isn't Mat kinda a shy surfer kid? He probably doesn't sound excited about anything. My kid brother and all his friends are the same way.

[1992casey]

He said something to the effect that Gamel didn't say he wasn't excited about playing first but you could tell he felt that way by the way he talked.

 

While it wouldn't be appropriate to include an observation like that in an article, it'd certainly be appropriate to include it in a blog post. Because he didn't, it's certainly appropriate to question his conclusions.

[kramnoj]

That may be how you read it, but if you look at the comments you are in the extream minority.

 

Being in the extreme minority of a population of messageboard commenters should be a point of pride.

 

TH didn't do Gamel any favors with the headline, but it seems to be accurate. If you disagree, where does Gamel seem excited in the quotes provided either by TH or AM? The most positive thing he says he that he will be happy to have a job.

 

Gamel is analytical when talking about playing 1B, and even exhibits a fear of failure by talking about letting his teammates down by not picking low throws. Those thoughts describe someone who isn't excited.

[JumpinMacFlash]

You might have a point about the title of the blog post not being

Haudricourt's doing, though as it's just a blog post, my guess is TH is

responsible for that. I doubt those blogs go through much of an

editorial process.

 

Depending on the size of the publication and the staff, copy editors are frequently in charge of writing headlines in addition to proofing and editing articles. I'm not sure how that works for blogs but there tend to be more errors (mostly grammatical) in those posts, so you may be right about the process.

 

He said something to the effect that Gamel didn't say he wasn't excited

about playing first but you could tell he felt that way by the way he

talked.

 

This is the line from the comments: "I'm not saying Gamel won't play first base. I'm just saying he's not

that excited about the position, which was quite clear when talking to

him about it." He said in the published article that Gamel stated that he preferred right field as opposed to first.

 

He wrote the title, because if you read the comments he came back on and

defended the post when people started to question his slant.

 

Those two aren't necessarily causal. He may just be defending his reporting, which looks to be accurate.

 

hard to argue that the headline as it is, is a lot more catchy than

"Gamel just happy to be playing."

 

It's not even that it's more catchy. His positional preference is the most interesting part of the post. It's the new information that piques the most interest. Based off of the information presented in the article and the blog, I would have used "Gamel prefers right field." The challenges of first base are simply his reasoning.

[thebruce44]

kramnoj[/b]]That may be how you read it, but if you look at the comments you are in the extream minority.

 

Being in the extreme minority of a population of messageboard commenters should be a point of pride.

That wasn't the point I was trying to make. Because of where TH works, he has a very wide range of influence. His slant on the interview ends up going a very long way with a wide range of people. I feel as though the majority of people who read that will view Gamel in a negative light even though I don't think he said anything that should have caused that. My take on the situation is backed up by the majority of the comments being negative about Mat. Looking at the situation this way, it is aparent to me that Mat gave an interview in which he expressed his desire to learn and help out the MLB team but will be viewed by a large number of fans as an immature kid with a false sense of entitlement. The blame for this rests squarly on TH's shoulders.

 

Again, thats just my take on the situation. I didn't take opinion out of the article myself, but I think most did and I can see why.

 

Those two aren't necessarily causal. He may just be defending his reporting, which looks to be accurate.

 

I disagree on the acuracy. You can see the direction here that McCalvy took with the exact same statements from Mat. I feel as though McCalvy's article is much more accurate given what Gamel said to reporters:

 

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100901&content_id=14183526&notebook_id=14183612&vkey=notebook_mil&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil

[And That]

Another day, another "huh?"

 

Cain facing "tough lefty"

 

I may have missed something, but why would Macha bench Cain against a left-handed pitcher? Would he want Dickerson or Gomez to face Hamels? Am I imagining that Cain is a right-handed batter?

 

Your logic gets the best of me again, Witrado.

[JumpinMacFlash]

The "tough lefties" thing was in quotes so it came from Macha, not Witrado. Witrado actually seems to be questioning the idea of using such a ridiculous strategy:

 

Cain was a guy Ken Macha shielded from what he called "tough lefties" like Hamels, but with the way Cain has played since being recalled, it's difficult to shield him any longer.

 

I feel dirty defending Witrado. He makes me cringe and feel cold inside.

 

Edit: However, he did misspell "this" in the first sentence.

[TooLiveBrew]

Wolf’s only serious trouble was in the second inning when the Phillies

scored their runs. Jayson Werth led off with a double, followed by a

one-out single from Ben Francisco and a two-run double into the

left-field corner by Carlos Ruiz.

 

Even with that, Bush never trailed despite having runners on in every inning he pitched except the sixth. He came out of the game with two outs in the seventh after Jimmy Rollins singled. Zach Braddock replaced him and finished off the inning.

Witrado's recap of today's outing by Randy Wolf... maybe Dave Bush. Details, details -- it's only the blog!

 

Witrado is embarassing.

[dadofandrew]

Macha is speaking of protecting Cain by not having him face SP's that he has little chance of doing well against, setting him up to succeed. There are no guys like Hamels in AA, LHP's on average, are awful in the minors, often being pushed because they are LH.

[bork]

But beyond pitching, the Brewers are far from a complete mess. They're OK behind the plate, at third, at short and at second after they pay Rickie Weeks. By moving Corey Hart, they should be fine at first. Just don't expect a decent return on Prince Fielder. It's not happening, not with the final year he's about to conclude in Milwaukee.

They're good in left, but still don't have a reliable centerfielder. And they'll have to find somebody to play right in the event that Hart assumes the logical position in the infield. While it's a fallacy to believe the Brewers could stick just anybody at first, Hart should be serviceable over there.

I usually don't bother reading Mike Hunts columns, don't know why I read this one. Link The line about not having a reliable centerfielder made me scratch my head. Sure Cain is inexperienced, young, and raw, but not reliable? Odd choice of words. I'd say there are fewer questions about CF going forward than 1B, 2B, 3B, RF.

[pretendastronaut]

I must admit, I didn't ever want to jump into this thread, but huh?

 

From Witrado's game post for Sunday 9/5;

 

Axford stayed in the game and picked up the two-inning save since the tying run was on deck.

 

Brewers 6, Phillies 2.

 

The Phillies didn't have a baserunner in the 9th (let alone the 2 that situation requires), how was the tying run on-deck in the 9th? And in the 8th, the trying run was actually at the plate, but it was a save situation when Axford started that inning as the lead was only 3 at the time.

 

But probably the worst thing about that statement is that Axford can't create the save situation (by allowing the tying run to get on-deck in a 4 run game) and then record the save.

[MNBrew]

Didn't Axford qualify for the save since when he came into the game, the lead was 3 runs, and he pitched more than one inning?

[crewcrazy]

Didn't Axford qualify for the save since when he came into the game, the lead was 3 runs, and he pitched more than one inning?

Yep. Since Axford came into the game in a save situation in the 8th (5-2), the Brewers could have held a 16-2 lead going into the 9th and he'd still be in line for the save.

[craigharmann]

Yep. Since Axford came into the game in a save situation in the 8th (5-2), the Brewers could have held a 16-2 lead going into the 9th and he'd still be in line for the save.

Eh, rules schmules.

[Nottso]

I posted early on in this thread that I find TH to be a much better writer than AW. I don't think there's even any debate over that. However, I've noticed something else that bugs me. Beat writers should indeed be objective, and I think TH is fairly objective, but AW really seems to enjoy bashing the Brewers.

 

Even in a fairly well-played Brewers win, AW will find some negatives in it, and those negatives will be the focus of his blog. He'll rail on (insert starting pitcher here) for only going 5 innings and giving up 4 runs (3 earned), and the terrible defense due to a tough error that could have gone either way and a couple of "seeing eye singles." Finally, almost as an afterthought, he'll come up with a gem like: "Despite (insert starting pitcher here)'s poor performance and the terrible defense the Brewers still won, 14 to 5."

 

Wait. Huh?

[Invader3K]

Yeah, you're right on Nottso. I don't think it's really any secret at this point that Witrado doesn't care for the team. Every once in a while I'll catch him on WSSP, and he comes off as arrogant and almost condescending when talking about the team as a whole.

[sveumrules]

"He's also one of the three players the Brewers have under long-term

control. But as we've seen, there is no guarantee that Hart, Yovani

Gallardo or even Ryan Braun will come to represent value."

 

This quote really jumped out at me in that Hunt article. Really, Mike? I guess I missed where LuCroy, Escobar, McGehee, Cain, Gamel, Axford, Braddock and Jeffress were all impending Free Agents.

 

[chuckiehacks]

For as much as we complain about the JS, I will admit that I love TH on Twitter. He was on fire last night with Bob Davidson. It is the perfect medium for his snark and sarcasm.

[thebruce44]

For as much as we complain about the JS, I will admit that I love TH on Twitter. He was on fire last night with Bob Davidson. It is the perfect medium for his snark and sarcasm.

He does become more tolerable when limited to 160 characters. Maybe the JS should take notehttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.