There is evil in the world, and there are sportswriters.

There are morons (sportswriters) and there is Phil Rogers.

Now, look, I understand that sometimes there is a need for filler articles - the off season never has enough fluff, rumors, innuendo, made up crap and shaggy dog stories like the regular season. And who wants to leave their desk, or in this age of telecommuting; who wants to leave their wireless laptop and cell phone when your foot is stuck in the sand on one of the beaches of Aruba? That could take seconds to free yourself, then there's the long walk back to the hotel to, ugh, well. If I can post on my blog on the steps of the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin in -14 degree weather...

ESPN.com has ventured into new, very tired, extremely low brow territory with their

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Hot Stove Heaters
There have been cutbacks at ESPN.com in the past year and their MLB content has suffered more than any other facet. Their minor league content hasn't been updated since last spring. Last spring. A major media outlet has not updated their minor league content since March of 2004. Oh, they have some links on the front page, a gaggle of Baseball America trade reviews. But, Joe Mauer is still going to be the Twins catcher in 2004 according to the caption under his picture on the front page.

Last year SABR, Baseball Prospectus and the A's had a nice event held at the Coliseum. David Forst spoke, Ken Korach (I'm still not sure why) and Rob Neyer spoke. I asked Rob why ESPN was directing his column to its ESPN Insider subscriptions service. Actually I made the statement that ESPN was more or less screwing its reader base by moving him under a subscription banner, my question was, "What the hell?"

ED NOTE/TOOTING ONE'S OWN HORN: David Forst was kind enough to mention Elephants in Oakland (the only blog mentioned, by the way) in his 15 minutes at the podium. Next to being mentioned in last year's Baseball Prospectus' Annual, it's the highest compliment I've known as a blogger. That and hate mail from sportswriters. Ah, digression.

In 2004, Rob Neyer was given the boot behind paid doors and recently, John Sickels was booted off the ESPN format all together along with Down on the Farm. How can you possibly wander to ESPN.com for ANYTHING when they neglect something so critical as professional baseball's minor leagues? Where do MLB's stars come from? 99% of all Major League Baseball players spend some time in the minor leagues (some Asian players make the lateral move, but, even a majority of Asian players finds out what the Lansing Lugnut does between innings, eventually). Wouldn't you think covering that certain aspect of professional baseball would be vital to understanding the context of today's game and the future of baseball?

ESPN's


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Hot Stove Heaters
Is a collection of, let's call a spade a spade, bullshit articles that insult anyone who knows how to keep score. Look at the also ran roster of sportswriters who was called in for this conglomeration of underachievement:

• Phil Rogers (Four entries)
  
  
• Bob Klapisch
  
  
• Eric Neel

Oh, sure, they snuck Alan Schwarz in there to throw you for a loop and offer some token grasp at saving face, but still bitch-slapping credibility. Sean McAdam adds his Nomarisms and Red Sox Nation drenched verbiage on the rack. Tim Kurkjian must have lost a bet, because the only person involved on ESPN.com and Baseball Tonight worth paying any attention to besides Peter Gammons is Kurkjian. Oh, sure, Gammons' inside sources are sometimes stale and his presentation is often less than stellar, but there's no question of the man's love for the game and the people who understand what the game is about.

In any case, the articles are garbage and filler of the worst kind. Take the last two, for example:

Best first baseman around the bag ...

Best catcher at blocking the plate ...

A few days ago, David Pinto had a very insightful, and statistically sound look at the difference between Kevin Millar at first and Doug Mientkiewicz playing first base. Go ahead and take a peek at it. There's an even better back story on this article, ask David about it. That and tell him that the name of the blog is Elephants in Oakland, not Oakland Athletics Blog...and David Levens only lurks in my mind.

Anyway.

David points out the obvious once the dust settles.

Don't listen to me, though, go read Eric Neel's article yourself and keep waiting for this nugget of wisdom:

"(He) saves the Giants 10 games a year"

- Omar Minya, Mets GM, (apparently sober) on J.T. Snow

Of course, the question is; if you can get 8 guys who are as good as J.T. Snow is at first base to play the other 8 positions on a baseball field, could you win 90 games and never have to worry about scoring any damn runs?

Omar Minya is on a fast pace to be out of a job in New York. The problem is, he is the only Latin General Manager in Major League Baseball. And Kaiser Selig and MLB will appease the Mets in any way to make sure Minya is given as much rope as Steve Phillips was given to hang himself.



This afternoon, ESPN.com posted their latest installment of the


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Hot Stove Heaters
and I was laughing so damn hard I coughed up somebody else's phlegm (I have a cold). That joke also works with, 'I laughed so hard I peed someone else's pants' or 'I laughed so hard the milk I drank shot out my friend's nose'.

We move on.

Who did Phil Rogers state with his glorious and compelling article who the best catcher at blocking the plate is? None other than former A's catcher Ramon Hernandez.

Stop it, stop it. Damn you all to hell.

Now I'm covered in all of your phlegm and pee and milk.

Gross.

It gets better.

Who did Rogers lead off the article with? RAY FOSSE

The same Ray Fosse who at last year's Fan Fest made a crack that brought uproarious laughter and applause when he made a snide remark when discussing Hernandez's replacement, Damian Miller - "Well, at least he's not afraid of contact at the plate."

A's fans have known for years that Hernandez had the best 2nd baseman's pivot in baseball. Hernandez is allergic to physical contact like (reader's choice - insert more despised current MLB player embroiled in the steroid controversy here) is allergic to the truth. Who forgets Jose Guillen throwing a laser to the plate to gun down a runner - only to watch Hernandez stand, take three steps forward and field the throw near the infield grass in front of the pitcher's mound?

ESPN SUCKS
The article is no different than anything else Phil Rogers pens, capable of finding its way into the very best of airline on-flight magazines in-between ads for meat by mail and exercise equipment. The problem is, there is no formula, no process to these articles. Who decides on the best in these arbitrary categories, the writers? If the writers, why do they have to get quotes from unnamed sources to back them up? If not the writers, who are the unnamed sources? It matters where these sources are employed, what their background is - particularly if they are a scout.

Why not take a poll with a smattering of GM's, assistant GM's, scouts, managers, pitching coaches, agents and players - past and present from the West, the East, the North and the South and see what they have to say. Then check the data to see if the poll is accurate or not. Did guys from the east pick guys from the east? Were there enough latinos making deciding choices? If not, why?

Is that too hard? 'Oh, the time it would take to choose the participants, to frame the questions and surveys and to compile the data - ESPN doesn't have that kind of time, money or resources available...it would be too hard to pull that off'...

Not as hard as it is for me to read through the garbage and waste my time, money and resources doing so.

It has to burn each fan who clicks to ESPN.com to find some information only to have to grab the waders and plough through this muck. Soon enough, though, Harold Reynolds will be on your TV screen rewriting the 'unwritten' rule book of baseball to fit his tortures thought process along with his patented, "no question, no question" immediately after someone asks him a question; like "does this mean that Player A moving to Team X makes this a better team down the road?"

Disney ditched the Los Angeles Angels of the Anaheim Hills a few years ago and it's not out of the realm to think that either ABC or ESPN will be next. ESPN is tightening its belt and trimming the fat and trying to make a profit off of it's online subscription services and video games.

Here's a novel idea; quit making TV shows on a sports network, clean the decks of the Stuart Scotts and Neil Everetts and get back to sports without out the overselling, the over hyping, and the aversion to the sports themselves.

But, soon enough, it will be a Sunday in summer, and you'll sit through Joe Morgan and wonder why. Especially, after Saturday, when you put up with Joe Buck and/or Steve Lyons on FOX. But that's another post unto itself.