Dunn, Longoria Getting A Raw Deal
As often discussed in this space, the mainstream media is not only paying no attention, but has no interest in even thinking about baseball. In today’s installment:
EXHIBIT A:
When asked if the Washington Nationals might have any interest in signing Adam Dunn as a free agent this offseason, MLB.com beat writer Bill Ladson had this to say:
“If [the Nationals] were to sign Dunn, you might as well bring Dave Kingman out of retirement, because they are the same player.”
Whoops. In addition to hitting for more power, in his eight seasons, Dunn has also already walked 178 more times than Kingman did in his 16-year career. While walking is always important, for players who have lifetime batting averages in the .230-.250 range such as Kingman and Dunn, it becomes an exceptionally big deal.
EXHIBIT B:
In Sunday night’s ESPN telecast of the White Sox-Tigers game, everybody’s favorite baseball codger Joe Morgan threw his weight behind White Sox second baseman Alexei Ramirez as a candidate for the American League Rookie of the Year, citing that “sometimes you have to consider a player’s games-played total,” in reference to the time missed by Rays third baseman Evan Longoria this season. ESPN then displayed a graphic depicting the following information:
While Ramirez has been very good this season, Longoria has simply been better. A look at some statistics that acutally say something about a player’s performance paint a much different picture than the ESPN graphic: 
Not only has Longoria outperformed Ramirez in those all-important getting-on-base-and-hitting-for-power areas of the game, the two have come to the plate almost exactly the same number of times. If Morgan had just taken the time to look at the area of his stat sheets that read ‘plate appearences,’ rather than ‘games played,’ — I have no idea what his opinion would be, because Joe Morgan is an idiot.
September 16, 2008 at 12:06 am
Joe Morgan is indeed, an idiot – The insistence of baseball commentators to focus on absolutely EVERY SINGLE ONE of the wrong things is utterly mind blowing. . furthermore, the tendency of your every day fan to quote and cite the opinions of former players as though since they once donned a major league uniform they are licensed to share their ill advised and uninformed douche bag ideas on the game, stains baseball in a way that makes watching sportscenter on mute something of a necessity. .
i wouldn’t claim to know everything, but i’m pretty sure that joe morgan’s baseball expertise begins and ends with his admittedly amazing prowess for playing the game. . whatever game he is watching though, is apparently very different, and regarded very differently from what the rest of us are apparently paying attention to.
kudos, senor jake rake. . not only for pointing out the high points of these two players. . but also for calling attention to just how effing stupid Joe Morgan is.
(Next, tackle John Kruk, and how highly he regards the “intangibles”)
December 24, 2008 at 1:17 pm
sympathetic milieu! fine done!