Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Which Blogger Hates Jim Most? Keith Law, John Heyman, or Me?

From Heyman's latest, which ranks each team by the success of their off-season. The Nationals rank 28 out of 30:
28. Nationals: They spent a lot of time trying to land the biggest fish, Teixeira, but ultimately it was wasted effort. Eventually, the big move involved another ex-Red, Adam Dunn. They have too many ex-Reds, far too many outfielders and first basemen, too few pitchers and one too many Jim Bowdens.
  • Update: Like clockwork, here's the Keith Law post. He speculates that Bowden was in on the scam and concludes with this zinger: "it's simply another black eye for an organization that is already a laughingstock in the industry."
  • Rob Neyer also gets into the act, because 2 ESPN blogs calling for Jim's head is better than one!

5 comments:

Will said...

Who's dumber? Jon Heyman or Jim Bowden?
I'm leaning towards Heyman. No, seriously.

Jim Bowden wasn't dumb enough to throw three years and $30 million at Raul Ibanez, fully aware of the current state of the economy. Ibanez's deal is easily the single worst deal this offseason (Dunn, Burrell, Abreu, who are all better players were signed for less money). He's 37 and atrocious at defense. At the moment, they're already paying him too much per year. Just wait to evaluate the deal in 2012! And don't get me started on paying Howard almost as much as Mark Teixeira.
But Heyman ranks the Phillies as having the best offseason?! What?

Will said...

Some other Heyman gems:

"5. Diamondbacks: Jon Garland gives them a solid No. 3 starter in one of baseball's best rotations."-Except that #3 used to be the superior Randy Johnson.

"10. White Sox: They did well to get out of the Vazquez and Nick Swisher contracts before the bottom fell out of the market"- Heyman forgot to mention they got hardly anything in return for Swisher.

"14. Reds: They lost out on Jermaine Dye, but Willy Taveras is the leadoff hitter they need."- Taveras' .308 OBP last year says otherwise.

"19. Mariners: Ibanez and Putz have been removed from the 100-loss team. The rebuilding process is needed, new GM Jack Zduriencik seems to know what he's doing and they are strong on scouts. But it's going to be painful, at least at the start."- All praise but still have managed to be net-losers this offseason?

Another dumb baseball article. I guess I'm still suffering from FireJoeMorgan withdrawal.

Nate said...

Will - we're all suffering from FJM withdrawl. I'd say of the three mentioned, Heyman's just a slave to the CW and Steven's got a legit axe to grind because he's actually a Nats fan. Not quite sure what Keith Law's problem is, but there's no question that he doesn't even pretend objectivity where Bowden's involved.

Anonymous said...

Law is in touch with baseball people, teling it like it is.

Will said...

After some more thought, this is a definitive moment in the Nationals short history. After the Smiley scandal, we'll see once and for all what type of owners the Lerners are.

If they really are the cheap bastards Chris Needham thinks they are, they'll be pissed as hell that Bowden and Rijo scammed them out of $1.4 million, and heads will roll.

If they really are decent owners, who just haven't had the chance to properly show how dedicated to the team they are, then heads will roll and they'll make people (Bowden and Rijo) accountable for their actions.

If they really are the incompetent, Bowden-worshipping owners that I think they are, then Rijo may be mildly reprehended, and Bowden will yet again escape unscathed.

We can only hope for the best....