Some utter rot from MLB.com:"Frankly, you can't go wrong with Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies or Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins. And that's what makes picking a starting shortstop to represent the National League so tough."
He's talking about this Hanley Ramirez. And this Jimmy Rollins. The first (and it's pretty clear any way you want to look at it, but see e.g. this) is quite easily the best shortstop in the National League, and the other, so far in '09, has been the worst. The first is in the discussion for the distinction of "best player in the National League who is not playing first base for the Cardinals," while the other has never really been as great as his reputation, and seems to have lost it entirely (as middle infielders sometimes do) at age 30.
I mean, the actual news part of the article is good news -- Hanley finally surpassed J-Roll again in the All-Star voting after two weeks of Phillies-Phan-led insanity. But they should really stop pretending that MLB.com isn't beholden to MLB and its clubs for its editorial content. In fact, they should get rid of individual bylines altogether: a "By the Philadelphia Phillies PR Department" line rather than "By Alden Gonzalez/MLB.com" would've made this a little more palatable.
I'm not sure what's worse: this or my brother asking who should be the All-Star starter at second in the NL and then asking, "Oh, Utley has finally started to play well?"
ReplyDeleteHa ha...yeah, Utley was really dragging for those couple months in 2003. Good to see he's finally got it together. :)
ReplyDeleteHe knows a lot about baseball, strategically, but he doesn't really follow it on a daily basis. But he's also too stubborn to admit he doesn't know.
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