Two Quick Things

People can have unreal expectations if they so desire, but Geoff isn’t a sabermetrician, and chances are he never will be. He’s a beat writer whose job it is to cover the daily goings-on of the Seattle Mariners. And as Jeff points out, he has shown a desire to learn and explore new areas. The fact that he’s not a master of something he only recently broached shouldn’t be considered a knock on him. A major aspect of his job is not to be an expert on any one thing, but to to relay information from experts to readers. And the fact that he’s had Dewan quoted in like five articles now shows that he’s doing a pretty fine job.

There are a lot of baseball reporters out there, and I can count on zero hands the number of guys who put in more effort than Baker. There’s a certain brand of laziness/entitlement/arrogance that is known to infect newspaper writers — particularly in sports. I applaud Geoff for being better than that.

Sure, I think sometimes his logic may be flawed, but compared to the guys over at ESPN, he isn’t so bad. And like you said, at least he tries. The people over at ESPN are stuck in their ways.

This is actually one more reason to be thankful for the change in the Front Office. Now that we have some very intelligent people running the organization Baker will be dealing with these folks on a regular basis and it’s already paying off.

I think part of the disconnect between Baker and most of us here over the past year and a half is that he tried to understand where the old organization was coming from. The general idea is that if they made a move, they must know what they’re doing. Most of it was traditional and outdated. With the new front office, we might be getting back on the same page again.

The effort Geoff Baker puts into his work is off the charts. It actually sucks when he takes time off (he has to, obviously) because coverage is nowhere near the same.

Speaking of Silva:

"It was a bad game. To be honest, and this is what I told (pitching coach Rick Adair) afterwords, I want to do so good, I want to pitch so well and I screwed up everything," Silva said. "He told me ‘the harder you try, the worse you are going to be.’ He’s exactly right." Silva threw 84 pitches. Said manager Don Wakamatsu: "At some point, he has to believe he’s still a good pitcher"

What is this, a super-amped Gil Meche?

now we have a 12mm pitcher with bad stuff, a bad approach, no ability to handle pressure, and a tendency to blame anyone but himself for the above (Rob Johnson for fuck’s sake?)

That’s seen as great news by Dave Cameron, a co-founder of the U.S.S. Mariner Web site, which provides stats-based analysis for Mariners fans.

Apparently “Web site” is accepted usage, if archaic. But he should have linked USSM. Also the phrase “a co-founder” is redundant.

Personally I think the newspaper of record and others overdo linkage to the point of distraction, but a reference to an actual website deserves the highlight-underline treatment. Particularly when it’s so relevant to the story. Possibly the NY Times has somebody assigned to html duty at their copy desk, while the Seattle Times leaves it up to the author.

I also thought the “Mona Lisa” closing line was lazy and predictable. Aside from that it was well written, and in marked contrast to the “Ichiro is a big meanie” storyline that Baker’s been rightly taken to the woodshed for.

Genuinely, he has the maturity level of a 15-year old.

Unfortunately for us, the checks the Mariners write to him don’t make too much sense either.

I’m lost here. Are you referring to the actual software? The dance?