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Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Rob Neyer: Don’t Worry: We Know Michael Young Is Really Good At Baseball

Jimmy Collins Was Truly Chump Change, points out the Aaron Gleeman, Brandon McCarthy, C.J. Nitkowski, Michael Young 2,000 hits ain’t 3,000 to-do.

Still, that simple numbers-based post brought a cascade of tweets from Brandon McCarthy, a one-time teammate of Young’s. Here they are, all put together for your reading convenience:

I read A LOT of nonsense on a daily basis, but this tops the charts today.

“Young is the 234th player to reach 2,000 hits, which isn’t exactly exclusive company” That’s like what, 1 out of every 3 people on earth?

“Even reaching 2,000 hits by age 34 isn’t that rare” You’re right guy, we should probably stone him in a public square for failing us all.

Every single thing that happens, doesn’t have to be contextualized historically. Some things are nice moments. Leave em alone.

Our friend C.J. Nitkowski weighed in, too:

@B__McCarthy 234th player out of 17K to ever play. You know the drill, these guys try to see who can say the dumbest thing 4 most attention.

I don’t know. There’s some of that, I guess. But I’ve seen a lot of dumb things on the Web, and Gleeman’s post about Michael Young wouldn’t make the Top 10,000 List.

Repoz Posted: August 09, 2011 at 08:34 PM | 30 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: history, media, rangers, sabermetrics

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1. Barry`s_Lazy_Boy Posted: August 09, 2011 at 08:53 PM (#3896476)

Neyer used to always be an #######, but now he is also a troll.

2. Moloka'i Three-Finger Brown (Declino DeShields) Posted: August 09, 2011 at 08:59 PM (#3896484)

The original post was pretty dumb. It also fit the mood of the HBT site, which trends in a "snarky" (i.e., often very superficial) direction. It's some people's thing, and it's not the thing for others. Neyer's post doesn't really add anything of substance, other than a vague point about how Twitter is good.

3. Nasty Nate Posted: August 09, 2011 at 09:06 PM (#3896489)

Wait, so this is an excerpt of Neyer quoting Nitkowski and McCarthy who are quoting Aaron Gleeman? Is that what this is? How about we add some more pound symbols and 'at' symbols to make this an even more un-readable cluster- ####.

4. Jose Can Still Seabiscuit Posted: August 09, 2011 at 09:18 PM (#3896497)

What gets me about this whole thing is Gleeman's follow up post about the criticism. It seems to me that dumbass comments are sort of par for the course for any MSM blogger. Hell, just a couple weeks ago Dayn commented about the idiot comments at Fox, what benefit other than a few extra page clicks was there to Aaron even bringing that stuff up? (or perhaps the extra clicks were the only reason but what little I know about Aaron tha seems unlikely to me).

5. Aaron Gleeman Posted: August 09, 2011 at 09:33 PM (#3896502)

What gets me about this whole thing is Gleeman's follow up post about the criticism. ... what benefit other than a few extra page clicks was there to Aaron even bringing that stuff up?

There was no benefit, really. Something I'd posted on HBT a couple hours earlier was being criticized heavily on another prominent site, so I thought it was worthwhile to have the HBT readers see that. I also thought the criticism, good or bad, was interesting/funny/amusing/whatever. And writing a post is hardly a big deal that needs any kind of significance behind it. It was one of 20-25 posts I did yesterday.

The original post may have been dumb and superficial (as many 150-word posts are) and the follow-up post may have been even dumber, but I can assure you that trying to drum up extra clicks had nothing to do with anything.

6. KT's Pot Arb Posted: August 09, 2011 at 09:52 PM (#3896510)

How dare Gleeman make a less than scintillating post, and then flat out refuse to reflexively lash out at his critics!

7. BDC

Posted: August 09, 2011 at 11:36 PM (#3896563)

But we all agree that Michael Young is good at baseball, right?

8. Mash Wilson Posted: August 09, 2011 at 11:41 PM (#3896569)

He's probably better at baseball than I am, anyway.

9. The Keith Law Blog Blah Blah (battlekow) Posted: August 09, 2011 at 11:53 PM (#3896576)

How about we add some more pound symbols and 'at' symbols to make this an even more un-readable cluster- ####.

I laughed.

10. The Clarence Thomas of BBTF (scott) Posted: August 09, 2011 at 11:53 PM (#3896577)

i'm totally better than Michael Young at baseball. at least, mlb2k11.

11. Justin T is expanding the aperture of awareness Posted: August 10, 2011 at 12:03 AM (#3896585)

I'm less of an @##hole than Michael Young, which is good enough for me.

12. Bob Evans Posted: August 10, 2011 at 12:11 AM (#3896595)

How dare Gleeman make a less than scintillating post, and then flat out refuse to reflexively lash out at his critics!

He clearly doesn't understand the Internet.

13. Shooty is in the Trust Tree

Posted: August 10, 2011 at 01:05 AM (#3896665)

You know, in all seriousness, I don't even remember what I used to get mad about before the internet.

14. Avoid running at all times.-S. Paige Posted: August 10, 2011 at 01:11 AM (#3896668)

You know, in all seriousness, I don't even remember what I used to get mad about before the internet.

The damned VCR that would eat and ruin your porn tapes.

15. Shooty is in the Trust Tree

Posted: August 10, 2011 at 01:19 AM (#3896680)

The damned VCR that would eat and ruin your porn tapes.

Those were the days. Now I would just get mad if some random internet dude didn't like the same porn I liked. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing there are internet dudes who don't share the same love of vegetable porn that I do.

16. Shooty is in the Trust Tree

Posted: August 10, 2011 at 01:23 AM (#3896684)

Speaking of porn, I sure hope that Zoey Deschanel can find a date with the help of that apartment full of urbane gay men.

17. The Keith Law Blog Blah Blah (battlekow) Posted: August 10, 2011 at 02:04 AM (#3896748)

Speaking of porn, I sure hope that Zoey Deschanel can find a date with the help of that apartment full of urbane gay men.

What's the deal with Damon Wayans, Jr. being on two shows on different networks at the same time (the other being Happy Endings on ABC)? Is it me, or is that unusual?

18. vortex of dissipation Posted: August 10, 2011 at 02:08 AM (#3896756)

What's the deal with Damon Wayans, Jr. being on two shows on different networks at the same time (the other being Happy Endings on ABC)? Is it me, or is that unusual?

It was thought that Happy Endings was going to be cancelled when he signed to be in New Girl. When Happy Endings was unexpectedly renewed, he dropped out of the cast of New Girl. He'll be in the first episode and then be replaced.

19. Guapo Posted: August 10, 2011 at 02:22 AM (#3896771)

You guys are totally ignoring the best sentence in the article:

People like me spend a fair amount of time running down Jeff Francoeur's talent, mostly because he's wildly overrated by some baseball men, mostly because Francoeur's a good-looking guy who smiles a lot and is great fun to be around.

20. Mash Wilson Posted: August 10, 2011 at 03:06 AM (#3896830)

He has the strong puss, Guapo.

21. spike Posted: August 10, 2011 at 05:44 AM (#3896911)

He's probably better at baseball than I am, anyway.

"Well, I've never met you, but... yes."

22. PreservedFish Posted: August 10, 2011 at 06:12 AM (#3896913)

What's the deal with Damon Wayans, Jr. being on two shows on different networks at the same time (the other being Happy Endings on ABC)? Is it me, or is that unusual?

I didn't realize they were different networks. Because they have nearly identical sets, I thought that one show was scrapped and then revamped with Zooey and some new characters.

23. BDC

Posted: August 10, 2011 at 12:45 PM (#3896948)

Zoey Deschanel can find a date with the help of that apartment full of urbane gay men

This sounds like a test case for Rule 34.

24. jobu Posted: August 10, 2011 at 02:12 PM (#3896998)

You guys are totally ignoring the best sentence in the article:

People like me spend a fair amount of time running down Jeff Francoeur's talent, mostly because he's wildly overrated by some baseball men, mostly because Francoeur's a good-looking guy who smiles a lot and is great fun to be around.

I wonder if Neyer meant to share his secret thoughts out loud. Clearly sounds as if he'd like to invite Francoeur to the fantasy suite. NTTAWWT.

I am quite sure that the vast majority of the reason Jeff Francoeur's talent gets run down is because he's overrated, while a small minority of the reason is that one Internet baseball writer in his decline phase has a man-crush on him.

25. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: August 10, 2011 at 02:24 PM (#3897015)

For the record, I like Happy Endings, although Damon Wayons Jr.'s character is easily the least likeable.

26. Mirabelli Dictu (Chris McClinch) Posted: August 10, 2011 at 04:26 PM (#3897110)

It's an awkwardly constructed sentence, but Neyer's meaning was pretty clearly "People like me spend a fair amount of time running down Jeff Francoeur's talent, mostly because he's wildly overrated by some baseball men for reasons that have nothing to do with his ability to play baseball."

27. PreservedFish Posted: August 10, 2011 at 04:39 PM (#3897115)

People like me spend a fair amount of time running down Jeff Francoeur's talent, mostly because he's wildly overrated by some baseball men, mostly because Francoeur's a good-looking guy who smiles a lot and is great fun to be around, mostly because he has a well-defined jawbone, nice eyes, and tells a good joke.

28. Forsch 10 From Navarone (Dayn)

Posted: August 10, 2011 at 04:57 PM (#3897129)

You know, in all seriousness, I don't even remember what I used to get mad about before the internet.

This is brilliant.

29. The Keith Law Blog Blah Blah (battlekow) Posted: August 11, 2011 at 01:50 AM (#3897611)

For the record, I like Happy Endings, although Damon Wayons Jr.'s character is easily the least likeable.

Happy Endings is awesome, and Damon Wayans is awesome in it if just for the scene where he has his suit pants unbuttoned as he walks in the door of his apartment and then, when confronted with his dressed-up wife, asks her why she isn't wearing her "soft pants".

That is my life.

30. Buzzards Bay Posted: August 12, 2011 at 01:12 AM (#3898444)

McCarthy's tweet has tendrils
good ones ,strong ones and informed ones
and they go in a number of different directions
makes you think about perspective
and how tough the game is
and the in the arena out the arena thing
again

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Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Rob Neyer: Don’t Worry: We Know Michael Young Is Really Good At Baseball

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