Second Time Around

So after posting my morning (afternoon?) links, I realized that I wasn't giving the topics their due diligence at all. What a crap post that was (one of the best aspects of the English accent that I've stolen since watching EPL soccer: using crap as an adjective/adverb... try it out, it's fantastic). Unfortunately, this post will be mostly Pirates related, so for most of you, it will be crap too.

As I was making a fire tonight and using the PG as my starting paper, I realized there was a column on Pirates Spring Training by Gene Collier. I actually like Collier, he's a very good writer. And really that's what it comes down to nowadays when it comes to newspaper opinion columns.

The most informative stuff in sports news now comes from beat writers (in particular the blogs, which many newspapers have set up for their beat writers such as the PBC Blog and Empty Netters), so really, the opinion columns come down to their actual thoughts and the way they translate them. Ron Cook is terrible at both, but Collier actually interprets his thoughts in a way that makes the reader think. But he's not always on top of how things work in present day sports (especially baseball). There's nothing wrong with that, but when he does say things like the Pirates should have signed someone like Jim Thome (has played a total of 4 games at 1B since 2005; I don't care if Jeff Clement has never played first base, anybody would be better than Thome at first) or Hank Blalock (oh please, pretty please sign the oft-injured guy coming off the .277 OBP. Please!). His final suggestion isn't even that bad (Russell Branyan), but Branyan will be 34 next year.

And more importantly, why would we sign someone to block up the already crowded group of RF/1B we have. Clement, Jones, Moss, Pearce, and Tabata. Why the hell would we sign a question mark to take up the spot of another question mark? I would put money down right now that we will get more out of the 1B spot than Blalock, Thome, or Branyon will be able to put up this year. JS.

And now for the other piece of Pirates news that has been sweeping the area. Frank Coonelly said "this is the beginning of a dynasty"... I actually already commented on this a bit, but I just heard the interview he did with Ron Cook and some dude named Vinnie. Coonelly does come off as a jackass by calling up a network that has been in existence for just nine days and trying to defend himself.

But the key for me is that he is defending himself out in the open. Kevin McClatchy used to privately harass John Perrotto after he would write a negative column in the Beaver Times (Beaver F'n Times!) and Dave Littlefield was so generic and PR driven that he could turn shit into gold on a daily basis (something that the PG used to eat up with delight). To me, Nutting and Coonelly making grandiose and absurd statements (by the way, Coonelly did say "to me" at the end of his dynasty comment, which isn't a prediction, it's just his own heartfelt belief) is actually a breath of fresh air.

There's actually more important news like Joel Hanrahan's elbow being okay, Neil Walker's plunge into utility, BUCCOFans news roundup (including just another reason we should not draft Anthony Ranaudo), and WHYGAVS reasearched post about Zach Duke's endurance (spoiler alert: if Duke's curve-ball isn't good, he isn't good).

Unfortunately, I'm too spent to go into why these pieces of information are important. I was too busy fighting a useless battle against idiots who hold sway over yinzer nation.