22 replies to this topic

[Foulkey Reese]

Though this was interesting.

However, the CBS Sports writer has been accused of tainted quality in his work. His most recent puff piece on Johnny Damon appears to be the final straw for many bloggers and Twitter users. The accusation? Heyman is a mouthpiece for Scott Boras. While I’m more accustomed to analyzing baseball statistics, I decided to bring in some numbers to test these claims. I found two similar national writers, who produce articles at similar rates and work for well-established organizations, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and Buster Olney of ESPN.

The goal was to test the amount of articles that focused on Scott Boras clients and then those that linked his clients to the Yankees. In order to do so, I selected the same date range of December 15th, 2011 to February 16th, 2012, that being the length of Heyman’s current activity at CBS Sports. Though the range of dates certainly maintained a control in the frequency of Boras clients that were hot topics, it did limit the number of writers to research. Olney and Rosenthal were the only two similar national writers to publish with such frequency, anyone less may have fallen into the category of small sample size. The numbers showed startling evidence.

http://www.yankeeana...e-numbers-38590

Is that enough of a sample size to prove anything?

[RedOctober3829]

Though this was interesting.



http://www.yankeeana...e-numbers-38590

Is that enough of a sample size to prove anything?

Link isn't working for me.....

[Foulkey Reese]

Article was linked on Deadspin so I think they overloaded it.

http://deadspin.com/...for-scott-boras

Edited by Foulkey Reese, 17 February 2012 - 06:12 PM.

[Brianish]

I was just about to come here and link this. It manages to be both stunning and not surprising in the least. I do think it's missing one element though; there's nothing on how many non-Boras clients Heyman links to the Yanks. The guy just might have Yankee tourettes; he may just figure there's no logic in ruling them out.

[soxhop411]

I dont fault Boras as much as I do Heyman. Boras is doing what any of us would want him to do if we had him as an agent, which is trying to get his client the most money. I would have expected that Heyman would know better then to take Boras's bait without fact checking with other sources before doing these pieces

------------------------------
also

Evan_P_Grant Have been "blocked," maybe for first time ever. By @JonHeymanCBS. Whoa is me. Wherever will I find a certain agent's client propaganda?
https://twitter.com/...978925299998720

Edited by soxhop411, 18 February 2012 - 01:33 AM.

[carver]

I finally stopped following Hymen on Twitter, but so many people I follow still retweet him it does no good.

He is like Twitter herpes, impossible to get rid of...

[Sampo Gida]

I guess I don't see the crime here.

Boras certainly seems to be a source for Heyman. Reporters use sources for their articles, even if they don't name them. So Heyman uses Boras as a source (or vice versa) more than these 2 other reporters.

I mean, teams use certain local and national reporters to get stories with their POV out, why not agents for players, and why blame a reporter from being the guy who is fed the information. Deep throat preferred Woodward. Boras preferrs Heyman.

[Brianish]

The accusation isn't that he gets tips from Boras. The accusation is that he unthinkingly prints whatever Boras tells him without giving it any scrutiny, ie, the Yankees want all his clients, the sole purpose of which is to drive their price up, rather than to inform the readership. If that's what Heyman does, he's doing a disservice to his readers.

[mcpickl]

I guess I don't see the crime here.

Boras certainly seems to be a source for Heyman. Reporters use sources for their articles, even if they don't name them. So Heyman uses Boras as a source (or vice versa) more than these 2 other reporters.

I mean, teams use certain local and national reporters to get stories with their POV out, why not agents for players, and why blame a reporter from being the guy who is fed the information. Deep throat preferred Woodward. Boras preferrs Heyman.

I think the bolded is the point though.

Is he being fed information, or is he just a shill being fed false information(or just making it up himself), linking Boras clients to the Yankees.

The clients being linked to the Yankees are probably put in a better position to get signed to a fat contract when a reporter link them to NY, whether it's true or not.

edit:yes, agree with Brianish above

Edited by mcpickl, 17 February 2012 - 07:04 PM.

[BannedbyNYYFans.com]

I guess I don't see the crime here.

Deep throat preferred Woodward. Boras preferrs Heyman.

Last year at the trading deadline Rosenthal and Verducci were discussing writers being used as pawns to leak an unfounded rumors just to help a player/agent/team. Both said that you can't just give information that you know isn't true regardless of the source. So if Boras links the Sox or Yankees to a one of his clients and Heyman knows it's not true and still runs with it, well then there is a problem. Woodward wouldn't have printed Deep Throat's allegations if he knew they were just bullshit.

[judyb]

It's just sports, though, if anyone cared Heyman would have been out of work a long time ago. He's just so absurdly blatant about it.

[jon abbey]

It's just sports, though, if anyone cared Heyman would have been out of work a long time ago. He's just so absurdly blatant about it.

Yep, I linked that Damon piece on the main board a week or two ago. His bosses should be embarrassed, it's not like being a baseball beat writer is the hardest job in the world. I'm sure they could dump him and get someone better pretty easily.

[mikeford]

I finally stopped following Hymen on Twitter, but so many people I follow still retweet him it does no good.

He is like Twitter herpes, impossible to get rid of...

If you block Heyman, the retweets won't show up.

[jodyreeddudley78]

I guess I don't see the crime here.

Boras certainly seems to be a source for Heyman. Reporters use sources for their articles, even if they don't name them. So Heyman uses Boras as a source (or vice versa) more than these 2 other reporters.

I mean, teams use certain local and national reporters to get stories with their POV out, why not agents for players, and why blame a reporter from being the guy who is fed the information. Deep throat preferred Woodward. Boras preferrs Heyman.

On one hand I agree with you. Anyone with a brain can see that Heyman does some heavy lifting for Boras and shouldn't be bothered by Heyman using him as a source. On the other hand, consider this cycle:
1) Big name soon to be free agent goes with Boras because he gets the big contracts.
2) Boras vows to get this FA as much money as possible because, hey, that's his gig.
3) Every news outlet wants to know the inside track on where the FA might land.
4) Those news outlets contact Heyman because for some weird reason he always gets the scoop with those Boras clients.
5) Boras has told his "buddy" Heyman that mid-market teams X and Y are interested in FA, but only at a certain price...
6) But, hold up, the Yankees are interested as well.
7) Heyman is interviewed by media outlets, gives info, stays relevant.
8) Mid-market team X basically drops out of bidding.
9)Mid-market team Y must re-evaluate their price because the Yankees are involved... who -- by the way -- may or may not actually be interested but don't deny rumors (should Heyman actually check his source) because it is in their best interest to maximize every other team's budget due to the fact that they essentially don't have one.
10) More Heyman interviews. Yup, still relevant.
11) MYSTERY TEAM! (my fav)
12) Even more Heyman...
13) FA signs above what anyone would have initially thought.
14) Another FA...

Is that a simplification? Absolutely. Is it criminal or something? No. But it strikes me as lazy journalism that is also willfully ignorant and equally self-serving. I can see why people don't like it.

[jon abbey]

But, JRD, did you see the Damon/Ibanez column that seemingly touched this off? It might as well have a subhed of "Why don't they prefer the Boras client?":

http://www.cbssports...714192/34742697

[soxhop411]

its not just the yankees though, its also the Red Sox (or any other large market team) It could also explain why Heyman made that slander piece on the red sox and soccer. its gotten to the point that after he wrote that article (which almost every other sports writer debunked instantly) i blocked him and un-followed him

Edited by soxhop411, 18 February 2012 - 01:46 AM.

[jon abbey]

Oh, I didn't even see the new column linked in the original post until just now, this one is even more ridiculous:

http://www.cbssports...714192/34864225

[soxhop411]

If anyone cares, here is a link to SI with most of Heymans articles.
http://sportsillustr... Heyman&x=0&y=0

Edited by soxhop411, 18 February 2012 - 01:13 AM.

[jodyreeddudley78]

But, JRD, did you see the Damon/Ibanez column that seemingly touched this off? It might as well have a subhed of "Why don't they prefer the Boras client?":

http://www.cbssports...714192/34742697

Yeah, this is under a totally different cycle:

1) Boras needs some reeeeaaaaalllly heavy lifting.
2) Heyman does it.

This is a fluff piece, not speculation on bidding, or the kind of article that would be brought up in a future CBA by the owners, as the opening link speculated.

edit: That second article is fanfuckingtastic.

Edited by jodyreeddudley78, 18 February 2012 - 12:34 AM.

[soxhop411]

In the comments section of the link Foulkey Reese sited someone posted this link which talked about how Boras allegedly used Heyman as a mouth piece during the whole manny fiasco (at the end of his tenure as a Red Sox) and Manny's FA period that followed

Edited by soxhop411, 18 February 2012 - 01:50 AM.

[jon abbey]

Wow, how about this one, calling Gary Sheffield and Kenny Rogers "knuckleheads" for dropping Boras as their agent?

http://blog.mlive.co..._a_knuckle.html

[judyb]

This is the kind of thing that just makes you wonder how big a cesspool the whole business really is, the "writing for clicks" thing is known agenda, other agendas can be subtle. If it was any agent other than Boras, would we notice? If Heyman can be so obvious about it and still get paid by CBSsports and SI and MLBN and whoever else, whose agendas are others serving that aren't obvious? It's stinks, because there certainly are people in the business with standards, but Heyman makes it plain that you can't assume the industry itself is holding them to any.

[Clears Cleaver]

Its only really an issue if Boras is somehow compensating Heyman to write all this nonsense. Otherwise, its been going on for years and years with writers and sources. Clearly, the Red Sox front office has used reporters to do their dirty work