Protecting the Shields -- The Nick Cafardo Thread

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Grubbery

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I'm still hoping the Globe reaches out to Ringolsby or Etkin from the Rocky Mountain News. Either guy would be an upgrade to Carfado and I'm sure they're looking for a gig.
 

Grubbery

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And the Apropos of nothing item about the Sox having two Bards is about the stupidest and most useless fucking thing he's written in that space since he started commenting about who made the best hot dogs around MLB a couple seasons back...
 

mcpickl

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And the Apropos of nothing item about the Sox having two Bards is about the stupidest and most useless fucking thing he's written in that space since he started commenting about who made the best hot dogs around MLB a couple seasons back...
Was just about to write this

Really Nick? Two Bards? That is crazy!

What a waste of space, even Kenny Bania thinks this is a lame observation.
 

Eric Van

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I'm still hoping the Globe reaches out to Ringolsby or Etkin from the Rocky Mountain News. Either guy would be an upgrade to Carfado and I'm sure they're looking for a gig.
Ringolsby is and always has been absolutely terrible as an analyst. I'm sure he's a good reporter, but he's never gotten past BA and W/L as tools to evaluate players. I've been hurling columns of his at the wall for longer than I can remember.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Surely someone can make a better use of the Sunday Notes columns than Cafardo has been doing. I can't see why either Amalie or Kilgore can't take that thing over and provide a lot more information than we're currently getting from Nick.

I've been told Nick's a very nice guy, but at this point his stuff is really content-free. It's a shame.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Is Cafardo openly goading us at this point? The crap he trots out as analysis is so terribly bad that it's hard to make fun of anymore because it's already been so thoroughly proven wrong in other venues when other dumb people wrote it.

Talking about A-Rod's "potential" loss - apparently he didn't get the bulletin in time from his own paper, despite the fact that both items were posted at the same time - he goes to this well:

When the Yankees won their four championships, they didn't have a player with A-Rod's cachet. What they had was a group of winning players like Scott Brosius and Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams who just got it. They still have players like that in Derek Jeter and Posada and Matsui and Xavier Nady and Damon, but they are aging, and whether they still have the "it" that those special Yankees had remains to be seen.
Is that for real? Does he really not understand that Brosius, O'Neill, Martinez, and Williams were just good enough to let Cone, Pettitte, Clemens, El Duque, Wells, Rivera, Stanton, Nelson, and Graeme Lloyd win them championships? The 1998 TEAM had a ERA+ of 116. No starter was below 104. Team ERA of 3.82 led the league. (Of course, they also led the league in runs scored with 965... but still.) 2nd in ERA in 1999.

Why aren't David Cone, Mariano Rivera, and David Wells winning players?
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Further: Xavier Nady is a "winning player"? He's been in the playoffs exactly once, going 1-3 for the Padres in the 2005 NLDS. Nor is he exactly aging. He's 30. Prime of his career, I'd say.

And good christ! Someone explain why this GM has to be anonymous:

"Losing Alex Rodriguez is never a good thing," said an AL GM. "But one thing this may do is bring the Yankee team closer. Sometimes in times like these, players tend to rally around the guy replacing the big superstar and the guy winds up winning a few games and adding a spark. That's what they have to hope for."
Is he giving away trade secrets there?
 

Laser Show

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Further: Xavier Nady is a "winning player"? He's been in the playoffs exactly once, going 1-3 for the Padres in the 2005 NLDS. Nor is he exactly aging. He's 30. Prime of his career, I'd say.
I believe Carfado's argument for this would be something along the lines of "But he's a career .333 hitter in the postseason! He knows how to get it done!"

Is he doing play by play in the NESN game today?
He's doing color for a few innings.
 

Grubbery

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For one reason or another, didn't we collectively tear Ringolsby a new one every time the Helton rumors popped up?

At this point, I'd give anyone short of Murray Chass a fair hearing. I do think Ringolsby is a better writer, even if he's a crappy baseball guy. Right now we have a crappy baseball guy who can't write.

Moot though. Ringolsby is staying put in Denver. I still think Etkin could be interesting though.
 

David Laurila

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And good christ! Someone explain why this GM has to be anonymous.
If you're referring to why the GM is being quoted anonymously, it is a pretty safe assumption that he asked to be.

On an unrelated-to-Cafardo matter, I just read something in the Globe that was a bit cringe-inducing. In the obituary for a long-time executive in the Cape Cod League, the writer referred to the deceased as "...a father figure and confidant to minor league players on their way up or on their way down." Needless to say, that showed a marked ignorance of what the Cape Cod League is, and it is unfortunate that an editor didn't catch it.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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If you're referring to why the GM is being quoted anonymously, it is a pretty safe assumption that he asked to be.
Just because a source asks to be anonymous, doesn't mean you have to allow it. Just don't quote him. I mean, what's the point? What he said is completely common sense and a worthless addition to the piece. It doesn't add any value for the reader.

You grant anonymity when you're adding a piece of information that's vital to the understanding of the story and the only way to attribute that information is anonymously to protect the source from some kind of harm (loss of a job, physical retribution, etc.). Is there someone out there who thinks the Yanks won't really miss A-Rod's production and we need to trot out this anonymous GM to prove that opinion isn't universal? It's absurd.

Here's a good discussion of anonymous source use:

This follows similar actions from the Boston Globe and Washington Post, among others. The rules stipulate that an anonymous source should be used only in situations where the story could not otherwise be reported, and that the reporter should reveal what might motivate that source to speak. New York Times assistant managing editor and standards editor, Allan M. Siegal, helped write those rules, and he joins me now. Welcome to the show.
I think we could otherwise report that the Yankees are hosed without A-Rod, and there's no mention of the motivation whatsoever.

Cafardo continuously trots out anonymous sources for no good reason and never gives an inkling as to why they're anonymous. At this point, I think you have to assume he just couldn't get anyone to talk to him and he made the quote up. Why else would a GM say, "no, I don't want my name associated with that completely palatable quote," if he was willing to talk to Nick in the first place?
 

JulE6

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If you're referring to why the GM is being quoted anonymously, it is a pretty safe assumption that he asked to be.

On an unrelated-to-Cafardo matter, I just read something in the Globe that was a bit cringe-inducing. In the obituary for a long-time executive in the Cape Cod League, the writer referred to the deceased as "...a father figure and confidant to minor league players on their way up or on their way down." Needless to say, that showed a marked ignorance of what the Cape Cod League is, and it is unfortunate that an editor didn't catch it.
That's a damn shame, David. You wonder how people get hired when stuff like that happens, and it's even more offensive to me because I was familiar with John
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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David, I think everyone reading this thread knows why a person chooses to be quoted anonymously, that's not the point. The point is week after week, Cafardo makes use of this journalistic style that is supposed to be used in rare conditions. This week wasn't as bad as he only used his unnamed sources twice, but last week he used it six times out of eight quotes (or something like that). When you compare that against itself, it's pretty bad but when you compare it against the notebooks of Spears, Reiss and Dupont it's terrible.

Especially when you consider what he's quoting. Like MDLTG says, it's not like the unnamed GM (most likely JP Riccardi) is saying something very interesting. He's commenting that the Yankees, without their best player for two months, are going to be in trouble. You can't get someone to say that on the record? Are you kidding me?
 

educatedcheese

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I've come to assume that the reason Cafardo's GM sources are always quoted anonymously is that they are all the same person (Ricciardi), and this is Nick's attempt to hide his complete lack of effort. I'm not sure if I'm more bothered by that lack of effort, or by his assumption that we are actually this stupid.

And this thread makes me miss FJM more than I already did.
 

mrsbeasley

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Not an unnamed source, but certainly something that virtually anybody (or their mother) could have written: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...ass_on_bon.html
Fair enough. But Extra Bases is a blog. Not the same as a researched, thought-out, column. He's probably the one who got the info first and was closest to a laptop and wanted to get the info out before someone else. A quick check at the updates over there today indicates that Cafardo had heavy duties there.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Not the same as a researched, thought-out, column.
Really? You picked a bad day to defend Cafardo. In his "researched and thought out" notes page 17 of 19 quotes were unattributed. 17 of 19! That's unbelievable.

Put it this way, Mike Reiss in his NFL column had zero, Kevin Paul Dupont in his NHL column had one and Marc Spears in his NBA column had three. Cafardo had more than four times their entire total by himself.

That's not even including such insights as Jacoby Ellsbury might be the Sox player to win "Dancing With the Stars".

I know that I say this every week, but he's an embarrassment to the Boston Globe. A complete and utter failure of a writer. Terrible.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Really? You picked a bad day to defend Cafardo. In his "researched and thought out" notes page 17 of 19 quotes were unattributed. 17 of 19! That's unbelievable.
This one's may favorite:

"What he's going to do is really add some sparkle to that clubhouse," said one baseball official. "There's nobody better at clubhouse management among players than Millar."
A "baseball official"? So, someone working in the Commissioner's office? Or a union rep or something? That person is worried about retribution for saying Millar will "really add some sparkle"? How is that real? Who is the guy that gave Cafardo that quote and then said, "but that's just on background - don't attribute that to me"? Are we really to believe that MLB is so full of cowards and simpering losers that no one will comment on anything unless its anonymously? I refuse to believe that.

I bet Cafardo just sends out a blanket email to everyone in his baseball address book with a note asking a question and promising he won't use anyone's name. That's the quickest and easiest way to collect a bunch of quotes, slap them into a bad notes column, and call it a day.

His editor should be ashamed for allowing that to go on. It gets worse every week.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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No kidding. David Wright has arguably been the best third baseman in the National League for two years and probably the top 1 or 2 third basemen in all of baseball and Cafardo is "surprised" that one of his unnamed drones consider him a game-changing player. I don't understand how he can collect a paycheck every week.
 

E5 Yaz

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The great publicity Blyleven got for making the Netherlands pitching staff the Cinderella story of the World Baseball Classic just may get him elected to the Hall of Fame.
It's not as though voters have forgotten about Blyleven. I can't fathom voters nine months from now thinking the WBC is enough to put him over the top.

To me, the most interesting part of the entire column was the quotes from Youk on Papi's comments about the lineup.
 

templeUsox

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This is Cafardo showing off his journalism chops. I love the opening paragraph of the article; he introduces this nebulous concept of being a "game changer" and then clarifies it by listing off three more equally nebulous descriptions:
The new buzzword around baseball to describe an outstanding player is "game-changer." There's no one definition, but it encompasses things such as the ability to change the complexion of a game, to win a game singlehandedly, or to carry a team on your shoulders.
Oh, being a game changer encompasses being able to change the complexion of the game? Thanks.
 

mrsbeasley

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Really? You picked a bad day to defend Cafardo. In his "researched and thought out" notes page 17 of 19 quotes were unattributed. 17 of 19! That's unbelievable.

Put it this way, Mike Reiss in his NFL column had zero, Kevin Paul Dupont in his NHL column had one and Marc Spears in his NBA column had three. Cafardo had more than four times their entire total by himself.

That's not even including such insights as Jacoby Ellsbury might be the Sox player to win "Dancing With the Stars".

I know that I say this every week, but he's an embarrassment to the Boston Globe. A complete and utter failure of a writer. Terrible.
I wasn't defending his columns. The "researched and thought out" was in reference to his columns which should be, aren't, and deserve every amount of criticism they get here. A random blurb on the site's catch-all blog doesn't really qualify as the same thing for me.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I wasn't defending his columns. The "researched and thought out" was in reference to his columns which should be, aren't, and deserve every amount of criticism they get here. A random blurb on the site's catch-all blog doesn't really qualify as the same thing for me.
Yes they do. Cafardo, and the rest of his colleagues, are professionals. Every single word, whether posted on a blog or written in a newspaper should be researched and thought out. What's the point of the boston.com blog? To get information, right? Can we agree on that? Cafardo should be relaying information in every post, otherwise it's worthless characters on a computer screen.

The Sox blog on boston.com has broken some major news stories over the years, are these just "random blurbs"?
 

mrsbeasley

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Yes they do. Cafardo, and the rest of his colleagues, are professionals. Every single word, whether posted on a blog or written in a newspaper should be researched and thought out. What's the point of the boston.com blog? To get information, right? Can we agree on that? Cafardo should be relaying information in every post, otherwise it's worthless characters on a computer screen.

The Sox blog on boston.com has broken some major news stories over the years, are these just "random blurbs"?
The original remark I responded to:
Not an unnamed source, but certainly something that virtually anybody (or their mother) could have written
was just complaining that anyone could have written that blurb. I'm not sure what one is looking for there. There was no news to report except that the Sox took a pass on Bonds, as did every other team. Was there anything wrong in what he wrote there? No. But it certainly wasn't worthy of an entire column and there wasn't anything that needed to be added to it. There's so much Cafardo can be well-deservedly criticized for, but I don't see the issue with that one blurb.
 

bluefenderstrat

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Nick's weird obession with Shea Hillenbrand continues. Every AAA team has a couple of guys who would be better than Hillenbrand as 1B/3B depth. It's been 4 years since his last decent season, he's 33 and has been out of baseball for a year (after putting up a 56 OPS+ in 2007). Even if he's not the dickhead he used to be, what possible use could he be to a major league franchise in 2009?

"7. Shea Hillenbrand, 1B-3B, free agent: It's amazing how baseball people just don't get that a guy can change. Hillenbrand might have been one of the biggest pains in the backside, but here's a guy who could fall off a horse at his Arizona ranch and hit, yet he can't even get a tryout. He's also a guy who spends his days giving sick children tours of his farm and petting zoo. Wouldn't want a guy like that in the clubhouse."
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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His attributed quotes outweighed his blind items, which was nice. Though the unnamed GM who said that "The other shoe is about to drop" was nice. What does that mean? Will the Sox get Salty? No follow-up from that?

But the Hillenbrand thing is very strange. Especially the last two lines that bluefenderstrat linked to.

Also, does it really matter that the Sox don't have a black guy on the 25-man roster? Haven't we gotten beyond a paint-by-numbers roster?
 

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He's also a guy who spends his days giving sick children tours of his farm and petting zoo. Wouldn't want a guy like that in the clubhouse.
If that's what it takes, then teams should line up to sign Michael Jackson. He has his own glove.
 

TheDestroia

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If that's what it takes, then teams should line up to sign Michael Jackson. He has his own glove.
Outstanding! :rolling:

As far as Kevin Cash goes, why the hell is he "puzzled" that he doesn't have a big-league job? Not even Derek Jeter has enough intangibles to make up for the career .184/.248/.285 totals.
 

mcpickl

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His attributed quotes outweighed his blind items, which was nice. Though the unnamed GM who said that "The other shoe is about to drop" was nice. What does that mean? Will the Sox get Salty? No follow-up from that?

But the Hillenbrand thing is very strange. Especially the last two lines that bluefenderstrat linked to.

Also, does it really matter that the Sox don't have a black guy on the 25-man roster? Haven't we gotten beyond a paint-by-numbers roster?
It's so ridiculous.

Would Nick feel better if they traded Dustin Pedroia for Donnie Sadler?

So foolish. I could see if the Sox were going all Tom Yawkey and were only signing white guys, but there are more than a half dozen guys that would not check Caucasian on a tax return.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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It's so ridiculous.

Would Nick feel better if they traded Dustin Pedroia for Donnie Sadler?

So foolish. I could see if the Sox were going all Tom Yawkey and were only signing white guys, but there are more than a half dozen guys that would not check Caucasian on a tax return.
I count a good 1/3 of the probable regular roster as non-caucasian...Ortiz, Lowell, Lugo, Matsuzaka, Okajima, Saito, Delcarmen, Ramirez, Lopez, and Ellsbury. That's 10 of 25 right there. So they don't have an African American at the moment...I very much doubt it's intentional. They don't have a Venezuelan on the roster either...maybe Cafardo should be pointing out the hypocrisy of having that big Citgo sign looming over Fenway without a player from Venezuela on the team.
 

lexrageorge

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Another Cafardo hack job:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...p_at_forefront/

He starts out by saying "outsiders" are skeptical of Kottaras as backup catcher. You mean Bard was that much more highly regarded? No mention, of cousre, of the fact that Kottaras has experience catching Charlie Zink in AAA, even though this fact has been well known for quite some time. No mention of Kottaras' power potential.

And Clay Buchholz is obviously Cafardo's version of Phil Kessel. And, no Nick, the Sox were very smart not to get into a bidding war over the services of one Kevin Cash. And, unless Cash is DFA'd, he's not coming to Boston.
 

Eric1984

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I count a good 1/3 of the probable regular roster as non-caucasian...Ortiz, Lowell, Lugo, Matsuzaka, Okajima, Saito, Delcarmen, Ramirez, Lopez, and Ellsbury. That's 10 of 25 right there. So they don't have an African American at the moment...I very much doubt it's intentional. They don't have a Venezuelan on the roster either...maybe Cafardo should be pointing out the hypocrisy of having that big Citgo sign looming over Fenway without a player from Venezuela on the team.
does Lowell not count as caucasian? His parents are Cuban exiles, but of German/Irish descent. Still a non-issue.
 

joyofsox

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This annoyed me.
Apropos of nothing: ... 5. In response to an e-mail, yes, the Red Sox could open the season without an African-American on the 25-man roster.
You say it was in response to an e-mail, so it obviously wasn't "apropos of nothing"
 

Comeback Kid

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Apropos of nothing: ... 5. In response to an e-mail, yes, the Red Sox could open the season without an African-American on the 25-man roster.
Last time I checked, the Dominican Republic is in Central America so I'm quite certain David Ortiz is African-American, among others on the 25-man roster.

I just loathe all these terms that try to classify everyone into neat, tidy boxes.
 

ifmanis5

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Wow, big changes today. No anonymous quotes and the useless "apropos of nothing" section is gone. Perhaps someone in a position of power is reading this or someone came to their senses. Either way, a better product this morning.
 

Rough Carrigan

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No, it's not gone. It's just now called "Thoughts While Shaving". It's still the exact same inane bullshit. In case you missed it:

Also another gem from the Bill Chuck files:
Of course, neither Chuck nor Cafardo bothers to mention that Teixeira played in 186 more games than Howard over that span, which included a cup of coffee for Howard in 2004 and half a season in 2005. Cafardo didn't write it, but he plucked it for his column and he should realize such a bullshit comparison.

The column is drivel as usual.
Thank you.
I knew I wasn't the only one saying "Wait a minute! Howard hasn't played five seasons."

And, apropos of nothing, I love the title of this thread.
 
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