Protecting the Shields -- The Nick Cafardo Thread
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And of course the obligatory: "he takes too long to come back from injuries" parting shot from Dr. Nick.
I came into the world of Carfardo-farking thinking he was lazy/too old school/unwilling to learn, but generally benign/nice guy. I've come to think that he thinks that "adapting" doesn't mean learning or understanding new methods of analysis, but it means acting like an asshole.
And he's not exactly showing off the brainpower with: "The Yankees said they were going to stay under the $189 million tax threshhold, but they've already committed $240 million to McCann and Ellsbury." (might be a paraphrase, but my cutting an pasting functions seem to be hobbled this morning)
I came into the world of Carfardo-farking thinking he was lazy/too old school/unwilling to learn, but generally benign/nice guy. I've come to think that he thinks that "adapting" doesn't mean learning or understanding new methods of analysis, but it means acting like an asshole.
And he's not exactly showing off the brainpower with: "The Yankees said they were going to stay under the $189 million tax threshhold, but they've already committed $240 million to McCann and Ellsbury." (might be a paraphrase, but my cutting an pasting functions seem to be hobbled this morning)
That's flat out absurd, he was significantly "less popular" than Papi, Pedroia, and Koji. I'd also argue by the end of the year he was behind Gomes, Napoli, Lester, Bogaerts, and Victorino.canderson said:
In fairness to Nick, I'm not sure he's been engaging intellectually any differently than a 12 year old girl in his coverage of the team, so his conclusion is unsurprising.
Nick said yesterday that the Yanks would be looking to deal one or many of the Gardner, Wells, Ichiro trio because they had "trade value".
I would agree with Gardner in that regard, not the other two. They are exactly what a GM is not looking to give up any players or prospects for: older, highly paid, not really that productive any more. Sure, if you can get them as free agents and your scouts tell you they have something left, why not...but this type of player is readily available all the time.
On the other hand, I'm shocked that he came out and said that it's time Jeter stopped playing shortstop for the good of the team.
I would agree with Gardner in that regard, not the other two. They are exactly what a GM is not looking to give up any players or prospects for: older, highly paid, not really that productive any more. Sure, if you can get them as free agents and your scouts tell you they have something left, why not...but this type of player is readily available all the time.
On the other hand, I'm shocked that he came out and said that it's time Jeter stopped playing shortstop for the good of the team.
His Globe column yesterday was something- apparently, no teams seem to have lost ground on the Sox during this FA signing period- he saw everyone in the AL as gaining or keeping pace. He had the MFYs as improving/gaining ground, right after writing that they still need to acquire a rotation and bullpen.
JGray38 said:
I almost posted that yesterday and it baffled me because everyone either gained ground or stayed the same, the day before the Winter Meetings. I mean, someone has to have lost some sort of ground. You can't have everyone gain ground.
BTW, the Red Sox "stayed the same" because of course they did.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
Not in Lake Nick Wobegone...there, not only did no one lost ground, they are also all above average!
Nick notes that Cleveland lost Joe Smith, Kazmir, and Jiminez and his verdict is "No gain." Evidently losing 40% of your starting rotation and your best set up man equates to staying the same.
Have they, Nick. Can you prove this?
Other quasi-medical-ness from Dr. Nick:
"You get drunk driving deaths once in a while; and while the NTSB estimates that 39% of traffic deaths are alcohol related http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810616.pdf they are also the result of mechnical failure and weather. How far are we going to take this?"
Raising the issue....how did Nick suffer his concussion?
Curll said:
It's the lead sentence of his article, it was a famous injury, and breaking your ankle and blowing out your knee are different injuries. Have we really reached the point that it's not a big deal for the Boston Globe to get things like this wrong?
For a guy like Cafardo, who makes dozens of careless mistakes each week, this is not a huge deal.
Is it not a big deal that Abner Doubleday didn't invent baseball either?
Is it not a big deal that Abner Doubleday didn't invent baseball either?
Curll said:
Is that what it's come to? It's ok for the media to make a mistake because they make so many?
Fucking Twitter has warped our reality. I could see offering that defense of a tweet. But for an article in a major newspaper, there should be a much higher standard. I do more proofreading of my posts on SoSH than this moron does for his articles, for fuck's sake.
Craig Calcaterra poops all over Cafardo's home plate collision article.
Warms the cockles of my heart.
Warms the cockles of my heart.
But Wait! Home plate collisions can be good things:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DjNkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fXsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4624,2652088&dq=home-plate-collision&hl=en
And sliding isn't always safe:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I3cgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dGcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3597,457188&dq=home+plate+collision&hl=en
(this story is great----player breaks leg at home -- Call a Cab! And read all the way to the end. Those were the days.)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DjNkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fXsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4624,2652088&dq=home-plate-collision&hl=en
And sliding isn't always safe:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I3cgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dGcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3597,457188&dq=home+plate+collision&hl=en
(this story is great----player breaks leg at home -- Call a Cab! And read all the way to the end. Those were the days.)
Nicky's been the MLBN's go-to counterpoint dope to deride the new rule banning home-plate collisions. Today was beautiful. After Johnny Bench praises the rule for 10 straight minutes and says bye, they go to Cafardo remote, who does the usual "They're eliminating an exciting play!!!" crap over a video montage of guys like Ray Fosse and Buster Posey getting plowed, injured and writhing on the ground in pain.
The most obvious argument against collisions at the plate is that you can't just smash into guys at any other base and hope they drop the ball.
What's the material difference between slappy and Arroyo and crushing a catcher at the plate? It should have been banned years ago.
Do real baseball fans really lust for collisions at the plate?
As I've said many times before, I don't believe Cafardo actually enjoys the game of baseball.
What's the material difference between slappy and Arroyo and crushing a catcher at the plate? It should have been banned years ago.
Do real baseball fans really lust for collisions at the plate?
As I've said many times before, I don't believe Cafardo actually enjoys the game of baseball.
MyDaughterLovesTomGordon said:
Things enjoyed by Cafardo:
1. The human element of umpires screwing up calls.
2. Scott Boras
3. The excitement of players dying in home plate collisions.
4. Bobby V
5. Calling out injured players for not playing.
Things not enjoyed:
1. The game of baseball.
There’s also been talk that the Winter Meetings might be retired before too long. Teams can do their work on the phone, through texts and e-mail. The face-to-face interaction seems unnecessary now. Losing the annual forum would be a shame.
There are some old-school GMs like Kevin Towers, Brian Sabean, Brian Cashman, Ned Colletti, Doug Melvin, Walt Jocketty, Terry Ryan, and Dan Duquette who enjoy the face-to-face, who like seeing the agents, the ex-players wandering around the hotel looking for someone to speak to about a job.
Nick's anonymous sources.
It would be a shame to retire the Winter Meetings because Nick would actually have to put in
:gonk:
Nick throughout history:
1215 - "Are we really to limit the powers of the King, imbued as he is with God's will?"
1776 - "We will miss, surely, those Redcoats marching through the street with such precision. One smithy told us Paul Revere only took that ride to distract others from his declining work."
1879 - "Sure, there are those who embrace the lightbulb, but we in the Globe offices still cling to the purer, warmer light of the gas lamp."
1908 - "And with the Model T comes a loss of a certain something - that smell in the streets, the warmth of the horses radiating back toward you with the wind."
1952 - "It will be a shame when the polio vaccine becomes ubiquitous - old-school wheelchair manufacturers will likely go out of business. A great tradition lost."
1974 - "The pocket calculator might allow you to calculate batting average slightly faster, but we question its accuracy."
1215 - "Are we really to limit the powers of the King, imbued as he is with God's will?"
1776 - "We will miss, surely, those Redcoats marching through the street with such precision. One smithy told us Paul Revere only took that ride to distract others from his declining work."
1879 - "Sure, there are those who embrace the lightbulb, but we in the Globe offices still cling to the purer, warmer light of the gas lamp."
1908 - "And with the Model T comes a loss of a certain something - that smell in the streets, the warmth of the horses radiating back toward you with the wind."
1952 - "It will be a shame when the polio vaccine becomes ubiquitous - old-school wheelchair manufacturers will likely go out of business. A great tradition lost."
1974 - "The pocket calculator might allow you to calculate batting average slightly faster, but we question its accuracy."
Since the thread title references "intellectual capacity........"
This is so fucking internally incoherent. Intelligent people simply do not construct thoughts this way. How does artificially telling GMs to "stop talking" return "sincerity" to anything. This is the same concussed dumb-ass who cries about intentional walks being a threat to all things holy and just because its "failing on purpose" and now he suggests forcing GMS to avoid improving their teams to "create buzz." Above poster is right...."create buzz" = "make my job much easier by handing me things."
1996 -- "The internet will ruin baseball" Oh, wait, he said that yesterday. Never mind.
The question is, who is talking about the winter meetings going away? This is the first I've heard of it, and if roughly a third of the GMs in the league like them, why would they be prompted to eliminate them? He gives no reason for this to even be a credible talking point, for or against. Its shit being flung against the wall because god forbid he actually has to write a relevant story on what is actually happening.Dick Pole Upside said:
I was thinking about Cafardo the other day and why I disliked his writing and it's because of shot like this. There is no context to his writing, he never tries to explain anything, put it into context. And not only does he not do that for the readers, he doesn't do it for himself either.
Subsequently the things he writes either contradict each other from paragraph to paragraph or they just lay there. Take the winter meetings thing, he says 1/3 of GMs like it but says it might go away. What about the other 2/3s? Who knows. He doesn't expound about how this would affect the offseason or how it could affect trades or other front office maneuverings (I would assume that this is a place were assistants are hired, as well as scouts and other FO personnel).
And the Boras bullshit that opened his piece, he just stood there and let Boras vomit into his tape recorder. There is no attempt to either craft a story around it, maybe disagree what God has to say, etc.
I know I've said this before but Cafardo throws all of this information in our laps and expects us to figure it out. I don't want to do that. I don't expect things spoon-fed to me but at the same time I don't think that I have to read this jerk off's notebook.
Never mind JoePos or Neyer or Keri, Peter King doesn't do this crap. Ron Borhes doesn't pull this shit either. Even Dan Shaughnessy isn't this fucking lazy. In a profession filled with lazy hacks, drunks and self-promoting blowhards, Nick Cafardo really is the worst.
Subsequently the things he writes either contradict each other from paragraph to paragraph or they just lay there. Take the winter meetings thing, he says 1/3 of GMs like it but says it might go away. What about the other 2/3s? Who knows. He doesn't expound about how this would affect the offseason or how it could affect trades or other front office maneuverings (I would assume that this is a place were assistants are hired, as well as scouts and other FO personnel).
And the Boras bullshit that opened his piece, he just stood there and let Boras vomit into his tape recorder. There is no attempt to either craft a story around it, maybe disagree what God has to say, etc.
I know I've said this before but Cafardo throws all of this information in our laps and expects us to figure it out. I don't want to do that. I don't expect things spoon-fed to me but at the same time I don't think that I have to read this jerk off's notebook.
Never mind JoePos or Neyer or Keri, Peter King doesn't do this crap. Ron Borhes doesn't pull this shit either. Even Dan Shaughnessy isn't this fucking lazy. In a profession filled with lazy hacks, drunks and self-promoting blowhards, Nick Cafardo really is the worst.
MyDaughterLovesTomGordon said:
I would add in comments about the printing press, internet, and Baseball on television (or the radio for that matter)
on the same site was an article confirming that Ryan Freel (who they suspect had up to 10 concussions over his career and committed suicide last year) had CTE. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/15/ryan-freel-had-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy/Smiling Joe Hesketh said:
edit: I wonder if Cafardo still thinks that mitts (nevermind catchers gear) are for pussies and takes away from the purity of the game.
This is just so on the money.John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
If I had to boil down Nick into two words, it would be Who Knows. He just empties his junk drawer out and leaves it there for us to sift through.
I bet if he was asked about this directly he'd say something like, 'it's not my job to judge, i'm just a reporter, I report things I hear and it's up to the readers to make up their own minds.' To which I'd say, that's just an excuse to enable your laziness. Reporting isn't just a Twitter feed of semi-related facts, they should actually coalesce into an idea or an observation that has a contextualized point to make. That state of mind of 'I'm just putting it out there' applies to much of the media as a whole, but with Nick it literally defines him. Who Knows?!
Can't believe the Gary Sheffield update hasn't been mentioned. This is like The Grateful Dead playing Dark Star at Hampton Coliseum in 1989 or Jimmy Connors making a run at the 1991 US Open level amazing.
ifmanis5 said:
This is pretty close. I dont think he's really a reporter at present. Maybe sort of a hybrid. As the National Basebal writer, I think the Glob pays him to express some opinions. And he does do that from time to time. However, his opinions are often contradicted by facts/reality, or are so poorly thought out that they aren't worthy of respect.
He really is lazy. I could think of 10 things to write about if I had unfettered access at the winter meetings and the respect (deserved or not) that "Cafardo & Globe" get.
--How about a long piece on Jeff Luhnow. Comes from the ultra successful Cards to the flailing Astros. You thought 2012 was bad in Boston....at least the Sox had some good players. Imagine having to burn the whole house down and rebuild from the bottom. Meet Jeff Luhnow.
--How about a piece on agents not named Boras. Guys who dont have press conferences. Guys whose hard work is for players riding the major league roller coaster, so they do, too.
--I understand that all kinds of folks just "show up" at these meetings looking for any kind of job in baseball. Hey Nick, go talk to one of them. "You've never heard of Nerdy McMothersbasement; and there's a chance you never will. But if Nerdy's greatest wish comes true, he'll be advising some major league baseball team someday on how to build a better minor league syatem. Nerdy walked all the way to orlando from his mother's house in Ottumwa Iowa, just to get a chance to speak with major leage GMs."
--How about talking to scouting department folks from teams that use statistics a lot. I realize that that cuts against your caterwauling that "all the scouts got fired when Billy Beane invented computers," but Nick, this isn't about you.
I could go on, but I have a job.
My favorite bit from that opening:
There’s also that feeling of accomplishment when two teams get together and hammer out a big deal in a hotel room and then announce it on the big stage in the ballroom.
This whole piece is about Cafardo believing that big splashy signings where teams throw mountains of cash at players is what generates interest in the game. Not, you know, the game itself.
In other words he's a human NY Post headline.
There’s also that feeling of accomplishment when two teams get together and hammer out a big deal in a hotel room and then announce it on the big stage in the ballroom.
This whole piece is about Cafardo believing that big splashy signings where teams throw mountains of cash at players is what generates interest in the game. Not, you know, the game itself.
In other words he's a human NY Post headline.
Yeah, Van. At least Post headlines are funny. Like how farts are funny. I'm not saying all farts. But like a Madeleine Albright fart. That kinda funny.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
This needs to be stated and re-stated. The competition is fierce, and even considering that, he is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the worst. I mean, whatever the reason he's still there is what it is, but someone at the Globe has to be aware of how bad he is, right? That's my standard now--I just want to know they know, at the very least. We're not talking about "eh, he's a total asshole"--CHB's there because he riles people up and I assume gets people reading. Nick Cafardo, though, is clearly a publishing embarrassment, and they just let him at it.
JtB, they have to understand that Cafardo is bad but I'm assuming that their hands are tied because of the writers union*. Or maybe because he has a reputation of being a really nice guy and they will look the other way until he puts down his pencil.
* For all the whining and kvetching that sports writers do about the MLB Players Union, the newspaper writers' union is just as strong. Cafardo and other dinosaurs essentially get to write as long as they want and it doesn't matter that they haven't an original thought in decades. Especially with younger, smarter, hungrier, more diverse people would do their job for less money. Remember that the next time one of these men cry about the MLBP Union.
* For all the whining and kvetching that sports writers do about the MLB Players Union, the newspaper writers' union is just as strong. Cafardo and other dinosaurs essentially get to write as long as they want and it doesn't matter that they haven't an original thought in decades. Especially with younger, smarter, hungrier, more diverse people would do their job for less money. Remember that the next time one of these men cry about the MLBP Union.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
Good point about their hypocrisy and the Guild (I think it still called that). However, I dont think there are any rules against re-assigning him. Similar to the sunk cost of a shitty player with a guaranteed contract. "We have to pay you, but we dont have to play you." Back in the day, the legend around the Glob was the "rummy room," so-called because many of the too-old but unfirables (either due to Guild rules or the Winship family's reluctance to fire *anyone*) would either be hanging out playing gin or perhaps they were the "rummies" or maybe both.
Very true about reassigning him, I never thought of that.
I wonder if he'd file a union complaint if he was forced to cover Hockomock League Winter Track?
I wonder if he'd file a union complaint if he was forced to cover Hockomock League Winter Track?
"We admittedly are new to the high school track beat, but can it be that runners are now allowed shoes? It seems so contrary to the sport's origins. What would Pheidippides say, we wonder. Also, it's worth noting that the freshman sensation from Natick has been nursing those shin splints for quite some time. Doctors say that sort of thing usually only takes 2-3 weeks to clear up. Of course, everyone heals differently."
Very nice, MDLTG. Very nice indeed.
And you know he'd pick one school to slobber over every year he's on the beat, no matter how bad they are. My guess, it would be King Phillip. They would be his Yankees.
And you know he'd pick one school to slobber over every year he's on the beat, no matter how bad they are. My guess, it would be King Phillip. They would be his Yankees.
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