You have to give it to ESPN and their baseball writers/analysts. They are pretty top-notch at what they do (especially compared to the NFL "analysts"...Keyshawn Johnson? Really???). If you ever listen to them, watch them on TV, or read their writing, they know their stuff and are well-respected in baseball.
And while they occasionally write the article that criticizes a player or questions the moves made by a team, they rarely attack a player. When I say attack, basically I mean they refrain from saying a player sucks, and they refrain from saying why he sucks. Instead, they use terms like "his skills are limited", or "his bat speed has diminished", or "he's in the twilight of his career". You know, polite baseball talk.
But Keith Law! Sugarcoating? Nope, not from him! He wrote an article where he ripped some of the baseball moves that Kansas City has made recently, including a trade that brought them Yuniesky Betancourt over from the Mariners. I have never heard (or read) an ESPN writer rip a guy like this. Tell me how you really feel, Keith...
"On Friday, the Royals topped that move with an even worse one, trading for Yuniesky Betancourt, who might very well be the worst everyday player in the majors, and actually giving up something of value in Danny Cortes, a hard-throwing pitching prospect with command and makeup issues, and Derrick Saito, who projects at least as a lefty specialist if the Mariners choose to push him up the ladder.
Betancourt does nothing well on a baseball field. He can't hit and has lost bat speed since reaching the majors. He hacks at everything he sees, and even swings at pitches thrown to other hitters. He has next to no range at short. And he never hustles on anything -- not balls hit in his direction, not ground balls he might have a chance to beat out (well, before he let himself go physically). Other than all that, he's Honus Wagner."
Haha, he "even swings at pitches thrown to other hitters." Nice, Keith, nice. I'd love to hear a response from the Royals or better yet, Betancourt himself. Although they're both probably too busy being awful right now.....hiyo!!!!
~Mikey D
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Haha, I like the line about swinging at pitches for other batters.
But for the Royals, the best thing to do is to keep silent. If they start responding, it will make Law write more articles about why the Royals suck.
Oh come on, the Royals have sucked for the last 24 years (how they won the World Series in 1985 is beyond me). I do believe their fans deserve some sort of response to why they've been so awful. They've been silent long enough!
They can make their case about why they thought Betancourt was a good fit for their team.
But it doesn't serve the Royal's interests to publicly debate a detractor.
Wouldn't making their case about Betancourt (which, now I'd be curious to hear of some!) be just like a rebuttal to Law's article?
Well...sort-of.
But the crucial difference is that Royals would not acknowledge the existence of Keith Law or any article critizing Betancourt, so there would be nothing to rebut. (stupid Public Relations posturing and all that...)
The main problem is that, from what I can tell in my very limited knowledge of baseball, Law is right and Betancourt sucks.
If that's true, all the Royals can do is call a press conference and bullshit about how great Betancourt is, or ignore it and hope the story goes away.
Neither option is great, but a press conference would probably make ESPN take notice...and call out the Royals bullshit...so the only option left is to ignore it.
Or the Royals could use the article as a motivation tool, recognizing what Law said and lighting a fire under Betancourt's ass.
They could hold a news conference in response (with minimal attendance, I'd imagine...), talk Betancourt up, ESPN could air the news conference and call the Royals' out on bullshit, and the Royals could then turn to Betancourt and say, "Prove them wrong."
I mean, obviously they see something in the guy. He must not be living up to his potential, seeing as he's bounced around a bit lately. Perhaps strong comments and a public "calling-out" would be what the doctor ordered!
Of course it could backfire completely and the Royals look like dumbshits...but then really they'd be back where they started =).
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