Protecting the Shields -- The Nick Cafardo Thread

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MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Man, that Farrell piece was truly abysmal.

Hey, Nick, we don't need a round-up of what radio call-in shows and Twitter users think of John Farrell. We can, like, listen and read those things ourselves. All of us have the Internet too.

You, however, are traveling with the team. Maybe you could describe the mood in the locker room with a couple of anecdotes? Perhaps a sketch of batting practice with Chili Davis and how guys seem to be responding to him.

The coaches, we're told, are "excellent." What evidence do we have of that, exactly? What's an excellent thing one of them has done on this trip? You say Farrell is managing the same way he always has. What way is that? Is it maybe a bad fit for the current group of players? What might they respond to if not Farrell's current style? Have they tuned him out?

Etc.

Just so lazy on so many levels.
 

PedroKsBambino

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MyDaughterLovesTomGordon said:
Man, that Farrell piece was truly abysmal.

Hey, Nick, we don't need a round-up of what radio call-in shows and Twitter users think of John Farrell. We can, like, listen and read those things ourselves. All of us have the Internet too.

You, however, are traveling with the team. Maybe you could describe the mood in the locker room with a couple of anecdotes? Perhaps a sketch of batting practice with Chili Davis and how guys seem to be responding to him.

The coaches, we're told, are "excellent." What evidence do we have of that, exactly? What's an excellent thing one of them has done on this trip? You say Farrell is managing the same way he always has. What way is that? Is it maybe a bad fit for the current group of players? What might they respond to if not Farrell's current style? Have they tuned him out?

Etc.

Just so lazy on so many levels.
 
As we all know, "speaking regularly with Nick" is a key criteria in this evaluation...
 

joe dokes

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In the midst of today's character ejaculation, Nick had Torii Hunter breaking his ankle in the right field corner.  It was in the CF triangle.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Nick Cafardo extolling Kirby Puckett* as a solid character guy is the most Nick Cafardo thing ever. Shifts are a blight on humanity but domestic violence just wins games.

* And I really liked Puckett a lot, but come on.
 

Granite Sox

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Cafardo is such a sucker for Hunter.  Hunter comes across as such a phony-baloney, a guy who loooooooves the sound of his own voice.
 
"I went back to Minnesota to win"... really, dude?
 
Half those guys that Nick mentioned as "character guys" (including Puckett as JMOH said) made me shake my head.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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A lot of those character guys are also on sub .500 teams. Honestly, he should have just written a column called, "People Who Have Been Nice to Me"
 

Toe Nash

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I wonder how any gay teammates Hunter has had have felt about his character. I always thought a team leader should be accepting of all his teammates no matter who they are, but hey, I'm just a guy at a computer.
 

glennhoffmania

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Toe Nash said:
I wonder how any gay teammates Hunter has had have felt about his character. I always thought a team leader should be accepting of all his teammates no matter who they are, but hey, I'm just a guy at a computer.
 
That can't be right.
 
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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- ARod is a good guy, you guys and steroids aren't that huge of a deal. Except when someone who won't talk to me takes them. Then it's "Burn the witch"!

- Andrew Miller texts his old Oriole teammates. The consensus among the Orioles is that he's fine.

- Question: why won't anyone take Ben Revere? The unanswerable question is solved one sentence later: his .308 OBP.
 

Granite Sox

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
- ARod is a good guy, you guys and steroids aren't that huge of a deal. Except when someone who won't talk to me takes them. Then it's "Burn the witch"!
Brought to you by Boras: Make Benefit Glorious Agent.

What... No 'character' update on Torii Hunter's selfish week?
 

Bigpupp

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"Some head-scratching calls recently after video review. Does New York not have the same replays as the ballparks?"
 
Good question. Maybe Cafardo can find a real journalist to ask someone who works for MLB. 
 

Buster Olney the Lonely

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Watching Nick on First Pich and one of the other hosts posed a hypothetical that if the Yanks were to fall out of the race, there might be teams interested in trading for Arod.

Nick: "I think the way [Arod] is going now [trading Arod now] would be crazy, crazy to trade him now.He's one of the biggest parts of the lineup right now."

Yeah don't sell high, Nick. That would be crazy.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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"They lost their toughness and an ace when they lost Jon Lester. No matter how he’s doing in Chicago, he was a dependable, proven winner."
 
First, Lester is 4-5 with a 97 ERA+ in Chicago. Secondly, Lester was terrible both in September 2011 and all of 2012 when the team struggled and could have used a "dependable, proven winner" to right the ship.
 
So....bullshit as usual.
 
"Ramirez had a long history of attitude and injuries in Florida and Los Angeles. The Marlins decided not to build their team around him."
 
Except when they gave him a 6/70 contract after the 2008 season.
 
God he is fucking dumb.
 

Toe Nash

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I think the Hanley / Marlins point is fair. They dealt him for fairly little return once he got expensive. 
 
That said, they have done that with all their star players.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Toe Nash said:
I think the Hanley / Marlins point is fair. They dealt him for fairly little return once he got expensive. 
 
That said, they have done that with all their star players.
 
TheoShmeo said:
Giancarlo Stanton begs to differ.
 
Hanley was signed in 2008 as a 24 year old superstar and was dealt in 2012 in his age 28 season.
 
Stanton was signed to his extension in 2014, as a 24 year old superstar.
 

ifmanis5

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How do you fix a problem like the 2015 Red Sox? Yup, you guessed it, bring in Cole Hamels. It's like Nick is his Pimp or something. And old friend AJP is hitting .270, he's great.
 

E5 Yaz

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ifmanis5 said:
How do you fix a problem like the 2015 Red Sox? Yup, you guessed it, bring in Cole Hamels. It's like Nick is his Pimp or something. 
 
And, for Pete's sake, get someone who knows baseball into the front office to balance out all that analytical stuff from Bill James
 

TheoShmeo

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Far be it for me (or really anyone) to defend Lazy Nicky, but how is that we've established that Lucky is the problem and we're better off with less of his input? 
 
If we assume that Larry was intimately involved in 2004, 2007 and 2013, are we also assuming that he was very good at his job or lucky in those years and very bad at his job or unlucky thereafter?
 
Said differently, given the three titles during the LL era, how is that we are identifying him as the problem now when he was seemingly part of the solution earlier?
 
I don't know the answers to these questions.  I also don't know exactly how involved Larry was in earlier years and how involved or uninvolved he is now.  The CHB's pronouncements on this topic mean nothing to me and I generally view this as a black box.  But assuming that less of Larry is better and indicting Cafardo on that basis seems to me to be based on a lot of things we just don't know.
 

lexrageorge

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TheoShmeo said:
Far be it for me (or really anyone) to defend Lazy Nicky, but how is that we've established that Lucky is the problem and we're better off with less of his input? 
 
If we assume that Larry was intimately involved in 2004, 2007 and 2013, are we also assuming that he was very good at his job or lucky in those years and very bad at his job or unlucky thereafter?
 
Said differently, given the three titles during the LL era, how is that we are identifying him as the problem now when he was seemingly part of the solution earlier?
 
I don't know the answers to these questions.  I also don't know exactly how involved Larry was in earlier years and how involved or uninvolved he is now.  The CHB's pronouncements on this topic mean nothing to me and I generally view this as a black box.  But assuming that less of Larry is better and indicting Cafardo on that basis seems to me to be based on a lot of things we just don't know.
We have very little in depth knowledge of how much Lucchino is involved in day to day baseball operations.  We occasionally hear rumors, but nothing concrete or substantiated.  While I don't think Lucchino is necessarily a problem, and certainly don't agree that getting Lucchino more involved is the solution, we do know of one decision where Lucchino clearly overruled Cherington, and that was the hiring of Cafardo-favorite Bobby Valentine. And we all know how that turned out.
 

TheoShmeo

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lexrageorge said:
We have very little in depth knowledge of how much Lucchino is involved in day to day baseball operations.  We occasionally hear rumors, but nothing concrete or substantiated.  While I don't think Lucchino is necessarily a problem, and certainly don't agree that getting Lucchino more involved is the solution, we do know of one decision where Lucchino clearly overruled Cherington, and that was the hiring of Cafardo-favorite Bobby Valentine. And we all know how that turned out.
Right.  Or most likely right.  It's possible that Henry had an important hand in Bobby V too, as I think it's fair to assume that he looms large in all big decisions.
 
If we assume that Ben wanted Sveum and then Farrell, neither of those choices look overwhelming either.  Not that Bobby wasn't much worse; he was.
 

Harry Hooper

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LL was apparently the point man for the Lester negotiations, and Henry is not thrilled with how that turned out. Possibly a coincidence, but a reduced role for LL going forward was evident soon after Lester departure.
 
As for Lester's 2015 start, not too surprising as we know he's a more effective pitcher when Farrell is in the dugout. Theo might be hoping Farrell gets fired.
 

E5 Yaz

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Nick spends the bulk of his column debating whether Bogaerts or Iglesias is the better shortstop, but surprisingly doesn't come to a conclusion.
 
There's also this:
 
6. There are roughly 175 Rodriguezes on minor league rosters.
 
To be fair, there's a decent interview with Allen Craig ... who comes across as chastened and determined.
 

Humphrey

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"What’s frustrating for the Phillies is that there seems to be preparation and scouting for possible proposals for their players, but not much has been offered. The Phillies don’t want to wait until the trade deadline for a big flurry. They’d rather do it little by little, but nobody is cooperating."
 
Um, Nick, it's called demanding too much for the players you're trying to sell off. 
 

joe dokes

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The Yankees have been boosted by the return of center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury after a six-week injury absence. Ellsbury teams well with All-Star left fielder Brett Gardner. Closer Andrew Miller has also returned from the DL. In their absence, the Yankees did just fine and vaulted themselves into first place in the tight AL East.
 
 
Vaulted?
 
 
When Ellsbury went out on May 19th, the Yankees were in first place.
When Miller went out on June 9, the Yankees were in 1st place.
 
When both came back, the Yankees were in first place.
 

joe dokes

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Nick wrote:

There were calls from this columnist to deal Buchholz while his value was high because he has a track record of this type of thing happening.

So he thinks there are teams who saw him pitching well but didn't know about the "track record."  Maybe he meant "trade with a GM that's high."
 

Rasputin

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I tend to think other people are stupid so I try to avoid thinking other people are stupid, but holy mother of fuck, Nick Cafardo is the worst combination of stupid and lazy I think I've ever seen in sports media. Now, granted, I don't read it much these days what with there being plenty of assholes, but OHMYFUCKINGGOD he's a moron.
 
I think if Cafardo and Alex Speier were ever to be smushed together, the annihilation might destroy the known universe.
 

Rasputin

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Lose Remerswaal said:
Gray matter and anti-gray matter?
 
Yes, this, exactly, but more than just intelligence, it's an ability to write, an ability to communicate, an ability to not be a lazy fucking hack.
 

Humphrey

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Plenty of nonsensical bullshit in today's columns, most notably
 
Then there’s the dilemma of not being able to play Bradley in center field, where the team can optimize his value, because there is an idea that Mookie Betts shouldn’t be moved.
Well, Xander Boagerts was moved last season and it didn’t affect his 2015 season at all. In fact, the move from shortstop to third probably helped him in turning the corner as a shortstop.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Humphrey said:
Plenty of nonsensical bullshit in today's columns, most notably
 
Then there’s the dilemma of not being able to play Bradley in center field, where the team can optimize his value, because there is an idea that Mookie Betts shouldn’t be moved.
Well, Xander Boagerts was moved last season and it didn’t affect his 2015 season at all. In fact, the move from shortstop to third probably helped him in turning the corner as a shortstop.
 
Yeah. Xander was solid as a rock after being asked to move to third for Boras client Stephen Drew.
 

RIFan

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Humphrey said:
Plenty of nonsensical bullshit in today's columns, most notably
 
Then there’s the dilemma of not being able to play Bradley in center field, where the team can optimize his value, because there is an idea that Mookie Betts shouldn’t be moved.
Well, Xander Boagerts was moved last season and it didn’t affect his 2015 season at all. In fact, the move from shortstop to third probably helped him in turning the corner as a shortstop.
Or maybe it retarded his growth as a shortstop and he'd be having an even better season if he didn't get moved to third.  Hmmm, which of those is the more likely result. 
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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With a ginormous RF in our home park and his cannon arm, I don't know why it's such a bad idea for JBJ to play RF anyway. Assuming he ever can hit and Hanley moves to 1B or DH, I think Castillo/Betts/Bradley is the goal and would rival the royals for best OF defense.
 

martybarrettoverdrive

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He has simply become irrelevant. I don't even follow him on Twitter anymore. I guess this is a semi-serious question: has he legitimately broken any trade deadline news or offered significant insight this year? His not even ever mentioning the Royals as a team vying for Cueto was particularly telling
 
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