Sunday, April 12, 2015

Thoughts on Comments and the Human Side of Baseball

One of the problems with moderating comments is I haven't found a way to communicate why some comments get the button.  Of course, there are the obvious troll comments that need no explanation, but a few that might not be so obvious and result in some hurt feelings.  I think you probably know who you are, and please accept my apologies.  I'll just review a few of the reasons why some recent comments did not make the cut:

In several cases, it was just more dubious assertions without any backing information or justification.

In one case, an otherwise perfectly good comment was ruined by a single slur.  Note to commenters:  You cannot call a human being of ANY race or ethnicity a monkey.  You just can't!

Another comment made multiple points, some valid, some not so valid.  I hit the button when the commenter called Billy Beane a "genius" for his offseason moves based on a horrible opposing start by Taijuan Walker.  I am just not going to let this site be a forum for those kinds of unsupported and unjustified comments.  Billy Beane may well be a "genius" and the A's may well have a great season, but a single bad start by a rookie pitcher is not going to be the determining factor in that.

Yet another comment was axed despite the author having a valid point.  It's just that he's already made the exact same point 5 or 6 times previously and continues to ignore additional data that paints a more complete picture.  Again, comments that hammer home the same biased point over and over again are not going to be published!

*********************************************************************************

If you are interested in the human side of baseball, the weekly Sunday Notes by David Laurilia on Fangraphs is must reading.  Remember when Rocco Baldelli was one of the top prospects in all of baseball for the Tampa Bay Rays?  He is 33 years old now and serving as their first base coach after spending several seasons as a front office assistant.

Remember when Dana Eveland was everybody's favorite sleeper prospect?  He is 31 years old and pitching in the minors.  He has some interesting comments about being a husband and father kicking around the fringes of MLB.  I found his comment about making a "chunk of change" pitching in Korea interesting.  BTW, Nate Schierholtz just signed a contract to play in Korea or Japan.  Right now, I forget which one.

Remember Matt LaPorta?  He hit .238 over 4 seasons with the Cleveland Indians. He is reportedly retired now.

*********************************************************************************

PS:  If you are not doing it already, check out Cove Chatter linked to the left and click on Blogroll.  I do it several times per day. It is a veritable wellspring of great information.

Oh, and congrats to Covechatter for getting himself engaged to be married.

4 comments:

  1. Speaking of the human side of baseball, the Josh Hamilton situation is going to be interesting in how it plays out. Moreno now says he has items in the contract that could allow the Angels to get out of it that the players association agreed to and the players association is saying that is not true. I can see this getting ugly.

    I think long term the player association is going to have to be careful here. If they don't allow the teams some type of "out" on these situations, then teams will just stop signing players that have these types of issues at all or do so at a much reduced rate.Seems like there needs to be some type of agreement where a player can be afforded the opportunity for a big pay day but also be held accountable for their actions. I haven't seen anyone from the Angels saying that Josh doesn't have an issue or doesn't need help, I see them saying we can't continue to pay him these large sums while he figures things out. I think that is fair but this is a more complex situation than that due to the way the two sides have all this structured.

    Billy Baseball

    ReplyDelete
  2. BTW, I forgot to include an item about CoveChatter and his site. If you are not already doing it, visit Cove Chatter linked to the left and click on Blogroll. I do it several times daily and it is a veritable wellspring of great information. Oh, and congrats to Covechatter for getting himself engaged to be married.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You snuck that in on me! Thanks DrB, I always appreciate your support. Very exciting last 7 days for me. Easter, engagements, a trip to the beaches of Orange County with the future Mrs C.C., Opening Day, Minor League seasons kicking off... What a crazy, fun whirlwind!

      Ironically, I don't visit the blogroll page on my site all that often (probably because most of those sites are programmed into my browser already!), but I've been thinking I need to update a few links, as well as add a few others. I've been trying to be creative lately, adding MLB draft pages, a few daily minor league tidbits, and daily MLB recap/highlights. "Blogging" is hard as heck sometimes... but linking people to good information as often as possible never gets old.

      Thanks again Doc. This site has always been one of my major influences. I hope you know that.

      Delete