Eric Young is Confucius; You Won't Understand a Thing Written by Either

by R.J. Anderson on Sep 20, 2009 11:23 PM EDT

What editor let obvious oversights and incorrect facts pass by? No mention of Ben Zobrist (I'd say he stuck out all season), Jeff Niemann (over .500, which, okay this is a stupid way of judging a starter, but he is over .500), and somehow tabbed Matt Garza and James Shields as going a combined 16-19 last season. Again, not the best or third best or 95th best way to evaluate a starting pitcher, but Shields and Garza most definitely did not go 16-19 last season.

I don't even know what this means and I wouldn't like it if I did:

Rays manager Joe Maddon took a chance by bringing in seven position players and two pitchers he thought could get it done. Instead, they have struggled on routine plays.

Erik brought this to my attention and I cannot thank him enough. I normally avoid highlighting awful pieces but this is proof positive that some people spend too much time on their catchphrases and not enough time understanding the sport they're trying -- key word here -- to cover. I wonder what Young did to piss his editor off enough to run this article.

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I need to apply for an editing job in their MLB department

by Erik Hahmann on Sep 20, 2009 11:26 PM EDT reply actions

I read that article a while back

I never made light of it, but figured it’d make its way here eventually. Yes, the mistakes in that article and plentiful and flat out mind-boggling.

Hello.

by killa3312 on Sep 20, 2009 11:33 PM EDT reply actions

Usually

I get upset when so called “experts” say or write things about the rays when they obviously know nothing about them. However this article was so poorly written I couldn’t help but laugh.

by tbmd on Sep 20, 2009 11:44 PM EDT reply actions

I like "As long as they remain hungry"

b/c getting to the world series was probably enough and losing didn’t leave bad taste in their mouths. Wow.

Follow Me on Twitter @FreeZorilla

by FreeZorilla on Sep 21, 2009 12:00 AM EDT reply actions

Whoever the editor that was responsible for fact-checking this article is should be immediately shit-canned. He didn't even bother trying.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Sep 21, 2009 12:09 AM EDT reply actions

Well we have missed routine plays.

It shouldn’t define our season, but I’ve seen Craw drop 2 can of corns, Beej has missed 2, Navi at catcher was pretty bad, and 2B not named Zobrist has had the range of a dog on a chain. Those plays stand out in the minds of people that don’t live and breath one team. Expecting Erik Young to know everything about the Rays is like expecting BJ Upton to sign a team friendly deal anytime soon. It would be nice, but it ain’t happening. Frankly, I’m surprised I could read everything he said, have you heard that man talk?

Embrace Eternity

by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 21, 2009 10:04 AM EDT reply actions

Have you heard that man talk?

what does that even mean?

by LKMoreland on Sep 21, 2009 11:38 AM EDT reply actions

When you listen to him talk, he sounds like a complete dumbass

I’m not an English teacher, but he rarely uses any sort of subject-verb agreement. He makes up words and incorrectly uses existing words. Baseball analysis aside, he barely has a grasp on the English language.

Embrace Eternity

by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 21, 2009 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions

He makes Emmitt Smith look like a linguist

Look at the 2000 AL ROY voting and try not to laugh.

by RaysnNoles on Sep 21, 2009 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions

At least his beard isn't weird

I’m glad someone else realizes that the guy has a 4th grade education.

Embrace Eternity

by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 21, 2009 12:26 PM EDT up reply actions

7 new position players

He was using this years stats for Shields and Garza so i can understand that mistake and I am sure Niemann and Zobeist were just oversights which is a pretty serious mistake but I would still say it is forgivable.

I was wondering about the 7 position players though. It seemed to me that with the exception of DH and 1/2 of the RF platoon they returned the same line up as in 2008. When I looked a little closer though they do have (by my unofficial estimate) 7 position players who are with the team this year who were not here last year. They are: Burrell (well, I guess you can consider DH a position player), M Hernandez, Zaun, Kapler, Dillon, Joyce, and Richard. I would guess by Young’s count most teams had at least 7 new position players in 2009. With the exception of Burrell and possibly Kapler, it is really hard to see how any of these players had a negative impact on the 2009 season.

by MetsRaysFan on Sep 21, 2009 2:18 PM EDT reply actions

The preceding sentence

to the one RJ quoted was referring to the Rays’ defense falling apart. So I’m pretty sure he was talking about the story in Spring Training where Maddon held a meeting with 7 position players (BJ, CC, Bartlett, Longo, Pena, Aki, and Navi (lol)) and two starting pitchers (I thought it was just Shields but maybe Sonny or Garza were also involved) who he challenged to go out and win Gold Glove awards. However, we can’t be totally sure because of course he completely failed to mention what he was talking about. But go back and read that part of the article with that in mind and it makes a little more sense.

by homeboogie on Sep 21, 2009 10:17 PM EDT up reply actions

I See

I did not know that was what he was referring to. Your explanation does clear things up.

by MetsRaysFan on Sep 22, 2009 9:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Kapler's role is to play against lefties.

He had 158 plate appearances against them and hit .290/.392/.550 with 14 doubles and 6 home runs. He also received 24 BBs while striking out 20 times. In case you think he was simply lucky on hits falling in, his BABIP against lefties is .296, well within the normal range. Wouldn’t you say that clearly he had a positive impact on the team rather than suggest that he might have had a negative impact?

His only other real role is to play an acceptable outfield at all three positions. If I read the stats correctly, he has been slightly below average in LF and CF in UZR but above average in RF where he played the lion’s share of his games. According to Fangraphs, he has a .9 WAR and earned $4.3 million in value while being paid $1 million (and $18). Again, seems to me there is no reason even to suggest anything but a positive contribution to the team. (Did I read that data correctly?)

It is true that early in the year he was awful against everyone and remained helpless against righties. That diminishes his contributions, I agree, but I see no evidence to dispute that his overall impact has been very positive.

by bobr on Sep 21, 2009 5:08 PM EDT reply actions

Agree

Kapler does his job well.

Swav or Die (>'-')> <('-')> <('-'<)
For the lulz

by SRQman on Sep 21, 2009 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Kapler

I am not trying to dismiss Kapler’s contributions to the team. What I am saying is I can understand how Eric Young could look at Kaplers numbers see an OPS of 94 and a Woba of .328 from a corner outfielder and be unimpressed. My other point was the other 5 players could not have a negative impact on the team see as how they all recieved either little playing time or played much better (Zaun) than the person whose playing time they took.

by MetsRaysFan on Sep 22, 2009 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions

Pretty sure that EY does not look at OPS or wOBA, ever.

What you think all the guns is for? All purpose war, got the Rottweilers by the door. And I feed 'em gunpowder, so they can devour the criminals, tryin' to drop my decimals.

by PriceMultiCyYoungs on Sep 22, 2009 9:44 AM EDT up reply actions

He played baseball, he doesn't need numbers to tell him what happened.

by R.J. Anderson on Sep 22, 2009 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

EY is a dope of Emmittian proportions, however

it is true that you can learn a lot about the game having played it at a high level for a lengthy time. No guarantee of knowledge and insight—plenty of experienced players are really clueless about the game—but playing can increase awareness of nuances of the game (especially the pitcher/hitter match up with regard to pitch selection). Not that that was what Eric the Young was talking about, so nevermind……

by ValricoBrian on Sep 22, 2009 8:49 PM EDT reply actions