SB Nation User Blog: RickD

Why I loathe Dan Shaughnessy, Reason 42,876

RickD — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:22:57 -0000

So, after the Sox take 2 of 3 in Yankee stadium, you would think that this would be cause for celebration, right? Not if you're Dan Shaughnessy, a.k.a. CHB (thank you, Carl Everett). The guy who feeds vampirically off negative emotion is at it again.

One loss takes away "all the good feeling" from two wins. Is that how life is for you, Dan? .667 winning percentage not good enough? Winning a series on the road is not good enough? Being 6 games ahead of the Yankees with a month to play is not good enough? 2.5 games ahead of the Twins for the Wild Card isn't good enough?

I swear this guy is a vampire. He never actually writes anything demonstrating interest or knowledge of any sport. All he does is feed on negative emotion, that is, when he isn't jumping on the latest trash-the-local-star bandwagon.

I was a kid in the Boston area in the 70s. I remember when the Globe had a stable of the best sportswriters in the nation. What's happened? Why is Shaughnessy even delivering mail at the Globe?

Don't sign A-Rod!

RickD — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:15:28 -0000

Clap-clap clap-clap-clap.

Do we need to get a petition together?

I know there's already a diary on this, but I wanted to include a poll that reflects my sentiments.

Poll

Who would be the worst potential signing for the Red Sox?

Alex Rodriguez

22 votes

Osama bin Laden

5 votes

Fidel Castro

1 votes

OJ Simpson

3 votes

That annoying guy who cuts you off on the highway while on his cell phone

7 votes

38 votes | Poll has closed

Shaughnessy should shut his yap

RickD — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 13:22:27 -0000

This stuff is really getting tiresome.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/02/18/baseball_season_means_a_trip_to_won dering_land_with_manny/

What insights does Shaughnessy offer? Does he say anything newsworthy? Does he tell us anything about anything that has happened recently?

No, he's just back at his old game from last season, poisoning the well, trying to create a hostile atmosphere for Manny Ramirez.

Seriously, this is hack work. Another hatchet job from CHB.

Poll

Dan Shaughnessy is

A hack writer who doesn't squat about baseball.

4 votes

A fine journalist with keen insight into the sports he covers.

0 votes

Completely unimportant so stop paying attention to him.

13 votes

17 votes | Poll has closed

anybody but Jeter wins the MVP

RickD — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:03 -0000

I never understood the argument for Justin Morneau. I really think he was the weakest of the top ten or so candidates, and that includes two of his teammates: Joe Mauer and Johan Santana. Santana would have been my pick, while Ortiz, Hafner, Thomas, Dye, and even Jeter would have been better candidates. I would have even put Pudge and ARod ahead of Morneau. (OK, not ARod.)

The MVP is a seriously flawed award, since the writers have no basic idea what the award is supposed to recognize, and the individual writers vote based on different criteria from year to year. But the selections of Howard and Morneau underlies the idea that MVP voters are still overly infatuated with RBIs.

Poll

Who should have been the AL MVP?

Justin Morneau

4 votes

Derek Jeter

8 votes

David Ortiz

8 votes

Travis Hafner

1 votes

Joe Mauer

3 votes

Jermaine Dye

0 votes

Johan Santana

7 votes

Frank Thomas

1 votes

Vlad Guerrero

0 votes

Somebody else

0 votes

32 votes | Poll has closed

Jeter wins Aaron award

RickD — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:45:17 -0000

I guess there's no doubt about the MVP then, is there?

Jeter is not the best hitter in the AL. This award is silly.

Jeter: 214 H 14 HR 97 RBI 118 R .343 BA .417 OB .483 SLG .900 OPS

Papi: 160 H 54 HR 137 RBI 115 R .287 BA .413 OB .636 SLG 1.049 OPS

I thought there might be competition from Dye, Hafner, Thome, or Mauer. Jeter didn't lead the league in any category and lagged significantly behind in the power categories. He's not even the best hitter on the Yankees!

sigh

Fan voting - a brilliant idea!

How about a pro-Manny diary!

RickD — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:59:17 -0000

Some things to keep in mind:

- Before Manny Ramirez came to the Red Sox, we had essentially no power hitting at all. All we had was Nomar, who isn't really a classic power hitter. And that's how it had been since Mo Vaughn left.

Without Manny behind him to protect him, David Ortiz will be walked 200 times next year. And that's only if he stays patient. At times this season he got tired of being walked and started swinging at bad pitches. Then BBs became Ks.

Manny Ramirez has been the best hitter in the AL for the past decade. Only ARod has been close.

Unlike ARod, Manny hits good pitching as well as bad. And he excels in the postseason.

And BTW, he's the only World Series MVP in Red Sox history.

I've posted the numbers before:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/ramirma02.shtml

And yes, those numbers mean something. They measure his contribution to the team over a long period of time. They are more valuable than anecdotes, which seem to be the favored mode of argumentation for the anti-Manny crowd. But there are plenty of anecdotes, too.

Rember the 5-game sweep to the Yankees that killed the season? Manny showed up then.
Game 1: 1/2 1 HR 1 R 1 RBI 2 walks
Game 2: 4/6 1 R 2 RBI (double header)
Game 3: 1/1 1 HR 1 R 3 RBI 3 walks (double header)
Game 4: 2/2 1 RBI 3 walks
Game 5: 0/0 with 2 walks before being lifted

So here's the deal. You talk about getting rid of Manny, you do so, but convince me that the player you're bringing in will be able to go 8/11 with 2 HRs and 10 walks in a 5-game series against the Yankees. And, BTW, all those walks to Manny? If Manny's gone, they're all going Ortiz's way.

So, please, spare all the "Manny cannot play through pain" stuff. As has been pointed out many times, Manny has played more games for the Red Sox in the past five years than anybody else. Unless you are either Manny Ramirez or his doctor, you don't know whether he's in pain or not. Shaughnessy in particular made an ass of himself by declaring Manny a faker before the extent of the injury was known. But now it's no longer that he's faking - Shaughnessy and Edes have been forced to concede the point that the injury is real. So they are backing off to "he won't play in pain".

Guys, Manny was there for the games that counted. See above. And he was the best player for the Red Sox while the pitching staff was being tattooed by the Yankees.

What's really going on here is that Manny Ramirez doesn't get along with the press. That's hardly unprecedented in Boston. Manny is simply walking down the path taken by Jim Rice and Ted Williams before him. (And, curiously enough, and with all due respect to Yaz, they are the best three hitters the Red Sox have ever had.)

The Boston media think it's all about them. So when a player shuts them out, the way Manny did, the Shaughnessys and Edes of the world silently seethe and wait to see if they can get revenge somehow. So, when Manny gets a serious injury for the first time in five years, and only the second in his career, we are alternatively told that he's faking or that he should be playing through pain like a tough guy. But what's really going on is something personal.

What the Red Sox really need to do is build a team, not to further the process of taking apart the 2004 champions.

Final thought: do you want to see Manny Ramirez on the Yankees? I don't.

Don't feed the trolls

RickD — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 11:27:27 -0000

Seriously.

When a troll shows up and spends his time bad-mouthing the Red Sox or gloating about the Yankees' recent good fortunes, the best thing to do is simply ignore him. Trolls get emotional satisfaction from pissing people off and are not interested in intelligent or reasonable conversations. They love any kind of attention and will continue to post ever more inflammatory comments simply to get people riled up.