Losers Writing About Failure

The dead-tree journalists at the Sun-Times are at it again, declaring the White Sox rebuild something between a disappointment and a failure.  Today, columnist Rick Morrissey wrote that losing free agent Manny Machado to the Padres “is like losing to a therapy dog” and “terribly incriminating for the Sox” because you should never “suffer the indignity of finishing behind such a historically bad franchise in the Machado sweepstakes.”  Oh, my gosh.

 

And Morrissey doesn’t want anyone bringing up the wisdom of a ten-year contract, either.  “A Machado and a Bryce Harper might not come around again for a decade or three,” writes our esteemed shadow owner and GM.  “A pair of 26-year old superstars on the market at the same time is rare.  It calls for action.  The Sox didn’t act with the appropriate financial urgency.”  Unlike, say, The Mariners when they signed 31-year Robinson Cano to a 10-year deal or Angels, who signed a 32-year old Albert Pujols to a 10-deal?  If only Morrissey had bothered to compare and contrast those signings.  I would’ve loved to read what he said about them at the time.

 

And then a couple of pages over, Sox beat-writer Daryl Van Schouwen cast some shade—I’m trying to stay hip with the kids—on the Sox rebuild by noting the injuries of  various prospects and the relatively low ranking ESPN’s Keith Law gave the minor-league system.  Law says the Sox are merely the 13^th best in baseball, behind Central Division rivals Minnesota and Cleveland.  Wow, Keith Law.  Talk about an authoritative source.  I wonder if it would be harder for Law to pass as me or me as him.

 

In general, I’m tired of sportswriters pretending to be general managers, and I’m especially tired of it with the folks at the Sun-Times.  This is a paper that not too long ago cut back on its comics’ section by a third and tried to drop its TV listings only to discover that’s one of the few reasons people bother to buy the paper.  Most days, the Times could pass for a sales circular.

 

Guys, try getting your own house in order first before you pontificate on baseball.