Make it stop

Posted at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2005 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

My thoughts on Bret Boone (which basically are, "yeah, he stinks, but at least he's not Aaron Boone!") are in the other article. But the really entertaining part of this trade is the way the local lapdogs reported it.

One theme I heard from at least 2 broadcasters (not paid by the Twins) was this pearl: "this is reminiscent of the Shannon Stewart trade."

Well, OK, I'll bite. Other than the fact Shannon Stewart and Bret Boone both were players for a Major League Basball team and both were traded, what exactly is similar about the two deals.

Category	Boone	Stewart
Age at time of trade	36	28
OBP at time of trade	.299	.347
AVG at time of trade	.231	.294
SLG at time of trade	.385	.442
Position played	2B	OF
Traded for	PTNBL & cash	Bobby Kielty
Sought-after free agent?	No	Yes
Race	White	African American
Resides	Orlando	Miami
Presidential pick	Bush*	Kerry*
Favorite musical	My Fair Lady*	Les Miserables*
Favorite blog	Bat Girl*	Twins Geek*
*OK, fine, I made this up!

Gord Wittenmeyer may have unwittingly stated the problem the Twins have contending when he noted in his Knight Ridder report that
"a deal for Boone would be the Twins' biggest trading-deadline deal since they acquired leadoff hitter Shannon Stewart at the all-star break in 2003."

Ugh.

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Comments (4)

1. Sammy Stewart was a little used middle reliever for Cleveland in the 80's.

2. You have their ages flipped.

3. Are you related to Statler and or Waldorf of Muppets fame?

4. Can the Twins, or the local media, ever do anything to please you?

Posted by Brandon | July 12, 2005 4:48 PM

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Brandon, are you suggesting that acquiring Bret Boone at this point is about all the Twins can do to please anyone but the hopeless cranks?

Posted by frightwig | July 12, 2005 5:10 PM

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Although you combined the Twins and local media in one grouping, the two are actually supposed to be independent of one another. So that would be one thing they could do.

What can the Twins do? They can recognize that their window of competition is closing (see Moneyball), evaluate their position in the scheme of playoff things, and act accordingly rather than trying to foist off acquisitions of 36 year old, washed-up secondbaseman as a significant effort to win a championship.

I mean, sure, I'm as goosey as the next person when it comes to Central Division titles. But pretty soon all those Twins fans are going to realize there are holes in those 1991 World Champions sweatshirts.

The team has a lot of currency to spend right now. Pitching. Time to spend it.

As for what the local scribes can do: I've stated that on a number of occasions. They can stop being so lazy. They can stop writing cliches, and they can stop pretending that people don't have access to much more information than they were able to get 10-20 years ago.

There have, actually, been a few good beat writeres through here in the last few years, but they've all been hired away, leaving behind guys who've been here for 20, 30, 40 years. Nobody else wanted 'em, I guess. Guess why.

Posted by Bob Collins | July 12, 2005 5:25 PM

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i thought stewart was a nader man........

Posted by daveZ | July 13, 2005 12:35 PM

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