Conspiracy Theory
Yesterday's nationals.com notes had a section about Brian Schneider, which I ranted about last night.
It quoted an anonymous baseball source as saying that Brian Schneider has become complacent since signing his four-year contract, indicating that that helps to explain his poor start, and, presumably, why, in part, he's on the DL. It followed with some brief comments from Schneider indicating that it was just a slow start, and that he's confident that he'll hit better, and that he doesn't know why anyone would call him complacent since he's involved in the games (ie: he's not a Ryan Church).
Yet, when you look at the notes this morning, it's gone. Why?
It can't be because of space considerations. There isn't a word count on the internet.
Did someone from the team complain? Was Bill Ladson citing something that was completely off the record?
It just smells fishy, doesn't it? For an outlet which strives to maintain some sense of impartiality from the team it covers, it certainly raises a lot of questions.
It quoted an anonymous baseball source as saying that Brian Schneider has become complacent since signing his four-year contract, indicating that that helps to explain his poor start, and, presumably, why, in part, he's on the DL. It followed with some brief comments from Schneider indicating that it was just a slow start, and that he's confident that he'll hit better, and that he doesn't know why anyone would call him complacent since he's involved in the games (ie: he's not a Ryan Church).
Yet, when you look at the notes this morning, it's gone. Why?
It can't be because of space considerations. There isn't a word count on the internet.
Did someone from the team complain? Was Bill Ladson citing something that was completely off the record?
It just smells fishy, doesn't it? For an outlet which strives to maintain some sense of impartiality from the team it covers, it certainly raises a lot of questions.
posted by Chris Needham at
8:49 AM
7 Comments:
Yeah, they're a separate organization -- at least the reporters are.
The team does use it for official business -- selling tickets, running press releases, etc.
But the reporters work for a separate company, which is owned separately by MLB.
By
Chris Needham, at 5/23/2006 10:07 AM
They might be separate entities, but they basically always spout the party line. In the last days of the Expos, we used to refer to him as "Shill" Ladson because he basically said whatever the expos management told him to say.
Scot.
By
Anonymous, at 5/23/2006 10:09 AM
I always view it the same way as I view my job.
I looked through my personnel manual, and there aren't any rules against crapping on my boss' desk or insulting my coworkers to outsiders I work with.
Somehow, I know where the line is, even though it's not written out.
By
Chris Needham, at 5/23/2006 10:12 AM
Can they remove the whole article about last nights game? Maybe then that wouldn't have happened either.
By
Harper, at 5/23/2006 11:19 AM
I look at the news on MLB.com pretty much like the corporate intranet -- they post what they want us to see, the way they want us to see it. Chris, you said it yourself, a separate company owned by MLB. Or it could just be that some editor called B/S on the unattributed source.
By
Anonymous, at 5/23/2006 11:51 AM
Schneider is not the player he was last year. For starters, his hitting makes him look like this years version or Cristian Guzman. Further, his defense has become very sloppy. He doesn't throw runners out like he did last year and his catching has deteriorated. Complaceny could be the reason.
By
Anonymous, at 5/23/2006 2:52 PM
Or complacency could be an easy way of "explaining" his poor performance without doing more than putting a word to it. Not to get too deep here, but what does it really mean to be complacent? I for one can't imagine why a player would put forward less than his best effort for an unlikeable losing team with a backstabbing, chiselling, incompetent front office, a manager who seems like a vicious old man with a hobby, and a pitching staff that can only charitably be credited with that name. Is the player the problem? Or is the team on which he finds himself? Well, probably both; but I bet that if you fix the second problem, the first would fix itself.
By
Anonymous, at 5/23/2006 3:59 PM
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