I’m not saying there aren’t problems, but Nightengale either had an agenda or was trying to spin a compelling yarn.

As for the freep running the USA Today piece, they have done that several times this year when there have been Tigers related items.

I think this illustrates that many feel invested in this player as the as some kind of star for years to come. Yet when I point out obvious, then I’m a troll. Give me a break! If he was playing well AND I was criticizing him– calling him a fat lazy slug– then I would be a troll. But he is not performing, he is a big disappointment and if I do criticize him then I am not a troll. I’m just being honest.

Please check out the page:

http://www.firejoemorgan.com

for all of your scrappy white guy needs. Search under David Eckstein or grinder or gamer, etc. and you’ll get a flavor.

There’s also a good article about 3/4 of the way down the main page regarding Frank Thomas (title is The Big Dead).

You caught my drift exactly. I was held hostage to sports talk radio at work that year, and I can’t tell you how many times callers would go on about how the Sox would be contenders still but for the loss of “grinder,” run-into-walls Rowand, or how many times Dan Bernstein would shoot these people down. It was fun. The first 2 times.

The concept of SWG (Scrappy White Guy) is rife with humor. Ryan introduced it here. Did you invent that, Ryan? Pretty good, if so. Could be the basis for a new rule/position: DSWG. Designated Scrappy White Guy. Every team’s gotta have one.

Hope you’re not joking again, because you know I’m not smart enough to catch on to you.

I recall how Sox fans were pining for Rowand, those were good times. For the record, scrappy Aaron posted an OPS+ of 86 in 2006, which is below average output in a terrific hitters park in Philly. He also contributed a grand total of 9 Win Shares. But he broke his face catching a ball, so he must be a ‘gamer’. (To be fair, he had a very solid 2007 and a good start to 2008).

Good to know you found that as amusing as I did. Sox fans are not what I would consider the most “informed” or “knowledgable”, perhaps they should try getting “scrappy” by spending time over at Baseball Prospectus. They might learn something.

Putting together a motivated team would be a lot easier if all you had to do was pay the manager more than any of the players.

Of course I’m not suggesting exactly that, there are a number of factors at work here. Money is also symbolic in that it communicates, in some ways, who is more important to the organization, and who has more pull within the organization. If the player is challenged he doesn’t feel like he has to comply because he knows he’s not going to get benched. He’s going to basically say, in so many words, no, I don’t feel like complying with your request, I’m just going to do what I feel like doing. What are you going to do about it? Bench me? Yeah right, like DD will allow you to sit someone paid as much as I get paid. I know better.

In fact this is exactly what Matt Jones, WR of the Jacksonville Jaquars said to his coach. I wish I could remember what it was, but the coach asked him to do something, and he said, ‘No, what are you going to do? Bench me?’ Just brazen disrespect.

In fact, I think he got benched for a while. But he didn’t care, he had his money.

Most cases its more subtle than that, and is expressed in the form of hustling, not putting in extra work, not changing your approach at the plate, etc. Or just giving the coach lip service.

As far as who decides who plays, Leyland or Dobrowski, I don’t know, But I do know that according to beat writers I’ve known who cover professional teams, this varies from team to team.

This is my prediction: .267. 33 hr’s 99 rbi’s. Similiar numbers in 2009 and the Tigers trade him to the Yankees for prospects. An aging Jeter and ARod, still ringless, beg him to lose the weight again and he puts up a .295 58 hr 152 rbi MVP season in 2010.

Remember how some White Sox fans were pining for scrappy Aaron Rowand in 2006?

But let’s just say it’s probably a good thing none of us are ACTUALLY the GM of a baseball team.

You must be excluding me from this comment. And that’s nice of you. But I think Chris would actually make the best GM. Even-keeled. A steady hand at the helm.

I’m with you on the definition of respect. That’s the sense I used the word in.

I don’t doubt the stories and interviews as such. What I doubt is that the explanation really washes. I think the “I make more than you” is more an after the fact “so there.” The lack of respect came first, for other reasons, right or wrong.

Putting together a motivated team would be a lot easier if all you had to do was pay the manager more than any of the players.

I could be wrong, but I think it is Leyland who decides if you sit or you play, whether it be Miguel Cabrera or Ryan Raburn. And DD who decides if you pack your bags. I don’t think any Detroit Tiger has management in a bind, as in ha ha, too bad, you owe me money, and now I don’t have to do nothin’! I know you’re not suggesting this – just an extreme example of my point.

25 guys are bound to have slightly different ideas on whether they’re doing everything it takes to help the team win. When people aren’t trying as hard as they could, it’s often because of a feeling that it’s just not worth it. I wonder what kind of disincentives are going on there. Maybe it’s tangentially related to money, but I continue to resist the idea that it boils down to that.

Nice work adding a voice of reason to this Cabrera discussion. I for one am not ready to dismiss the four years of mashing he did with Florida because of his first 44 games in a new league. I’m sure Boston felt the same way regarding Beckett. And as you rightly point out, Miggy’s numbers aren’t even that bad; his VORP is 9.5, which puts him 78th in the league (89th percentile). He needs to be better, but he hasn’t been awful.

Your point about A-Rod is spot on, and people love “scrappy” players like David Eckstein, even though they are little more than replaceable parts. People love to say that those scrappy guys “hustle” and “do things that win games”. Oh yes, it’s quite clear that when A-Rod hits a home run, it actually hurts his team by scoring negative eleventybillion runs. He’s a selfish pr*ck.

The team is struggling and we’re all frustrated. But let’s just say it’s probably a good thing none of us are ACTUALLY the GM of a baseball team.

Give me a break, Ryan. This is just a lame excuse for Cabrera’s rather poor play. He wasn’t hitting before the defensive switch so there isn’t evidence of cause and effect here. And many players switch teams and leagues and perform quite well. I remember how Mark Textiara got traded to Atlanta last season and preceded to vaporize baseballs.

The idea that he is so out of shape, at his age, demonstrates quite clearly that he is a lazy slug. And look around the league and notice how the game has changed. Over, are the days of the pot-bellied Babe Ruth style of station-to-station player. We are now in the era of the athletic types. And this turd, Cabrera, refuses to even try to make himself even look like a modern ball player. He obviously would rather sit around and let the league pass him by, which is what is happening as his career is in freefall.

Personally, I deeply regret this acquisition and would like to see him take his .170 BA w/ RISP to some other team. If I read in the paper tomorrow that the Tigers traded the contractual burden of Cabrera for a pack of cigarettes, I would be ecstatic. We could then pretend that he was never a Tiger, forget there was ever a Maybin lost and precede to win a few games. This team’s future is better off without fat lazy Miggy.