I've never imagined this space as a place for idle gossip and character assassination. A disheartening development of the internet and sports-talk-radio era has been the tendency to blur performance and personality, turning normal, relatively mundane sports failures into some kind of revelation of an athlete's soul. The problem isn't negativity, but rather the focus of our pervasive critical energies: hence, Peyton Manning and Arod are fraudulent failures of questionable character and fortitude, while someone like Buddy Bell waltzs unhindered through life. Buddy Bell manages a Major League baseball team, yet displays not the slightest intellectual curiosity or interest in the game. For guys like Buddy, there aren't questions, only the same old answers that he thinks have been proven: Closers close, leadoff men are fast guys, bunting in the third inning is a winning strategy and vets know how to get it done. Its this kind of thinking that got us 485 doses of T-Long last season. Instead of steroid using cheaters and greedy agents and players this blind stupidity is what upsets me.
Which is a long way of getting around to L'affair Greinke, the latest puzzling development for a franchise doomed to stew in its own juices. The amazing thing is that no one has any idea what is going on, yet the consensus is that this is a fairly serious dispute/problem/meltdown we have on our hands.
Of course, post-TO 24/7 this winter, we've got the standard white-bread old-school response down: these guys are all selfish/greedy/evil/whatever and good riddance. Maybe thats the case with Greinke, but until we hear anything definitive from anyone in the know, its impossible to say.
It'd be truly tragic if we chased off or beat down the franchise's top pitching prospect -- and the very foundation of any hope for success we might have in the next five years -- because he couldn't get along with a hapless placeholder manager.
So in the meantime, we're blessed with the interminable demands for public moneies for unneeded upgrades, heavy doses of Joe McEwing, Benji Gil, Reggie Sanders and Doug Mientkiewicz and half-hearted complaints from ownership about their own helplessness.
And Buddisimo Bell's wit and wisdom.
Contract this franchise now.
