Here on media relations day in the Royals blogosphere...
Last night, I characterized Joe's blog post on the Royals offense as "cowardly". In particular, I took issue with the post's conclusion/non-conclusion:
And it all comes back to the beginning: The Royals execs are smart people. But the more they do to this offense, the worse this offense gets. The more they hope for things to work out, the less likely it seems that things DO work out. It’s a quirk of baseball — a quirk of sports. I remember talking to an executive once who told me that if you get a left fielder who is a little better than the one you have, a centerfielder who is a little better, a right fielder who is a little better, and so on, you should be a better team. Well … maybe and maybe not. Two plus two does not always equal four in team sports. Sometimes, it equals P4. Sometimes it equals 4-6-3. And sometimes, it just equals another lost year.
Multiple readers have suggested that Joe wasn't being cowardly, but that this was in fact gentle criticism or possibly some kind of ironic handling on his part or a deft way of begging the question. As such, he wasn't being cowardly, he was being clever. If you hold this reading, then my little mini-shot at the illustrious Joe wasn't just wrong and inaccurate, it was itself ironically backwards. He was really giving it to 'em!
Um, I don't quite see it. Just read it again, and still don't see it. The line about team sports, "two plus two does not always equal four in team sports," doesn't seem to fit with the overall thrust of some misty and unseen criticism of Moore. No, it simply reinforces the bizarre gnosticism of the piece, which I still see as the overall purpose: Gee, ain't sports quirky sometimes? We just can't figure it out.
As such, I'm not sure what to say. I feel half-dumb and half-a-jerk. I don't want to be unnecessarily critical of someone for not being critical, when they are in fact being critical. I don't want to be the one guy left not getting the joke, but I don't see the joke! Joe knows 100x more about baseball and baseball writing than I do I, suppose.
In any case, since the post in question was published, Joe P. has been appropriately harsh, which is really all that matters. The next step in all this, for all of us, is to stop fixating on Hillman. Hillman is not the issue, he is a symptom.