At around 8:00 yesterday morning, Ken Rosenthal started chumming the water, and it's been a non-stop feeding frenzy ever since.
Let the Roy Halladay sweepstakes begin.Oh, I bet this is going to be juicy!
"We have to see what's out there," Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi says. "I'm not saying we're going to shop him. But if something makes sense, we at least have to listen. We're (leaning) more toward listening than we've ever been."
Or not... And with that one lukewarm, non-committal quote from the Jays' GM, the baseball blogosphere was off to the races.
MLB Trade Rumors was the first to pick it up, and from there it has spread like wildfire with scribes from all over the country tripping over themselves to interview Ricciardi and talk to other sources to get the next tasty tidbit.
Who are the most likely potential trading partners? What about his no trade clause? Who's salaries might the other teams have to take in return? The Phillies might get him!
Are we the only ones not buying Rosenthal's original line of reasoning here?
Ricciardi says the Jays will not trade Halladay if they do not receive the right offer, knowing that the team's best chance of competing next season is with the pitcher at the top of the rotation.
C'mon.
Hmmm. You make an excellent point Ken. "C'mon". I hadn't thought of that. The two perfectly reasonable statements from Ricciardi above now make no sense at all. And you did it with just with one simple, informal contraction.
Once this process starts, it's almost impossible to stop.Except in the case of say, Jake Peavy, who you reference in your article when talking about what the White Sox would be willing to trade.
Rest assured, the Jays are assembling prospect lists and preparing to assign their scouts to investigate rival farm systems. Halladay is a goner. It's just a matter of when and where.
Well, no shit, Ken. That "when and where" could be two weeks from now, this December, next season, next offseason or when he finally retires from the game of baseball. Thank you for that bold prediction.
-----
In PeteAbe's post about this, he said
J.P. Ricciardi played it exactly right yesterday.
He put the word out that he would be willing to discuss a deal for Roy Halladay and then picked up his cell phone a few times over the course of the day to reiterate that to ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports.com.
No fool is Ricciardi. Within a few hours, it was the biggest story in baseball. Halladay became the hot topic on sports-talk radio stations in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago along with a few hundred blogs, including this one. Everybody was trying to figure out who their teams can send to Toronto for the respected right-hander.
It’s called building a market.
Did he play it exactly right, though? Cause it kinda seems like Ken Rosenthal just blew a harmless quote out of proportion, thereby creating a pointless media shitstorm over something that may or may not happen. Since when do you have to build a market through the media? I'm pretty sure the market for a pitcher who eats AL East line-ups and shits complete games was already there.
Does it really do Ricciardi any good to have every member of the baseball press foaming at the mouth awaiting the next tenuous detail of the trade? Is it a good thing that Rosenthal is making it seem like the Jays have no choice but to trade him?
Ask Kevin Towers how that worked out for him.
Posts
This is that little shit Rosenthal at his best. Or worst. But it's vintage Rosenthal.
ReplyDeleteBefore I was allowed to start blogging I was required to read the Ken Rosenthal Rules on Being a Real Baseball Writer. Of course this doesn't make me a real writer, but at least I get to learn from someone who both FOX and MLBN consider a national authority.
The Rosenthal Rules are as follows:
1). Identify Player A who is good.
2). Speculate that Player A's team may need to trade him for some reason. If not entirely true, just make something up.
3). Create list of teams to which Player A might be traded. Be sure to include the Yankees because they buy everyone.
4). If possible, include a quote from someone that loosely supports your premise. Attaching an actual name to the quote is preferable, but nameless sources such as "a high ranking executive" or "a veteran scout" will suffice. If you can't find a source, make one up. If you can't think of anything to make up, that's OK too. You don't really need to support this shit.
5). Rinse. Repeat.
6). If 1-5 fails, talk about steroids. Be sure to mention that your children don't like baseball but they can tell which players are on steroids.