tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I wasn't able to find anything about Pham being hurt."

He stole second base, and when he slid in headfirst, his helmet came off, bounced off the base and ricocheted back into his face. He was probably coming out of the game anyway, but they weren't taking any chances. Some of that dirt could have gotten into a wound, if there was one, and caused a nasty infection.

It showed up on the P-D later last night. Hummel apparently didn't think it warranted mentioning until someone must've been like, "hey, maybe we should make note of this since this guy is always hurt." I wish Hummel would retire already.

Looks like Leake has been great today against the Twins.

Looks like the offense is in mid-season form.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I wish Hummel would retire already."

I thought he did five years ago. 
The P-D is trending toward irrelevance, at least for me. Without Joe Strauss, they're pretty much down to Goold.

Goold is single-handedly propping up that operation. Hochman seems like a really fun person, but he's simply not a good fit. And BenFred brings nothing to the table that any one of us couldn't do. Jose De Jesus Ortiz is joining from the Houston Chronicle on April 4, so hopefully he brings some actual cynicism and edge.

Hummel is just awful. Super nice guy and I'm sure he was viable at one time, but I can't think of anything he does well.

Yeah, that can be annoying. Most things Millenials do are annoying, though.

What I don't get is how the P-D saw fit to replace Bernie -- a sarcastic, sometimes cranky numbers nerd -- with Hochman, who is basically just a superfan that doesn't really have baseball know-how. I read some of his work before he made the jump to the P-D and he's a really good writer. But he doesn't have a voice for this town, which is weird because he's from here.

APIAD wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I wish Hummel would retire already."

I thought he did five years ago. 
The P-D is trending toward irrelevance, at least for me. Without Joe Strauss, they're pretty much down to Goold.

I used to read almost all the articles but i cant remember the last one i read.  Im sure it wasnt that long ago but my idea of reading on their site is skimming quickly.  From the bland writing, the new layout i hate to the annoying pop ups and surveys, i can't stand the site.

 
The surveys are super annoying.

Newspaprers are not dead in smaller towns.  They problem is that the writers dont report news.  Nothing negative is ever said.  We get front page news of who spoke to various community groups.  There have been some major happenings in county board meetings, with the writer from the press present, and nothing has been reported about the uprising.

The problem with the "media" is there's no clear definition of what constitutes the "media," and the public isn't smart enough to tell the difference between legitimate news and garbage.

Any moron can start a blog, give his/her website a snazzy name that makes it sound like an actual news source and write pretty much anything. I could write a story claiming Trump had sex with his daughter (who could blame him) or that Bernie Sanders like midget transsexuals, post it on Facebook and within 10 minutes it would be shared by 50 people and viewed by several hundred.

artie_fufkin wrote:

APIAD wrote:

Newspaprers are not dead in smaller towns.  They problem is that the writers dont report news.  Nothing negative is ever said.  We get front page news of who spoke to various community groups.  There have been some major happenings in county board meetings, with the writer from the press present, and nothing has been reported about the uprising.

 
That's become one of the problems with community journalism - the Kevin Bacon "remain calm, all is well" mentality. Sometimes, it's because reporters are just lazy, but other times they're just not prepared to report a story correctly. Our competition in town is a weekly that's based out of  a regional office in Concord (as in Lexington and Concord) about 10 miles away.It's part of a chain that probably prints 60 different weeklies. In the past five years, they've probably sent out a half-dozen different reporters, all kids because they pay dick, even by newspaper standards, with no experience or background. Some middling editor with an equal lack of context sends these kids out with a notebook and a laptop and says "get me a story by Tuesday." I'm willing to help them because I feel badly for the position they've been put in, but sometimes it gets a little tiring.

I clearly have no where near the writting skills to have anything to do with writing but the stories are out there.  If they want people to buy their rag of a paper they have to actually put news in it.  The most "news" worth thing they do is put the minutes from the county board and city counsel meetings in the paper.  Those are provided by the boards.  They dont report on what happens or provide any further details then what the board provided.  For example 2 meetings ago a lady got up and gave the board the what for.  She pointed out that they have over taxed and lied about their financial standing.  She made a ton of good points.  The paper was there.  The article in the paper was nothing more then what was provided by the board.  Namibg the lady and say she spoke about her fears about the countys budget was what it said.  It made it sound like  she had the opposite view she did.  This past board meeting a board member addressed the public and memebers about the lieing, illegal stuff that has happend and board members over stepping there power.  I bet nothing will be in the paper.  The only way anyone knows anything is by way of mouth.  Why sit in a neeting if you are just going to report what you are told to report?  All the info is public record to have.  Look into it.  They coukd sell a shit ton of papers if they tried.

tkihshbt wrote:

I used to cover a small town and people get very upset when you start doing actual reporting. A few years back, the mayor was trying to drive out the city clerk and the public works director. The board approved pay raises for all employees except those two. One alderman used a council meeting to call out not giving those two raises (they were going on six years without one). Three of the aldermen, who were handpicked by the mayor to run for those seats, all gave excuses why it couldn't be done, including budget reasons. I did some checking and their math didn't work out  When I called them on it, it turned into a huge deal. I got into a very heated argument with one of the aldermen during a candidate forum about a month before the election. I was accused of trying to tarnish the city (LOL) and that if I covered it the same way I covered high school sports, there wouldn't be an issue.

Basically, people in power -- even at the small, local level -- do not want you to question them.

Fuck the people in power and not wanting to be questioned.  Thats what leads to corruption.  I dont blame a writer for not wanting to take the personal heat for doing their low paying job.  I get that arguement.  However i think there are alot of people who would appreciate the truth.  They are just not the ones doing the moving and shaking.  The movers and shakers are all about whats in it for them and personal spite for people.  And i do believe there is a middle ground to be had.  In your example, my paper would have exculed the fact that only 2 people didnt fet raises or that there was a comflict at all.  I think without taking aide some issues can at least be made public.

Tejada bores me.  Id rather go with diaz

forsberg_us wrote:

Tejada is pretty meh, but he can field the position. From what I've heard, Diaz isn't ready.

Is it his fielding, his hitting, or both? At 25, I wonder if he'll ever be ready.

I thought Tejada was supposed to be a good fielder who can't hit?

forsberg_us wrote:

JV wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

Tejada is pretty meh, but he can field the position. From what I've heard, Diaz isn't ready.

Is it his fielding, his hitting, or both? At 25, I wonder if he'll ever be ready.

Both. The thought is he might be a AAAA-type player. Think John Gall or Scott Seabol. A player who will do well in the minors, but poorly in MLB

 
And Mags will think he's the second coming of Cal Ripken.

Tejada is a bad fielder and a so-so hitter. He was awful in the field last season, respectable in 2014 and bad other years.

Diaz just isn't ready. He's had 60 at-bats above Springfield and he needs more time.