I understand that baseball isn't the Sports Guy's specialty. He's an NBA & NFL guy, and just happens to be a Red Sox fan.He also has one of the most visible writing gigs in the country. So when he started talking to
False.
Joe Borowski is not very good, I'll give them that. But why rip on arguably the two best starters in the AL this season,CSJ: This could come back to bite me but, uh, last year, because it could be like last year when I had no concerns about Detroit, it turns out I should have been quite concerned, but, uh, I have no fear of Cleveland- I'll believe CC Sabathia, and more importantly, Fausto Carmona can do it in the playoffs when I see it, and as you said Joe Borowski- and their lineup, I mean, I dont know, their lineup doesn't really frighten me much either.
SG: Yeah, Grady Sizemore is one of those guys that puts up awesome stats and, you know, is like a five tool guy and everybody loves him and everybody raves about him and is great defensively, but every time, every time the Red Sox play him he's like not frightening at all when he's up, and Hafner has just been a disaster this season.CSJ: He's terrible.
The Sizemore comment is even worse. How about you just come out and say, "I have not watched a single baseball game this season that didn't involve either the Yankees or Red Sox". That would get the same point across.
This year, Grady Sizemore hit .277/.390/.462 in 628 ABs.
Against Boston he had 28 ABs, hitting .250/.323/.500 with two home runs, although he did fail to instill fear in Bill Simmons. Because of this, he's gonna suck against the Yankees.
Oh and Travis Hafner sucks. He always has, and always will. Not like he was struggling through injuries for most of the year, and has come on strong by hitting .316/.414/.551 in September.
CSJ: The Yanks are 6-0 against Cleveland this year, including beating Carmona I think, and probably Sabathia if they're 6-0- all you have to do is stick around, you gotta keep the game close, get him out of the game.
SG: You're not gonna lose to Cleveland.
Bill Simmons is absolutely certain that a team that won 94 games will beat a team that won 96 in a five-game series.
Because, you know, nothing weird ever happens in the postseason (not that this would even qualify as weird).
For the record, CC Sabathia hasn't started a game against the Yankees since 2004. And this year against the Yankees Fausto Carmona had a 4.15 ERA in 13 innings (Yankees won both games, but good luck blaming this one on Fausto).
How about his Red Sox?
SG: And the funny thing is the Red Sox, kind of, I don't know, I just feel like we're always gonna beat Anaheim when we play them.These series haven't even STARTED, and they're already talking about Yankees-Red Sox. I would quote what immediately follows this, but it's too painful to listen to- something about another "war", his pregnant wife, and a lot of giggling.CSJ: Yeah, I agree. I literally don't know if I can take another Yankees-Red Sox Armageddon ALCS.
SG: So, you're thinking Yankees win in four?In Simmons' mind, there are two options. Either the Red Sox could toy with the Angels, and win in five, or "not mess around", and just sweep them. Good to see they'll be making the sensible decision.CSJ: Yeah.
SG: And I think we're gonna sweep the Angels, we're not gonna mess around in this series.
Finally, this is an appropriate way to end it:
SG: Does FOX, with the Yankees-Red Sox thing- what do they do with the Babe Ruth stuff?Nothing. Because THEY ARE NOT PLAYING EACH OTHER.
Before you comment: yes, I'm aware that I'm not FJM, and that the Angels and Indians will probably get swept now that I wrote this.
Photo: Not sure.
28 comments:
relax buddy, nowhere does it say that these two are going to give competent analysis, it's not like sheehan or neyer are saying these things, no reason to go crazy on cousin sal
Tell me how you really feel about Simmons. I'm not sure it's worth reading/watching/listening to him if you're not a Boston person. He's in effect, become a national Boston sports writer.
Also, their analysis will prove fruitless because the Rockies are going to win the World Series. Looking for statistical analysis? Nah. The truth is, they just don't lose.
Dude it wasnt cousin Sal he is talking to, it was his buddy "Jacko".
Your post sucks
I'm not the biggest Simmons' fan on the planet, but it's very clearly not "cousin Sal." It's his non-famous friend, John O'Connell, that he calls every week to discuss the Yankee and Red Sox (JackO is a big Yanks fan). It's not really analysis or entertainment, but its just too fans going back and forth. So rip it if you want, but I'm assuming you didn't hear it if you didn't know it wasn't Sal.
At least he quit calling the NL 'Quadruple-A' after it bit him in the ass big time last year.
the sports guys follows boston sports, so the only athletes/players he can truly put into a long-term perspective are boston players. i'm sure he knows that hafner has been struggling all season, but currently that means he's not doing as well (sucks is a strong word). But to side with them a little bit, we've seen plenty of regular season studs get rocked in the playoffs. Like you said, weird things happen. Like someone above said, this is homer talk and you know that going into the podcast. Go listen to some Indians talk radio to make yourself feel better.
The baseball part of the conversation wasn't with Cousin Sal, it was with one of Simmons's college friends Johnny (aka Jacko). It was part of the podcast feature called "Johnny are you worried?" that Simmons started when the Yanks were 14.5 back. This is just two friends talking on the phone. Simmons is broadcasting it yes, but something this unprepared and off the cuff is just friends jawing about sports without much thought.
It wasn't Cousin Sal who said that ... it was SG's buddy "Johnny" from the "Johnny, Are You Worried Yet?" segment at the end of the podcast. He's the Yankees fan who is not concerned about the Indians.
Cousin Sal couldn't string together anything nearly as coherent as what's attributed to him above.
To be fair to Cousin Sal, that discussion occurred with Simmons' Yankee fan friend Jack-O during the "Johnny, Are You Worried Yet?" segment.
As a Bostonian, I can tell you that Simmons isn't really worth reading and most definitely is not worth watching or listening to, even if you're a Boston person.
nice post, i enjoyed it. hammy is right, it's not like simmons is being paid to give competent analysis, but he's still so popular and such an annoying douche that i regularly complain about him as well. (in fact, i did just a couple days ago). check it out if you're bored. like what you've got going on here, especially the post from last week where you compared preseason baseball predictions against reality. keep up the good work.
Yes, the Rockies are the Vince Youngs of MLB. They just win .
Can't believe I'm doing this, but I thought it was worth clarifying:
Cousin Sal does the NFL picks - to my knowledge, he has yet to comment on baseball.
Bill Simmons has a friend named Johnny, who happens to be as obnoxiously in love with the Yankees as the Boston Sports Guy is with the Red Sox. Back in June, Bill made him a weekly guest in order to taunt him about the 14 1/2 game lead - worked out real well, didn't it?
Anywho, Johnny is the one who made the dismissive comments about the Indians, not Cousin Sal.
Yes, I need a life.
flightjacket
Are you sure he was talking to Cousin Sal about the red sox? I thought he called up 'Jack-O' to talk about baseball.
Also - it's just a conversation - lighten up!
If you are going to rip on his podcast, at least listen to it.
The guy he's talking to about baseball is not Cousin Sal, it's his friend John.
I love how many people picked up on that. My fault, I'm an idiot. Thanks.
I did listen to the podcast, for the record.
And yes, Anon 1, this post does kind of suck.
And yes, the main reason I wrote this is probably the fact I'm a huge Indians fan.
I still think it's a weak performance by Simmons.
Hey, heard a rumor, or 10 comments in a row that it was not Cousin Sal.
It is nice when people post comments to rip someone for not paying attention, after they have failed to read 10 comments above them.
Jackasses, whoever Simmons cronie it was doesn't really matter that much, does it?
Anon (the most recent one)- that's my fault. I was in class, and I have the moderate comments thing, so nothing went thru until like 3:50.
I'm the idiot.
BTW, I don't hate Simmons at all, his NBA stuff is great and his NFL picks are always entertaining. Just think his baseball knowledge is kind of a joke.
it has nothing to do with the indians bashing, which pissed me off cuz im a tribe fan. the problem with it is the wholesale ignorance and condescending tone throughout. i was a huge simmons fan and cooled off after about the 1000th red sox article. it just seems his whole rationale behind the whole diatribe was that none of the indians are red sox.
simmons embodies everything that the rest of the country hates about boston sports fans. i was listening to local sports talk on sunday morning and a, seemingly hammered, boston fan called in only to spend 10 minutes railing the indians for no reason.
great research simmons, you really did your homework. pff.
Since when does the SG know anything about the NFL? NBA, no doubt, he's great. But the guy couldn't tell you the difference between a guard and a tackle.
Playing Madden all day and losing to your wife in a season long pick 'em contest are hardly good credentials.
His pre-Belichick knowledge of the NFL seems to be limited to what happened in Super Bowls. Which even people in Pakistan watch.
The problem I have with your post is that you really didn't refute any of the points he made.
Those two pitchers had great regular seasons? That doesn't refute his point that they haven't done anything in the postseason. Guy hit .250 against the Sox? That proves his point that you shouldn't be afraid of him. Guy had one decent month in a shitty year? That doesn't mean anything.
Warrants mentioning.
I mean your statement is right, Matt. But the point is none of the stuff he says has anything to do with what is going to happen in the postseason.
"Sabathia and Carmona have never gotten it done in October, I'm not afraid of Sizemore, and Hafner is terrible" are three statements that are 100% BS. If you think Sizemore is going to struggle against the Red Sox because he "only" had a .500 SLG against them in 28 ABs, or that Sabathia and Carmona are just going to be so terrified by pitching in October that they'll automatically get shelled, I don't know what to tell you.
And Re: Hafner...he had four bad months (likely caused by injuries) surrounded by 20 good ones. That's the way to look at that.
In retrospect (I know... 20/20 hindsight), wouldn't you say that BS & Jacko were pretty much on the money regarding CC, Carmona, Sizemore & Hafner?
Yeah, I really felt like an idiot after the Indians lost to the Yankees in 4.
Don't cop out, dude.
CC & Carmona did not do it in the playoffs, and Sizemore & Hafner sucked ass vs the Sox.
Yeah, they beat the Yankees, but the playoffs don't stop at the division series.
What is your point? Carmona shut down the Yankees, and then pitched poorly against the Red Sox. Sabathia didn't pitch well at all in the playoffs. But is this because they were never in the playoffs before? No, it's because they'd both pitched like 50 more innings than they ever had before. Especially for Carmona- the "I'll believe it when I see he can do it in October" argument ended after he shut down the Yankees in G2.
Sizemore really wasn't that bad against the Red Sox. His OBP & SLG were slightly below normal, but in G7 he hit a sac fly to make it 3-2, and then had that great bunt that got the rally started in the eighth, which eventually brought the tying run to the plate with nobody out. They didn't tie it, but that's hardly Sizemore's fault.
The point of this article was that Bill Simmons has no idea when he's talking about when it comes to baseball, and I think that was pretty clearly proven in both the Yankees losing to the Indians in 4, and then the Indians taking the Red Sox to 7 games.
See, I don't cop out.
LOL. You keep telling yourself that :-D.
Oh yeah, and I'm from Boston.
Chill, dude, you have a great team and they just came up a little short. Westbrook was unbelievable and Martinez is scary good.
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