Thursday, February 03, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
Signings
- According to both ESPN and Rotoworld, the Dodgers will announce Nakamura's signing later today at a press conference.
- The Cubs have agreed to a one-year, $5M contract with OF Jeromy Burnitz.
- Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty got a three-year extension.
- Not strictly a signing, but something that could portend better days for a beat-up franchise: the Toronto Blue Jays have committed to a $210M payroll level over the next three years, an annual increase of $20M. The Yankees are about at $200M this year alone.
A's Top Draft Pick Injured
Folks, it may be the slow part of the offseason -- which is surprising, because now it seems like there's only a couple weeks worth of slow anymore -- but it's never too slow to get into a little schadenfreude. A's top draft pick Landon Powell has torn cartilege in his knee and will require surgery. He will be replaced at spring training by CWS (and CSUF) star C Kurt Suzuki.LA Press Club Report
At Matt Welch's kind invitation, I attended a fascinating panel discusssion on the changes in 21One of my favorite moments: asked whether bloggers are necessarily more serious than other media, Jon replied that the other niches are filled, and, looking at Mason, "goofy's taken".
League of Angels' Jeff Howe asked John Olguin whether he thought bloggers would ever get better access. Olguin replied that the problem for the teams is establishing credibility; not all are all alike, and in his position, he has to prioritize his time on the larger outlets, but he allowed as to how in the future there might be some changes toward -- casting an eye on Jon -- those bloggers who have established themselves by other means.
One thing became clear after the proprietor of Boi From Troy introduced himself with, "I'm Steve*, and I'm a blogger" -- and the audience reflexively answered back, "Hello, Steve!" -- and that is there's definitely a sense in many bloggers that they're kind of these nerdy guys watching the hot chick from a distance, but lacking the nerve to ask her out. (Or in Matt's case, to write a song about her. But that's another story.) Obviously, a few bloggers don't suffer from that -- Rich Lederer and Tyler Blezinsky come to mind -- but the self-selecting nature of bloggers doesn't lend itself to the instant credibility that Adande has. He can call a player and say he's from the Times and know he'll get an interview on the strength of that alone. In a world where significant parts of the adult population doesn't even know what a blog is, that's just another roadblock.
Update: One thing -- among many -- I forgot to mention here (if you haven't, you should read Jon's great summary), was how impressive I found Adande as a speaker. Photogenic and a quick thinker, I found myself sizing him up for the Dodgers broadcast booth. Hmm...
Update 2: Jeff Howe has his summary up, as well.
Update 3: Matt Welch too.
*Please forgive me if I got the name wrong -- again, I wasn't taking notes.
BTW, I thought I'd give you a shout-out. Wasn't it you with the Tift Merritt comment about a year ago. Now she's Grammy-Nominee Tift Merritt. She's quite a talented - and hot - young lady!
: 2/03/2005 09:04:00 PMBTW, I thought I'd give you a shout-out. Wasn't it you with the Tift Merritt comment about a year ago. Now she's Grammy-Nominee Tift Merritt. She's quite a talented - and hot - young lady!
DRM
: 2/03/2005 09:04:00 PMIt's in the hips, you know...
Her new site, which has been taken over by Warners, I think, breaks both Mozilla and Firefox on Linux. Bastards.
: 2/04/2005 08:37:00 AMI generally enjoy your blog, but there's no need to cross the line as you did here.
: 2/04/2005 03:02:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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