Territorial Pissings - Previewing the Bay Bridge Series

Oh, how quickly things can change.It was only yesterday that I flipped on 95.7 The Game just in time to hear that Yoenis Cespedes walked off the Dodgers with a 3-run shot in the 9th inning to complete the sweep.  This was sweet news to my ears - after all, the Giants had all kinds of trouble getting anything going against the Angels, and they need all the help they can get trying to catch the Dodgers.Giants fans wake up today with a much different feeling.  As if all the "You're welcome, Giants fans" posts on social media weren't enough to grind gears, tonight is the first game of the final 3-game set between the two Bay Area squads and, quite frankly, this one feels like it has a little more juice than in years past.

Here's what I see

 A's fans are feeling mighty cocky after sweeping the Giants' interstate rivals, and as well they should be.  They did the Giants a favor and they looked good in the process.  They're also a little critical of the Giants, who pretty much got owned by the Angels this week and by the AL West as a whole in 2012.

Giants fans know that they need every win they can get their hands on if they're going to give the Dodgers a flat tire on the way to the playoff chow line.  It doesn't matter who they get the wins from, but hey - if they come from the Athletics, that's all the better.
Then there's the whole issue of territorial rights, something that probably pisses off the teams' respective ownership groups more than their respective fan bases.  Giants fans could probably care less one way or another where the A's play.  My guess is that most A's fans would rather not see their team moved to San Jose, in which case they're most likely rooting, not necessarily for the Giants ownership, but more against Lew Wolfe & Co.  Regardless of your feelings on the territorial battles, there's bound to be some added tension, as both teams are in conflict with one another - more so off the field than when they're actually playing.
The Giants took 2 out of 3 from the Athletics when they showed up at AT&T Park in May, which means that it's the A's turn to show what they got in their own digs.  Sitting 9 games behind the first place Texas Rangers, it's hard to imagine the A's roaring back to win the division.  But Oakland is only 2 games under .500, meaning they aren't just playing for bragging rights anymore (especially with the extra wild card now in place).  Should the A’s complete a sweep, they’ll pop out on the other side of this series with a winning record.
The Giants would be leading the NL West easily if it weren't for the high-flying Dodgers, so there's no mystery what's at stake for them.  There's no way to paint a June series as monstrous, but this one just FEELS more important.

Without further ado, here's what we're looking forward to

Tonight: Tim Lincecum vs. Jarrod Parker
7:05 PM
What to watch for: The fate of Tim Lincecum rests on this start tonight. With a ballooning ERA of 6.19 and confidence at an all time low, Major League Baseball's eyes will be on the two time Cy Young winner.  Should he have another bad outing, manager Bruce Bochy may look to skip Lincecum's spot in the rotation, or worse.  It will be interesting to see how Timmy handles facing Yoenis Cespedes, the Cuban defector that has exceeded expectations for the Athletics this year.  The Giants avoided facing the A's most dangerous bat the first time around, but they won't be so lucky this time, as Cespedes is healthy and raking.  Will Timmy be able to bottle up Cespedes, or will we see a Paul Goldschmidt redux?


Saturday: Madison Bumgarner vs. Tyson Ross
4:15 PM
What to watch for:  Madison Bumgarner will look to build on a spectacular 2012 resume vs. a very unfamiliar A's offense.  Only three players in the Athletics' line up have faced Bumgarner in the past - Seth Smith (0-3), Brandon Inge (0-2), and Jonny Gomes, who is 1-5 - with that 1 being a 3-run homer.


Sunday: Matt Cain vs. Brandon McCarthy
1:05 PM
What to watch for: The A's will trot Brandon McCarthy and his 2.54 ERA (4th in the AL) out to the mound to take on Matt Cain in his second start since the perfecto.  Considering that neither team is really destroying the baseball right now, perhaps this is a good time to throw 100 bucks on the under and sit back, prepared to watch a pitcher's duel. Both McCarthy and Cain have been excellent in 2012 - there's no reason to think that it won't continue on Sunday.

Matt Cain - The perfect guy for perfection

It started with a guy flying a hydraulic jetpack over McCovey Cove and ended with a riot on the pitcher’s mound. What most of us thought was going to be another ho-hum Wednesday night match up with the Astros will without a doubt go down in the annals of San Francisco folklore.

Matt Cain pitched a perfect game - only the 22nd in MLB history and the first in the Giants 128-year existence.

Too much awesome

Cain's big day started out long before first pitch, as the US Open prompted an unusual pregame change of pace for the Giants' ace. Several hours before first pitch, in front of a gaggle of cameras and reporters, Cain, Rory McElroy and others turned AT&T Park into a driving range, launching golf balls from a tee at home plate into McCovey Cove. Cain took one swing - a beautiful one at that - and hit a shot that sailed further than any ball hit into the Cove since Barry Bonds still swung the sticks. I'd say that Cain should quit his day job and take up golf but, hey, he proved last night that he's a man of many talents.

The scene at AT&T Park only got better from there. At some point in the first inning, a guy flying a hydraulic jetpack emerged in McCovey Cove, turning the usually serene landscape of China Basin into a scene out of "The Avengers." This sight nearly melted Twitter in the Bay Area, but it would turn out to be an afterthought when all was said and done.

That wasn't the only afterthought of the night. What was also left in the dust of Matt Cain's perfection was the outburst of Giants offense in a home park that has been anything but kind to its hometown hitters. Melky Cabrera was 2-for-5 with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first. Gregor Blanco was 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs and a homer. Pablo Sandoval was 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and the #FreeBelt movement pushed right along as Brandon hit his second home run in as many nights, finishing the evening 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs.

But offense-shmoffense. Let's talk about what really owned the evening.

Just how perfect was Matt Cain?

According to ESPN Stats and Info, Matt Cain pitched possibly the best perfect game ever. Cain's 14 strike outs tied Sandy Koufax for the most in the history of perfect games; it was also a career-high.  His game score, 101, tied Koufax for the highest in perfect game history (an average game score for a pitcher is around 50). His velocity increased as the game wore on, from 90 to around 94 in the later innings, and he struck out 11 of the 14 on fastballs. His command was immaculate all night, painting corners with his fastball and letting his curveballs tumble out of the zone gracefully all game long.

Getting high with a little help from his friends

It's been said that there is at least one amazing catch in every perfect game, and in Matt Cain's case that catch came from Gregor Blanco. It was the 7th inning when the Astros' Jordan Schafer scorched a ball to deep right-center. Everyone watching, Cain included, probably thought that it was the end of the perfect game bid, as the ball was quickly sailing to that no man's land on the warning track in between the range of Angel Pagan and Blanco. But the White Shark had enough fuel in his tank, and enough sense of the moment, to track it down in spectacular fashion, successfully wrangling a diving catch that will go down in history as one of the greatest grabs in San Francisco sports lore.

Blanco wasn't the only one to help out Cain Wednesday night. Melky Cabrera made a spectacular catch on a Chris Snyder ball that got crushed to the warning track in left field. And the Giants' infield, a group that's faced its hiccups over the course of the 2012 season, found a way to rise to the occasion as the game wore on and the mercury rose. We can't forget Buster Posey either, as he was the man who quarterbacked the perfecto. Posey, who said it was the most nervous he had ever been on a baseball field (and he caught the final out of the Giants 2010 World Series victory), somehow managed to find a rhythm with Cain and keep Houston batters off-kilter for 27 perfect outs. He may be the most underrated performer of the night.

***

Perhaps the most symbolic aspect of the night is that THIS was the game that turned Cain's career win-loss record into a winning 76-75. Cain got an anomalous 10 runs of support, but he wouldn't need a single one of them. With not just a team, but an entire city behind him, Cain rose to the occasion and showed the sporting world just what a special player he is. Because after all, Cain has always been a special player, but last night he was perfect.

San Francisco Giants - Pleasant (and important) 2012 surprises

We have almost reached the 60 game mark of the 2012 Major League Baseball season, and that means that by now we should be getting a better idea about how each team is composed.
Some teams are not difficult to judge - their lineups stay, for the most part, intact.  There isn't much shuffling in the batting order or the pitching staff, meaning that most fans know what they're going to get when they walk in the ballpark for Opening Day.
For Giants fans, who have seen their team go through more fung shway rearrangement than a college dorm room, this is not the case.  As the Texas Rangers come into town to gear up for a rematch of the 2010 World Series, it is more evident than ever that these are not the World Champions that we fell in love with two years ago.  Much has changed in the land of the orange and black, so at the 1/3rd mark of the season, they stand to be evaluated.  Let’s take a look at some of the players who have been not only pleasant surprises, but actually paramount pieces in the Giants’ success:

5.). Gregor Blanco

Are you ready for a right field rant?  Good, ‘cuz here goes: I have some kleenex ready for anybody still crying over the Giants letting Carlos Beltran walk.  Sure, Beltran has been tearing it up for the Cardinals, but make no mistake about it - things wouldn't have been the same if he stayed in San Francisco.  Asking him to stay in the oft-perceived pitcher friendly confines of AT&T Park would have meant much more money than what the Cardinals are paying for him.  They would have had to pay him top flight money, meaning that they would have needed to design an offense with him as the centerpiece. Beltran didn't want that kind of pressure.  He wouldn't have been happy here, and quite frankly, I'm not sure he was happy here after the Giants traded for him in 2011.
I digress.  A Beltran-less lineup left a big question mark in right field, and it's become clear that Nate Schierholtz isn't the answer.  Nate has a cult hero to some in my circle, what with his propensity for the clutch at bats and surprising power in the past.  But Schierholtz was more than underwhelming in Spring Training and just as lackluster when given opportunities early in the regular season.  He has been terminally inconsistent throughout his career, and that is poison for a Giants lineup that must click in order to score runs.
Gregor Blanco has been the remedy. Plugged into right field and the leadoff spot, he's provided an invaluable shot of energy to the team. His .288/.390/.468 (Batting Average/On Base Percentage/Slugging Percentage) clip rivals some of the best leadoff hitters in baseball right now, and he has flashed some unexpected power on top of it.

4.) Angel Pagan  

All credit due to Bochy here, who found a way to quiet some of his doubters by dealing Andres Torres to the Mets for Pagan.  I knew very little about Angel when he came to the team, and I expected even less.  If he could provide just a little more than what Torres brought to the Giants in 2011 I’d be happy.
He had a terrible Spring Training and an equally ugly start to the season, but Pagan has settled in nicely ever since, especially after moving out of leadoff and into the five hole.  He has now enjoyed 3 hitting streaks of 10 games or more, and he's batting at a .321/.358/.473 clip.  Probably overshadowed by the out of control season that Melky Cabrera has been enjoying, Pagan already has 72 hits on the season and isn't showing signs of slowing down.  Perhaps most important of all - Pagan seems to have become one of the more outspoken leaders in the clubhouse, bringing a consistency that Andres Torres failed to provide.

3.) Ryan Vogelsong

I heard Vogelsong described as possibly being the Andres Torres of the pitching staff during the off season, but at this point that couldn't be further from the truth.  Even with Vogelsong’s injury concerns early in the season, he has been every bit as lights out as the rest of the pitching staff.  Given Barry Zito's long documented history of getting shelled and Tim Lincecum's sudden frailties, it has been paramount for the Giants to have 3 solid starters in their bullpen.
Solid is really the only way to describe Vogelsong.  Through 10 games, he is 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA.  He's averaging 6.8 innings per start with a WHIP in line with 2011 (1.211, compared to 1.252 in 2011).  The Giants never needed Vogelsong to be spectacular, but he has far exceeded expectations up to this point.  Although it probably won’t end up happening, Vogelsong has been pitching well enough to deserve another look for the All Star Game.

2.) Barry Zito

You could call me a full-fledged Barry Zito fanboy at this point in time.  During the offseason I decided to spitball and explore the possibility of Zito making an Alex Smith-like comeback on Bay Area Sports Guy.  I had no idea that he would actually do it, and through 11 games he has far exceeded what I ever thought he was capable of doing.  He has already pitched more innings than he did in 2011 (66.1, compared to a total of 53.2 in 2011), and almost all of his numbers are better.

	H	R/ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+**	WHIP	SO/BB	WAR***
2011	51	35/35	10	24	32	60	1.398	1.33	-0.6
2012*	55	28/22	6	28	39	118	1.251	1.39	0.7

*Zito has pitched 12.2 more innings in 2012

**ERA+ refers to adjusted ERA.  It adjusts the pitcher’s ERA according to the pitcher’s ballpark and the ERA of the pitcher’s league.  An average ERA+ is 100, so obviously Zito was far below average in 2011, and is above average in 2012.

***WAR stands for Wins Against Replacement.  WAR represents how many more wins a player would earn a team versus a “replacement player.”  Obviously, Zito’s negative WAR in 2011 shows that he was actually contributing negatively to the Giants in 2011 (as if I needed to tell you that).  His positive WAR value in 2012 shows that he is contributing positively.

These numbers speak for themselves.  Again, given Lincecum’s struggles, Zito’s 2012 successes have been a huge bonus.  Whether or not this can continue for an entire season, we’ll find out.  But believe me, this Zito fanboy will be keeping a close eye on it.

1.) Melky Cabrera

I don’t think I need to explain myself much here.  If you’ve been watching the Giants at all then you know how invaluable Melky has been to the offense this season.  His 87 hits lead the majors and his .364 BA leads the NL.  His 2.6 WAR is 5^th in the NL, his 7 triples are 1^st in the NL and .934 OPS (On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage) is 10^th in the NL.  His value is only compounded by how much weight he’s pulling on the team – his 58 games played and 258 plate appearances rank 2^nd in the NL respectively. 

All this from a player whom the Giants acquired in a trade for Jonathan Sanchez, currently on the DL with an elbow injury for the Kansas City Royals.  Whatever your expectations for Melky were during Spring Training, hardly anyone could have foreseen him providing this kind of pop.  Sure, Melky has been on another planet, and they say that players’ statistics always progress back to the mean over the course of 162 games.  But if you’re a Giants fan, you have to be impressed and hoping that Mr. Cabrera never comes back down to earth.

Like it or not, Barry Zito is making strides

Barry Zito.

The name alone evokes a plethora of emotions for baseballfans on both sides of the San Francisco Bay. If there is a more polarizing figure in Bay Area sports recently (notalso named Barry), they are certainly slipping my mind now.  He seems indifferent.  He’s been inconsistent.  At times, the man has been completelyintolerable.  And yet I have to admit – I’vebecome one of Zito’s biggest fans.

I definitely won’t deny the selfishness behind my rootinginterest.  Just over three months ago Iventured out on the flimsiest of limbs to suggest that Zitohad a comeback left in him, a hypothesis that was met by more snickeringthan a stuttering student in a 4^th grade grammar class. 

Was my prediction bold? Definitely.  Was it probable?  No. Wasit written to score pageviews?  CERTAINLY not.

And yet, in the way that I detailed the possible comeback,it seems to be coming to fruition. Perhaps that’s why every time Zito takes the mound, I watch with atwinkle in my eye.  For starters, thedead space where KNBR-Zito-rippers used to exist has been pleasant (when it’snot being replaced by the “middle infielders who can’t hit” banter, that is).  Secondly, I want to be right when I make aproclamation; after all, I have to make up for botchingmy predictions on the 49ers and Randy Moss. And obviously, watching a goat turn into a hometown hero of sorts isalways a fun exercise.

Let’s be clear

My piece was more of a shot at the sensitive nature of BayArea sports fans than it was a vote of confidence in Zito.  I watched with pleasure while Jim Harbaughtransformed Alex from a beaten puppy dog to somehow-someway winner.  Alex didn’t transform into Drew Brees, but hecertainly won over the hearts of 49ers fans in a hurry.

They say that winning cures all; it seems to mask a lottoo.  Forget the fact that Alex Smithwasn’t going “Bombs over Baghdad” every Sunday – he was winning games withmodest statistics all season long.  Thekey word is winning – that’s all it took to get the fans on his side.  He didn’t shock the world with gaudy numbers,but he got the job done.

The same can be said for Zito.  He’s far from making a case for a Cy YoungAward or an All Star bid, but in the hearts and minds of Giants fans, he’s madea hell of a comeback.  Zito started inonly 9 games in 2011 (although he pitched in 13), and through 8 starts thisseason he has shown notable improvement:

	W-L	ERA	ERA+	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
2011	3-4	5.87	60	1.398	8.6	1.7	4.0	5.4	1.33
2012	3-1	3.00	116	1.250	7.3	0.8	3.9	5.3	1.33

Okay, so we all know how meaningless W/L records are, butsome of the other statistical differences are hard to ignore.  Zito boasts an ERA almost 2 runs lower thanlast season and an ERA+ that is up 56 points. Nearly every aspect of Zito’s game has improved except walks, asdocumented by his BB/9 and SO/BB ratio. Like I said, not exactly Cy Young material, but still pretty good stuff.

DoesTom House have something to do with this? Perhaps.  There definitely seemsto be a change in Zito’s game, both physically and mentally.  How contrasted has Zito'sfiery 2012 attitude been to the Zito of years past.  How often have we seen him stare off intospace after a gaggle of runs got scored on his watch?  Maybe Zito isn’t as indifferent about his on-fieldperformance as we once thought.

If you’re still hanging onto the financial and contractualmisgivings you are a master grudge-holder. He’s getting paid too much money – it’s time to move on.  The most important thing to understand now isthat the bar has been lowered, and Zito seems to be hurdling it.  As the 2012 season wears on, I’ll certainlybe watching Barry Zito with vested interest.  After all, I’m a selfish guy, and myreputation depends on it.  

ESPN power rankings... with a twist

It's human nature to rank things.  We love to categorize, list, and order whatever it is that’s put in front of us.  It helps keep us sane in a world of constant disorder, and when all else fails it gives us a meaningless exercise when there's nothing better to do.

Just ask Mel Kiper, who has made a career out of it.  He has been ranking college players that are getting ready for their NFL careers since I was in diapers.  During the draft off-season, Kiper has a radio show that KNBR syndicates on Saturday mornings in which he always seems to be teasing his weekly "top five lists." "Coming up, my top five taco shops in the greater New York area!" Man, I can't wait until I have Saturdays off.

Just prior to the NFL Draft, ESPN released their "Off-season power rankings".  They placed the 49ers 3rd, I believe, behind the New York Giants and Patriots.  Predictable, but my guess is that's not what ESPN wanted.

Let's take a look at the ESPN Power Rankings from a different angle.  Rather than judging teams based on talent or win-loss record, let's judge them based on ESPN's interest in them.  By the time I'm finished, I'll have sufficiently killed any chance of working for the mothership, but oh well.  Who really wants to live in Connecticut anyway?

1.  The New York Jets - No real explanation necessary here.  We have a New York team, head-manned by a coach with an affinity for talking - A LOT.  They traded for Tim Tebow.  They're not all that good at football, so even when there's no controversy to speak of, we can always discuss their "struggles." They signed Tim Tebow this year.  They have a lot of players that love to put their feet in their mouths like Bart Scott.  Oh yeah, did we mention Tim Tebow?

2.  The New York Giants - Here's another New York team that loves to talk.  They won a Super Bowl, their quarterback's last name is Manning AND they're pretty good at football.  If THEY signed Tim Tebow, the list would start and end with them.

3. The Denver Broncos - The ghost of Tebow past resides in the Mile High City, which means we would have left them high on our list because of the whole "how the Broncos are doing without Tebow Time" angle anyway.  Luckily for Colorado sports fans, they pulled off signing Peyton Manning, so the Broncos will be good for endless hours of debate come football season.  We pray for Peyton's neck on a daily basis.

4. The New England Patriots - We would love this team a lot more if Bill Belichick would talk a little more.  We're also hoping Tom Brady gets himself into some kind of trouble - a DUI, a divorce, whatever.  After all, being controversial is better for ratings than being good at sports is.

5. The Indianapolis Colts - The ghost of Peyton past lives here, but Andrew Luck should provide us plenty to talk about for Indianapolis this year.  If he's good, we'll slobber on him.  If he sucks, we'll point and laugh.  Perfect.

6. The Dallas Cowboys - Even without Tony Romo and all of his mediocre tendencies, this team would still be high on our list.  They are "America's team," so everybody loves them... Right?

7. The Philadelphia Eagles - Even though Vince Young is gone, the Eagles are still the number one dream team in our hearts.

8. The Green Bay Packers - The whole "small market" aspect of the cheese heads makes us want to ignore them, but their pesky knack for winning overrides that.  Discount Double Check!

9. The Detroit Lions - We love Ndamukong Suh's nasty attitude.  We also love nicknames like Megatron.  Jim Schwartz is kind of douchy, so we like that too.

10. The Washington Redskins - We're hoping Robert Griffin III sucks so we can keep our streak of ridiculing the Redskins alive and well.

11. The New Orleans Saints - If it wasn't for this team, we wouldn't have had much NFL to talk about this offseason.  Keeping the "bountygate" storyline on life support is our number one priority here at ESPN.

12. The Chicago Bears - Brandon Marshall is nuts.  Jay Cutler throws interceptions. Devin Hester will probably take a few to the house.  Get your popcorn ready, folks!

13. The Pittsburgh Steelers - Troy Polamalu's hair!  Terrible Towels!  Ben Roethlisberger's wacky bar bathroom antics!  Blue collar!  Lunch pail football!

14. The Carolina Panthers – Cam Newton throws for 500 yards per game and still loses.  But who cares, because offense is more important than winning.

15. The San Francisco 49ers - Like we said, offense is more important than winning.

16. The Baltimore Ravens - They are the 49ers of the east coast, so we considered switching spots here.  In the end, Jim Harbaugh's handshake situation gave the 49ers the edge.

That's it.  

Wait, there's more?  Damn it!

17. The Houston Texans - Matt Schaub to Andre Johnson, and Arian Foster can run fast.  Enough said.

18. The San Diego Chargers - We're still waiting for Philip Rivers to completely lose it before we really start covering this team.

19. The Cincinnati Bengals - They had a breakout season last year, but they can’t seem to breakout of their legal issues. Give me a break - we're ESPN, not TruTV.

20. The Oakland Raiders - Their new coach is Dennis Allen?  Zzzzzz...

21. The Atlanta Falcons - Dear Falcons regular season performances,

We don't believe you.

Sincerely, ESPN

22. The Miami Dolphins - The way Stephen Ross swings and misses, we're going to have to send Buster Olney to cover the Dolphins pretty soon.

23. The Kansas City Chiefs - We're still pissed that they ended the Packers' perfect season last year.

24. The Seattle Seahawks - We won't pay attention to them until we have to sell you reasons to watch those Monday Night Football games that we scheduled for them late in the season.

25. The St. Louis Rams - We're praying for Sam Bradford's ankle.

26. The Buffalo Bills - We're praying for Ryan Fitzpatrick's beard. We're also praying that Mario Williams injures Mark Sanchez, and doesn't injure Tom Brady.

27. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

28. The Arizona Cardinals - If it's Kevin Kolb, sure, why not?  If it's John Skelton, forget it.

29. The Tennessee Titans - It was fun pretending that Peyton would go to Tennessee, wasn't it?

30. The Minnesota Vikings - Adrian Peterson may crack SportCenter’s top ten plays, but that's about it.

31. The Cleveland Browns - Let's play "who is younger than your rookie quarterback"!

32. The Jacksonville Jaguars - There's a team called the Jaguars?  Where the hell is Jacksonville anyway?

Blogging vs. beat writing: The Grant Cohn story

For many of you who have been faithfully reading my blog since its inception, the roots of its title are no mystery.  I was given the nickname “Ruthless McLorg” some time ago, mainly because I have a knack for letting someone have it, regardless of their feelings or the consequences.

Up until now, I haven’t felt much of a need to be that brutal.  In many respects, Ruthless Sports is a misnomer.  If you’re a newer follower of mine, you were probably wondering where the name even came from.  Aside from the occasional zing that I’ll throw out on Twitter, I’m not exactly roasting people on a daily basis.  I’m not trying to make enemies, after all.

I started up Ruthless because I love sports.  I have lots of thoughts on them, and a large portion of my life revolves around them.  I decided some time ago that I wanted a rich life – one where I eventually get paid to do something that I love.  Not to toot my own horn here, but writing comes pretty naturally for me.  My passion for sports and my ability to write seem to be a perfect marriage.  While I trudge through the school system in an attempt to earn that piece of paper that hopefully lands me a job, I might as well get a head start on writing sports.  I don’t make money for writing on Ruthless. Bay Area Sports Guy isn’t paying me either.  I do this stuff because I love it.

I have great respect for the beat writers around the Bay Area.  We have a collection of guys who absolutely know their stuff, do their homework, and excel at their positions.  Andrew Baggarly, Hank Schulman, Matt Barrows, Eric Branch – these are just a few of the many beat writers whose work I read on a regular basis.  They are embedded in the teams that they cover.  They report the facts as they come and they offer their opinions when necessary.  Keep up the good work boys.

That’s more than I can say for Grant Cohn. 

I know, I know – this isn’t the first time that I’ve ripped the guy and I’m certainly not the first person to pick him apart.  It would be pretty easy to attack the “riding his father’s coattails” angle, but when it comes to Grant, that’s not really what offends me.  He is in an extremely desirable position, so for me to say that jealousy didn’t play a role in my resentment would be an outright lie.  More important than all that is the amount of effort that goes into the columns that I read. (Full disclosure:  I read them with the same interest that a driver would have rubbernecking a three car pile-up on 101 North.)

What is an article or a blog without facts?  Simply put, it’s an opinion.  Opinions not based in fact can sometimes be disguised when they are well written (see: Lowell Cohn), but when neither facts nor eloquent writing is present, it’s hard not to gawk. 

Take this article on the 49ers first round draft pick, AJ Jenkins, for example:

“I give the Niners an F for their A.J. Jenkins pick at No. 30 in the first round, and here’s why.”

Whoa, whoa!  Stop right there.  Didn’t we learn early on (perhaps freshman year of high school) not to say “and here’s why” in our writing?  Maybe he missed that class.

“They will not win the Super Bowl this season unless they improve [third down conversions and red zone]. So, they needed to spend a first round pick on a player who would help the cause.”

“So, what did they do? They drafted a 6-0, 190 lb. slot receiver who will be the fourth-string wideout and backup punt returner this season, most likely. In other words, he’ll replace Kyle Williams.”

Lots of the word “so,” misplaced commas and opinions here.  The facts are coming, right?

“The Niners are sending a message, and it’s this: “We’re the best team in the NFL even if we’re the worst on third down. We were the best team last year, too. If it weren’t for Kyle Williams fumbles, we’d be champions. Now that we’ve replaced him, the Super Bowl is ours.”

They’re wrong. You have to be respectable on third down to win playoff games, and the Niners will not be respectable on third down this season because Michael Crabtree is still their possession receiver and Alex Smith is still their quarterback.”

Fin, sans evidence.  I especially loved the ending, where he took offhand shots and Crabtree and Smith without any facts to back up his points.

Let’s not beat the dead horse too hard, and instead move on to the column he wrote the next day, shortly after the 49ers’ second round selection.

“The Niners just drafted Oregon running back LaMichael James with their second round pick. I love the selection. I give it an A, and here’s why.”

There’s that “here’s why” again.  And if I’m not mistaken, AP Style frowns upon referring to a team in a short form name, especially the first time they are mentioned.  I try not to refer to them as “the Niners” in any of my writing.  “49ers” isn’t all that hard to type.

“James could end up one of the best players in this draft. He was a great college running back, and he’ll be a better pro than Kendall Hunter.”

A stellar writer with a crystal ball!  Still no facts, though.

“They wanted to make sure they had not one but two quality backups at punt returner, and they’re giving Alex Smith not one but two fast third down checkdown options – something he needs.”

So with one pick, the 49ers magically fixed their third down issues; issues that were unbelievably glaring 24 hours ago!  Objectivity is the word of the day, and Cohn seems to lack it.  He hated AJ Jenkins, and ripped the 49ers as a result.  Conversely he loved LaMichael James and suddenly changed his tune.  But no college statistics?  No evidence for his “points?”  Beat writing at its finest.

About beat writing…

What separates a beat writer from your average blogger?  Both have intimate knowledge of the sport that they cover.  Both have a keyboard and internet access.  Both have some basic understanding of journalistic style.

The primary difference is access.  This brings me to Grant’s latest attention-garnering article on Randy Moss at the 49ers’ voluntary work outs.

Aside from the poor syntax and lackluster writing style that we’ve all become used to (starting off a paragraph with the word “but” and writing something that bordered on being a run on sentence in the second paragraph), this piece wasn’t all that bad.  He had access to practice and he gave fans information on it – stuff that we normally wouldn’t see.  We heard about who was stretching with who, who was there and who wasn’t, etc.  Good stuff.

Then he went on to write what could only be compared to a gossip column in a high school newspaper.  He portrayed Randy Moss as the new cool guy, while he painted the rest of the 49ers as swooning school girls desperate for his approval.  He said that quarterback Josh Johnson “hovered” around Moss and “trail[ed] the great wide receiver like a spaniel… trying to make a good first impression.”  How do you know that was Johnson’s intention?  Did he tell you that?

Crabtree and Ted Ginn (players that he referred to as “dudes”) apparently “shuffled over to Moss like star-struck kids.”  That’s not all – apparently Ginn is a style biter!

“Ginn even dressed like Moss – red shorts and black tights. Ginn was blatantly copying Moss’ style. Last year, Ginn had his own style. He always practiced in white tights which he pulled over the heels of the cleats. Lots of Niners coppied him – Crabtree, Kyle Williams and Frank Gore, to name a few. Today, Ginn was the copycat.”

“Coppied,” huh? 

Then Grant described a little bit of the practice, which was full of good information.  Unfortunately, these good vibes didn’t last long, because he couldn’t keep this tidbit inside of his own head when detailing a Moss catch in the end zone:

“Anthony Davis threw his hands up in the air and squealed like a child.”

Oops.  I think we all know where this trainwreck is headed.

By now I think I’ve made my point.  If the senior editor of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat is wondering why his newspaper’s readership is declining while sites like Bay Area Sports Guy and Niners Nation are getting flooded with traffic, he should look no further than the material that he is publishing.  As sports fans, we want opinions.  We want facts.  But more importantly, we want to read something with effort and meaning behind it. All over the country, journalism students are working hard to achieve access to the places that Cohn can go.  This is what remains baffling to me.  This is what drives me to be a better writer.

 Because a press pass should be something earned – it isn’t just a (birth)right. 

LaMichael James - A 49ers luxury pick, or a need for speed?

Even for a team as complete as the San Francisco 49ers, there was much discussion leading up to the draft about needs.  The 49ers lost Adam Snyder.  With young Daniel Kilgore waiting in the wings as an unproven commodity, right guard was definitely a need, right?
How about cornerback, the only position in their defense that could have been described as a weakness, given the way Eli Manning took apart the secondary in the NFC Championship?
Or perhaps defensive end, because Justin Smith is probably on the tail end of his career, despite the defensive player of the year-type 2011 season he enjoyed.
Need-shmeed.  The 49ers built this team up by using the past couple drafts and free agency so that they could draft in 2012 for luxury. Apparently, it’s speed that Trent Baalke considers to be luxurious.
The 49ers surprised a lot of people (myself included) when they used their late second round pick to draft Oregon running back LaMichael James, one of the most prolific runners out of the NCAA in recent memory.  Following the pick, they traded their third rounder away to the Indianapolis Colts for a fourth rounder this year and a fifth in 2013, ending the first two days of the draft with some shiny new weapons for their offense, and five prospects to be named later. (Note: Since writing this, the 49ers made a number of trades backwards and ended up drafting guard Joe Looney out of Wake Forest in the 4^th round of the draft.)

Need for speed

Without further ado, let me introduce you to the 49ers newest running back.  Through 3 years at Oregon, James rushed for 5,082 yards. In 2011, he ranked third overall in the NCAA with 2012 all purpose yards, averaging 182.91 yards per game.  In 2010, he rushed for 1731 yards and 21 touchdowns, and in 2011 he rushed for 1805 yards, 18 TDs and a 7.3 yard average, despite missing time with a dislocated elbow.
James's downside?  His size.  At 5'8", 194 lbs, most teams don't consider him to be an every down back.  No problem for the 49ers, though.  Apparently that's just fine with Harbaalke. 

Why I'm scratching my head

I expected that the 49ers would take a running back in this draft, I just didn't think that LaMichael James would be the guy.  Frank Gore, after enjoying a Hall of Fame-type career with the 49ers, is getting a little long in the tooth.  I would be surprised if there was anything more than one more productive year left in the 49ers' backfield work horse.  San Francisco drafted a similar, small running back in Kendall Hunter last year, and that had LaMichael James nowhere to be found on my draft board.  The logical decision would have been to draft Gore's eventual successor, a running back with enough size and durability to handle a Gore-sized work load.  But yet again, we're reminded that Trent Baalke rarely sides with the logical, and who really knows what he plans to do with James at this point.  Draftniks don't seem to think that an all-small backfield will work.  Apparently the 49ers believe otherwise.

Many believe that the 49ers already had their scatback in Kendall Hunter, however Joey McMurray (of Bay Area Sports Guy and The Flurry) feel that James is more Warrick Dunn than he is Darren Sproles.  If this is true, the 49ers may well be set at the position of tailback. 

Why I'm jumping for joy

I've been condemned for loving the splashy moves, and what can I say?  When you're tucked away in San Francisco, a place where your teams find themselves ignored more often than not, it never hurts to make a little noise.
It doesn't get much splashier than this in the second round of the NFL Draft.  If James was 3 inches taller and 20 lbs heavier, he would have perhaps been the first running back taken, even over Trent Richardson.  Although he wasn't the most sought after running back prospect, he was still a show stopper in college, turning heads every time he touched the football.
Between AJ Jenkins and James, the 49ers have added a whole different level of giddy-up to their offense.  James has been touted for his burst and vision; that, mixed with his 4.37 40, must have had Baalke convinced that there is something special in his new toy (257 yards and 3 touchdowns against Jim Harbaugh's Stanford Cardinal in 2010 didn't hurt his cause either).
The 49ers now have a unique mixture unlike any other team in the NFL right now.  They are returning one of the most stifling squads in the history of the NFL on defense - 11 players with speed, discipline and ferocity.  On offense, their ability to spread the field should be uncanny.  LaMichael James, Kendall Hunter, AJ Jenkins and Randy Moss bring a whole new definition of fast to a team that has never really been considered speedy.  Alex Smith should have weapons o'plenty in the 2012 season, as the skill positions are now stocked to the point of overflow.
Speaking of overflow, is the 49ers backfield too crowded now?  Anthony Dixon is probably on his way out, and it never hurts to have too many playmakers, especially when you're playing with the casino's money.  Just ask Harbaugh.
"It's like poker, that's a full house," he said.  "That's a good hand, right?"