Jim Street, Erik Bedard, And Rumors
Jim Street has had an interesting week. Yesterday, he took to his mailbag to whine about the inaccuracies of bloggers and twitter, specifically using the talk about Jose Lopez being trade bait as a platform for him to virtually yell at us to get off his lawn. Perhaps he didn’t notice that 99.9% of all baseball news is now first reported on twitter, or that just a few days ago, a bunch of blogging twitterers had to correct an inaccurate report from a “mainstream” television station up in Minnesota.
And, apparently, the humor is lost on him that he’s now using his blog to report that the M’s are nearing a deal with Erik Bedard. He puts the terms at $1.5M guaranteed with “a shipload of incentives”. He’s the only one reporting this, though, and after all, it’s on a blog, so we probably shouldn’t believe it, right?
We’ll analyze it further when a more reputable reporter confirms the deal. If it doesn’t happen, well, just chalk it up as more evidence of those bloggers who don’t care about accuracy running amok.
Update: Erik Bedard tells Larry LaRue that no one has made a concrete offer. That’s a pretty far cry from there being an agreement on terms. For now, there’s no reason to believe Street’s original report has any legs.
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122 Responses to “Jim Street, Erik Bedard, And Rumors”
Fox Sports Jon Morosi tweets:
“Source confirms that Bedard is close to a one-year deal with the Mariners.”
The Mariners are on the hook for his rehab anyway. Why tie up payroll with him until you have to?
Simple. I would rather have a healthy Bedard in the playoffs than Washburn.
@Jeff Nye: “The Mariners are on the hook for his rehab anyway. Why tie up payroll with him until you have to?”
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t. In an imperfect world, you would, so that somebody like Baltimore or KC doesn’t pick him off, making a horrible trade even less salvageable than ever. Especially if he went back to Baltimore. How badly would THAT suck, especially if he ended up pitching well this year?
It’s just not enough money that it is worth it to risk that.
Eh. Half a season of Bedard is probably the equivalent of a league average starter for a full season. And that’s assuming that he comes back from surgery with no problems and doesn’t get reinjured.
I just don’t see him being this fantastic commodity that you have to snap up before somebody else gets him.
In a pure baseball sense I’d rather have Washburn; of course, the selfish side of me doesn’t want The Bus back in a Mariners uniform ever again.
What surprises me is the pettiness of the Mariner’s blogosphere. It seems that half the stuff you read is reporting on what others have written and there seems to be a rule that they (M’s blogosphere) all need to agree. If someone says something that contradicts someone else, there is blood to be paid.
Please note! I could be wrong… It’s just my observation.
But the price is right, first off, and secondly, I’d rather have Bedard in September than someone like Washburn.
Jeff at LL makes a good point: the Mariners already know that Bedard will miss at least the first couple of months so will have built a roster intended to get by without him. Anything Bedard provides after that will be a bonus. There’s little risk involved in signing him with lots of potential reward.
Good to see you taking the moral high road, Dave!
To be clear, I like Bedard. I just don’t see where he’s someone you have to rush to sign before he gets snapped up.
If they sign him to a cheap deal, it certainly wouldn’t be a bad move.
So Jeff, you are saying that you think a league average pitcher is worth approximately 1.5 WAR? Because that’s what a hurt Bedard has been worth for a pro-rated 15 starts at performance levels of the last two years. I have a hard time believing he can’t pitch to that level, given that he already did, while hurt.
The risk is if he can’t pitch, but that is a risk with any pitcher you sign. Wang carries just as much risk as Bedard (IMO), the Bus hasn’t been injury-free either, and certainly Pedro and Smoltz carry both performance-decline and injury risks at this stage of their careers.
What other “league average” pitcher is out there (unless you’re talking trade)?
Dave I read your blog daily and enjoy it immensely. Except when you complain about a specific writer, that seems kind of petty. Street has no effect on the M’s and I couldn’t care less if he wants to use his blog to speculate or complain about blogs and twitter. He didn’t single anyone out. Street is paid to do a job and apparently those who sign his check are satisfied with his work. I wouldn’t have read his blog if you hadn’t linked to it.
Would it be possible to just write about the baseball and the M’s and forget about whatever rivalries exist between writers? Like many people, I have a fever and the only cure is more M’s!
Ditto Joeyjojo’s sentiments. Dave, you come across as a petty whiner in this post. I thought maybe you’d leave it at that, but then you added an additional comment, and tweeted about it, saying: “Bedard tells LaRue: ‘No one’s made a concrete offer.’ Chalk up another lazy blogger just making stuff up. What? Street’s a journalist? Oh.” C’mon. Grow up.
I’m sure 99% of us would like to focus on the awesomeness of Bedard on a 1-year deal.
And I’m equally sure that 99% of us don’t give a flying fig about whether you like Dave’s tone or not.
CCW (and Dave), The tweet that you referenced was the main reason why I wrote my earlier post… I do appreciate that hard work and the analysis from this site and I have benefited from it, but this kind of thing (pettieness towards Jim Steet) makes me feel like I am reading a juvenile’s rant. DMZ’s past tirades against posters have been equally disappointing. I hope USSM decides to take a page out of ProballNW’s book and truly take the higher road that Taylor H suggested.
If you kids don’t play nice I’m going to take the trolley down to the newstand and buy a P-I!
We all grow old so be kind to your elders. Life will kick you in the ‘nads soon enough.
You’re about to see a rant, but it’s not going to be from Dave.
It was Jim Street who decided to call “bloggers and twitters” out as not caring about accuracy.
Dave’s well within his rights to defend himself against that accusation, and he’s not required to wear kid gloves while doing so, since Street sure as hell didn’t.
If you like ProballNW so much, go there. Pretending that Dave is trying to pick a fight with poor, misunderstood Jim Street isn’t going to fly, here.
Who wins the fight if Bedard does sign with the M’s for $1.5 million plus incentives?
I don’t know, I always thought Dave needed a little more mid-range, and a little less gain, but that’s most guitar players really.
We’re talking about Dave Navarro, right?
Jeff Nye said:
then ..
Yes, telling people who don’t agree with you to go away is good way to achieve an audience that is 99% in agreement. You might want to consider that the next time you have to refute the group-think charge.
That’s enough. Comments closed.
My what?