March 22 - Gammons' Gas

Well, Opening Day is fast approaching and that means only one thing – a flurry of pieces from the pen of Peter Gammons predicting greatness for every team in baseball other than Tampa and Kansas City. Is there a more optimistic reporter than ESPN’s Peter Gammons? Or put another way – is there another print or on-air analyst who provides less critical analysis than Mr. Gammons? Let’s take a look at some recent evidence.

I will start by saying I have never been a fan of Gasman. I have always felt he is a tool of his sources and I have long suspected that the only people who talk to the King of Fluff are agents who want to see their agendas show up in print or on Baseball Tonight. Moreover, Gammons simply refuses to ever criticize anything that happens on the baseball field. You will never hear him say something akin to “Jeff Suppan is nothing more than a journeyman,” or “Bernie Williams is shot.” And you can just forget about a shot at a general manager. I honestly believe Peter would resign his commission at ESPN before he publicly ripped one of his buddies in that club. He just refuses to bite the hand feeds him. That makes him lazy and, in my mind, nothing more than a propagandist.

Gammons weaknesses are always showcased at this of the time of year since this is when he starts going out with his season previews. Over the past ten days, some of these team previews have begun leaking out and they all basically mirror each other. All are wildly optimistic and to hear Peter tell it, there are at least 24 teams competing for playoffs spots this year. Two recent Gasman gems involve previews of the Cubs and Giants. As far as the Cubs go, Gammons piece basically just regurgitates Chicago’s roster and sums up that the Cubs could be dangerous if their pitching stays healthy. Really? That is quite a piece of analysis. That is a bit like saying the Germans may have gone deeper into Russia had they had some more fuel and armor. Aside from that, the piece has enough sugar to keep a diabetic in business for a year. Gammons, at one point in his story, had the audacity to say Derrick Lee is a “star” and Nomar is playing like he did in 1999. You have got to be kidding me. Did Nomar’s agent Arn Tellem pay him to write that? And while Derrick Lee is a nice player, he is not a “star” under even the most liberal definition of the word. He then went on to mention that pitcher Ryan Dempster is “throwing extremely well” even though Dempster couldn't get anyone out the other night. That happened after the date of publication so Pete has an excuse, but I will bet you Gammons had absolutely nothing to base his Dempster comment on other then what he was being told by Cubs management. That is a no-no in journalism and a Hall of Famer like Peter should now that. In sum, the piece basically serves as a platform for Cubs GM Jim Hendry to sound off about his team. There is no mention that the Cubs have one of the worst outfields in the NL or the fact that the lineup is loaded with strikeouts. Gammons, as usual, refuses to focus on such trivial points.

That takes us to Gammons recent piece on the Giants. The gist of this piece is that the Giants have added a ton of depth and that should hold them over in the event that Barry Bonds is out for a significant period of the season with a knee injury. Gammons mentions in his piece that the Giants have some issues, such as age and questionable pitching, but he explains these issues away by quoting Giants who say the issues are moot. Gammons goes on to print these claims without spending a moment considering the source or the validity of the statement. Of course manager Felipe Alou thinks his staff will be better than others think. Pete – what the hell else is he going to say? Your job is to second guess such comments when they clearly straddle the line. How about something akin to – “Alou thinks Brett Tomko and Noah Lowry will be solid all season, but that seems like a stretch given the track records of these two.” And what about just assuming Jason Schmidt will return to form this year. Schmidt was awful at the end of last year, but Gammons ignores this point altogether. Gammons concludes by saying that if this goes right, if that goes right and if Bonds can come back, the Giants are in great shape. I would like Peter to just once take the opposite approach and say something like “this flawed club has a lot of question marks going into Spring Training.” Dare to dream!

Mike Francesa sank to a new low yesterday afternoon on the WFAN radio show that he hosts with “Puppy Chow” Russo. Francesa has never, and I repeat never, been hard on his friends in the coaching ranks, and it continued yesterday with his gentle handling of Jim Calhoun following Connecticut’s early exit from the NCAA tourney. Calhoun doesn’t rank as high as Bill Parcells on Francesa’s list of close friends, but he is a close pal. Anyways, when yesterday’s discussion turned to UCONN’s 65-62 loss to lowly North Carolina State on Sunday, Francesa pulled out the soft velvet gloves that are reserved for handling very fragile objects. He began by reluctantly conceding it was a bad loss for UCONN, and this half-baked concession had to be forcibly extracted by his angry sidekick. But he refused to go any further and he had a laundry list of excuses at the ready for why this loss hardly dings Calhoun’s impressive resume. Francesa’s basic point was that every team has to reload and this year it was UCONN’s turn. Later, he started pulling out some injury excuses and pointing to the inexperience of UCONN’s backcourt as factors why UCONN rolled craps on its second roll. He then scolded Husky fans who dared to show any frustration over the loss, citing them as crybabies who have come to expect too much from Calhoun. Hey, I am not here to bash Calhoun. I think he has done a wonderful job in Storrs, but this is not his first bad loss or bad team. Francesa knows that but you couldn’t have detected it from yesterday’s show, which ultimately segued into a rant on Dean Smith’s tourney gaffs. Listen Mike, your good friend is not god. He is a damn good coach, but his resume has plenty of question marks.

If you want the truth – I’ll give you the truth. In 1997, UCONN missed the tourney entirely. That doesn’t happen to great coaches. Coach K hasn’t missed a tourney since he hurt his back in 1995 (one absence since 1983) and Dean Smith didn’t miss a tourney from 1976 until his retirement in 1997. But Calhoun didn’t do it just once. He repeated the feat in 2001, making it two debacles in a single decade. There are a bunch of guys – Gary Williams, Roy Williams, Mike Montgomery, Tom Izzo, Coach K, Tubby Smith – that haven’t swum in that pool of late. You want some more? How bout that loss to UCLA in the 1995 Regional Finals? Okay, UCONN wasn’t favored, but expectations were high in Storrs that year. The Huskies got blown out of that game despite the fact that the final score credited them with only a six point loss. And what about the Donyell Marshall team that lost to Florida in 1994, the Ray Allen team that lost to Mississippi State in 1996, or the act of god that guided an out-coached UCONN to a win over Washington in 1998? Those are the same type of games that Francesa and the Pup use to POUND other coaches. Hey, Calhoun has two rings and two Final Four victories over Krzyzewski. For that alone he has earned my respect. He is a very good coach and perhaps a great one, but a bad loss is a bad loss and friendship shouldn’t get in the way of calling it like it is. In the future Mike, when buddies come up, recuse yourself from the conversation because your friendship is getting in the way of your objectivity. If you are going to kill the rest of the world for these types of losses, your friends should get the same treatment.

Staying with UCONN, it was reported this morning that Husky forward Charlie Villanueva intends to leave school for the NBA. Good Riddance. This is a classic case of addition by subtraction. Villanueva had skills, but there was no telling when he was going to show up and play. He had a number of big games this year, but his two point game against UNC sticks with me as evidence of his inconsistency. I do not closely follow UCONN hoops, but it never struck me that Charlie fit in at Storrs. He had a very uncomfortable freshman year and while his second year was an improvement, he seemed like an outsider on this year's club. I don’t see his absence hurting this team so long as Josh Boone returns. If Boone returns, UCONN will probably have the country’s top front line next year (assuming Sean May and/or Marvin Williams leave UNC) and I suspect that the Huskies will probably be a top-5 pre-season team. If he leaves, which is a definite possibility, the Huskies will find themselves a bit thin up front unless incoming frosh - Andrew Bynum and Jeff Adrien – can provide immediate help.

The Villanova Wildcats suffered a huge blow yesterday when they found out that forward Curtis Sumpter will miss the rest of the season, which could conclude Friday night against North Carolina. The 6’7 Brooklynite has been a mainstay for Villanova all year and his absence robs the Cats of their best inside player and their best free throw shooter. Without him, Jason Fraser will have to log big minutes against Carolina’s Sean May and Marvin Williams. That is not a good matchup for Villanova, but they still have a dangerous backcourt that may be able to keep this game close. Meanwhile, Carolina just keeps getting the breaks. First, potential foes UCONN and Kansas lost this past weekend weakening the Syracuse region and now Villanova looses this key player. It seems fate is trying to make things just about as easy as possible for Roy Williams to get back to the Final Four. Even Roy should be able to knock this softball out of the park. But before anyone just hands UNC this Friday’s game, remember that this is the 20th anniversary of Villanova’s 1985 NCAA Championship. That run culminated in 66-64 shocker over Georgetown, but as I mentioned yesterday, it also included a 56-44 win over UNC in the Southeast Regional Final. The Heels led that game 22-17 at half, but Nova shut down UNC in the second half and walked away with an easy win down in Birmingham. From there, Nova went on to Lexington and took out Memphis State in the national semi-finals and Georgetown in the finals.

The clouds over the Southside of Chicago lifted a bit this morning when it was reported that White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle’s foot injury was not as bad as first thought and may only cost the left-hander a single spring training start. But those clouds seemed to have moved north and have now enveloped Wrigley Field. Why do I say this? Well, just as it seemed like concerns over Kerry Wood’s arm were easing; the Cubs found out today that they have probably lost closer Joe Borowski for a month with a broken hand. This is a big blow for the Cubs who already had concerns over Mark Prior and their shaky bullpen. Last year, with Borowski largely sidelined, the Cubs had among the three worst bullpens in the National League. LaTroy Hawkins proved highly unreliable and late inning collapses went a long way towards explaining why the Cubs lost out to the Astros in the race for the NL wildcard. General Manager Jim Hendry has been banking on Borowski to solidify the Cubs bullpen, but these plans have been laid to waste – at least until May 1st. With Mark Prior a question mark, Wood nursing a sore arm, and Borowski hurt, the Cubs are undeniably having the worst Spring Training in the major leagues. Not even ESPN’s Peter Gammons could sugar coat this one.

The NFL draft is fast approaching and one story worth watching is whether California football coach Jeff Tedford has lost some of his luster with NFL personnel directors. One of Tedford’s players, quarterback Arron Rodgers, is expected to be selected near the top of the first round, but some are beginning to wonder whether Rodgers may slip because teams are concerned by the recent track records of other Tedford protégés. Is such concern well founded? Well, based on a quick survey of the literature, it seems Tedford’s star has begun falling and caution may be warranted. In case you don’t know his resume, Tedford has been associated with turning out a number of high-profile quarterbacks. During coaching stints at Fresno State, Oregon and California over the past decade, Tedford has coached the likes of David Carr, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller and Arron Rodgers. In years past, many commentators have lauded Tedford as a fine mentor of quarterbacks, but I am not so sure this reputation is deserved given the recent track records of these signal callers. Carr has shown flashes of brilliance and he probably has a future in the NFL, but Smith was a total bust and is now fighting for a spot in NFL Europe. Boller has shown very little other than an erratic arm in his two years in Baltimore and Harrington was rumored to be on the chopping block in Detroit this off-season. This is hardly murderers’ row. In fact, it is a pretty weak stable in my estimation. So is Rodgers going to be another Tedford bust or is he the real deal? From what I have read on a recent scouting workout, Rodgers is reportedly the real deal and deserves to be selected in the top few picks, So that begs the question of whether Tedford’s recent legacy will scare teams off? After all, nobody wants another Akili on their hands since that is the kind of mistake that gets people fired. I am not a draft guru, but I suspect that if Rodgers falls, he will fall to no lower than the eight spot where Arizona currently is slotted. Should this happen, I think more than a few “experts” will comment that Tedford’s shine has dulled.