I Wanna Start A Feud!!!!!

And I think it's gonna be with Geoff Baker, the Seattle Times Mariners blogger.

I'm a fair man. I'm always willing to listen to all sides of an issue, weigh all things equally and formulate my opinion. I often give the benefit of the doubt, sometimes when it's not really deserved. A fuck-up once, does not a fuck-up always make. With that said I am getting tired of Geoff Baker, over at The Times.

As a loyal reader of USS Mariner for years I always enjoy and respect their insight into the game. Even when I do not fully agree with those insights, I always have to give what they say some weight because of how well they lay out their points of view. There are scant emotional ravings over there, arguments are often backed up with mounds of data(kinda like the opposite of here). So when they claim time and again that Geoff is the best beat writer the M's have had in some time, I give the statement some credence.

Reading some of his posts I could see what the guys at USS Mariner were talking about. He seemed not to be a victim of blind homerism, like so many other M's beat writers. He made some pretty good arguments that though ran slightly counter to the USS Mariner stance, were well thought out. But then it seemed the job got to him.

Now whenever I go over and read his take on the state of the team I cringe. Now he seems content to offer quotes and audio clips from players and managers without critique. No one is asking him to be Helen Thomas out here and constantly ride the team for every little flaw. I just expect that when someone backs up a dumb decision with a drivel like this "I just think that Cairo has been swinging the bat pretty good and so forth and so on," McLaren said. "So I would have stuck with Cairo." they get called on the fact that Miguel Cairo has not EVER "been swinging the bat pretty good". And then they could be enlightened of the fact that in a 2 run game with a man and 2 out you don't want a washed-up singles hitter deciding the game for you, especially if there are better options on the bench(however marginally better those options might be, Richie).

When people point out the flaws in Geoff's logic he seems to get really defensive and almost seems to start talking down to his readers. The fact that he has been a beat writer for years and has the closest and, in his eyes, the best perspective of the team is held over the readers head and used to end arguments without resolution. "I Know more than you, shut-up!"

He has a penchant for putting arguments into readers mouths like this little gem "Most of you wanted Sexson gone a month ago. Now, he's the team's savior? Not sure I get it." No one was saying he's the team savior and the fact that he is a better option pinch-hitting than letting Miguel Cairo swing away is an indictment of the Mariners Front Office and their atrocious roster construction skills. But no one, no matter in what kind of altered state, would ever rationally believe that Richie is the team savior.

To act like people believe that somehow Richie is the answer to the season because they wanted to see him pinch-hit for a crappy singles hitter is highly disingenuous and demeans the intelligence of his readers. It seems every time someone has a reasonable argument against the M's current strategy for winning, Geoff gets defensive and throws up a straw man to make the argument seem ridiculous.

I, for one, am sick of this style of passive aggressive blogging. The only way to stop this is to Call Geoff out on a large platform, and while NLS isn't exactly that, it's as good of a starting point as any. So, I encourage you loyal readers to go out and troll the shit out of his board. Tell them Willie Mays Haze over at Nobody Likes Soccer sent ya and if he don't like it to come to the page and challenge me to a blog-off.

Until this day happens I will continue to post any flaws I see in his arguments and lay them bare. Geoff Baker will know my name when I lay my hand upon him...