Two days ago, Paul Hagen wrote an article titled "Phils would miss Rowand's talents". Here is the link:
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20071008_Phils_would_miss_Rowands_talents.html
The number of logical fallacies found in this article is astounding, and I am always shocked that fluff pieces like this get published.
First, Hagen tries to draw a comparison with Rowand's departure from Chicago to his pending departure here.
"Now he has to wonder if history is about to repeat itself."
Of course, it is easy to ignore completely different circumstances. First, the Sox won the World Series, we just made the playoffs and got swept. Second, they TRADED Rowand for Jim Thome (who has been a stud for them) while we won't likely pay him 10 mil a year for stuff he already did. Don't let the truth...
"And his contributions to the team go far beyond his .309 batting average, 105 runs scored, 27 homers and 89 runs batted in."
I love when they only post counting stats and not the real stuff that matters. But I am more concerned about what his contributions that go "far beyond" are.
"He's a clubhouse catalyst, the guy who organizes the off-day get-togethers, who's always preaching the importance of putting the team ahead of individual egos."
Off-day get togethers are absolutely known to result in at least 2-3 wins per season. Team ahead of egos? Risking life and limb SEEMS like putting the team ahead, except when it puts you on the bench and the whole team suffers for it. Seemed more like personal glory to me.
"The second is that they could well come to regret it."
I love the fact that there is no stance in this line. Well, they could regret it, but it leaves it open to imagine that they could not, if Rowand bombs and Victorino shines. What a way to take a position.
"And while there are many reasons for what happened next, the fact is that the White Sox went from winning 99 games and a world championship in 2005 to winning 90 games and not even making the playoffs in 2006 to going 70-92 and barely finishing ahead of the Kansas City Royals this year.
There are many in the White Sox organization who believe that losing Rowand's spitfire approach played a big role in that decline."
Right out of Stark's book of making quotes without showing who said it and making it seem that it is true.
In 2005 the White Sox had an OPS for of .747 and an OPS against of .707.
In 2006 they had an OPS for of .806 and an OPS against of .766.
When Rowand left, their offense increased dramatically while their pitching took a dive. They didn't make the playoffs cause their pitchers (like Freddy Garcia) weren't as good as they showed in that one year. Rowand on this year's team would have put them in the playoffs? YEAH RIGHT!
"Late in the season, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was asked how many wins could be directly attributed to Rowand's intangibles. "I have no idea," he said. "But he's a huge part of our team. He plays a part in everything you think about. Clubhouse. Standing up. Defense. Offense. He's always talking about 'we' and 'us,' always talking about winning every day.
"And I believe in that. I believe you see how people react to it. It's easy with the salaries and the schedule for players to get complacent, or down at times. But he takes care of that for you.""
He quotes Charlie here trying to use it as evidence that Rowand's intangibles held this team together. Where were his intangibles in the post season? Rowand went 1-12 with 1 HR and 1 RBI batting .083 with an OBP of .083, SLG of .333 and an OPS of .417. I am not killing him for that since it is a small sample size and a lot of players bit it. But why didn't he throw a Bar-B-Que between games 1 and 2 or get on people in the clubhouse or run into a wall or something to fire people up?
Cause it is COMPLETE GARBAGE. That stuff is ALWAYS used to highlight the reason why you win but always ignored when it does nothing when you lose. Rowand's grit and determination did NOTHING to keep us from getting swept, the first 2 games at home. Why didn't his intangibles help us then? Too small of a sample size for chicken and ribs to help? Maybe if Rowand really cared, he would have had a pig on a spit. That would have at least gotten us to the NLCS.