20130307

More adventures in sportswriting

Haven't been watching the Post sportswriters much lately, so haven't had much to talk about. I did see (the first page of) Boswell's paean to Bryce Harper, and thought about writing about that, but couldn't get myself to finish reading it.

(Incidentally, his statement that Harper was the best 19-yo ever wasn't quite as ridiculous as I initially thought. I'd looked, maybe 2/3 through last season, and seen Harper as 5th all-time in OPS+ among 19-yo's, so it seemed a stretch (he finished 6th). His WAR ended up at the top, although I take WAR totals relying on defense with more than a little grain of salt, especially for players over ten years ago (ie: those Harper would be compared against). So it's not undeniably true (which I was sure of), but it is, at least, arguable. And while it's far from a slam-dunk, Harper does seem to have a chance to be among the all-time greats.)

Anyway, the point is looking at today's article by Jonathan Newton, about the Caps and expectations.

You'd think, if you're going to hang your article on how much the Caps have changed, you'd check your facts about how much they have.
The lineup Oates put on the ice Tuesday against the Bruins featured exactly three home-grown players — Backstrom, Ovechkin and Fehr — who were on that Presidents’ Trophy team of three seasons ago.


I wonder how he considers Alzner (21 games in '09-10), Carlson (22), Perreault (21), and Neuvirth (17; might not have played Tuesday, but was certainly in the line-up)? There's also a little bit of misleading here, too, as Schultz was scratched (although that could be argued in all sorts of directions). Anyway, there might have been some way to qualify that statement to make it true (I can think of several), but then it merely becomes misleading instead of false. Not a huge improvement.

Plus, it ignores Poti and Erskine, who might not have been drafted by the Caps (what difference does it make how many were drafted, anyway?), but have been around that long (and Fehr, of course, hasn't, even though he was drafted by the Caps).

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