Okay, here's the deal......this is a tough one to judge. On one hand, it wasn't that bad of a read and it was funny. On the other hand, there was approximately 47 fantasy mentions, dreadfully wrong stats, and no sense of direction.

Side Note: Ben at Sportszilla and the Jabber Jocks a group of guys that obviously know more about baseball than I will ever know) took me up on the Jorge Julio question I had in Part 1:

Here's his response:
Ask and ye shall receive: Jorge Julio, who I actually did like in a Mets uni. The Mets traded him for starting help, and to be fair El Duque has helped them more than Julio had. Julio was a mediocre reliever with a wealth of talent. Last year his K's were down to 7.28 after being 9.15 the year before. His control was better at 2.42 K/BB but that's still not great. You can't fault the O's in dealing him and his closer type money for a starter. The problem was that they traded him and John Maine for Benson. The O's took back salary AND gave up a decent arm for an overpaid #3. Maine is just 25 and pitching well for the Mets (in fact I just included him in my latest column). That's what makes it a poor trade. They took back salary for a guy with limited upside while giving up a guy who could be better than Benson within a year. And even if Maine reverts back and never pans out, you can find plenty of Kris Bensons out there if you look hard enough. Oh and as Jason said, Felix is very good. Simmons just looks at ERA and figures that's the tell all for a pitcher. It's not.

***
I agree wholeheartedly that the trade wasn't the best, but just getting rid of Julio was enough in my eyes.....Good Riddance, have fun in Arizona George.

***

PART 3: Grading and Conclusion

Here's our criteria again........Timing and Relevance, Boston Sports References, Knowledge and Conveyance of said Knowledge, and Overall Writing and Impact.

Timing and Relevance: Bill obviously know WHEN to put out a column. Leading write into the playoffs and the big 5 game series starting today at 1pm. I don't think he loses any points here

Side Note: For this and all future columns I'm changing the below category to Boston Sports and Fantasy Team Mentions. Why you ask? I think you know why.

Number of Boston Sports/Fantasy Team References: I've noticed this for awhile in his columns, but it's never been more maddening than recently. I think the Twins are one of the best teams to watch this year. Great pitching, great hitting, and they hustle every play. Bill just glossed over them with some random story about a crappy fantasy trade in one of his A.L. Only-Roto-Auction-Only on Turf Leagues. Seriously it's annoying stop.

He loses a ton of points here for three different mentions.

Knowledge and Conveyance of Knowledge: While Bill obviously knows a lot about the sport, the teams, and the players....he knows dick about stats. ERA is the worst thing to judge pitching on, He had never even heard of VORP, and he butchered the Bedard thing. I also thought he botched the Angels and A's rankings, but that was more because of the article having no criteria rather than messing up each team's entry.

Overall Writing and Impact: As far as the writing......I'm torn here. I thought the article was long, but it didn't feel as long when reading it. It was funny and for the most part I agreed with the rankings. But the big thing is, that when you write something you have to have purpose and direction. While his purpose was evident....the direction was flawed.

Sure, if the Angels and A's both made it to the playoffs I would take the Angels over the A's. But they aren't both going to make the playoffs. So the question is....Was the article about if teams made the playoffs (including the Rays and O's???) what shot do they have? Or was it about the shot that teams have currently to win it all?

If it's the first scenario then that's just a dumb article, and a waste of ink. If it's the second then fine, but make sure you tell us that.

Conclusion and Grading: I was going to give this article 3.5 Boston Championship Rings, but after reading this thing 4 times I have to drop it to a three. It ultimately was just average. (I almost dropped it to a 2.5, but I thought that was being too tough)








Thanks for sticking it out for another 3 parter, and thanks to Sportszilla for taking up my question. Back later today with hopefully some very very interesting rumors about a Future HOF Linebacker (you won't want to miss this.....if I can get the full story)