What is going on with Raul Ibáñez in Philadelphia?

The Marty Show · **Posted:** 6/4/09, 1:08 pm

BT76 wrote:

...Big turn around from all the belly aching over his contract and PtB.

OPS'ing over 1.000 will do that for you.

schillingfan · **Posted:** 6/5/09, 1:45 pm

donaldorc wrote:

tom81 wrote:

Loved this quote:

Quote:

Maybe it's due to having Howard, Utley, Victorino, et al surrounding him instead of Yunieski Betancourt, Adrian Beltre and Russell Branyan.

I thought Sabr-savvy people claim that protection in a line-up is overrated.

Hitting on a team with a lot of good hitters is not the same thing as protection. As used in reference to "protecting" Bonds or Howard, the numbers only crunch the player behind him.

I think it's simply like hitting better in a hitters count than a pitcher's count. If you have a lineup with better hitters, they will force the starter to throw more pitches, as he'll get less outs, this will enable hitters to see more of the pitcher, wear him out and put inferior relievers into the game. It's also likely that pitchers are not as effective with men on base, throwing out of the stretch, or greater pressure, whatever. Just all told a line-up with better hitters should help any one individual.

I'd imagine the numbers could be run to see if there is a correlation between an individual hitter's success and his team's overall hitting success from year to year.

BT76 · **Posted:** 6/5/09, 1:47 pm

Maybe Ibáñez sees the ball better when pitchers are in the stretch?

LA's Shallow Thoughts · **Joined:** 6/24/07, 10:25 pm **Posts:** 1183

Apparently, Ibáñez reads these blogs, as well.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/stor ... spn_424875

EastFallowfield · **Posted:** 6/10/09, 3:34 pm

From the original article ESPN is lifting from:

Quote:

Ibáñez said a team official made him aware of the speculation.

Don't think he tracked down that blog.

rockinghorse · **Posted:** 6/10/09, 3:51 pm

The blogger was on Outside the Lines today, where Gonzalez and Ken Rosenthal politely told him his post was indefensible.

I read the original text and it's like a longer version of what someone might post on a board like PhilliesPhans. So two conclusions: (a) the Phillies and Gonzalez shouldn't have stirred it up because he's not a professional journalist; the blogger said the Ibáñez post only had 300 views as of this morning; and (b) a blogger with no journalistic credentials shouldn't pretend to be a legitimate news source.

The guy tried to make a point that blogs like his are "the true voice of the fans". Fine, but fans don't have the responsibility to carefully choose their words, knowing that readers worldwide might seize on certain elements. A veiled accusation in a blog immediately becomes a direct accusation to the wider public (if it reaches the wider public).

The Savior · **Posted:** 6/10/09, 4:27 pm

MLB players take steroids in hopes of being as good as Raul Ibáñez one day

Dirk41 · **Posted:** 6/10/09, 4:32 pm

While I don't agree with the blogger and I think that he could have woven his piece in a better way, I don't really see what he did that was so bad. Ibáñez is practically doubling his career yearly stats, at an age when that is nearly unheard of unless you are Barry Bonds or Luis Gonzalez. We, the baseball fans, have given the players the benefit of the doubt for far too long to have it come out and bite us in the end ( not that I really care about steroids, but thats another story). If Ibáñez claims that this is all due to hard work and determination, thats great. This lineup shouldn't be too different next year, lets see what kind of numbers he puts up then. But for anyone to say that just speculation of performance enhancing is wrong here, is rather naive and short-sighted given what we have seen in the game in recent years. Ken Rosenthal seemed to be unable to grasp that concept earlier today.

olgrandad · **Joined:** 1/28/04, 12:58 am **Posts:** 1057

Mention of Luis Gonzalez reminds me that, when I
first saw Ibáñez play with the Phils, I thought of
Gonzalez. I thought their swings were similar,
among other things.

Sixerboy3 · **Posted:** 6/10/09, 6:05 pm

Quite frankly, I think that John Gonzalez should be getting a lot of heat for reporting this story. Time and time again this guy writes garbage in order to stir up controversy about different topics. Some random blogger from Kansas City is not going to draw any attention unless Gonzalez goes out of his way to report it in the Inquirer. The only reason this became a story is because it was reported through a legitimate news source such as the Philadelphia Inquirer. I understand that Gonzalez is trying to portray the blogger as irresponsible, but I think he also used the story to get his name in the news yet again. Guys like this are the reason that newspapers are hurting. What happened to integrity in reporting?

LA's Shallow Thoughts · **Joined:** 6/24/07, 10:25 pm **Posts:** 1183

Sixerboy3 wrote:

Quite frankly, I think that John Gonzalez should be getting a lot of heat for reporting this story. Time and time again this guy writes garbage in order to stir up controversy about different topics. Some random blogger from Kansas City is not going to draw any attention unless Gonzalez goes out of his way to report it in the Inquirer. The only reason this became a story is because it was reported through a legitimate news source such as the Philadelphia Inquirer. I understand that Gonzalez is trying to portray the blogger as irresponsible, but I think he also used the story to get his name in the news yet again. Guys like this are the reason that newspapers are hurting. What happened to integrity in reporting?

Beat me to the punch.

Gonzalez is also the one who broke the Dan Leone story. He also dumps on hockey whenever he gets the chance. He's a muckraker and is going to have a lot of enemies in the near future.

PhrenchPhan · **Posted:** 6/11/09, 1:21 pm

SI with an article on its front page online about Raul and the speculative blogger. Very interesting read in my opinion. The author makes a great point that Raul has 50 game statistical tears in each of the seasons he's played since 2002. Hopefully he just continues what he's done so far for the rest of the season and his time in Philly though.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/06/11/raul.ibanez/1.html

jferry46 · **Posted:** 6/11/09, 1:36 pm

I don't understand why anyone cares about what a two-bit blogger from the Midwest has to say about Raul Ibáñez. If he made those same statements in a bar with his friends, it would go no further. But because it happens to show up in a blog, all of sudden it becomes newsworthy?

BT76 · **Posted:** 6/11/09, 1:42 pm

jferry46 wrote:

I don't understand why anyone cares about what a two-bit blogger from the Midwest has to say about Raul Ibáñez. If he made those same statements in a bar with his friends, it would go no further. But because it happens to show up in a blog, all of sudden it becomes newsworthy?

Read above:

Quote:

Quite frankly, I think that John Gonzalez should be getting a lot of heat for reporting this story. Time and time again this guy writes garbage in order to stir up controversy about different topics. Some random blogger from Kansas City is not going to draw any attention unless Gonzalez goes out of his way to report it in the Inquirer. The only reason this became a story is because it was reported through a legitimate news source such as the Philadelphia Inquirer. I understand that Gonzalez is trying to portray the blogger as irresponsible, but I think he also used the story to get his name in the news yet again. Guys like this are the reason that newspapers are hurting. What happened to integrity in reporting?

rockinghorse · **Posted:** 6/11/09, 5:02 pm

^ David Murphy shares this viewpoint very well in this post.

Quote:

When the Philadelphia Inquirer, who shares a little piece of cyber space with this humble sports writer, chose to publish a column about Blogger X's treatise, it forgot the basic distinction that sets professional media outlets apart from amateur bloggers. Even though the column attempted to excoriate the blogger, in doing so, it placed itself on the same level of that blogger. It told readers that the Blogger was worth reading, and reacting to, and that his thoughts deserved a legitimate place in public discourse. Yesterday, I watched an episode of Outside the Lines on ESPN that featured both the Blogger and the author of the Inquirer column. The professional writer lectured the Blogger on the need for accountability, given the blurring of the lines between professional and amateur opinion and analysis.

Therein lies the fallacy. Bloggers are not bound by standards of accountability. They are not professionals. They can not be expected to abide by the same rules that make professionals professional. Bloggers are not the ones blurring the lines. Professional media outlets who give credence to those bloggers are the ones who blur the lines.

Dave Snyder's

PhilliesPhans.com

What is going on with Raul Ibáñez in Philadelphia?

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