Posted in The Soapbox
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02/4 2011

Soapbox: Pujols, Cardinals’ Negotiations Forcing Closer Reading

Posted by Dan Levy.

This is a guest post by Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth. Check out more of his work at www.pitchershiteighth.com or twitter.com/PitchersHit8th

Writing a St. Louis Cardinals blog means that unfortunately, I am acutely tuned in to the Albert Pujols contract negotiations.  It’s not unfortunate because of the potential to lose perhaps the greatest player of our era from my hometown team, but rather because of the way the negotiations are being carried out between team and player – in as complete a silence as seems possible in today’s media landscape.  Thus the resulting media coverage, particularly national media outlets and writers, becomes an amalgamation of anonymous sources, “understanding” of situations, repeating statements of the obvious, and perhaps most disturbingly – writing that purposely leaves the reader’s imagination or assumptions to run amok.  If you don’t believe me, check out the daily compilations of Pujols stuff that we’ve been accumulating at Pitchers Hit Eighth.

The national media in particular has really been scrambling, and it’s gotten worse in recent weeks.  After all, this is THE story of the Major League Baseball off-season.  This is the story that will get eyeballs/pageviews/revenue for the Sports Illustrated’s, ESPN.com’s, and Yahoo!’s until actual baseball starts in March.

Yet the silent treatment from the Pujols camp and the Cardinals’ Front Office has left many national writers holding the bag – or worse, skimming rumors (not direct quotes or actual news, mind you) from the local St. Louis press.

Last week it was Jayson Stark at ESPN.com, essentially just compiling a list of “what we know already” and adding in a few quotes from sources anywhere and everywhere around baseball except those actually involved with the negotiations.

Stark opened his article with a disclaimer of sorts, one that was obviously skipped over by most who read on to take Stark’s piece as known fact:

“We’ve had no leaks, no details, no messy rhetoric leaking from those negotiations. That’s by mutual agreement, of course. But don’t mistake silence for peace and quiet.”

Stark goes on to talk with many unnamed (naturally) baseball executives who say they expect the deal to get done with the Cardinals for a variety of reasons, then launches into the now-gospel ten-year, $300-million talk:

“Is it possible that Pujols is a $300 million man?

There has never been one in baseball history, you know — not even Alex Rodriguez. But scuttlebutt from other clubs is that that’s where Pujols and Lozano began the conversation.

Ten years. At $30 million a year. For a total of $300 million.

And when the folks on the Cardinals’ side of the table regained consciousness, they said something to the effect of: “You’re kidding, right?””

The words in bold are important to illustrate the necessity for fans — and particularly bloggers — to latch onto the “10/300” meme and now believe that Pujols will accept nothing less.  But if we read the passage from Stark’s article again, he qualifies that the 10/300 starting point is where other clubs believe the negotiations started.  Given the radio silence from the actual parties involved, we have no way of knowing or confirming this.  Yet Stark continues on with his article using the 10/300 as being based in fact.

Not long after Stark’s article made the rounds and the hype surrounding it was starting to die down, Buster Olney wrote another St. Louis-insanity-inducing article for ESPN.com:

“Sources: Albert Pujols would veto trade”

Well no kidding, Buster!  Not only has Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch been banging this drum since December, but it makes absolutely no sense for Pujols to accept a trade at this point.  Never mind that the Cardinals have no interest in trading Pujols and figure to be in contention to win the NL Central in 2011, further preventing them from entertaining a trade.

Think about it – Pujols has veto rights over any trade and he has less than a year remaining on an expiring contract.  Why would he want to have to assimilate into a new clubhouse, possibly adjust to a new league/new pitchers – basically uproot his cushy life, both baseball and personal – when he knows he’s still going to get the huge contract after the end of the season?  A ring?  Maybe, but as mentioned, he’s got as much of a shot at that in St. Louis as he might anywhere else right now.

If he won’t negotiate a new contract with the Cards after Spring Training starts, he’s certainly not going to do it with a new team he is traded to – likely driving down his trade value as well – there just seems to be little to no motivation for either side to engage in a trade.

No matter to Olney, who writes:

“The understanding within the St. Louis front office is that Pujols will not accept any trade going forward, according to sources. He has the right to veto any trade proposal, and would do so.”

A few words stick out – “understanding” and “according to sources.”  Note that Olney does not indicate anywhere that Pujols has told the team he will not accept a trade.  So the front office “understands” that AP will not accept a trade, perhaps as much as many baseball fans would “understand” that it doesn’t make any sense for a trade to happen.  Nor does Olney qualify who his sources are.  For all we know, his “source” is reading the aforementioned Joe Strauss’ chat transcript and not giving Joe credit. (Ed note: Olney’s source could also be Pujols, his agent or even John Mozeliak for all we know. Anonymous sources don’t necessarily mean bad ones.)

Nevertheless, blogs and other mainstream media sites across the country picked up Olney’s article and ran with it as fact, as if Pujols had looked Bill DeWitt and John Mozeliak in the eye and told them not to even consider trading him.  C’mon folks!  Reading comprehension!

One blog opened their post on the subject by writing that “we heard from Albert Pujols’ camp that he will veto any trade proposals this season,” before going on to quote and link Olney’s article.  This post went on to postulate that the Cards must have tried already to trade Pujols in order to find out from Albert and his folks that he would not approve a trade.  HOW ELSE WOULD THEY KNOW?!?!

The nature of these silent negotiations is such that even the local beat writers aren’t necessarily privy to any more information than the national guys, other than being around the club more often and being able to needle more inside folks about what is going on.  That said, I took to the Twitter-verse begging for explanation about this newfound factual refusal to be traded and received the following response:

Enough said.

The mainstream media writers have editors to answer to and quotas to meet, so I know better than to appeal to them to stop writing about it without further information.  It’s their job, I can’t begrudge them that.  So until news breaks of an agreed-upon contract or failed negotiations, I expect to see more of the same rehashed opinions and rumors, perhaps with a few new unnamed sources sprinkled in for good measure.

So it is, not just in the Pujols situation but anytime in our new media environment, that reporting something shocking and/or impactful first (particularly if it is something as sought after as Pujols news is right now), then rehashing until you get it right, purposely leaving out specific details in an effort to let the reader fill in the blanks, no matter how erroneous – reading comprehension becomes increasingly important.

Fans, tweeters, especially bloggers – I implore you to read not only what is in writing, but also what isn’t there.  Is something being reported as from a connected (read: TEAM) source, or just from a source that could be completely detached from the situation and speculating?  Be diligent in re-reading before making assumptions of your own.  Be skeptical.  We’ll all lose a lot less sleep worrying over where Pujols will sign next for it.

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Posted on February 4, 2011 at 11:00AM

 

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