Keith Law takes another shot at the O's

[Sports Guy]

You missed my point, but no worries.

No, I got it and meant to say that.

I was just saying that if Miller said that, I believe him.

But yea, I understand what you are saying.

I mean, let's face it(and this is getting to the your point), NO ONE who has directly made a comment about this kid has actually seen him. As you said, its all secondhand info.

[Spoonless]

He seems to enjoy his seemingly very high horse and that is his schtick - its fine. I don't like his schtick.

With the way the media is nowadays, just reporting the facts doesn't get you anywhere. Anybody can get "just the facts" from any number of sources. And so, to attract consistent attention, you need a schtick. Unfortunately, the easiest way to go with that is to piss people off. Negative attention is still attention; it still produces hits on a webpage, followers on Twitter.

Anyway, my main problem with the way he presented the information is that he is linking the signing to the marginalization of some of the scouts associated with the organization, as if they cut back on those scouts solely to free up the money to sign Chen. It's a logical fallacy, and it annoys me.

[Stotle]

With the way the media is nowadays, just reporting the facts doesn't get you anywhere. Anybody can get "just the facts" from any number of sources. And so, to attract consistent attention, you need a schtick. Unfortunately, the easiest way to go with that is to piss people off. Negative attention is still attention; it still produces hits on a webpage, followers on Twitter.

Anyway, my main problem with the way he presented the information is that he is linking the signing to the marginalization of some of the scouts associated with the organization, as if they cut back on those scouts solely to free up the money to sign Chen. It's a logical fallacy, and it annoys me.

This is a good post.

[Flosman]

No, I got it and meant to say that.

I was just saying that if Miller said that, I believe him.

But yea, I understand what you are saying.

I mean, let's face it(and this is getting to the your point), NO ONE who has directly made a comment about this kid has actually seen him. As you said, its all secondhand info.

Therefore DD is an idiot, I got it.

[ledzepp8]

Really? I asked that question with the 16th post of this thread...You show me where the question about the accuracy came before that?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking...but here is the 2nd post in the thread:

If the money, height, and velocity relayed in the tweet are all correct, the attitude is justified in my opinion. I do think he's a little too bent out of shape about the scouting reassignment, though.

Regardless, there was really no one doing what you were accusing them of doing.

[Tony-OH]

Why again do we think Law is right? Because he failed in a major-league front office and now has an ESPN page and a Twitter account?

The whole point is that we don't know who is right. We have two wildly-differing reports about a kid that maybe five people living in the United States have ever seen, and we know the two people offering the reports aren't among them. And since one report is in the local crab-wrap and the other is from a failed scout who offers discourse right out of the Sports Guy handbook, it makes it easy to go with the former report until one or the other is shown to be accurate.

That's worth rep points. Law plays into the hands of the miserable Orioles fan who thinks nothing has changed despite the mountain of evidence that DD has changed things. They like to sit on their high horse and tell everyone how miserable the organization is currently even though it clearly has a new direction.

Whether that direction ends up better than last place remains to be seen, but the resume of the new guys into the organization certainly attest to DD's new direction. Those "old guys" he brought in have a history of building organizations into winners. It remains to be seen whether it will work but only those too caught up in themselves are so willing to just take whatever blabber that comes out of Law's mouth/keyboard.

[Tony-OH]

What Law did in the majors is meaningless.

He was told this info, by multiple scouts who do this for a living.

He never claimed to have seen the guy pitch.

This is info that has been conveyed to him.

Now, maybe the scouts who saw him are wrong. Or maybe they saw him on a bad day. That happens.

But people automatically want to say he is wrong just because it is negative about the Orioles.

And some people want to automatically assume Law's contact is right because it's negative about the player. If Law had taken the time to contact the Orioles and talked to them, he could have found out what their scouts had seen. he then could have accurately said that he heard from a scout that the guy was not a prospect, but that the Orioles scouts saw a different guy. Instead, he took the easy route and slammed the Orioles like he always does. That's the thing you fail to acknowledge. If you always bash someone or always take one-side, you opinion becomes biased and holds less weight. Law doesn't even try to find the good sides but always has a negative spin on every move the Orioles/DD makes. It's gotten to be more schtick than substance.

[Tony-OH]

This isn't a new low. Spending 500K on a 17 y/o is better than a lot of the things they have done.

Again, Law was told this by multiple scouts...So really, what people are saying is that these scouts are wrong.

Earlier in the offseason, people said the Eveland trade was fine because DD must have been told, by scouts, that he is a better pitcher now than he has been in the past.

So, what scouts are we trusting now? Are we only trusting the Orioles scouts? Are they only ones who get paid and know what they are doing?

I mean come on people, are we going to be consistent with our opinions or does consistency only happen when nice things are being said about our team?

Where do you get this stuff? Where did he comes out and say he talked to multiple scouts on this guy?

[Miller192]

I didn't listen either...I saw Miller192 say that(I quoted that post a page or so ago).

Again, personally I don't care. Law could be right(or should I say those he spoke to) or he could be wrong. The Orioles, for whatever reason, liked this kids upside and they felt 500K was a worthwhile investment. That's good enough for me and it should be good enough for everyone else on this site.

Its good to hear the opinion of a well connected guy like Law but at the end of the day, it is up to the Orioles to develop this kid and if they feel the talent is there, so be it.

Why people get so bent out of shape about this is beyond me. It means nothing!

They have the interview on their website, I went there and listened to it. He talks about Duquette right after the Prince Fielder stuff.

Basically says he hired guys that no one was going to give a job too and he tried to make a splash in Asia before.

Likes Chen but says we gave money to a kid that scouts over there don't think is a prospect.

[Tony-OH]

We wouldn't be hearing that. When teams are good people like Law don't have much to say. All they would talk about is the prospects, the players, the stats. Law wouldn't be coming on and spend half his time heaping praise on the best scouts in baseball and what a modern day genius DD is.

It is the fact that the Orioles are where they are- there isn't much else to do except bash them endlessly.

When you are in a situation like the Orioles are in it is impossible for media personalities: if they try top actually talk about players and moves, there isn't much to talk about. No amount of dissection will make Andino an All-Star or a starting option that makes you feel good about 2012. And if you try to be even slightly positive then you are a homer and not being realistic.

I follow Law on Twitter and I only need one hand to count the amount of praise I have read coming from Law for any team, not just the Orioles. He seems to enjoy his seemingly very high horse and that is his schtick - its fine. I don't like his schtick.

Holy crap, I just had a revelation. Sports Guy=KLaw

It all makes sense now!

[Sports Guy]

Where do you get this stuff? Where did he comes out and say he talked to multiple scouts on this guy?

It will take you to go back and read the thread to find this out...Hint, look for Miller's post about the radio interview..that should clue you in.

[Sports Guy]

Holy crap, I just had a revelation. Sports Guy=KLaw

It all makes sense now!

I wonder if Keith Law is ok with other people's opinions about prospects he has scouted?

[Lucky Jim]

They have the interview on their website, I went there and listened to it. He talks about Duquette right after the Prince Fielder stuff.

Basically says he hired guys that no one was going to give a job too and he tried to make a splash in Asia before.

Likes Chen but says we gave money to a kid that scouts over there don't think is a prospect.

Yeah. This is my fear, too.

[Sports Guy]

They have the interview on their website, I went there and listened to it. He talks about Duquette right after the Prince Fielder stuff.

Basically says he hired guys that no one was going to give a job too and he tried to make a splash in Asia before.

Likes Chen but says we gave money to a kid that scouts over there don't think is a prospect.

Tony, is this enough for you or is that horse still too high for you to see this comment?

[Stotle]

And some people want to automatically assume Law's contact is right because it's negative about the player. If Law had taken the time to contact the Orioles and talked to them, he could have found out what their scouts had seen. he then could have accurately said that he heard from a scout that the guy was not a prospect, but that the Orioles scouts saw a different guy. Instead, he took the easy route and slammed the Orioles like he always does. That's the thing you fail to acknowledge. If you always bash someone or always take one-side, you opinion becomes biased and holds less weight. Law doesn't even try to find the good sides but always has a negative spin on every move the Orioles/DD makes. It's gotten to be more schtick than substance.

Law has stated several times that he very much liked the Chen signing -- that is was exactly the type of move the O's should make.