Sports Radio Personalities Are Dumb

As I'm driving in this morning As I was scratching myself in mom's basement this morning, I made the mistake of listening to former Imus sidekick Sid Rosenberg on one of the Local SportsTalk Radio Stations. He had a guest on and they were discussing the Florida Marlins, currently 5-3 with the lowest payroll in baseball (Small Sample Sizes are fun!). Might the Marlins be better than expected? Sure. I mean Hanley Ramirez is pretty damned good and will probably be even better as time goes by and he reaches his prime. I mean, for Christ's sake, the guy's only 24 years old and already he had an arguably MVP calibre year in 2007. Shit, he's putting up an OPS+ of 228! (See, aren't small sample sizes fun? Yay!)

I digress. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera were traded to the Detroit Tigers for a number of talented, but not quite ready for prime-time players. If for whatever inexcusable reason, you haven't followed Miguel Cabrera's career up to this point (yes, asshole, I'm talking to you), you'll know that Cabrera is really good. Seriously, like possibly future Hall of Fame good. Matter of fact, if you look at the statistics, the most similar batter by age to Miguel Cabrera is this guy:




Let me preface the following by noting that if I were a Marlins fan, I would miss Dontrelle tremendously. The DUI/peeing on Collins Avenue incident aside, Dontrelle Willis is a righteous dude. He's fan-friendly, says all the right things to the media, and is fun to watch. I met him a couple of times (once at a Hooters) and I can personally attest to the fact that the Train is a really nice kid.

However, one thing he is not, and has not been is a very good pitcher. Back to Sid now (and I'm paraphrasing here).

I know this might sound crazy, but I think the Marlins will miss Dontrelle more than Cabrera.


...


Archie, am I allowed to use the same picture twice in consecutive posts? You know, this one:




Sure, why not. Miguel Cabrera is an amazing hitter. Rosenberg's rationale, given after being politely told by his guest that he was nuts, was that the Marlins need pitching much more than they need hitting given that Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and the rest of the Marlins' lineup will score enough runs.

This is nonsense on stilts.

It would kind of sort of make sense if Dontrelle Willis were a good pitcher, or even a league average pitcher. Unfortunately for Sid, he hasn't been that since 2005 when he ruled the schools and notched an ERA+ of 151 and finished second in the Cy Young balloting. Since then he's been in a free-fall. He was a little bit above average in 2006 (ERA+ of 112) and just plain bad last year (83). Dontrelle has never been much a strikeout pitcher and his K/9IP has declined. All this, combined with the fact that he's also walking more guys and (small sample size disclaimer) isn't exactly setting the world on fire in Detroit leads one to believe that Dontrelle isn't half the player Miguel Cabrera is.

Furthermore, Cabrera is being replaced by a guy who notched a remarkable OPS+ last year of 79. Last year, Cabrera put up a 150. This isn't even close. Sid Rosenburg is a fucking retard.