He has a really genuine chuckle over things even when they’re at his own expense, and I like a guy who can laugh at his own misfortune. Heck, I can’t count the number of times he’s had a belly laugh at someone else’s clever point and says, “Aww…ya gotta give him the point on that one, Tony. He got me.” I mean seriously, what a good sport.

Agreed, his attitude on AtH is exactly like that, and makes him semi-tolerable. Unfortunately, for those of us who were first introduced to Plaschke from the old FJM days, he was/is a bad writer that was stuck in the old ways, and probably helped get DePodesta fired from his job.

So his writing = bad, AtH appearances = ok

As for his opinions being dumb and shallow, that’s your opinion and I won’t call you dumb or any other name just because you have it. I personally like his opinions a lot of the time (Michael’s too) and listen to the points they all make without preconceived notions. Maybe that makes my opinions seem dumb and shallow to you, but the beauty of it all is that that’s why we do this: to debate, agree, and disagree…and sometimes to agree to disagree.

I applaud guys like Michael Smith and the little I’ve seen of Bomani Jones for their low tolerance for bullshit from their fellow talking heads. I think the fact that they’re from a younger generation of sportswriters has a lot to do with their willingness to be aggressive and take their colleagues to task for spouting bullshit analysis, and I wholeheartedly welcome this approach.

One of the reasons I like Bill is because 99% of the time that’s exactly how he handles things. He has a really genuine chuckle over things even when they’re at his own expense, and I like a guy who can laugh at his own misfortune. Heck, I can’t count the number of times he’s had a belly laugh at someone else’s clever point and says, “Aww…ya gotta give him the point on that one, Tony. He got me.” I mean seriously, what a good sport.

A few weeks ago on Around the Horn I saw Michael Smith absolutely smack Plaschke in the mouth for basing his answer to some football question on a bunch of stats that Smith had just argued (convincingly) were irrelevant to the conversation immediately before Plaschke gave his answer. Plaschke got legitimately offended, and though Smith did try to smooth it over he stopped short of apologizing, feeling he was in the right for calling Plaschke on his BS. I wish there was more of this sort of thing in sports analysis. Plaschke’s face as Smith initially tore into him was priceless.

When Albert had a poor start last season, they still had Holliday and Berkman and others to carry the team. You have to be optimistic that he will pull it out and hit his 40 H-R’s and drive in 100+, but he has to start now. No one else on the team is now, or is capable of doing it.

Just think; that if this year is the first poor year that he has, does anyone really feel that he is going to be better in future years? A lot of rumors floating around about his age and health etc. I personally don’t put much stock in that, but he still can not afford to have his first Angles year be a poor one.

Good luck to Albert, my all time favorite, but you have to get it going soon, or the Angles owners,will look like a bunch of saps.

At this point I see 100% agreement that Plasche is this awful guy, so clearly nobody is going to like what I say here, but I personally think very highly of Bill. He is a decent person on the human being scale. He believes in doing the right thing, opposes hitting women, doesn’t kick dogs, contributes to charity, and generally looks out for his fellow man. The world would be a better place with more like him in it.

Normally I like your columns, Craig, and read tons of your stuff. But I’m just confused about how you can justify coming up with a column criticizing a guy for coming up with a column criticizing a guy.

Lets keep this going…Plaschke is a tool

He looks to me like he’s holding back on the power to take good smooth swings at the ball….sacrificing max power for solid contact. He’s been making far better contact the last week…I wouldn’t be surprised if the next step is more power with the same rate of quality contact.

In the 2004 season, this guys had a stretch where he went 50 PAs without a homer and hit .103
…another stretch where he went 87 PAs with just 1 home run and hit .196. That player’s final stat line was: 45 HR, 101 RBI, .362/.609/.812

So let’s not freak out just yet..shall we?

Pujols is the least of our worries. The team looks like hell out there right now.

And yes, Plaschke is a tool.