Phillies Nation

Where I do not think he is on Steroids, I will say get over this. It is some blogger just like any of us. As far as someone commenting on how it shows poor journalism, its not journalism. It is blogging,therefore doesn’t warrent objectivity. This bloggers point is that because of the steroid era, any player who puts up a career year can be a suspect. He never even says he is. I agree with the steroid issue, just assume everyone did it and moved on.

I agree with Ed and eli as well. I posted this in the Rollins thread before this was topic was posted, but I will say it again here. I blame the Inquirer for pointing out this from some blogger across the country and then bringing it to Raul’s attention.

If it was a Philly, New York, or other East Coast reporter that sees Ibanez 18 times a year saying these things, it would be a different story. But the fact is that it was just a blogger like our own Tim M throwing some analysis out there. Who cares?! Let him have his opinion. It becomes a big deal when the Inquirer tells Raul about it and asks him to respond.

Don’t take no shit Raul! Philly loves you!

I will address this to Bruce but really it is for everyone…did you read the article? The guy stated nothing as fact, not one thing, he broke no copy right laws. Because he stated no facts he did not need to identify sources, he did give Ibanez plenty of credit. The one thing he didn’t do in his article but did later was admit to not completely consider the implications of what he said.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Ibanez, I think he is completely clean but I also think some people are making this 100 times worse than it has to be. The guy never even said Ibanez was using PED’s, he simply said that the argument has been made by some and he brought it to light. That was all. He even said in the title of the article that any criticism that Ibanez gets is probably unfair but the question was raised and as bloggers do, he brought it up for discussion. He did not make one accusation. Not one.

And The Inquirer made a huge mistake giving publicity to this guy/blog… ridiculous

Yea Ed, but the blogger actually wrote an article based on pure speculation… that’s simply not right. The fact that we didn’t go out of our ways to publish BS speculation about a player shows that we are “better” than that guy.

Still hamels’ left hand has a point, all an editorial section in a newpaper is, is a Blogger in a newspaper. to me, saying “any aging hitter who puts up numbers this much better than his career averages is going to immediately generate suspicion that the numbers are not natural, that perhaps he is under the influence of some sort of performance enhancer.” IS in fact accusing, with no facts. Like it or not, more people than not are taking bloggers as truth and fact. Which just goes to show you how stupid alot of people are, however, with that said, Ibanez has the right to be pissed to question him, which really is calling him a liar. I think Raul said the right things though. True high class guy to me. “because this story should be about how hard work, determination, and desire trumps chemicals and shortcuts. That should be the message: desire, character, work ethic.” and asking for drug tests.

Ibanez didn’t even get a season’s worth of at bats until he was 30. That reduces wear and tear on a player.

Seriously – if anyone listens to ESPN’s Baseball Today, Karabell and Pascarelli make the same conjectures about stat inflation/deflation with respect to specific players and steriods. Pascarelli straight up said that he thought Big Papi was on steroids because of his limp stats this year. No one said jack all. But somehow this poor blogging bastard became the whipping boy against the blog format. Ken Rosenthal claimed he doesn’t understand ‘the power of the written word’. It’s actually a great post with analysis and stats and it’s just food for thought. And he never accuses Raul, quite the opposite. It’s an argument in an ongoing debate. And this guy has a right to put it into the public forum. If anything it shows a break-out year buy a quality hitter surrounded by a great line-up.

Raul just needs to continue to be bigger than the Beatles and breast implants for the Phillies. That’s all I really care about. His reaction tells us what we’ve known all along – he has more integrity in his game than 99% of players. He’s a Philly guy and has won us over. Straight up stroke it, Raul. And the journalistic fraternity needs to step into the 2000s and stop being so self-righteous.