Phil Watch: Co-opting Other People's Work

If a columnist's work just becomes an aggregate from other peoples' work, does that make it akin to a blog?

If so, where's Buzz to smack Phil on the nose with a newspaper and give him a profanity-laced breakdown.

After first reading Phil's latest, it seemed normal enough. But the Crawford quote got me a wonderin'. Did Phil talk to him? It's fine if he didn't. He's a columnist, not a reporter. I just wanted to find the date Crawford said it and in what context. Then I found a near-carbon copy of Phil's analysis of the Rays' fast start in the New York Times.

The results are a curious deconstruction of how Phil writes.

Let's get started.

Joe Maddon quietly passed out T-shirts to his Tampa Bay players recently. The focus of the shirts is a cryptic phrase: "9+9=8." Maddon has been squirrelly about revealing the meaning, but clubhouse code-breakers believe it is the manager's way of saying that nine players going hard for nine innings will translate into the Rays being one of eight playoff teams come October.

I haven't seen the t-shirt. But the St. Petersburg Times and the New York Times both reported the t-shirt says '9=8', not '9+9=8'. I'll go with the two Times because, you know, they were actually there. Small detail but wrong detail in Phil's lead. He sets the tone with wrongness. Off to a good start.

And the Paper Of Record also used the t-shirt in their intro on an article written about the 'surprising Rays' written...you guessed it...two days ago and...you guessed it...Phil's offering is essentially a regurgitation and reorganization of the NY Times' article. I implore you to compare them for yourself. This juxtaposed with this. It's bad.

"It's early, and everybody knows it's early," veteran outfielder Carl Crawford said. "We just want to keep playing well and playing hard and see what happens."

Let's start the tally.

Ripped quote #1 - St Pete Times, May 2, 2008.

"I love the way they've reacted to this whole thing," Maddon said. "We're coming out on a daily basis and we believe we can win that game, regardless of who we're playing, who's pitching against us. We believe we can win that game that day, and that matters."

Ripped quote #2 - Tampa Tribune, May 2, 2008.

The Rays entered the weekend with a plus-23 run differential, the third-best figure in the AL (behind Oakland and the White Sox). The other four teams in the East had combined for a minus-10, including a plus-3 for Boston and a minus-12 for the downwardly trending Yankees, who are reeling from injuries to Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Phil Hughes.

The Rockies at this time last year had a -24 run differential. I'm surprised Phil didn't mention this. The New York Times article did w/r/t baseball surprises.

And the Yankees are not, in part, reeling from an injury to Phil Hughes. They're reeling from his inherent badness.

Despite Pena hitting .200 (albeit with six homers and 16 RBIs) and Akinori Iwamura only .202, Tampa Bay was fifth in the AL with 4.8 runs per game. That's better than the superstar-laden lineups in Boston (4.5) and New York (4.3).

4.8 runs per game also mentioned as a main point in the NY Times analysis.

Maybe it's a small sample, maybe it's an indicator of staying power. But there's no question that the job by Troy Percival, Dan Wheeler, Trever Miller, converted starter J.P. Howell and Scott Dohmann qualifies as a huge surprise.

Tampa Bay was a bullpen in disarray through 2007, allowing opponents to hit .303 and finishing with a 6.16 ERA. But the July trade for Wheeler and off-season signings of Percival and Miller (a combined 21 big-league seasons) turned things around. Entering the weekend, Rays relievers had a 2.44 ERA and were holding opponents to a .205 average.

2.44 bullpen ERA also mentioned in the NY Times article.

And this is more baseball stupidness on the part of Phil; the idea that if players put on a uniform of a team that performed badly the previous season, they are expected to perform equally bad this season. Dohmann is the only guy listed that pitched in relief for the Rays all of last year. Wheeler became a Ray last year on July 30.

And why not mention Gary Glover? He's pitched more innings than Miller and has a better ERA.

Ah! Former White Sox pitcher. Phil ≠ White Sox fan.

The Times avoided such dippiness. Too bad Phil didn't heed the omission.

"Pitching-wise, are we over our skis?" Maddon asked. "I don't know. Are we pitching to our level of capabilities? I don't know. That's going to be tested over a period of time and we'll find that out. … I want to see if we can maintain somewhere near this level of competence."

Ripped quote #3 - St. Petersburg Times, May 1, 2008.

Abbreviated version in the NY Times article.

The quote-ripping isn't a big deal. As I said, he's a columnist, not a reporter. Different rules.

But it's a pattern. Phil's entire job consists of writing about three to four columns a week at its peak.

PICK UP A PHONE!!!

Seemingly stealing from the New York Times becomes more dubious and real with the timing of the Phil's article compared to the Times' posting date.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'. You make the call.

More to come. Phil's Power Rankings out tomorrow. The Nationals won yesterday. Let's see if they jump 12 spots.