Why I Have Issues With Nick Cafardo

When one of the other patrons of Byrnes’ Irish Pub caught me swearing at Nick Cafardo midway through his performance on NESN’s afternoon trading deadline special, an explanation was asked for. Those of you who’ve been around here for more than, oh, a few days will know that I don’t think much of Nick Cafardo’s work at the Globe.

Making Gordon Edes’ migration to a more national platform at Yahoo all the more problematic.

But anyway, for the new people, here’s the scoop: it’s not that I have any personal distaste for the man. I don’t know him from Adam, and he’s never kicked a dog of mine. That I know of. I simply don’t think he’s terribly good at his job. He’s not Murray Chass, nor — thank Jebus — Dan Shaughnessy, but I think he’s well beyond the “slowing-down portion of his career” as Scott’s Shots calls it.

In the past, I’ve criticized him for:

• Pondering the replacement of Manny Ramirez with Matt Holliday…without mentioning the latter’s troubling home/road splits.
• Trivializing the implications of roster movements.
• Ignoring the reality — or at least declining to provide some context and counter-analysis (start by explaining the cases of Prior, M, or Wood, K, why don’t you?) — that innings caps for young pitchers are a beneficial development.
• Arguing that Shelley Duncan (DFA’d twice already this season) should play over Jason Giambi because of his “energy.”
• And, of course, assigning CC Sabathia — the eventual winner — a truly inexplicable fourth place vote for the Cy.

And that’s just the last twelve months. Fire Joe Morgan has taken him apart in the past for a rather egregious error or two.

The errors, actually, I can live with. Those happen. I make them, you make them, and even Kevin Youkilis makes them. It’s more that he just doesn’t seem to understand today’s game, what with its newfangled “innings caps” and “statistics.”

Witness these two bits of pre-trading deadline speculation regarding Buchholz.

First, Nick Cafardo:

The Sox are still in on Colorado’s Brian Fuentes, Kansas City’s Ron Mahay, and Oakland’s Huston Street, and were interested in Marte…The Sox will likely not give up Clay Buchholz for Fuentes, but the Rockies may take less.

Next, Sean McAdam:

The Sox are one of many teams intrigued with Colorado lefty Brian Fuentes, but the Rockies have asked for Clay Buchholz in return — far too steep a price for a two-month rental. Fuentes can become a free agent at the end of the season.

To quote Mugatu, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I know, McAdam knows, and hopefully you know that you don’t cough up elite pitching prospects for the two month rental of a middle reliever. However desperately your bullpen needs one.

But not Cafardo. They “likely” won’t give up Buchholz? “Likely?” To judge from their behavior thus far, it’s reasonable to conclude that there was a less than zero chance that our front office would move Buchholz in a deal for Fuentes. Considerably less than zero, in fact. Or maybe you think the player that was untouchable in the Santana deal would be moved for a reliever?

As nearly as I can determine, Cafardo’s player evaluations consist of “what have you done for me lately?” Sure, you threw a no-hitter last year, Bucky, and your minor league 10.91 K/9 rate is borderline inhuman…but Masterson’s reeled off five or six quality starts. So thanks, but we need someone in the pen for two months.

How else to explain his belief that Masterson had climbed above Buchholz on the depth chart, in spite of minor — and major league, actually — numbers that indicate that the latter will be a star and the former, in all probability, a reliever.

So anyway, let this post serve as both a written record of my issues with Cafardo and my fervent hope that he not get the job of competing with the new ‘EEI web outlet. The Boston Globe has been my home page on every browser I’ve had since the original Netscape Navigator, but if it’s going to compete going forward it needs more help than Cafardo can provide.

If the Globe folks are looking for someone to fill a web spot, they’d do better to get someone who’s new media savvy, comfortable with the statistics that drive much of modern baseball’s decision making, and knows how to relate to their target audience.

Someone like their very own Chad Finn. Or one of the guys at Fire Brand. Anyone but Cafardo. Please. I want to keep reading the Globe.