Despite routine questioning from the media following a six-player deal with Joe, Chris took it upon himself to provide sarcastic, short-sighted and uninformative answers that provide little insight to his fans who shell out good money to support him. In turn, he made himself the story instead of the trade.
"I can't stand playing for him," said one member of the team who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic. "He makes winning less enjoyable because of his manic demands on us."
The media got a glimpse of that, as well, during the press conference after the trade.
On whether Chris and Joe secretly conspired to make a trade so they'd get some blog activity: "It definitely came up in discussion after both managers had agreed to terms that you would have to write an article. More specifically that you would roll out of bed and as you're still waking up, check your mail, see a trade, throw your hands in the air and shake your head knowing you had to actually do something to earn that generous salary." (When Joe was asked about this, he simply answered "I honestly wish we had.")
On whether he thinks he can rip off someone like Joe because they are roommates and he has 24/7 access to him: "I feel that Joe's hard-on for Dan Haren was the driving force behind this trade and has nothing to do with him being my roommate. So to answer the question, no."
On whether he might still have more moves ahead and whether he had any other thoughts or comments: "I will not foreclose the idea of additional changes being made if I believe doing so would benefit the organization."
On whether he may have been skeptical to trade this season after last year's turned out to be pretty bad for him: "I made three trades last year, two of which were beneficial, so I am slightly confused by the question."
Gee, Chris, thanks for the interview. Next time, take your services to the competing blog, will ya?
We're still not really sure how Teixeira for Verlander, and Haren for Greinke were all that beneficial given the rear-view mirror and future outlook, but OK then. (Haren 2011 after trade 7-5, 3.47, 1.07, 62 K; Greinke 2011 after trade 11-2, 2.77, 1.20, 87 K)
Back to the trade: Hunter Pence, Jose Altuve and Chad Billingsley for Bryan LaHair, Johan Santana and the aforementioned Haren, who seems to be the unfortunate third wheel in a game of Monkey in the Middle between Joe and Chris.
Joe says he was able to give away the hitting for the pitching because he has Jacoby Ellsbury and Matt Joyce returning soon. With Pence now moving down in the lineup and Altuve potentially maxed out, not a bad idea at all by Joe.
"On the pitching side of the spectrum, I saw my team as very top heavy," Joe said. "The back end of my rotation needed tweaking. Haren has been bad this year -- I'm not gonna lie -- but we all know how I have always felt about Danny. He'll revert to his normal ace like form. I think right now he is a great buy-low candidate."
Like I mentioned above, Joe and Chris are roommates, so one might think they had an easier time getting a deal done. Joe didn't deny that.
"We talk everyday," he said. "Chris comes to the gym with me and fantasy baseball comes up naturally. We spitball back and forth on some terrible deals and offers floating around the league that we've seen. It was only natural that two sensible Christians would come to an understanding. ... It's hard enough to pull off a deal in this league."
Neither Joe nor Chris would say they're done trading -- Joe even mentioned Haren as a possible trade candidate! The big difference, however, is Joe is firmly in position to make the playoffs, while Chris is in a dogfight to avoid the last-place fee.
If Chris doesn't find a way to improve quickly or improve heading into the offseason, he could very well be manager No. 1 on the hot seat. And, if that's the case, let's just hope he can provide some better answers in his first interview for a new job.
Read more!
Posts
