Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley is still limited by tendinitis in his knee. As more news was revealed about this today, writers and bloggers started rushing to find possible candidates the Phillies might target.
↵That led to a couple of sources linking Ed "Philly" Wade and Jeff Keppinger. Which is plausible, considering Kepp is owed a non-trivial amount of money and was booted from his starting job at second base by offseason signee Bill Hall.
↵It misses a bunch of fine points, though. Like Keppinger's injury likely keeping him out until May. Or the fact that he's not going to come cheap, as Houston could still use him in a super-utility role. No, that all stems from this winter's reports that Keppinger was being shopped around by Houston. He wasn't traded then, so people assume he'd be traded now.
↵I'm struck by this whole incident coming so quickly after the Astros signed Robinson Cancel and everyone who reported it followed the announcement with, "THIS IS NOT TO REPLACE CASTRO. THIS IS JUST FOR DEPTH." I know why they needed to caveat a simple signing and it's because of the internet.
↵Internet writers, both professional journalists and bloggers, have to fill a lot of space constantly. There is always a need for content, no matter if there is any story behind it. If you dissect every little bit of news that comes out, does that water down the big stuff?
↵All this kind of coalesced for me when I read this piece by Dave Kindred on sports writing. In particular, this line stuck out:
↵↵↵There's an important place in journalism for opinion, whether whispered or shouted, but that place should be small compared to the room for news and information.
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Often, I fall into that "opinion" trap instead of trying to get out information. Hopefully, I won't fall into it the next time the Astros lose a player to injury.