With the World Series starting this evening, the Chicago Cubs will have to wait until at least Friday to officially introduce Theo Epstein as their new hire. Whether that is as President of the Cubs or as General Manager is up for debate, though I personally believe he will be President with someone else being the new General Manager. Regardless of where that story winds up, that is not where I am heading today.
Earlier today, Peter Gammons made an appearance on WEEI in Boston and made several statements which not only made him look like an amazing asshole, but also that he was baseball stupid. I get that he is employed to a certain extent by NESN (New England Sports Network) but there is no reason for him to come off like the ultimate homer who actually believes that the Boston Red Sox are the greatest thing in the world of sports and everything they do, and every player they have is far better than anything or anyone else connected with any other franchise in sports.
One of the first moronic statements Gammons made during his time with the Boston sports radio show was that the Cubs “have the CEO of business, and the assistant general manager, who wasn’t actually involved in the farm system” being the ones who are negotiating for the Cubs. How idiotic does he think Tom Ricketts is? Does he truly believe that he would send two people who know absolutely nothing about the farm system or the prospects they have to decide which players should stay and which can go?
Does he actually think that the Assistant General Manager does not know the farm system? Seriously Gammons, use some common sense before you speak. For that matter, the Cubs do not even have a CEO of business. He must have been talking about Crane Kenney (which is a scary thought) or another executive with baseball knowledge. I seriously doubt they would send someone with out knowledge into a room to make one of the most important deals in franchise history.
As if that was not enough, he goes on to speak on the Cubs farm system and Trey McNutt, two things he obviously has absolutely no clue about at all.. Gammons said that “the Cubs are a bottom-three farm system.” Does he even bother to do research before spouting off at the mouth? According to baseball America the Cubs have the 16th best farm system in baseball. Yeah, I know that is nothing to get excited about, but still they have a much better farm system than Gammons is giving them credit for. Pull your head out of your ass Gammons and do some research. Even if he meant a bottom third, he would still be ill-informed.
Then he went on to make what might be the dumbest statement of them all when he said “Trey McNutt would be Red Sox prospect [No.] 25.” Are you out of your damn mind Gammons? The 25th best prospect for the Red Sox? Seriously? If that is true, and there are 24 other prospects in the Red Sox farm system, why do they want him so bad? For that matter, if there are 24 prospects worth more than McNutt in their system why could they not find a single pitcher who could come up and help out a crumbling pitching staff in September. Maybe that is because you are completely misinformed on how good McNutt may actually be and that you are just grasping at straws?
With the interview Gammons gave today, he came off as the ultimate homer, outclassing Hawk Harrelson and Joe Buck as far as kissing their teams ass.