Todd Jones Doesn't Like Henry Schulman

The Detroit Tigers may be playing their best baseball of the season right now, winning eleven of their last fourteen games to move withing six games of the White Sox, but closer Todd Jones and his teammates have something else on their minds right now: San Francisco Chronicle Giants beat reporter Henry Schulman.

While the Tigers were in San Francisco last week, Schulman wrote a column in which he referred to Ryan Raburn as a "scrub" after Raburn hit a home run off of Jonathan Sanchez. Well, Jones writes a column for the Detroit Free Press, and in his latest effort he explains why he and his teammates do not appreciate such remarks.

When we read that, we lost our collective minds.

Henry Schulman just called one of our teammates a scrub.

Isn't that a little harsh? I can't think of anybody who has ever played in the major leagues as a scrub -- not even Bob Uecker.

When Tigers manager Jim Leyland saw the article, he was livid. We all were.

Ryan just laughed it off. What else could he do? He'd just been humiliated by a guy he'd never met.

The proper term for what Ryan does is: "A role player or backup." He's actually very useful. He plays outfield and infield in the big leagues. (I wonder if Schulman could do that?)

Sure we've got thick skin, and reporters don't bother us for the most part. But when it's a personal attack on a guy's ability or perceived place in this game, enough is enough.

I'd rather be a scrub than be a guy who sits on the sideline and watches what happens and then writes about it. How about next time, Mr. Schulman, you just report on the game and you show Mr. Raburn and the hundreds of players on all clubs that fill out the big leagues some respect and call him a backup or a utility player.

Okay, so if writers can't criticize players anymore, can we at least criticize the way they write? Don't think I didn't notice all those two sentence paragraphs, Todd, I know you're just trying to fill space (Come after me, Jones! I'M A MAN! I'M 27!).

Todd does have a point, though, that there are no scrubs in the Major Leagues. You don't get to the show by sucking a lot, it's just that once you're there, there are a couple of hundred players who are just better than you. Still, Schulman's job is to cover baseball, and it's one he's been doing for a while. If he's of the opinion that Ryan Raburn is a scrub, then he has every right to share that opinion.

Maybe Todd's skin just isn't as thick as he thinks it is. Now if he's talking mustaches....

(Via BBTF)