From reader Eric L. comes this bit of sloppy journalism from Sports Illustrated football writer Don Banks:
But Long isn’t taking a backseat to anyone these days. Not even his dad, the square-jawed and crew-cutted Howie, or his younger brother Kyle, who is a highly regarded left-handed high school pitcher who might go first overall in baseball’s June draft.
Kyle Long is, in fact, a left-handed pitcher who graduates from high school this year. He didn’t make my ranking of the top 60 amateurs back in November. But don’t take my word for it – Baseball America placed him 58th in its preseason ranking of the top 100 HS prospects for this draft, which would place him somewhere in the fourth round, third at best.
I don’t really expect Don Banks to know a lot of specifics about prospects for the upcoming baseball draft, but would it be so hard for him to reach out to someone – like Kevin Goldstein, who has contributed some pieces to SI – to check a fact? Or is this, as Eric put it in his email, “just a case of a football writer talking about something about he doesn’t really know that much about and then stretching the truth to make a cute parallel?”
To be fair, Don Banks doesn’t do much fact-checking when he writes about football either.
Keith,
If I remember correctly, you’re an advocate for trading draft picks. Assuming that it became fair game in the near future, what would be the trade value of a first round draft pick?
Keith,
Beamer Weems: good range, good hands, good arm; free swinger with good contact but limited power.
Is this accurate assessment in your opinion?
How do these guys get away with this crap? Chris Long is great and his brother is a nice prospect, but it’s pretty unfair to everybody to write something so ridiculous. Chris doesn’t deserve to be compared to Howie, even if they play the same position, and Kyle shouldn’t be penalized because his family has generated a couple of football stars.
Come on, you can’t expect stupid things like facts to get in the way of hyperbole.
That’s just crazy talk.
Kyle is also a football star. He’s an elite HS Offensive lineman, but doesn’t want to continue (in fact can’t continue until his junior year because he signed a LOI for baseball) at the next level.