Hail the Contrarian

I'm not a big fan of Roger Brown of the PD, but I acknowledge that he performs an important function. He's the house contrarian. Whatever the popular opinion, he takes the opposite view, if only to keep the fans in check. What's most irritating about him, and those like him, is that rather then simply presenting something as the contrarian view they embrace the view as their own. But at some point, the contrarian view is so silly it makes you look like an idiot for advocating it.

Take, for example, his near daily item that what's really wrong with the Indians is "overconfidence." He pounds home the point yet again today and infers that Eric Wedge feels likewise simply because he considered it a legitimate question when raised. Roger, of course, fails to note that Wedge disclaimed the theory, but it's enough for Roger that he took the question. OK, so Roger finally asked a legitimate question. But if he continues to embrace such silliness, he risks the deeper analysis that the newspapers are still supposed to provide. Overconfidence is a game to game type of thing. It's ludicrous to suggest that after getting their brains beat in over the last six weeks (see previous post) that any member of this Indians team could be overconfident about anything. Clearly this team is playing a particularly visible brand of uninspired baseball. But I still maintain that the fault lies with the Dolans and the powerful signal they sent to their employees by not only not improving the team, but actually taking definitive steps backward. If anyone was overconfident it was the Dolans, who seemingly felt they could continue to scrimp and pinch and still field a contending team. Mark Shapiro can only make chicken salad so long.