Listening to them and trying to get excited over the possibilities requires as much patience as storm chasers trying to track down tornadoes.
You can analyze data until you're blue in the face, you can get a relative idea of where an outbreak may occur, but it takes many, many hunches before suddenly it strikes in an exact location. And in the end, almost never are you there in the right place purposely before it struck.
Think about it, the number of potential deals discussed by rival GM's only to be eventually squandered because of reluctance to throw in another player, working out financial details or a matter of contract approval by said players probably exceeds 9 in 10 trade offers. That's just talks that escalate seriously beyond the first, "i'm interested in said player A."
Think back to every trade deadline you can remember. How many 'reported' deals actually materialized like they were said to be happening? Even despite the many great baseball sources out there (I recognize a couple that have posted on this very site, like Big Donkey and Team Clark), because of the rate in which trades come to fruition, most deals completely take people off guard.
In fact, I would venture a guess that 95 percent of the deals which are completed were never mentioned by various sources online or in the media. That speaks not to the information or lack thereof with these sources, but instead to the unpredictability of which deals will actually ever see the light of day.
I was inspired to make this post based on my thinking about a potential Ian Kinsler trade with Texas. Just knowing how these things work, even if any potential deal was on the table, I chuckled knowing that Team Clark probably jinxed the trade by mentioning it
Now it's unlikely we will see Kinsler traded to Cincinnati in any capacity.
Like the rest of you, the sheer entertainment value of following the trade rumors will keep me hooked. I'll even end up buying into some of them, and probably believe some will happen despite knowing better, but I'll just end up feeling like that crazy storm chaser running around God's green earth waiting for the next tornado.
That one time after weeks of chasing he finally finds a tornado, it will make the thrill worth the wait.
Originally Posted by CaptainHook
