I have seen this lament on many blogs: “How could they get rid of Krasovic and not Canepa or Sullivan?” or something like that.

Well, there are probably about a hundred reasons why one person is working at a newspaper and another is not. Or sometimes it’s one concrete one.

I have intimate knowledge of the newspaper layoffs at The News & Observer here in Raleigh, but I’m not sure if I could explain all the nuances, even if I wrote 1,000 words here.

Long story, short: On some level, the decision may have been Krasovic’s or not at all his. Upper management at the U-T may have told the sports department: You have to get rid of one of your higher-paid guys. Then they might have offered a nice buyout package to whoever might want to leave voluntarily. Maybe the paper was hoping someone else would take the buyout. There are a lot of gray areas.

I don’t know the first thing about how the Union-Tribune works or Krasovic. But I know the way I described things above is sort of how things have gone at The N&O and other much larger papers.

I can’t decide if Adrian Gonzalez is tired, or is he just an extreme hot & cold streak hitter.

As for the newspapers….
About a year ago, the WSJ did a story about how the amount of time spent looking at a newspaper page is drasticly less when it is done online. Browsing, and reading a paragraph or two is much more prevalent online. I think they compared it to watching TV with the remote in your hand. So, even if you leave out other news sources and competition, the amount of time devoted to a particular page is much less when done so online. Short, USA TODAY type stories are unfortunately more appealing to online readers. So much for the “information age”.

Before, I am guessing local papers got 40% of the advertising money that people in that market absorbed. As people read the actual papers less, I am guessing newspapers’ share of that spend is 15-20% now, but they were staffed up for the 40% revenues.

Back to baseball. I admire people who are following this team closely. I am deeply discouraged. If all goes really well, we have a competitive team in 2011? Then, what, we get 2-3 years of competitiveness (not necessarily playoffs) and then we fade again?

I love this sport, but not much fun when your team stinks and has the cards stacked against it (vs. bigger market teams). I don’t get that into fantasy, so, someone remind me why I should keep paying close attention?

How do so many analysts misread the Padres needs and strengths? Petco DOES NOT turn anybody into a league-average pitcher. Even smart analysts are absolutely bamboozled into thinking that the team’s problem, at both the major and minor league levels, is a lack of hitting. The hitting’s been ugly, but the rotation makes the offense look handsome. We could end the season with 800 innings below a 90 ERA+ mark from the starters. It’s not inconceivable we could end the season with 800 innings below an 80.

and good find on gwynn