Adventures in Journamalism, Pre-Training Camp Edition

A few doozies this week from the hopelessly biased Chicago Tribune...

1. Phil Rogers, 10 February:

Would [the White Sox] have made the playoffs without homegrown players Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Joe Crede, and Aaron Rowand?

Is there a great sign of hackery than a writer offering blatantly incorrect information?

Rogers and his editors know full well that Garland is not "homegrown." For the last eight years, they have indicated their knowledge of this fact every time they have published a piece ridiculing the Cubs for trading Garland away. But Garland and his superiors have never been shy about altering a story when they want to put a different spin on it...

2. Dave Van Dyck, 9 February:

Strange as it may sound, the Cubs could benefit from Sosa accepting the tryout[from Washington] and then playing well enough to make the team.

Van Dyck takes some time away from his wind tunnels to ponder the fate of Sammy Sosa. His logic goes like this: if Sosa sign with the Expos, and if he plays well enough to make the team, he may force Alfonso Soriano out of the left field spot. Therefore, the Expos would have no choice but to trade either Soriano or Vidro (in order to move Soriano back to second base).

That's two big ifs (Sosa signing with Washington and then making the team) followed by three big suppositions (that Sosa would get a starting job, that the Expos would move Soriano or Vidro to the Cubs, and that the Cubs would be interested in meeting the Expos' price for either of them). I think we can charitably consider this a long shot.

3. When I ponder the big questions facing my heroes this year, I wonder if Juan Pierre will be an adequate leadoff hitter. I wonder about the health of Aramis Ramirez and the pitching staff. I wonder if Matt and Ronnie can hack it everyday. I wonder if another botched game will be too much for Ron Santo's heart to take.

I don't wonder what Paul Sullivan thinks about:

Entering the final year of a four-year contract, the biggest question this season may be whether this is Baker's last stand in Chicago.

Baker's contract status is nearly as important as Ozzie not visiting the White House. I'm not a mind reader, so I don't pretend to know why it's so important to Sully. Perhaps it's because Dusty's impending departure will give Sully an easy topic to waste column inches on when he can't be bothered to find any real news to write about.

Jeebus help me. It hardly seems possible that the hopelessly biased Tribune's coverage can be any more facile, and training camp hasn't even opened yet. I fear what the coming season will bring.