With apologies to the good folks at Fire Joe Morgan, I would like to introduce the inaugural issue of Fire Andy Roth. Now that blogs have come of age, it seems time for...that's right: analysis of our blog analysts. Just as Richard Sandomir in the Times takes a long hard look at sports media, just as FJM skewers flabby thinking from sportswriters and broadcasters, FAR will scrutinize all public blog analysis.

First, a basic ground rule. Anybody can create a FAR post, but it should never be used as a means for settling scores, but rather as a tool for genuine posting analysis. This means that the concept of 'public blog analysis' is a key one; use good judgment and be fair about it.

So, without further adieu, for our first edition, I will take a quick look at comments from, um, andyroth, in reply to the Wang, Chamberlain, Rivera fanpost of yesterday afternoon. Please reference the original post.

EASY TO TALK CRAP NOW

especially when I made the call about not starting Wang in games 1 and 5 last year BEFORE the series started. Where the F was your ass and rest of the people here about Torre’s decision….

Well, actually, at the time Mr. Roth made the post, I believe most of us we were trying not to engage him in the hopes that he'd go away. He had made a few previous posts, such as one where he wanted to gauge interest in a regular newsletter on how stupid major league managers were. That was a sign to most of us that we should give him a wide berth.

As to the merits of Mr. Roth's Wang claim, yes, indeed, he did say that. And his prognosticating paid off in that instance, emboldening him to become louder and more public. In fact, it seems Mr. Roth feels he has secured his place in the blog-world based on the fact that he looked into a crystal ball and saw that Wang was going to get shelled in Games 1 and 5. So let's avoid the 'even a stopped clock is right twice a day' argument and give Mr. Roth credit for making a predication that virtually nobody else made. The question is whether this makes him an analyst that should be followed or, in fact, Chauncey Gardiner (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_there). Let's see what else he's had to  say.

I’ve been negative about Mussina and he’s been better than I thought

Uh oh. Alarm bells. Mr. Roth's now brought his prediction rate down to .500. But let's see if he can get that up again.

and have been very negative about Hughes and Kennedy and they’ve been bad.

Well, okay, this is actually two strikes against Mr. Roth. First, he admits that he's been 'very negative' about IPK and Hughes, while they have been merely 'bad.' Erego, one must conclude, that his negativity is out of proportion to their badness--one might think that Mr. Roth is, well, a bit of a crank.

Second, we then really need to address Mr. Roth's analytical skills. Describing Hughes and Kennedy as 'bad' actually could be Mr. Roth's undoing. Most knowledgeable baseball analysts have used words like 'inconsistent', 'growing pains' or 'uneven'. As they mix high quality innings with bad ones, IPK and Hughes should stabilize their outings in the next few months, which would surely wipeout all of the goodwill Mr. Roth has built up with his Wang prediction last fall. Let's see how this one goes.

And Cashman is Cashman. Just from the little I’ve seen of Kobayashi, he’s clearly better than Hawkins and Cashman wasn’t even in on this guy and he’s $3.1M per season.

Curious what Mr. Roth means by 'the little I've seen of Kobayashi.' Did Kobayashi strike out a batter while Mr. Roth was surfing through the channels? Need some clarity here.

And I also said before the season I would’ve signed Mahay and Affeldt. Let’s see how that turns outs.

Mr. Roth has made numerous trades/signings that seemed to have gone extraordinarily well for his fantasy baseball team. Next up: Whitey Ford.

As far as Wang, if he can continue throwing the slider as well as he did today he would establish himself as a true No. 1.

Uh oh. Now he's undercut the entire argument that he built his reputation on, which was that Wang just wasn't a  #1.

As far as Chamberlain, the stupid Yankee organization and the rest of the scouts didn’t even realize that his talent was clearly above Hughes.

Okay, this one could be deal-closer for Mr. Roth. If he can produce documentation that he saw Chamberlain's greater potential anytime prior to last July, then he is an analyst worth listening to. Would also be curious if he picked which third of all first round draft picks will become MLB contributors and which will wash out in the minors.

I SEE YOU ROOT FOR THE KNICKS

which makes you dumber than Jim Dolan.

Now this is just lazy. Had Mr. Roth gone a step further, he would have also noticed that I root for the Cleveland Browns, which haven't won a championship since the Jim Brown era and haven't been competitive (until recently???) since the Bernie Kosar era. That's a whole lot dumber than rooting for the Knicks. Another demerit for Mr. Roth.