I was watching the news last night and they were discussing the CJ move to LA. While watching, I had a few thoughts/questions.

Why did the media turn on CJ at the end of last year? I know that he can be very CJ-ish, but he has been like that since he got here. All of a sudden, at the end of last year (Aug/Sept) it seemed that everyone just started piling on him after not having problems with him for all those years. What changed that made the media turn on him which, in turn, led to the fans turn on him.

IT was such a successful smear campaign against him that the "man on the street" segment on the news just had a series of people talking about how much they are not going to miss him, how overrated he is, etc, etc, which is INSANE to me seeing that he was as big a reason as anyone on the team that they were able to win back to back AL West titles!

I thought it started in the playoffs when he sucked. Maybe I am remembering wrong though.

I thought he was an absolute dewsh when he was the closer. Mostly because he sucked ass. When he moved to SP I liked him a little more, but then during the playoffs last year I remembered why I didn't like him.

there was always a hint of arrogance to cj that I don't think sat well with a lot of people. That and the fact that if he lost it was always play the blame game and point at the offense or bad defense and not the fact that he lost

Exactly. The "I'm still pretty new at this whole starter thing" comment this post-season made him look like a total biatch.

The only thing that bothers me is the fact that he has 1,000,000 other things he is doing besides pitching, and he loves to share them all. I understand having life/goals outside of baseball, but other pitchers do not go on camera and talk about how he's got a great Funny or Die sketch to write and star in with Will Ferrell and Albert Pujols when talking about why you chose the Angels as your new employer.

He has businesses on the side, you know...hobbies.

I understand WHY he would turn some people off, that is not what I am discussing.

I am talking about the fact that around Septemberish, it seemed like the media turned on him and spent 2 to 3 months highlighting every one of these things and framing that picture in a VERY negative light. Those little idiosyncrasies have always been there but until Sept of this year, they were always just lurking in the background. Then it seemed like the media turned on him and instead of focusing on the fact that he had been one of the most important players (if not THE most important player) on the 2 best teams in franshise history, the only things you heard about him was negative. It was so bad that we got to a point that the average fan has forgotten EVERY thing he has done (which CAN'T be over estimated) and are ready to shrug off his departure without realizing how hard it is going to be to replace him.

IMO, I think people are going to realize how important he really was to this things success. Unless someone makes a HUGE step in development or we sign someone big, I just don't see who that guy is on this staff that can constantly be relied on to stop losing streaks.

It's a combination of things - CJ's personality and comments to the media certainly didn't help though. While he never blamed others, he was never a guy that stood up and say "I didn't do my job", which is what a lot of regular fans want to hear.

Much of it is a fanbase upset about the playoff performance and missing the forest for the trees. Newberg made a comment a week or so back that I think was spot-on:

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If an exact replica of C.J. Wilson – same age, same repertoire, same track record, same personality, same contract demands – were to leave his last team and sign with Texas for X years and Y dollars, I suspect that a huge majority of the faction that, for some weird reason, can’t wait for Wilson to leave would be leading the excitement parade for the new acquisition.

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It's ultimately fans that feel scorned and look for a reason to say the guy wasn't that good, when the #'s show that he was in fact "that good".

I bet if you asked many of the Rangers fans that couldn't wait to see CJ go if they would rather have 5 more years of Colby Lewis at $5m/year or 5 more years of CJ Wilson at $5m/year that you'd have more than half of them want Colby, no matter how ridiculous that is.

It's much of the same faction that scoff at our division rival signing the best hitter in baseball and the best free agent pitcher in baseball as "not that big a deal".

Amazing how 2 good years can turn a fanbase that just assumed the worst into one that feels the playoffs are a given.

I'd say I was ahead of most of the pack back before the 2009 season with optimism about the franchise future, and I'd say my 2010 and 2011 predictions were probably better than any on here.

And right now if I had to pick who was coming out of the AL West in 2012, I'd pick the Angels.

[This message has been edited by mhayden (edited 12/9/2011 4:16p).]

I agree with you mhayden, but IMO that public opinion was spearheaded by the media more then the fans. THAT is the part that baffles me.

A year ago, everyone was gung-ho about CJ. Then, to me at least, around Sept it seemed like the media only showed CJ's flaws to the point that the fans forgot about the assets.

He didn't change who he was, it was just changed HOW it was presented to the fan base.

A good example:
Last year before his first playoff start, people were asking him about CLee's effect on him. His response was "Yea, before Cliff got here, I was just a defensive second baseman." Last year, the media presented that in a "ha, ha, look at CJ joking around" way. If he would have said that this year, the media would have presented it in a "look how cocky this guy is" way.

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I'd say I was ahead of most of the pack back before the 2009 season with optimism about the franchise future, and I'd say my 2010 and 2011 predictions were probably better than any on here.

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To be fair, I was right there with you in 2009. I had them slotted in after I saw them put together some good stretches in 2008 with a developing team while winning some VERY big games (thinking the BoSox series specifically) until MY pulled his hammy in the beginning of Sept.

And, unfortunately, I am agreeing with you again on 2012. The only way I see the R's pulling this out is

1) The R's make a HUGE move to really shore up the staff
2) The Angels have MASSIVE injury problems or 2 of their top 4 pitchers fall apart for some reason

The difference is because he's a starter CJ is in the media a lot more.

Search back on the forums (this or any Rangers forum) for when he was still in the bullpen - he was considered by many to be the "club dewsh".

That only changed last year when he suddenly looked like an ace in the making... So it was more the good season last year that masked over what the media/fans felt towards him all along.

He's just got that type of personality where if he makes a mistake its "yeah I made a mistake so what we all do", which is not fans want to hear.

Unfortunately none of the fans really realized that he was also a guy that tried to better his game in every conceivable way -- from reading, to his fitness, to what he ate, to how he picked the minds of the greats, etc... Which is why, barring an injury, I think you're going to see a whole lot of people in the next few years have that "oh wow, that CJ Wilson guy is a stud the Rangers were so dumb to let him get away" moment - quickly forgetting how they were the ones wanting to run him out of town.

You put CJ's performance the last 2 years on Derek Holland and his "aww shucks" personality and the fanbase would have been demanding we lock him down long-term whatever it takes.

He also knows how to knife fight.

The media turned on CJ because he's a ******, albeit a straight edge one, and he provided a ton of ammo by what he says and what he doesn't say...especially after getting shelled.

He's a good pitcher who gacked in the playoffs, and that, along with his personality, mark his legacy here.

Newbergs quote above is true, but the fact is that CJ played here, afterall, and made himself much more wellknown for his dumbass quotes than he did for his regular season success.

Not that it bothers CJ, but thats on him.

In the end, he actually got less that I thought he would; less than a lot thought he would.

Yet the Rangers were never seriously in on him.

JD.

Nolan.

Thad.

Whoever.

Decided to not be in on CJ. For what ended up being not insane money and not necessarily insane years.

Tells me all I need to know about a guy, who although a ****** and not good in the playoffs, is a good pitcher.

The Angels bandwagon sure sounds a lot like the Red Sox last year.

Guess we'll see.

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The media turned on CJ because he's a ******, albeit a straight edge one, and he provided a ton of ammo by what he says and what he doesn't say...especially after getting shelled.

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I don't think you guys are understanding what I am getting at. If it was just because he's a *****, well, he has been a ***** his whole time here, but no one focused on it. Why did they wait until Sept to start the smear campaign? It started before his playoff colapses, so that has nothing to do with it. Also, his "playoff colapses" were not nearly as bad as the media played them up to be. Yes, they were not as good as we wanted, but he basically kept the team in the games - although no one would know it based on the way it was reported.

It almsot looks as if the media was doing the teams bidding by turing public opinion agaisnt him so that there would be no out rage after he didn't accept their low ball offer.

If you take the sound bytes out of the picture, everyone would be pissed that the Rangers let him get away (unless they replace him with a bigger stud). And who cares if he is a ***** if he continued to help the R's continue this successful run? As I said, I am afraid that this is going to be looked back at as a big failure as this season progresses, but we'll see.

Media always blows things up and he made himself an easy target by being a ***** and being awful in the playoffs.

My frame of reference is mainly the Ticket, who was really making sports humor from CJ's ******itude more than anything. And they've been doing that for a while; long before September.

Now that I think about it, who turned on him in the media? Evan? Newberg? Sullivan? Durrett?

I specifically remember an ESPN story about one of his post game blame anyone but him - fests, but other than that, im having trouble remembering a smear campaign.

I think fans, or at least a decent segment of them, grew tired of his personality, but we wouldn't be talking about that at all if he didn't disappoint in the playoffs.

Plus, and this is coming from a pretty pro-conspiracy theory guy, do you really think after a World Series appearance and well into another playoff appearance the next year the Rangers thought they needed a smear campaign for fans to accept CJ leaving?

Really?

Oliver Stone thinks that might be far fetched.

I was not throwing the conspiracy theory out there, I was saying how it seemed to look and not how it was.

If there really is a connection, I would say it is more to do with the media not be impartial and subconsciously preparing thenmselves with what everyone knew was going to happen.

As for specifics, I can't remember. I am just going off of what I remember thinking at the time. I remember thinking how it was weird how negative things where towards him in Sept last year and I remember noticing a change in the way he was reguarded by people I talked with.

I never meant for this to become a huge expose into the media or anything. I just thought how odd it was watching every fan on the sports report bashing the hell out of CJ after having been one of the most important people on the team the last two years. Things like that don't happen that often unless you are dealing with a huge jerk like Manny - which I don't believe CJ to be.

IMO, if you are a fan of the team and want them to continue being successful, it is absolutely ignorant to discount what he has meant to this thing like so many people are doing with CJ.

[This message has been edited by Groosome (edited 12/10/2011 9:50a).]

Fair enough...I just am having a hard time remembering a smear campaign.

I think you are mistaking spotlight for smear campaign. He was always weird and a bit of a club dewsh and the media didn't hide this. However, this was the first time he was the ace of a staff on a team that everyone knew was a legit WS contender. Therefore, he spent a helluva lot more time in the spotlight, where everyone got more time to see CJ be CJ. So big picture, the media didnt turn on him. They just gave him the airtime/rope and he took care of altering fans opinions himself. When he couldnt win in the playoffs, eccentric comes off as assshole. Thats not the medias fault.

[This message has been edited by Danny duberstein (edited 12/10/2011 3:09p).]

What I think about CJ now reminds me alot about what I thought about Tex when he left. Become successful and their egos get too big for Texas. I know CJ went to his hometown and all that, but still, he reminds me of Tex alot when he left.

Well I was wrong about where CJ ended up. Seems like the Yanks didn't want him for the money he was demanding.

That's true about the Texiera (he doesn't deserve the name Tex) comparison minus two HUGE points...

1) When Texiera got shipped, the Rangers got one of the most ridiculous packages in return. Everyone knew the Rangers weren't going to win anytime soon with that team so future expectations eliminated any potential negatives of him just walking away like CJ did. Plus, management touted Salty as the next Pudge, so that provided immediate returns for Texiera - at least until his .200 average and yips taught us differently, but by that point, EA was already wowing us at SS.

2) Texiera was another power hitter.... something that hasn't exactly been rare in Texas. CJ was a very good pitcher who proved he could win at the Ballpark, something SO rare here that there should be MUCH more outrage about him leaving then Texiera.

A BIG REASON IS BECAUSE PLAYOFFS + CJ = DISASTER.