Derek Zumsteg
From Wiki Gonzalez
Derek Zumsteg (aka "DMZ") is an early Primate (now disappeared) who is best known as a prominent manager of the U.S.S. Mariner (http://www.ussmariner.com) blog. A sabermetrically-inclined fan of the Seattle Mariners, he was also formerly a contributor to Baseball Prospectus.
Profile
Zumsteg has been an opinionated, forthright critic of the Mariners' old-fashioned way of doing business, one that cripples their ability to compete in the AL West, and he periodically laments the local media's laziness and/or unwillingness to take the club to task for their mismanagement. He also criticizes the mainstream media's moralizing over performance enhancing drugs in baseball. As an M's fan, he leavens his cynicism by celebrating the achievements of Ichiro! and King Felix.
In 2002, Zumsteg starred on Baseball Primer during the John Mabry-Jeremy Giambi thread when he hinted that Billy Beane had his reasons for pulling the trigger on a seemingly bizarre trade. He also was a prime player in the infamous Pete Rose thread of the same year when he co-authored the controversial Prospectus article with Will Carroll that spawned the thread.
More recently, in 2007 he was a participant in two major news items that spawned huge Primer threads:
- Fellow U.S.S. Mariner co-owner David Cameron viciously attacked Baseball Prospectus over an anonymous player comment in BP's 2007 annual that Cameron thought smeared Zumsteg's work for Prospectus. Cameron took the opportunity to rip Prospectus for hanging DMZ out to dry over the Pete Rose article, which Cameron implied was a poorly researched Carroll piece that Zumsteg had voluntarily agreed to "co-author" in order to rescue the Prospectus brand from ridicule. The thread commenters at first strongly supported Cameron (see Feud with Baseball Prospectus) until it was eventually revealed that Steven Goldman authored the player comment in question and had not meant to target Zumsteg at all.
- Seemingly inspired by the PED debate, DMZ published a book (The Cheater's Guide to Baseball (http://isbn.nu/0618551131)) purporting to document the history of cheating in baseball. In April 2007, his accompanying book blog produced a general-interest story when one entry noticed Angels closer Frankie Rodriguez apparently doctoring the baseball. This revelation was picked up by major baseball news outlets and forced Bud Selig to make a public statement that he would investigate the incident. Certain MSM types took the opportunity to wonder how a twerp with a blog could make so much noise.
References
- Cameron: Giving the Finger to BP (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/cameron_giving_the_finger_to_bp/) - Primer thread on Cameron's angry post
External Links
- Cheater's Guide to Baseball (http://www.zumsteg.net/cheatersguide) - Zumsteg's blog
- Salon.com - April 11, 2007 (http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2007/04/11/wednesday/) - DMZ interviewed by King Kaufman over Rodriguez incident
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