From MLB.com:
Will Tweets Keep Nats’ Draft Pick From Getting Signed?
Shortstop Zach Houchins, a 15th-round selection in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, said Monday it is unlikely that he will sign a professional contract with the Nationals.
Houchins said he hasn't heard from the club since June after it was discovered that he made what were deemed racist and homophobic remarks on his Twitter page.
--snip--
"I'm not a racist, not at all. ... Four of my best friends, two of them are black, one of them was my roommate. He is probably one of the closest people I've ever been around. ... Me and my four best friends became so close, it's just how we talk. It wasn't anything derogatory or anything like that. It's just how we talk."
Hey, maybe it’s all a grand negotiating ploy by the Nationals. Maybe they were absolutely thrilled when they saw these tweets, figuring the controversy might drive Houchins’ price down.
Or not.
Look, Houchins’ “racist remarks” don’t prove he’s a racist (sorry, but they don’t). They do prove he’s got really, really, really, really poor judgment ... but isn’t that something you should know before you draft a guy? If the Nationals were doing their homework, they must have known before the draft that Houchins was an immature idiot.
They probably just didn’t care, because if you remove all the immature idiots from the board, you’re left with the Pat Vendittes and Sam Fulds of the world. Who are nice, but not really the building blocks for a championship team. Many and perhaps most 18- and 21-year-old baseball players are immature, insensitive and perhaps idiotic. What, you think they’re reading Walt Whitman and comforting the homeless in their spare time?
Nearly 51 percent of Washington, D.C.'s citizens are African-American; that's the fifth-highest percentage among Major League Baseball's host cities. If Zach Houchins were Bryce Harper, maybe you chalk up his indiscreet tweets to a boyish immaturity. But he's not. Zach Houchins is Zach Houchins, a 15th-round pick who batted .349 this spring with a small college. You measure him, and if he's borderline you throw him back into the water.
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