Lie Because You Must

The Chronicle's Henry Schulman, with what I hope is a generous dose of understatement: "But with Vizquel hitting .166, he might be difficult to trade."

 You think?

 Fans don't like to think about it, but team executives don't gain a whole lot by telling the truth. Would you like to be Brian Sabean right now? Most anyone with a pulse can see that Vizquel adds little value on the field, but Sabean's stuck for at least a few more days. He's got to hope there's someone stupid enough to take Omar off his hands, and until then Vizquel has to get in the lineup. You can't bench him, because then how do you sell a shortstop who can't crack the lineup of one of the worst teams in the game?

Same goes for the clucking you heard a few weeks back about the Giants being "contenders." (Favorite recent paragraph on MLB.com: "A few weeks ago, the Giants were considered possible contenders in the moribund National League West, but they appear to be in "sell" mode after losing nine of their past 10 games and remaining eight games behind first in the division." To make this completely accurate, you should insert "by a desperate general manager and gullible reporters" after "considered.") It's better to have fictional leverage in trade talks than no leverage at all.