I hadn’t intended to go after the sports media and the coverage of baseball’s off-season, but the reporting of Tatsuya Imai’s posting and free agency has forced me to rethink journalistic integrity.

I know for a fact that agents use the media to move the market on their clients and that some writers/reporters are complicit in the lies. Where there is no market, create one. Where there is no demand, create it. While money might not change hands, there is a quid pro quo, with reporters hoping to cash in later with scoops or the like. But because sportswriters aren’t paid that well it wouldn’t surprise me that some have cashed in for their service to players and agents. I also believe that teams use the media to tell their story when they fail to sign the top dogs. Whether they feed the media a load of bull regarding what their offer was to ameliorate their fans’ fury or not, we’ll never know because nobody involved has ever been asked to take a polygraph test.

Within the last week, a noted baseball insider said that the White Sox were in the Imai market. They very well may have talked with his people but likely never were a serious contender considering their history and Imai’s stated wish not to play for a team with any Japanese players. The White Sox just signed Munetaka Murakami.

Supposedly the Cubs and Yankees were finalists in the Imai Bowl, with the Phillies and Mets falling off. Yet the later two were only cited by East Coast writer/reporters. While the Cubs may have offered him quality bucks (I’m sure one of their handpicked media drones will state in coming weeks), they couldn’t have really been in contention because they already have Imanaga and Suzuki on the roster.

General managers and those tasked with offering money to free agents have different ideas as to what constitutes a legit or competitive offer. Fans justifiably have their own idea as to what is an acceptable offer and what’s an acceptable miss. As fans, we’re not present at negotiations, so we’ll likely never get the whole truth and most of us don’t trust management for the most part. As a result, we are forced to rely on the media for our information. And for the most part, this off-season has been a series of fumbles and overthrown passes.

Time will tell if the Astros won the lottery or if the Cubs and Yankees dodged a bullet.