Reds’ Brandon Phillips fires shots at Cincinnati media

More drama from MLB Spring Training. If it’s not teams finger-pointing about substandard lineups or players ripping their former teams, it’s players getting into verbal shoving-matches with the local media. I guess the baseball media in Cincinnati had some not so nice things to say about Brandon Phillips, and he responded in kind.

"How the [expletive] am I declining? – Brandon Phillips"

In an interview with MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince, Phillips let the good folks in Cincinnati know exactly how he felt about the press corps that covers the Reds (and him).

“I don’t have nothing to say to those cats,” Phillips said of the Cincinnati media to Castrovince. “They know what the deal is. They just talk about how I was falling off and declining. How the [expletive] am I declining? I had 100 … ribbies [RBI] last year. And I did that with one … hand. And I won a Gold Glove? So how the [expletive] am I declining? Come on, man.”

If only Phillips weren’t so ambiguous about his feelings, huh?

The problem is, Phillips actually is declining in many respects. Yes, his RBI totals are doing just fine, but what about the rest of the numbers?

His .310 OBP and .396 slugging percentage were the worst of his career in a full season, and his stolen bases were down, while strikeouts were up. [Source: Sports Illustrated]. Phillips is now 32, so a decline–even slight–is probably to be expected at this point in his career.

Perhaps the Cincinnati media should add “thin-skinned” to the issues that Phillips has. If they were reporting bloated opinions or trying to just stir the pot, his reaction would be somewhat justified. But to lash out at the press for simply doing their job? Kind of childish.