i grew up listening to steve stone and think he's a very good analyst in many respects, but overrated in others. he wowed people by predicting pitches and being right 25%-33% of the time, which is around what my accuracy is. he knows a lot about the game but is a strictly old school, blood-and-guts baseball expert. i value his opinion on pitching, but as a guy who played for earl weaver, he should have at least had some of earl's common sense rub off on him. he maligns billy beane, perhaps because he wanted beane's job at one point, and insists upon reiterating that the cubs "lack fundamentals". when a team is performing poorly, it's the most casual of fans who blame a "lack of fundamentals", as every team goofs up at one point or another. but when a team is doing bad, those "poor fundamentals" become focal points, metaphors for failure, scapegoats. stone is as guilty of this as anyone, and it's cheap, prejudicial analysis.