Craig Calcaterra of NBC Hardball Talk applauds Ken Rosenthal, known by some as “Robothal” for his tireless reporting and ability to be the first to announce breaking news on Twitter, for being scooped yesterday by two teenagers, one a mere 13-year-old.

The news in question was, first, free-agent designated hitter Billy Butler’s being close to signing a deal with the A’s and, second, the terms of the contract ($30 million over three years):

[Transaction news] is, by definition, single data point news that does not necessarily require reporting savvy and experience. It usually does, of course — you gotta get yourself into a place where people trust you with information — but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes people just hear things. And yes, that someone can be a 13-year-old kid if he’s in the right place at the right time. The key isn’t getting one scoop. It’s getting hundreds and hundreds of them over years.
It’s quite refreshing, then, to see Ken Rosenthal — a guy who feeds his family on the scoops he gets — having a great sense of humor about it all. He went on MLB Network and broke down how these kids scooped him.

Watch the segment here:

Your browser does not support iframes.

I agree with Calcaterra: Way to go, Robothal!

More here.