This could be quickly turning into a fiasco. Recall that earlier this morning, I posted this about Baseball Prospectus reporting Pete Rose's return to baseball. Well, now Bob DuPuy is using strong words like "totally unfounded, totally unsubstantiated," and "journalistically irresponsible" in denying the report.
Here's ESPN's story, and here's the actual text of the release at MLB.com.

This looks like trouble. Although if it was the intention of BP to get MLB to back off and not reinstate Rose, it may have worked. On the other hand, it's tough to write a believable report of this kind using only unnamed sources.

I'm really not sure what BP's purpose is here. They're not journalists, they're analysts. They've started making inroads to front offices, and, as I mentioned, Will Carroll definitely has people he talks to for his injury information, but does that mean they know what they're doing with regard to story corraboration on a huge issue like this one?

Then again, there's still the possibility that it's true. Just because a big boss man comes out and says it's false doesn't make it so. On the other hand, would DuPuy really use such strong language ("wholly inaccurate") if he were going to have to retract that language later?