A New Blog Worth Following

by Matthew on Mar 2, 2010 10:35 AM PST in Seattle Mariners Stats

Some of you knew that ESPN teamed up with parts of the baseball internet community (notably FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus) to create six weeks worth of stories on different aspects of baseball. Their Hot Stove U series was an attempt to foster debate amongst the more casual crowd of baseball fans and a big step in getting more advanced analysis in a place noticeable to millions of people a day.

It went well enough that they have decided to continue the effort in blog form. Dave mentioned it yesterday on USSM, but I waited until now because as of 5am this morning, my first piece is up there, on Adrian Gonzalez*. The blog focuses on short posts and it will feature the same people from the Hot Stove U series, good people from ESPN Stats and even Tom Tango!

*No, I do not get to write the headlines. Yes, I hate the A-Gon nickname as well.

There will be some good stuff written in there and if you have an ESPN Insider subscription then you will have full access to it. If you purchased the FanGraphs Second Opinion baseball/fantasy preview book, then you will have access to all the posts written by FanGraphs' authors for free on the Bonus Blog. Not all the posts will not be orthodoxy, and sometimes they will use baser stats to get the point across, but none of it is likely to be glib. These are good writers.

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Awesome Stuff

Loved reading the stuff on Hot Stuff U, and really glad they are keeping this going. Congrats guys!

by SebastianPruiti on Mar 2, 2010 10:40 AM PST reply actions

Looks like you'll be a great fit for this blog, M-Car.

by Janic on Mar 2, 2010 11:07 AM PST reply actions

Finally my 4 year $3/yr ESPN magazine subscription pays off!

@ERiC_UW

by lailaihei on Mar 2, 2010 11:09 AM PST via mobile reply actions

Rainy Northwest?

Does ESPN just force you to stereotype when you write for them?

by seattlebruin on Mar 2, 2010 12:15 PM PST reply actions

Good luck to all involved.

I bought the FG .pdf to support the site, but I don’t have the same desire to pay to support ESPN so I won’t be signing up, that said I hope this leads to bigger things for all involved [except Tango, who I want to stay with the M’s forever like a jealous girlfriend who doesn’t want to share].

by EnglishMariner on Mar 2, 2010 12:21 PM PST up reply actions

No, my editors do!

Seriously though, it’s not like it’s an untrue stereotype or even “hint of truth” stereotype. It rains here. It rains often.

by Matthew on Mar 2, 2010 12:22 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah, it's just annoying that as soon as someone tries to come up with a different way of referring to Seattle

there’s an obligatory reference to rain.

by seattlebruin on Mar 2, 2010 12:25 PM PST up reply actions

I can sympathize

but I don’t find it annoying. I like the rain. I like being known for rain. It keeps fair weather people away and at this point it’s just a throwaway adjective like sunny LA, windy Chicago, incredibly racist Boston, etc

by Matthew on Mar 2, 2010 12:34 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs

Please work an "incredibly racist Boston" line into your next piece.

I would love that to no end.

by Sec 108 on Mar 2, 2010 12:39 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs

Fair enough

though it annoys me just as much as how whenever a UCLA game is on TV, they show an obligatory overhead of Malibu and make some comment about the sun and the beach.

I think it’s just the laziness of it all that annoys me

by seattlebruin on Mar 2, 2010 12:39 PM PST up reply actions

It's mainstream media, it has to be lazy otherwise it won't be mainstream anymore.

by EnglishMariner on Mar 2, 2010 12:55 PM PST up reply actions

So it really should be "Unsunny Seattle"

Or “Gloomy Seattle” Or something like that. Seasonally Affective Seattle?
It’s not that it rains so much, but it spends so much time trying to rain. Or being just about to rain. Or just finished raining. Or undecided about raining. Seattle gets just 43% of the sun it could, ranking it just ahead of Nome, Alaska.

by wandergeist on Mar 3, 2010 11:20 AM PST up reply actions