When it comes to blogs, I am a series of failed ideas. I have had basketball blogs, general sports blogs, Bay Area-emphasis blogs, college basketball blogs, fantasy sports blogs, and so on and so on and so on.
The only really blog of longevity that I had was "Remember 51", my old San Francisco Giants blog which got killed after I lost time and internet access due to a variety of jobs.
Now that I have internet access and time again, I'm trying to start a new blog. Why a new blog? Mainly for two reasons.
1.) "Remember 51" captured a certain point in my writing that doesn't capture how I am now. When I started "R51" I wasn't totally into Sabermetrics, I was more interested in self-promoting my blog than writing actual pieces, and I was into forcing movie references and humor that never quite fit. Yes, I am happy with what I did with "R51." But at the same time, to just continue where I left off (especially with so many Giants blogs now up), I just feel like it wouldn't feel right. Thus, I need to go in a new direction, while still trying to capture what made "R51" so fun to work on.
2.) When it comes to baseball, I love making projections. That's mainly why I love Sabermetrics: I love looking at the complete picture and seeing what players are good and will be good, and which ones are getting lucky and outplaying their potential. I like to see which guys are overpaid, and which ones are not. Thus, it makes sense why I have developed an interest in minor league baseball. I love to see which players are going to pan out, and which ones won't. I like to see which guys are getting buried unnecessarily, and which guys probably are just Four-A players. So, I wanted to write about minor league players, and write about specifically the minor league players in the Giants organization.
We'll see how this blog turns out. For posting and content sake, I'm going to import all Minor league affiliated posts from "R51" to this blog just to show where the seeds of this blog started. How long will it last? Who knows, but at least I'll try to hit something that isn't being hit on out on the Giants blogosphere.
(Word of caution: there will also be some rando stuff, from movie reviews to noir fiction stuff...just some notice.)
Look forward to reading your stuff here!
ReplyDeleteI would recommend, if you don't already, reading the stuff by Ron Shandler - Baseball Forecaster, Minor League Baseball Analyst - as that gave me a great base of sabermetric knowledge (which I never got from years of reading Baseball Prospectus, which is the old give a fish or teach to fish tale, writ sabermetrically). And the great thing is that he sells his old annuals - his focus is more on fantasy leagues - at half or more off, at his website, Baseball HQ, so you can pick up the knowledge he provides in his Toolkit at a low price. Though I would recommend the annuals, particularly for fantasy baseball (helped me win my first league I was ever in) and the essays on new tools and discoveries.
OGC,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see your comment! Funny you mention that, I just ordered Shandler's Minor League Baseball Analyst on Monday. I'm excited to get it and looking forward how to further analyze minor league players since it is a bit different from major league player comparison.
Thanks also for your comments! Looking forward to keeping the discussion!