In a recent post to his blog for ESPN.com, Peter Gammons discusses the baseball blogging community, from players to beat writers to statisticians to influential fans.
In the end Gammons writes…
“It’s amazing how many club officials read USS Mariner (Seattle), Fire Brand of the American League (Boston), Ducksnorts (San Diego), Athletics Nation (Oakland), Viva El Birdos (St. Louis), Lone Star Ball (Texas), River Ave. Blues (Yankees), MetsBlog.com, FishStripes (Florida), Dodger Thoughts, Bronx Banter (great writing), The LoHud Yankees Blog, Reds Reporter (Cincinnati), Bleed Cubbie Blue, Brew Crew Ball (Milwaukee) and more…
“There are probably hundreds of sites I have missed. If so, hopefully, they’ll run by my laptop. But as we begin the 2008 season, our information, understanding and thought processes have been dramatically altered from the days when a Sunday newspaper notes column seemed significant. And, as fans, we are so much better off for all the work that is being done.”
…well, hats off to gammons for recognizing this, and us…
…i’d love to take this time to wax all philosophical about blogging, new media, the future of the player-reporter-fan dynamic, etc, but, frankly, i can’t stop thinking about the fact that Peter Gammons spelled out the word ‘MetsBlog.com’ on his keyboard…that’s just amazing to me, since i admire his career and writing ability so much…
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It is a reality in the new media that the old school reporters need to keep the bloggers happy. It’s like manufacturers dealing with Walmart and Costco.
Congrats on the recognition, Matt & staff! Keep up the great work.
Congrats, Matt. More proof that you’ve hit the Big Time!
Nice work Matt!
I honestly don’t know what I’d do without this site to fill my Mets void.
Get more done at work?
Nah, I’d just find something else :)
I wish the little MetsBlog.com screenshot had this very post in it, with an even tinier MetsBlog.com screenshot illustrating it, and so on.
So the club officials read this site and our comments. I wonder if any of them are actually posting on here, as they read. Bottom line is … we matter.
Don’t get ahead of yourself. If they read the comments, it’s probably to laugh at them, or to find out “what the rabble thinks,” etc.
Congrats Metsblog.
Now is the time to get Kevin Mench to platoon with Ryan Church. He should come somewhat cheap now.
Church OPS vs. righties .866
Mench OPS vs. lefties .901
I worry about the same thing… I was hoping more for Chris Shelton..
I still wouldn’t be surprised to see Church go in the Santana deal, in which case I’d kinda like to take a look at Wilkerson.
But having a Men(s)ch to replace Green sounds like good karma to me. ;-)
You guys don’t want Sammy Sosa to platoon with Church?
And props to the “Mensch” joke below, sign him up.
I meant above.
agreed on Mench. But, who goes? Endy? a RP?
Of course, have to see who is healthy on 4/1. It may be a moot point.
I think Mench is FA.
Yup, he’s a FA.
I think he’s referring to the 25 man roster.
Yeah, exactly, but I’d have to imagine that one of the second basemen have to go — figure that Gotay has value right now in a trade that he may never have again, and Easley can platoon with Church if the Mets don’t bring in a guy like Mench, even though Easley’s health is in question and he may be a defensive liability in RF. I could see the Mets trading Gotay for a prospect (maybe a high ceiling-high uncertainty guy, or a AAA reliever), keeping Easley to spell Castillo, and signing Mench, figuring that when Alou goes down Mench moves to LF and Easley moves to RF. Not to mention, Marlon Anderson will still get his turns off the bench and can play some OF when Alou comes back, even though he’s another lefty — the point is, look for Endy to be the 4th OF this year and look for it to stay that way, regardless of who goes down.
Jeremy
If Gotay is gone, who backs up shortstop? Easley’s the only guy with shortstop experience but he’s 38, and if you dont think he can handle an outfield spot, how can he handle the most important infield spot when Reyes needs a day off?
I think Easley is a far better fit to handle SS than he is to handle an OF spot because his experience in the majors has been in the IF, and to keep a player on the roster who has far more value in a trade than he does on the bench because Reyes might sit out a day a month is crazy, especially when you have 2 other backup 2B on the roster. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gotay, and I’d love to see him play, but with Castillo, Reyes, Easley, and Marlon Anderson all on the roster and an OF filled with lefties + Beltran and Alou, I think the team is best served by acquiring a right-handed hitting OF and giving him the roster spot of one of the 2B.
Anyone who didn’t click on the link should definitely go read it! For some reason it was free (irony: gammons talking about how the free access to the blogging world has revolutionized how we talk about sports… yet he posts it on one of the only sports site that charges a fee to see content)
He runs though so many good blogs! My bookmarks just got a face-lift.
In all fairness, I’ve searched a bunch of those blogs, and while Gammons is right that the writing is very good and the blogs seem to very informative and entertaining, none of them are as aesthetically pleasing as Metsblog, which really does matter in that it lends credibility to the writing, and none of them seem to use sources outside of the internet and newspapers, although I could definitely be overlooking some.
Let’s be real. We know Matt hit the big time when he appeared on TV last night during the Hot Stove report giving stats on fan confidence he tracks from this site. I was sitting there with my wife and I said that is pretty awesome that essentially a “super fan” who started a website is now considered part of credible media and is appearing in tv segments. Its really cool, job well done Matt.
You have arrived, Matt. Congratulations.
I wish I could say the same for our purported “baseball team.”
Matt, you’re the man!
Matt, you won’t be Gammons, Sherman, or any of the greats until you garner the courage to effect a positive change for this franchise when needed, with straight talk. The following are items which are obviously needed that you are too timid to support:
1. Fire Randolph because he is incompetent.
2. Fire Minaya becuase he has an obvious ulterior motive that in this day and age is reprehensible and indefensible, and has weakened the team.
3. Encourage the Wilpons to sell the team since they lack the intellect to identify talent at the general manager and field manager positions.
Little drastic, no?
Hopefully Matt is using his means of communication with the team to speak on behalf of us Met fans and his readers. In that case I hope he has informed management that the majority of his readers want Johan Santana on this team even if it means trading most of our top prospects. Thats what the poll results showed, right? Therefore Matt should put pressure on Omar and the Wilpons for all of us in order to get this deal done alrteady! He owes us that for being such loyal readers and visitors to his site. By the way conrats to you Matt. Thank you for this venue. Let us know what to do to facilitate a trade for Santana in the near future. Write Omar? Stop buying tickets until deal is made? What do we have to do to make our case?
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