Tuesday, March 25, 2008
STATE OF THE BLOG
As you have assuredly noticed, I have been pretty inactive here since the end of the 2007 season, a season which had already been notable for inconstant posting.
There are several reasons for this. My recent inactivity is assignable to: a chaotic work schedule, which cuts into my posting time; that much of my sports energy is being spent on college basketball; that since the Torii Hunter signing, there has been little that has been particularly newsworthy -- or, even more importantly, analysis-worthy -- in Angels baseball.
By themselves, these aren't reasons. I could always take to posting more from home instead of the office (where I really shouldn't be doing it anyway); I've been just as occupied with college basketball in the previous two years as I have been this year; there are plenty of pieces I could have been working on in this time that have to do with historical Angels content instead of current events.
But the underlying reason ... let's step back for a second. One of the reasons I started doing this, aside from boredom, was to get a unique look at all things Angel out there. To paraphrase something Bill James once said, it was to tell readers something they didn't know. By which I don't mean to imply that I have some special store of knowledge I dispense at my leisure; my intent was to look at things in a unique way, a personalized way, and share what I found. Sometimes that meant statistical research, sometimes that meant looking at some minor league stats that maybe my readers never got around to looking up for themselves. But I hoped to always come at things from somewhere different than other people were, at the very least. Very often, I did things to find out an answer for myself, and then I just let you all know what I found.
On the whole, I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out, especially given that this is nothing more than a hobby (if it even ascends to that level). I had a nice little series on the 1995 Angels (okay, there are really some stylistic horrors in it, particularly in the first section, but copy editing wasn't high on my list of priorities), I looked at Angel bunting and baserunning, I looked at Casey Kotchman and flyballs, and to the best of my recollection I was the first person in the Halosphere to talk about Reggie Willits and Darren O'Day (I also talked up Steve Andrade, but hey). Hell, I even wrote about DeWayne Buice, in probably my favorite entry that I've done, for whatever reason. Not too shabby.
But, at this point, I've been doing this for the Vlad Era, and this many years into it, I think I'm pretty much out of things to say. Rally Monkey's better than I am on the stats stuff, Rob has the minor leagues covered with his daily updates, and I can always count on Seitz to criticize John Lackey's pitch selection or the umpires or whatever. Not to mention that Halos Heaven is about as thriving an online fan community can be. I think my capacity to share with my readership something new, and my devotion and energy to finding new things to share, is at a nadir. And the Halosphere has me covered -- I'm sure my twenty or so readers will manage.
Who knows, in two or three weeks, with the season in full swing, maybe something will occur to me. Maybe I'll end up doing one piece per month or something. If you have me in your blog reader, keep me there. If you don't have me in it, well, then you probably aren't reading this anyway. If you don't have a blog reader, you should start using one, they're really convenient.
And I'm not going anywhere. I still waste time at Baseball Primer, I still read all the other Angel blogs daily, I'll still be recording every game and fighting off every spoiler until I can get home to watch. I fully intend on throwing items violently across the room when things go wrong and clapping with joy when they go right. I just won't be typing about it as much.
And the Angels will win the division with an 91-71 record.
There are several reasons for this. My recent inactivity is assignable to: a chaotic work schedule, which cuts into my posting time; that much of my sports energy is being spent on college basketball; that since the Torii Hunter signing, there has been little that has been particularly newsworthy -- or, even more importantly, analysis-worthy -- in Angels baseball.
By themselves, these aren't reasons. I could always take to posting more from home instead of the office (where I really shouldn't be doing it anyway); I've been just as occupied with college basketball in the previous two years as I have been this year; there are plenty of pieces I could have been working on in this time that have to do with historical Angels content instead of current events.
But the underlying reason ... let's step back for a second. One of the reasons I started doing this, aside from boredom, was to get a unique look at all things Angel out there. To paraphrase something Bill James once said, it was to tell readers something they didn't know. By which I don't mean to imply that I have some special store of knowledge I dispense at my leisure; my intent was to look at things in a unique way, a personalized way, and share what I found. Sometimes that meant statistical research, sometimes that meant looking at some minor league stats that maybe my readers never got around to looking up for themselves. But I hoped to always come at things from somewhere different than other people were, at the very least. Very often, I did things to find out an answer for myself, and then I just let you all know what I found.
On the whole, I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out, especially given that this is nothing more than a hobby (if it even ascends to that level). I had a nice little series on the 1995 Angels (okay, there are really some stylistic horrors in it, particularly in the first section, but copy editing wasn't high on my list of priorities), I looked at Angel bunting and baserunning, I looked at Casey Kotchman and flyballs, and to the best of my recollection I was the first person in the Halosphere to talk about Reggie Willits and Darren O'Day (I also talked up Steve Andrade, but hey). Hell, I even wrote about DeWayne Buice, in probably my favorite entry that I've done, for whatever reason. Not too shabby.
But, at this point, I've been doing this for the Vlad Era, and this many years into it, I think I'm pretty much out of things to say. Rally Monkey's better than I am on the stats stuff, Rob has the minor leagues covered with his daily updates, and I can always count on Seitz to criticize John Lackey's pitch selection or the umpires or whatever. Not to mention that Halos Heaven is about as thriving an online fan community can be. I think my capacity to share with my readership something new, and my devotion and energy to finding new things to share, is at a nadir. And the Halosphere has me covered -- I'm sure my twenty or so readers will manage.
Who knows, in two or three weeks, with the season in full swing, maybe something will occur to me. Maybe I'll end up doing one piece per month or something. If you have me in your blog reader, keep me there. If you don't have me in it, well, then you probably aren't reading this anyway. If you don't have a blog reader, you should start using one, they're really convenient.
And I'm not going anywhere. I still waste time at Baseball Primer, I still read all the other Angel blogs daily, I'll still be recording every game and fighting off every spoiler until I can get home to watch. I fully intend on throwing items violently across the room when things go wrong and clapping with joy when they go right. I just won't be typing about it as much.
And the Angels will win the division with an 91-71 record.
