Seattle Sports Insider

The Spect(at)re of a New Mariners Brand

Posted by

3/30/12

...........

Spectator with his own site at MarinersTalk! ::crowd goes wild:: Well, strictly speaking, Spectator with a trial coupla posts to see whether he, and admins, are up for the mission. I'm up for it, thass fo sho.

His Charmander-beefy ideas now flip the card over into full Charizard evolution. Your mission, should you choose to accept it Spec, is to crank your attacks from "interesting thread comments" style into "formal article presentation" mode.

There are many days when I don't have enough Mariner stuff to read. I hit SSI first, to see what volleys have come back over the 'net. The comments threads here are more likely than anything, to provide me new M's ideas that I hadn't considered.

Geoff Baker's blog, and Lookout Landing, are fairly-consistent reads. I'll usually hit Prospect Insider if Jason has new stuff up, but he's got a lot of different irons in the fire these days. If Jay has something on USSM that's going to be a good read, probably tell me things I didn't already know. Mariners central is a model of what a fans' chat should be, and Lonnie's often got feature podcasts and interviews and whatnot.

After that? No disrespect intended, but sometimes I don't get all the M's stuff I'd like, and am left feeling like I had a bowl of Lucky Charms but only 4 oz. of milk to go with it... of course, Dr. D is unique in that he doesn't have SSI to read. ;- ) It's like being an M's pitcher; you're the one who doesn't get to face M's hitting.

Tell me somethin'. When you got all the time you need to read M's stuff, what's your drill?

.........

Spectator's "brand," to me, is similar to Jay Yencich's. Hyper-reasonable, cordial and professionally pleasant, with an emphasis on forwarding the discussion. When Spec steps in, it's usually (1) with fresh thoughts and (2) with a forward angle on the current discussion. Both are reliably booked-up on the issues they tackle.

So MarinersTalk, once it gets rolling down the hill, for me offers the possibility of "bonus" Think Tank threads beyond those already available to me. He may take MarinersTalk off at a 15-degree angle, addressing more minors, college, and around-MLB stuff than we do.

Even more interesting will be Spectator's touch for moderation. G'luck, mate, yer gonna need it ...

Spectator leads off with a super-sound consideration of what happens when you take a catcher, like Mike Zunino, with a top-10 pick. The odds aren't bad. Supposing that Zunino moves off the plate: is his bat good enough to provide that insurance, like Montero's is and like Weiters' and Mauer's were?

.............

Spec, for his part, considers MarinersTalk a "sister site" to SSI, and Dr. D is SOOOooooooo down with that. Am sure that, for him and you the MC/SSI reader, it will add that extra half-bowl of Lucky Charms to your mornin' Mariners breakfast. :- )

iiiiii-iiiiii wanna Rock and Roll allllllll Niiiiggghhhhhht,

Dr D

Comments

What a blogosphere

I love the Mariners Blogosphere. Mariner Wheelhouse and the old PI forum begat Leone for Third and USSM and Sport Spot which begat Lookout Landing, Prospect Insider and Detect-O-Vision which begat Mariner Central and SSI and the Baker/Stone Blogs and Pro Ball NW which begat Mariners Talk…on and on it will go. Of course, there are others – Section 331 and Compass Rosy bring the female perspective to the diamond. It really is an incredibly diverse fan community and we are incredibly fortunate for that. And I'm sure it started on some weird text forums long before I ever became aware...
It’s kind of amazing to me that this explosion of fan blog activity happened while the team has been incredibly bad.

Yeah! Imagine cyber-Seattle if were were the 1975 Reds

Back in 2000-2002, last time the M's were really exciting, the blog-o-sphere was what? A couple of chat boards?
Even that was a lot of fun.
I wonder if Seattle, Boston, and New York have the most compelling online baseball communities.

I can't get enough LL, both

I can't get enough LL, both because its awesome and hilarious and also because the authors are fun guys to hang out with outside of baseball as well.

SSI and LL are the bomb in our family.

My son and I will also read USS Mariner, PI and Baker but the interest and conversation come from your site Doc and LL.
Lookout Landing we mostly talk about Sullivan's humor and how he intertwines it with the Mariners whereas your site we talk about the content. What sets SSI apart from the others is your preference for sharing the spotlight with posters. This allows for the best, deepest and most entertaining discourse on the net. Just wish that JFro was part of the package because when he and GMoney get going it's a blast.
Without a doubt SSI has the best cast of characters posting. You have some serious PH'd baseball types here and the dialogue very rarely breaks down to an ego shouting match like the majority of the other sites. We really appreciate the efforts of all who make this the best blog going.

I read your list regularly

as well as ProballNW and all of the content on USSMariner (though it's often hard to do while rolling my eyes). I'm a little less consistent on Baker, and will also check out Stone and Drayer.

Amen to this!

Right on.

Hey that's the actress from

Hey that's the actress from Great Expectations with Sir. Alex Guiness!! :)

Best Baseball Blogosphere there is

As sad as the organization has been over the last decade (although it's getting better, thankfully), we are truly blessed as fans to have the M's blogosphere. I've learned as much through the blogs and the rest of the fanbase has to feel the same. An educated fanbase is a hard thing to find in today's age. My order of things I read are:
1. Lookout Landing
2. SSI
3. USSM
4. Seattle Times blogs (Larry Stone before Baker)
5. Prospect Insider
6. Proball NW
7. Last is mine (Goodguys sports ;))

Thought-provoking feedback

Funny stuff Andrew. Heh!
Gotta get a shout-out to yer before too long. Any particular articles you recommend? If you get time to read your own stuff, that is?
..................
I'd LOVE to see more number-lists like Andrew's. I mean, anybody answering will have SSI on the list, by definition since it's answering this thread. But am operating totally in the dark as to what other sites are the most common reads.
Baker gets literally like 10,000 viewers to just his podcasts. But I dunno how much overlap there is between his audience and that of the hardcore blogs'.

Had no idea.

How about a quick bio for her?
And .... looks like Spec will be joining the landscape at Mariner Stalk. Yeahhh baby!

I come here first, then LL,

I come here first, then LL, then MC, and if I am bored I see what's on at USSM (mainly for Jay).

The Good Guys are a little worn out

We haven't had as much content on the site lately as we'd like. Busy schedules (school, work, suffering from the emotional roller-coaster Husky basketball sent us on, etc.) have taken some out of us.
Lately, I've been trying to find the right balance of sabermetric tools and the emotional side of the game (the thought the '09 Mariners won 10 more games than they should have, just because they were having a blast). It's been a little hard to articulate, but I think you folks here at SSI have found the right balance, as opposed to Cameron. No disrespect to him, I just don't think we can completely figure out baseball based off of sabermetrics alone.
All that to say, we'll be putting up more content soon. Thanks for all the great work you do here. I'm not the only one who really appreciates it.

Don' be afraid...

To shout out your new material in the comments any time.
::daps::

SPECTATOR ROCKIN' AND ROLLIN' :- )

At Mariner Stalk, Spectator gives our four top rosters, including the Jackson pitching staff -- which I would probably take, in a 5-game series, over the Mariners' current ML pitching staff.
Spec has some interesting Spec-ulation about the Tacoma-Seattle carousel, a la
If A then B
If C (and D) then F
If C (and E) then G
I don't follow this kind of stuff, but wasn't the AA team supposed to be in Tennessee or something? Not according to this page.
Mariner Stalk becomes a daily visit for this kid. See yer there.