How about an Adopt a Prospect feature?

[ClosetBrewerFan]

One of my favorite features of Sons of Sam Horn site is the "Adopt a prospect" forum. Link

 

Essentially, a member selects a prospect and reports on that player on a regular basis. Other people can chime in and ask questions and add to the discussion of that prospect. It becomes a running thread on how that player is performing and how "prospect worthy" he is.

 

Brian, have you considered this for Brewerfan.net? I would certainly volunteer to adopt a needy prospect. I'm sure we would have no problem finding people willing to adopt.

[ccbrew]

The folks over at Motown Sports have something like this too. Adopt-a-Tiger as well as Adopt-a-Piston.

[Brian the Automator]

Sounds like a fantastic idea.

[1992casey]

I like the idea, too. Do these boards have a special forum, or do the adopters simply maintain threads?

[brewers19]

Dibs on Zach Braddock!

 

It sounds like a cool idea, and I'm curious about how other people think this should work. Currently, I'm picturing a new forum (music to Brian's ears, I'm sure) where there's a thread for each of the adopted prospects. Every two (or four) weeks or so the adopting poster gives a book report-esque update on what's new with the foster player, updating the title Link Report style. Discussion will ensue.

 

The main thing I like about this is that it would allow everyone to become even more familiar with the players within the organization in a way that everyone can get involved.

[JoeH33]

Sounds like a good idea to me, I've seen this feature at a lot of fan sites before and people seemed to enjoy it. It would allow many of us "casual" minor league fans to become more familiar with the Brewers farm system.

 

edit: I think making a new forum for these threads would be a good idea as they would just clutter up the minor league forum and eventually get lost on pages 2, 3, 4 etc. Also, if we do end up doing this I call Brent Brewer.

[BillScottCanRake]

I think this is a great idea.

[molitor fan]

Since I pimped for him on the power 50 thread, I will gladly continue the pimpage for Omar Aguilar. It would be cool if we could do this.

[1992casey]

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Currently, I'm picturing a new forum (music to Brian's ears, I'm sure)

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I think the new forum idea is the most feasible way to do this, too. Ethan, the beauty in all this is that if you, hawing, and Brian agree that a new forum is the way to go, you and/or hawing can save Brian some work and do the setup stuff.

 

From what I understand, one of the bigger hassles is that moderators have to be assigned manually and individually to each forum. You'd get nice practice with the forum toys.

 

A secondary hassle would include PMs from moderators you forgot to add, and about a week after it's up, you'll probably get a 'please turn on the HTML option' PM from me. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Because doing this would have some impact on the Minor League Forum, I'd like to hear what Jim and pogokat think.

[bball123h2]

If this gets off the ground, I'd love to participate! Dibs on Jonathan LuCroy!

[patrickgpe]

hey if gets going i want dibs on Caleb Gindl

 

EDIT: It sounds cool for numerous reasons. First of all it can make people more informed on lesser prospects in the system instead of just the elite couple. Its also cool to follow a player so close as they rise up the ranks to finally make it to the show.

[sbrylski]

Darren Ford!

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Glad to hear the interest. I think a new forum would be best (as long as Brian is OK with setting it up). Not sure how we determine who adopts which prospect. First come first served? (If so, I got dibs on Michael Brantley).

 

Also, I suggest some rules be established for posting so there is some consistency and fairness. For reference, this is from sons of sam horn:

 

Quote:

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1) The first post must be an introduction of the player. The format of the post is up to the individual, but please get all the important information needed in there (ie Name, Position, Handedness, Drafted (out of where/what round), Previous Stats, etc. Feel free to make it as detailed as you want.

 

2) After the initial post (and, of course, once the season starts), you MUST update the thread AT LEAST once a month. If you fail to do this, the prospect will be taken away from you. [if a player is inactive due to injury or suspension, this requirement is waived.]

 

If you would like to update more, feel free. Updates should, at least, include Year To Date numbers for the player. The more information given, however, the better.

 

3) Any major event (i.e. Promotion/Demotion/Trade/Perfect Game/4 HRs in one game...) must be reflected in the thread within 5 days of the event. Failure to update for this purpose may result in losing your adoptee.

 

4) Threads will be closed one week after a prospect has been traded out of the organization. However, if the player is traded back to the Red Sox, the member who had the prospect will have the option to regain the prospect.

 

5) Threads will be closed 5 days after a player is placed on the 25-man roster. Threads will be reopened if the player is optioned back to the minors.

 

6) Update your thread with a NEW POST, not by editing your first post.

 

7) All other rules which are enforced on the main board will be enforced here.

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This is a good starting point. We can customize it from here. Any comments/suggestions?

[1992casey]

Does the forum allow replies to the threads, or is the original poster the only one to post?

[burniebrewer]

Good idea. The gang at Philaphans has been doing this as well.

[trwi7]

If this gets going I call Steve Garrison.

[JoeH33]

Quote:

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Does the forum allow replies to the threads, or is the original poster the only one to post?

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I'd probably be in favor of allowing others to post in the treads. It would allow for some sort of Q and A about the prospect.

[1992casey]

Duh... I looked at the link; forum members are participating in the threads.

[pogokat]

I think this is really cool myself, so long as people are willing to go through with it...as you guys know, Jim and I have access to lots of the players and other people in the organization, so we could probably help people arrange to maybe even get in touch with some of the prospects...i think a seperate forum is a good idea---i used to hate all the extra forums, but i think that war is over, and i lost...

 

we definitely need a strict set of rules...and people have to be willing to keep up with it or risk losing their prospect to someone else...

 

and finally, if your prospect gets lowered on the P50, you should consider it your fault for not pumping them up enough http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Mass Haas]

Here's my take, and I'm certainly not going to vote to block if this goes forward.

 

When sites like SOSH began this, it was actually several years ago. Back then, minorleaguebaseball.com's website and statistical availablity was beyond pathetic.

 

But now, MiLB.com's coverage is anything but.

 

Within the Daily Link Report linked box scores, you can click on any name you see, and in two seconds, get their season-to-date, last ten games, and every key breakdown and split, including their monthly stats, which if I read correctly here, is the general timeframe summaries will be requested.

 

So after the first brief biographical post, what will most users be posting?

 

"Steve Garrison made five starts in June for Brevard. Against Palm Beach on the 2nd, he went six innings, allowing three runs, etc...."

 

Now, if it went beyond that, and I mean interactive, that would be interesting.

 

"Owners" of players could contact the respective team's front offce to make an email contact with a player. Most of the team's websites make it easy to do this. Try to arrange for a contact with the player in which you ask him if he'll answer some of the questions you'll ask, then post the responses. But some players will decline, which is their right, and do we want to have an owner post, "Hey, I tried, but _______ didn't want to answer my questions."

 

I would also suggest that player owners look for past and present articles in the hometown newspapers if possible. For at least half of the players, there really is no hometown coverage to speak of, if they're from L.A., Phoenix, etc. The metro area is just too large. But I've even emailed local sports editors who have written stories in the past on their local kids, but haven't in a while, whether they plan a follow-up story any time soon. It's always nice to see new stories that include quotes, instead of just a stats re-hash.

 

And we'll continue to act as a central feed for newspaper and media updates. To be honest, we'll be maintaining the team feature article threads, as I don't think we as staff should necessarily post in the "Adopt" threads for each individual player whenever we turn up a new feature article.

 

So I'm sure there will be some initial excitement as readers "claim" their guys, but overall, I'm not so sure we'll learn that much in this forum if you're already a reader of our daily updates, unless folks are ready to really work to make some interactive connections.

 

Sorry to dampen the enthusiam a bit, prove me wrong.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Quote:

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and finally, if your prospect gets lowered on the P50, you should consider it your fault for not pumping them up enough

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lol, I love it! You'll have all these posters rooting for a higher P50 slot for their adopted prospects. Should make for some interesting discussions.

 

So, it looks like everyone is on board with this. How do we get it started?

 

Note: I'm not looking for extra things to do, but I don't want to just suggest an idea and dump all the work onto someone else. If I can be of help in coming up with rules or whatever, I'll be glad to. Just let me know.

 

 

edit: Oh man, I should have waited 10 minutes longer to post this.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Quote:

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So after the first brief biographical post, what will most users be posting?

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Mass,

You make some good points, but what I was originally thinking was that we would have one thread where discussion about that prospect can occur. This would make it easy for someone to find out what's new with a prospect (sort of a one stop shop). Also, we have lots of "How good of a prospect is..." threads in the minor league forum. These quickly get buried in the forum and we end up having lots of duplicate threads. This would organize that a bit.

 

You are right that there could be some redundancy with this and other features (such as daily link report and even the player page). The daily link report is great to read but it contains info on all the players. Its tough to find out the latest news on a particular player. The player page would be a great place to put this, but that would be the responsibility of Brian (or whoever updates that). That would be a lot of work to do for all P50+ prospects.

 

Brewerfan.net staff does a amazing job keeping us up to date, but I am sure that is a lot of work. By adopting players, the responsibility could be spread out a bit. I certainly don't want to replace any features. Instead I think this would complement them.

 

I also think it would be a lot of fun for the "player owners" and would likely drum up more participation and interest to the site.

[BillScottCanRake]

Brewerfan.net staff does a amazing job keeping us up to date, but I am sure that is a lot of work. By adopting players, the responsibility could be spread out a bit. I certainly don't want to replace any features. Instead I think this would complement them.

 

The key, it seems, would be finding people who are willing to commit to a player and stay strong with their commitment even if that player stagnates or gets hurt. It's easy to get behind someone who's hot or got a big name like Braun or Gallardo. It's harder to stay with someone who's career has gone like Dave Krynzel.

 

I do still like the idea, and in spite of the issues brought forth I think it can work. How well it works will be up be largely up to the users and how committed they are to making it work.

[Brian the Automator]

I agree with Jim... If we can't do it well, then I don't want to do it. With that said, I think it would be a great experience for everyone.

[splitterpfj]

This idea has a lot of potential, but Mass is right on, you'd all have to stick with it beyond the initial excitement of highlighting "your guy."

 

If done properly, this would be a lot of fun for those who participate, getting to know a young player, and having an active role in part of this site is well worth it....if you'll stick to it and contribute on a regular basis. If people start leaving their prospect sitting for long stretches, this feature would add nothing to bf.net.