How about an Adopt a Prospect feature?

[bball123h2]

One of the main reasons I like it, is because it will be a class in minor league baseball. Sure, I heard of Gallardo, Braun, Weeks, Fielder, and Hardy before they made the show, but this will give me an opportunity to follow someone who could someday become an average MLBer (a more common route). I'm looking at it as a learning experience.

 

That said, if the adopt-a-prospect doesn't pan out, I'm sure it could always be removed (not saying setting it up and taking it down wouldn't be a pain, but it could really add to the site if it works).

[patrickgpe]

If people start leaving their prospect sitting for long stretches, this feature would add nothing to bf.net.

 

SOSH.com has a rule that if its inactive for more than a month that thread is deleted. I think there are enough people who are here every day that it could work if the effort is put into. People check their fantasy stats every day, how much extra time is it to check to see how their player did the night before. not too much.

[BillScottCanRake]

SOSH.com has a rule that if its inactive for more than a month that thread is deleted. I think there are enough people who are here every day that it could work if the effort is put into. People check their fantasy stats every day, how much extra time is it to check to see how their player did the night before. not too much.

 

It's not a matter of checking what someone did the night before. Anyone can check to see what happened. There are certain guys I look at every night to see how they have done. That's easy.

 

Now, if I wanted to write something about them, that's different. I suspect that for this feature to be truly successful it's going to have to be more than links and stat lines. Going beyond that is going to take more than a few minutes a day. I spent several hours over a couple of days working on the first installment of From the Bleachers, and I had a number of readily available resources to work with.

 

I don't want to discourage this, because I do really think that it's a good idea. But I think people should understand that to make this a feature worth having is going to take more than a few minutes a day here and there.

[Katuluu]

Can we do a poll on whether or not we do this? You cool with that Jim? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Mass Haas]

Can we do a poll on whether or not we do this? You cool with that Jim?

 

I just linked to this thread on the Minor League Forum, as many folks won't see it here.

 

Perhaps we'll get some additional insights.

[ItsCotter]

I'm not much of a poster here on brewerfan.net but I'm definitely a reader!

 

I think the Adopt-A-Prospect idea would be great! It would give me something to actually write about and it would allow me to become more active with the website.

 

Most of the topics I read on brewerfan, someone has the same mind set as me so I just save the typing. This Adopt-A-Prospect idea would give me something to write about and chime in on.

[TheCrew07]

I like the idea, but without access to the players, how are we going to get any more information than is currently available in the link reports?

 

I love the first hand accounts that people drop in the reports and would hope that doesn't go away.

 

Also, how would we decide who gets what prospect in a manner that doesn't ruffle someone's feathers? Look at how many times "dibs" has been called already.

 

I'm intrigued by the idea, but I don't think I would participate, because I don't have the opportunity to watch the games. Without being able to see the games or have access to the players you're basically limited to digging up stats and links for your guy. The link reports and "Your 2007 blah blah" already contain all this information, so it seems like it would be duplication. It's a very cool idea, I'm just unsure how it would be even as remotely valuable as the link report?

[molitor fan]

Without being able to see the games or have access to the players you're basically limited to digging up stats and links for your guy. The link reports and "Your 2007 blah blah" already contain all this information, so it seems like it would be duplication

 

 

I guess I do not what the problem is with a congealing of information or data. Say I put all the articles I can find about Aguillar into my prospect thread, and add in some link report data that usually gets lost in the process, such as the fact that he has been clocked at 100 mph this year? That alone makes this feature a good idea to me; then add in the possible interview opportunity, and it is a tremendous idea to me.

[sbrylski]

I'll agree with MolitorFan. I don't have the time to read through all the Link Reports everyday. It'd be nice to have all that info, and maybe a little more consolidated about a single player put in one location.

 

But I'm on the fense about the whole idea.

[igor67]

Perhaps if we could procure cooperation from some of the minor league teams in terms of player availability first it would make it easier for people to generate new info on their prospect? In the past the teams have been pretty good to us with formal interviews, but maybe trying to let us e-mail some questions for specific players or perhaps even more interesting getting info on these guys from some of the coaching staff.

[Kricket755]

As a long-time, multiple-times-a-day reader of Brewerfan.net, I am excited at the discussion of a feature like this. As one who can't go to sleep at night without checking the boxscores of all the Brewers minor league teams, I feel like I have a decent understanding of the players in the system. But I know I have 2 brothers and multiple friends who don't take the time to follow it as close but would love a feature where one or a few players could be followed individually a little outside of the boxscores. Some points I think might add to this feature are maybe detailed statistics of a player's recent performance (last 7 days, last 30 days, things that aren't readily available for prospects) and also an increased effort to listen to audio of your players games (if available) to possibly give some sort of fact, stat, or tidbit that one wouldn't know otherwise.

Sorry for the post being long and wordy, but this first post is a pretty big moment in my life. And I am only half-joking.

[splitterpfj]

Welcome kricket, it's great to have you aboard.

[Mass Haas]

One thing I would point out is that if you're going to be an owner, you should be a regular Link Report reader, which I imagine most would be.

 

Notice the final game story in the Link Report for Wednesday July 11th:

 

www.dailymail.com/story/S...g+strides/

 

Yes, it's a game story. But moreso it's a feature on RHP Chris Toneguzzi. Someone who would want to follow the prospects via a monthly visit to the Adopt-A-Prospect Forum, but not read the Daily Link Reports, would want to know about details on Toneguzzi such as were listed there. So an owner needs to keep up with any linked stories we provide in case their player is included in an update.

 

I would also say that if your prospect is a starting pitcher, one should listen to their starts, which could prove difficult during the Brewer playoff stretch. At least the West Virginia and Helena (and some Brevard) audio is archived http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif .

[Brian the Automator]

[ So an owner needs to keep up with any linked stories we provide in case their player is included in an update. ]

 

In addition to reading the link reports, it would also be a good idea for users to put their players' name in a Google News Alerts auto-email llist.

[patrickgpe]

i think if we got to pick a prospect more than be assigned one, it would go better. I like the idea. I think by checking the teams website and the local paper, you should get more than enough info on your player.

[obobo55]

interesting idea, but I think it is going to end up fizzling out after an initial surge. I just think you will end up with the ultra prospects being discussed by their most avid followers. For me--I can get the info I want on those guys by reading through the link reports (thanks Mass!).

 

What I would be interested in is more info on the more obscure guys. that weren't high draft picks but are showing ability (perhaps at an advanced age) in AA or AAA. Oxspring/Dillon/Dickey/Rottino if he weren't a WI native-types. They are never listed on the power 50 list and many of us (or at least me) know nothing about where they came from or what "stuff" they have.

 

While I too enjoy following what the youngsters do in A-ball, the differences are huge when you get to AA and many prospects never get beyond that stage. I think we could do more to celebrate the successes of the less hyped players that are nearing the Show.

 

Just my humble opinion FWIW...

[igor67]

I think obobo has some pretty good counter points, and despite the access I wonder how much can you really add about a player in just a month? The Power 50 kind of serves that functionality in tracking these things. Perhaps it would be better to do it more as a prospect profile type of thing and have it added to the players profile in the database. Maybe add some kind of voting mechanism to ask the adopters for an update on specific players that have generated more interest.

[Mass Haas]

I'm not sure if folks have read any of the Sons of Sam Horn (Red Sox) threads.

 

What you have to keep in mind is that the Red Sox have their AAA team (Pawtucket), AA team (Portland, ME) and Rookie Level team (Lowell, MA) within easy driving distance. So some of their threads are more active because local owners can actually see the players fairly regularly.

 

***

One thing I wanted to point out that folks may not know about our Player Index pages is that starting a couple of years ago, whenever there's a story about a player that we link to in the Article Crawler secton of our Home Page, well, that article also becomes part of the player's individual index page.

 

Somebody mentioned earlier they would look up and find all the hometown or feature articles on West Virginia RHP Omar Aguilar. Well, there's only one (believe me), and it's been linked on his player page since November '06:

 

www.brewerfan.net/ViewPla...ayerId=858

 

The one problem we have is I need to go back and check for dead links on the Index, of which I'm sure there's many.

 

In fact, I stopped placing Huntsville Times articles on the Player Index (they're just on the Home Page), because their links go dead within a couple of weeks.

 

So an FYI, check our Player Index for older articles.

[TheCrew07]

Not to toot Mass' horn anymore than necessary, but honestly, as he's pointed out and I tried to previously, he does everything that these other sites have tried to do by himself. I just don't think very many people appreciate or have a good grasp of the wealth of information that's available in the link reports.

 

MiLB becoming a useful site for stats has made a huge difference, in the past that information was very hard to come by, you'd have to bounce around from team site to team site in most cases. Now you can just search the last name for any level of Minor League Baseball get the matching results.

 

Mass brought up the player index, which would be a great way to accomplish the same thing. It might require a bit of work for Brian (user rights, possible space issues) but if you could click on the player index and get all of the updated information including this year's stats... I honestly would have a hard time finding anything more valuable than that. Stat's, complete bio, archived media stories... I'd seriously be in heaven.

 

Is it copyright infringement to cut and past an article if you link the original? If not even when the links went dead we'd still have the full text of the article for the player.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

obobo makes some good points but I think they are reason FOR the adopt a prospect. Sure there will be those who will adopt the top prospects and report on them, but I think there will be more who will adopt some of the lesser known guys. Just take a look at those who have already put in dibs for players. Not one of the top 10 prospects were mentioned. They were mainly the 20-30 range prospects. If I had a choice, I would pick M. Brantley because I am intrigued with his ability and want to learn more about him.

 

That's why I suggested this in the first place. The Brewers have a ton of mid level prospects that I know very little about. It is true that I could get it from the Link report, but I don't always have the time to go through the whole report each day to see how some of my favorites are doing. It would be great if all I had to do was go to the adopt a prospect forum and find all the info in one place!

 

Yes, this may fizzle out after a while, but is that a reason for not doing it? It could also turn out to be one of the most popular features. What's the harm in just trying this out.

[brettac1]

Do we get to send letters back and forth with them, like I did with my Korean pen pal in third grade? That would pretty much rule.

 

Just kidding. This is a great idea, I love how SoSH does theirs.

[trwi7]

Quote:

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If this gets going I call Steve Garrison.

---

 

This doesn't mean I have to become a Padres fan does it?http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[BillScottCanRake]

This doesn't mean I have to become a Padres fan does it?

 

www.padrefan.net

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[bjkrautk]

Based on the Inman trade....do we really need to do something that will increase people's attachment to the team's minor leaguers?

[TheCrew07]

Why is it that people who don't like that deal are "in love with the minor leaguers"? I haven't seen anyone opposed to deal say they were opposed to trading prospects, they just don't like this trade.