Post by jamesmcgillstatue on Aug 24, 2017 9:51:41 GMT -5
I've been a subscriber to BA since it was "The All-America Baseball News" (although published in British Columbia!) in the early 1980s. It filled a void when The Sporting News terminated its in-depth coverage of baseball, and BA also published definitive periodicals (the Almanac, Directory, Minor League Register) just as TSN used to do. I know that many here also read BA from cover to cover. In the background, of course, the magazine changed owners several times and was forced to adapt to the digital age.
After this June's draft, the print edition underwent a major change in format and focus. Organization reports (Alex Speier contributed to the Red Sox' coverage) were dropped, as were some obsolete features like minor league batting stats. There's still coverage of the minors and HS and college baseball, but soft feature stories now predominate. Ringolsby, Crasnick and Gammons still contribute columns.
Their online site is still robust, although it has not updated its organization reports since the makeover: Speier's last entry is dated June 13.
Of course, information about baseball is all over the web, and B-Ref, MLB.com and MiLB.com are invaluable; unfortunately, if the changes at BA signal a permanent change in coverage (or, perhaps, its pending demise), we'll have lost a central resource for news about all 30 MLB clubs, their organizations, and college, HS and international prospects. The periodicals may not survive on their own either.
I thought I'd post this to gauge others' reactions to this development, and find out where, if anywhere, you go for aggregation/curation of baseball news.
After this June's draft, the print edition underwent a major change in format and focus. Organization reports (Alex Speier contributed to the Red Sox' coverage) were dropped, as were some obsolete features like minor league batting stats. There's still coverage of the minors and HS and college baseball, but soft feature stories now predominate. Ringolsby, Crasnick and Gammons still contribute columns.
Their online site is still robust, although it has not updated its organization reports since the makeover: Speier's last entry is dated June 13.
Of course, information about baseball is all over the web, and B-Ref, MLB.com and MiLB.com are invaluable; unfortunately, if the changes at BA signal a permanent change in coverage (or, perhaps, its pending demise), we'll have lost a central resource for news about all 30 MLB clubs, their organizations, and college, HS and international prospects. The periodicals may not survive on their own either.
I thought I'd post this to gauge others' reactions to this development, and find out where, if anywhere, you go for aggregation/curation of baseball news.
