Two weeks ago Pirates Prospects celebrated its third birthday. That seems kind of incredible to me, because it seems like I’ve been running this site for longer than three years. It’s also incredible because three years ago I would have never thought this would be my job.
I started the site to provide resources for Pirates fans to use. Some of those resources are staples of the site today, such as the 40-man roster/payroll projection, the Future Payroll chart, and more. I also lived close to Lynchburg, which was the home of the Pirates’ high-A affiliate at the time. Throughout the 2009 season I went to provide live reports on the team, eventually covering their Carolina League championship run at the end of the season.
Along the way the site has grown, has added new writers, and has added a lot of new readers. I don’t know when exactly I started thinking “this could be my job”, but somewhere along the line that replaced my previous line of thinking that this was a fun side project that might eventually pay my cell phone bill each month.
I do know one thing that hasn’t changed. When I started the site, the goal was to provide information to Pirates fans, whether that was a list of how many options each player on the 40-man roster had, or live game reports from the minor league affiliates. It’s still my goal to provide as much information as possible for Pirates fans, which is why I’m very excited to announce the next big addition for Pirates Prospects.
I’m pleased to announce that Kristy Robinson will be joining the site this year as the beat writer to the major league team. Kristy covered the Pirates last year, and will be bringing that coverage to Pirates Prospects this year. She will be covering all of the Pittsburgh Pirates home games live, and providing game recaps and nightly notebooks to the site. You can follow Kristy on Twitter @Kristy_Robinson.
Kristy’s first article, a feature on Matt Hague, will go up today. The season’s coverage will start in a few weeks when Kristy and I will be heading down to Bradenton to cover Spring Training. I will be providing updates on the prospects from Pirate City, while Kristy will be providing updates from the big league camp at McKechnie Field. The Spring Training coverage will last from the end of February through the end of March.
During the season Kristy will be covering the major league news, which will give me more time to focus on the minor league coverage. We will also have the usual live coverage of the minors from John Dreker, Terry Mathews, Wilbur Miller, and Nancy Zinni throughout the year. In the coming weeks there will be a few changes to the site, the biggest of which will be the inclusion of individual blogs.
As I mentioned above, my goal has always been to provide as much information as possible, and I think that will be accomplished in a big way this year with the new additions to the site.
I have you, the readers, to thank for that. The support shown to the site is what allows it to grow. Whether that support is buying the Pirates Prospects books, or just reading the site every day, you make it possible for this type of expansion. A big thanks to everyone who bought the books, as this made it possible to cover Spring Training and to hire Kristy to cover the major league team. These are things that I didn’t anticipate doing until next year, but the overwhelming support to the site in the last year has made this possible a year early.
When it comes to the Pirates, one of the most popular topics in Pittsburgh is whether the team will re-invest profits in to the organization. That’s exactly what I’m doing with this site. The more support that is shown to the site — whether that’s in the form of buying the books or just visiting every day — the more I can grow the site and provide more coverage for you, the readers. So if you haven’t bought the Pirates Prospects books yet, know that you not only get a great product on the team, but you also help this site continue to grow. Most importantly, keep checking the site throughout the year. We certainly won’t have any shortage of content for you to read.
