We are now on week 25 of the Tuesday article drop format on Pirates Prospects.
One of the biggest reasons I shifted to this approach was from a production standpoint. We cover more of this system than any other outlet. Most of those other outlets are focused on covering the big league level, while the entire farm system is our playground.
As a result, we have a lot of stories each week, and some of those stories tend to go together. It’s much easier planning for a series of articles to go up together, rather than releasing them one at a time. I feel it is also easier for the reader, as you get the entire story, and can read at your own pace. We have no interest or incentive to keep stringing you back each day with cliffhangers. I trust that you’re going to continue returning to the site because of the consistent amount of quality and quantity that we provide.
This approach works from my standpoint, and looking at the traffic numbers on Tuesday — and now Friday as well — the article drops seem to work for you guys.
This is week 25, but I think it’s safe to say that this will be the approach from now on: Tuesday and Friday premium article drops.
One thing that will be adjusted are the times and quantities for those drops. Up until this point, we had seven articles per week on Tuesday. This week we’ve got six. When we started the Friday drop, we were only doing three articles per week. Last week we had five on Friday.
Going forward, we’re not going to target a specific daily number. The weekly target will always be at least ten premium articles. From a production standpoint, it sometimes makes sense to delay those articles.
Today, there were three features that were held back for later dates, rather than rushing one to get that magic seventh article. I’ve also got a very interesting system feature that I’m working on, which will ideally go next week after I finish the reporting aspect. That feature will probably take up the entire article drop. The same can be said for the feature that Ryan Palencer and I are working on for the following week.
At this point, I have article drops planned through the early weeks of August, and a loose plan for the remainder of the season after that.
When I started this new approach back in January, my concern was that the site couldn’t maintain this pace, and more specifically, that I couldn’t handle producing a new set of articles each week, on top of our regular coverage. However, I had hope that this approach could lead to some of the system features we have coming up, while also providing a spot for more instant recaps — like this week’s theme focusing on the big league club and all of those prospect debuts.
Next week will mark half a year under this new approach. It will also see an article drop that is really what this approach is all about.
Until then, enjoy this week’s drop, which can be found in the links below.
Pirates Prospects Spotlight
Pirates Links
Prospect Watch
Today: Everybody in Action Despite Some Depleted Rosters
Yesterday: Starting Pitchers Excel in the Lower Levels, Which Wasn’t Such Great News on Monday
Daily Video Rundown
Yesterday: Quinn Priester, Mike Burrows, Jack Suwinski
Pirates Discussion
Today: This is Getting Fun
Pirates Prospects Daily Articles
- Pirates Add Cruz and Madris; Peguero Heads to Altoona; Thompson to IL
- What It Would Take to Gain an Extra Year of Service After 2022?
- Travis MacGregor and Noe Toribio are Headed to Indianapolis
- Prospect Roundtable: What Are Oneil Cruz’s Chances in the Rookie of the Year Race
THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
Williams: Three Encouraging Signs From This Pirates Build
Reacting to the Impressive Debuts From Oneil Cruz and Bligh Madris
Prospect Roundtable: The Book on Jack Suwinski
The Variable Approach to How the Pirates Are Developing Their Minor Leaguers
Cody Bolton Discusses Pitches and Limits
Dariel Lopez: Pulling The Ball More In Greensboro
