THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Evolving (revolving?) Prospectus

Steve addresses the issue of turnover at Prospectus, with reader comments there and also here.

* Wow, there continues to be lots of turnover here at BP…
* While I understand that some turnover is a necessary thing (and perhaps even a good thing) at BP, I am becoming alarmed at the number of fine contributors here who have left in 2011. What’s going on, BP?
* I have to say, even though I’ve enjoyed a lot of the new writers, it is a little bit worrisome that almost all the long-time BP-ers are leaving.

Now that I am editor-in-chief of the big Beta-Pi, I had planned to say a few dramatic words about the nature of the comings and goings that have attended our operations over the 15 years we’ve been here writing about baseball. Yet, now that I am here with the keyboard under my fingers, I find that most of what I had planned to say is unnecessary. You all have almost certainly experienced the same kinds of changes that we have, and for the same reasons, at your own places of work. 
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BP has changed greatly over the years. Of our departures, some left for their own reasons, and there was not a thing we could have done to keep them no matter how hard we tried. There were others where it seemed clear that it was time for a parting, so when they spoke of leaving we acquiesced. The reasons for our feeling that way might not have been obvious to you, but it was inescapably clear on our side of the curtain. In both cases, our hands are often tied—you really have to want to work here at BP; it requires certain sacrifices, and that can be tiring. Sometimes a guy just wants to move on. Sometimes he gets a job offer from the Milwaukee Brewers. 
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I described four kinds of partings from BP above: (1) writers we could not keep, (2) writers we would not keep, (3) writers who failed to meet basic standards, and (4) writers who, for whatever reason, failed to establish an audience.