First Pitch: Day Forty Two – New Direction

12 Jan 2022

In 2019, I came up with the idea for this site.

I knew that I needed to take a new approach with Pirates Prospects. I had a few different ideas of what Pirates Prospects could look like in the future, but nothing fully formed.

I stripped the site down of everything. Literally. I took it offline for a full year while I brainstormed the future path. I used that time to build up this site, which is in the very early stages of the overall idea I’ve got for this.

The first priority was always going to be establishing the new Pirates Prospects. As I thought about what the site could be, I knew I wanted to only include information on the farm system. The site in the past had been filled with coverage from all over the system. With most of that now on No Quarter, I could focus Pirates Prospects exclusively on the farm system.

My overall goal with this is to build something bigger than myself. That’s always been my goal, ever since this worked out for me. I’ve been able to give a space to a lot of writers over the years, and several have gone on to some pretty impressive things. I don’t think that’s anything I did. I like to think I can just identify people who would be good at this.

This overall platform has been able to sustain my work and my salary, and allow me to pay other writers to help them continue pursuing their writing careers.

Another priority for Pirates Prospects was to create a format that would feature other writers. This week on Pirates Prospects we had another great mix of articles. The ones I liked the most were the player features from Cody Potanko and Anthony Murphy. Those types of articles are the lifeblood of the site, and I’m glad to be able to give a space for younger writers to work on these types of features. What Cody and Anthony are doing right now is exactly what I was doing in 2009-10 when I was starting out, and I’m glad to feature their work on a site bigger than I had at the same stage.

Here’s the thing: I know that the main reason I’m in business has been my ability to report on the Pirates farm system in a deeper and more comprehensive way than any other outlet. It was a risk to just make Pirates Prospects disappear and return in a new format. I even went two years with the site being on the honor code for subscriptions, because I didn’t want to sell an inferior product. Fortunately, enough of you were honorable enough to keep me in business during that time.

We’re on the other side of it all now. Pirates Prospects just had it’s second article drop of the year. Two down. Fifty to go.

I already know next week’s drop, and will probably have my articles finished by the end of the week. I also know the drop for week four, and have some early ideas for the following two weeks.

I’ve been happy with the first two weeks under the new “weekly digital magazine” format, and I know it will only get better moving forward.

What that means is that it’s time to turn on the paywall again, so I can get paid fully for my work, while being able to expand Pirates Prospects and Pittsburgh Baseball Network over the next year as planned. That paywall will go up later this week over at Pirates Prospects. The content here at PBN will remain free, and is supported by the PBN Shop.

I feel like the last two years, I’ve been in rebuilding mode. Not just with these sites, but with my entire life. I’m not the same person I was at that point, and I say that in a positive way. At some point during that time, I discovered who I was, what my abilities were, what my purpose is, and what I want to do with the rest of my life.

I feel like rebuilding time is over. The “window” is opening. And I don’t have it in my plans for it to close for a long time.