Best baseball writers?

Rob Neyer

 

I second Buster. I read him at the Times and he was the guy I tried to pattern myself after. Since he has been at ESPN, he doesn't really write with the same eloquence though. I loved him covering the yankees at the Times and is a very good read.

 

The guy at the Cincy Post kicks ass.

 

I've always liked Tyler Kepner, the Yankees beat writer for the Times.

He does a very good job making game stories and features enjoyable for hardcore and casual baseball fans. He's a thorough and consistent reporter and writer on a brutally competitive beat. Following Buster Olney on the beat was a tall order, but I think Tyler's body of work is very impressive, and I don't think you'll find many people who will argue with that.

 

I've enjoyed reading Barry Svrluga (Wash Post). It's tough to make the gawd-awful Nationals interesting, but he does.

 

Nate Silver

 

Gordon Wittenmyer's pretty damned good, IMO. He used to cover the Twins, and just took over as the Cubs beat writer for the Sun-Times.

 

Charles Prince

Wait. You said baseball, not beach ball right? Never mind...

 

Hal McCoy in Dayton, Ohio. The best out there.

 

Twenty-one posts in and no one suggested TXscoop. You're all slipping.

 

Verducci's overrated. I finally finished the SI baseball preview issue last night and my head still hurts from all of the numbers they throw at you. I know he didn't write every team's preview, but his style is pervasive throughout. When I'm reading him I try and count how many different numbers he can use in a single sentence or paragraph. He uses too many odd stats. Check out this doozy on the Padres:
"Over the past two years, for instance, San Diego played more games decided by one or two runs (163) than any other NL team; at the same time the Padres won the most games by one run (59) and by two or fewer (87) and had the highest winning percentage in one-run games (.584)." He could have simply said Trevor Hoffman keeps the Padres in ball games.
I'm sorry, saying Joe Blow hit 23 of 46 from the left side of the plate on the road doesn't mean anything to me. It's not writing - its stat regurgitation. I get OB+S but gimme a break with batting average on balls in play.
I finished the baseball preview with a lot of information, but not feeling I learned much about any of the teams. And I don't think I'm alone.

 

Buh... buh... buh.. that's a given, isn't it?