Best baseball writers?

[Minnesota4Ever]

I read him but I didn't like him. He didn't write enough about New York teams in a Minnesota newspaper.

Yes, he does. Sometimes.

Joe Christensen writes about the Yankees often at the Strib.

Lavelle is more in love with the White Sox though since he is a White Sox fan. He will write about them more often.

 

[BYH]

Yeah he probably writes about the White Sox more often since the...Twins...play...the...White...Sox...19...times.

 

[MonitorLizard]

Verducci is very good but I'm not sold on Onley because I think he has a Yankees bias and I have a tough time getting over that.

I think Verducci's a great writer, but his East Coast bias in general turns me off to a lot of his stuff. Seems like no Red Sox guy can do any wrong in his eyes.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

BTW, you should not compare SI writers to guys who cover a beat daily for a newspaper. Two different things.

SI people have the benefit of research help, a stringer network, a desk that sometimes rewrites heavily, and a liberal policy regarding quotes.

In this age of "....also contributed to this report," I'm amazed that SI's collaborative efforts aren't labeled more accurately.

 

[bballscribe]

I like Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle. He's been a fav of mine the past few years.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

The Verducci piece on ARod last year should put to rest any notion that SI's senior baseball writer is "numbers oriented."

Well, if you judge someone's style on one piece, I guess he's gossip oriented and prone to using anonymous quotes.

 

[BYH]

Verducci is very good but I'm not sold on Onley because I think he has a Yankees bias and I have a tough time getting over that.

I think Verducci's a great writer, but his East Coast bias in general turns me off to a lot of his stuff. Seems like no Red Sox guy can do any wrong in his eyes.

Yet he covered the..............Yankees for a long time at Newsday.

What an annoying tendency this is: Yankee fans think everyone hates their team. Red Sox fans think everyone hates their team. At least you guys agree on something.

 

[boots]

It's all subjective. McCoy and Bodley still scoop everyone. Jayson Stark doesn't have to take a backseat to anyone and neither does Paul Hagen. Verducci is still young enough to participate in the game as his umpire story illustrates. There are a few more but that's a good starting five right there.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Bodley has scoops? I'm legitimately asking since I don't read USAT.

Used to be he'd have stuff when MLB wanted to use his forum to plant something.

 

[cranberry]

Bodley has scoops? I'm legitimately asking since I don't read USAT.

Used to be he'd have stuff when MLB wanted to use his forum to plant something.

Yes...that's what counts as a "scoop" for Hal. The reason you read him is that he's where the official story is planted, so you get some insight on the MLB position. The best baseball guy at USA Today is Nightengale.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

I love Nightengale's work. Started reading him at The Sporting News about a decade ago, and have followed wherever he's gone since.

 

[Nathan Scott Phillips]

Jonah Keri.
Paul White.
(Two completely different kinds of writing, but both good at their thing.)
Gammons, back about a decade or two ago when he had an editor.

 

[SoSueMe]

Lines like these are why I enjoy Renck so much:

He opened with a six-pitch first, had just 62 after six. Without the benefit of HDTV, it was hard to determine if he broke a sweat.

AND

All Lopez did was make pitches, working as if he had 5 o'clock reservations at The Chop House.

They are entertaining. They aren't overly cheesey. They are short. And the second one is not "new" to writing, but Renck uses them sparingly and smartly.

 

[Huggy]

I don't read much outside of Toronto and for me the best guy up here is Jeff Blair of the Globe & Mail. Richard Griffin of the Star is a solid read too. Bob Elliott of the Sun usually has some good stuff in his Sunday notebook but I find him so-so as a writer.

 

[MonitorLizard]

Verducci is very good but I'm not sold on Onley because I think he has a Yankees bias and I have a tough time getting over that.

I think Verducci's a great writer, but his East Coast bias in general turns me off to a lot of his stuff. Seems like no Red Sox guy can do any wrong in his eyes.

Yet he covered the..............Yankees for a long time at Newsday.

What an annoying tendency this is: Yankee fans think everyone hates their team. Red Sox fans think everyone hates their team. At least you guys agree on something.

Last I checked, the Yankees and Red Sox are both on the East Coast. My problem with Verducci is that he seems to focus on them at the expense of the rest of baseball. I'm neither a Yankees fan nor a Red Sox fan.

 

[cougargirl]

I'll second Troy Renck and Barry Svrluga.

 

[Moondoggy]

The guy at the Cincy Post kicks ass.

The guy at the Cincy Post kicks ass.

The new guy or the old guy from last year?

 

[HoopsMcCann]

The guy at the Cincy Post kicks ass.

The new guy or the old guy from last year?

the old guy

 

[John]

The guy at the Cincy Post kicks ass.

The new guy or the old guy from last year?

the old guy

I like the new guy's stuff, too.

 

[Jeffrey_Martin]

I'm biased, but I'm a big fan of Jorge Arangure. I think you're going to be reading a lot from him in the future. :)