A look back at the original reporting and analysis found on MLBTR the last seven days:
- On this week’s edition of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast, Jeff Todd spoke with MLBTR founder Tim Dierkes about fantasy baseball strategy. A new episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast will be released every Thursday and can be accessed on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.
- Tim was the first to report that the Pirates had claimed Travis Ishikawa from the Giants.
- If you haven’t already, sign up for the new MLB Trade Rumors newsletter! Each week, Tim sends an exclusive article to subscribers. This week, Tim predicted trade destinations for top starting pitchers. He thinks Cole Hamels will go to the Blue Jays, with Jeff Samardzija heading to the Rangers.
- Steve Adams looked at which players from last year’s Rule 5 Draft remained with their new teams. That group includes Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields, Jr., Athletics first baseman Mark Canha, Twins reliever J.R. Graham and Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera.
- Steve examined what the Marlins might be able to get on the trade market for starter Mat Latos. It’s been a disappointing season for both parties, but Steve points out that Latos’ velocity has returned lately, perhaps making him a good candidate to help a team down the stretch.
- Steve hosted this week’s MLBTR chat, offering views on a variety of trade possibilities that could unfold later this month.
Looking at the very small number of comments, and the notable absence of many familiar names, I wonder if this wasn’t expected, and the site is moving away from one that encourages comments, but needed to invest in moderators, to simply re-directing the resources to content. Perhaps that was done with an analysis of traffic, and particularly recidivist traffic. I do think that there’s a certain amount of filtration that could be done, but, at the same time, a number of commenters often had things of value to add, particularly when it came to some of the minor league players. There’s a lot of good content on the site, even if you turn off comments entirely, but there is a distinct loss as well. Some clarification as to the future would be nice.
We did not have an ulterior motive of reducing comments, in introducing the new system. We’re aiming for some improvements this week, regarding the features that people are missing. We want lots of comments!