Where to find all the daily baseball info the "pros" steal and call their own - a gift to MLB fans from Manny Stiles

Another satisfied customer!@!!

It's the EXACT same thing all the beat writers "steal" from to sound like they actually know what they are talking about.

ONE THING people need to realize about pro journalists in the press boxes - they are FED information constantly by the teams, they rarely have to hunt anything down on their own. Even during the games, a team media spokesman gives updates on EVERY move over the speakers in the press box.

Their job is made as easy as possible by the home team. Baseball teams know that catering to the loudest voices is good business.

And the best part of sitting in the press box is getting all this info and reading the paper the next day and seeing it all skewed and screwed up anyway!!

Talk about an easy job

They get free food too...

To be honest - I realized early on it would be a job I could do well and grow to hate more and more each day.

Most beat writers HATE the team they cover - it's a constant battle being stuck between a hard deadline and editor that demands dirty dirt and a slow moving yet not-over-til-it's-over game and team that will give you no dirt.

Mostly, from my experiences, the life of a MLB beat writer is standing around and talking about college football.

And BTW - In real life Erin Andrews ISN'T that hot - I had to ask someone if that was "the SAME Erin Andrews" - even the players were cracking on her - and the curtain/facade of ESPN is a humongous practical joke on the world - like the difference between reading a book and watching a movie based on the Cliff's Notes.

But that's another story.

You've already mentioned that aboot Andrews

WOE! DON'T be so sure, KD... it depends on the staff compiling the info - anything Elias or SABR provides is available for their use - remember - MLB has the product, not the stat compilers. And most teams have a statistical department to thumb through anything interesting.

It all comes down to what the team wants to provide. If a player is standing out in a particular category they WILL highlight it. There's some pretty irrelevant facts to be found in the media notes. WAY more irrelevant than BABIP.

Seriously, who lit the fuse on you tampon today? You're being quite negative and combative.

I have a game to go to, Manny, why don't you take a look at all the media reports and find one using BABIP for me, OK?

They won't be available for all players, obviously. (WHY would it be?) But if you give me the top ten players in BABIP currently, I will show you. I'll also pull waxing and waning moon batting averages for you if you'd like?

I hear you, but you can't say there's absolutely NO value in it... trends in performance do tend to follow certain trends afterall.

I trust my eyes more than chosen figures and gathered numbers, but more times than not the two find a way to mostly agree over time.

Do numbers lie? Quite often, but eyes can be fooled as well.

The more info you have to evaluate a player, the better off you will be... that being said - we're talking about HUMAN ballplayers - they can change - for better and worse.

VERY few players maintain a steady consistency year after year. Neither stats nor scouting can predict when those oddities will occur. And neither stats nor scouting can predict injuries or a player's heart and determination.

Yeah, I saw that earlier. I always read the Rays notes and thier opponents notes before games.

Funny thing is - you damned AGMites are the only ones that call me "Manny" - the real world people, my friends and the "rap community" call me "Stiles"... or "Steez"

I told my wife when she convinced me to start sports blogging I needed a different name than my "rap name" because of ManRam... she told me to "expand the Stiles brand"...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my ears! You said ManRam! Only JIM ROME calls him ManRam!

Whatever, MeCa

BTW, My fingers only get so many clicks in this life, so I'm saving some LOL, RDRR... =) Your ears? Do you have one of those fancy talking computers?

I could go by MeCa, I kinda like that actually...or MCass (which also happens to be the name of the dreaded state tests in MA), or Mega C.

And no, I don't have a talking computer, but that phrase is so vile it emanates from my monitor.

Well, we can't call him, ManSti... can we?

No, I don't think so...Manny is just one of those names that stands by itself, because it's usually already a nickname, and you can't have a nickname for a nickname. That's be like calling Shaq Sha or Alge Crumpler Alg.

And ManSti sounds kinda dirty. I have this images of a bunch of attractive men rolling around in mud on farm...a man-sty instead of a pig-sty... Forget I said anything.

Or Coco Crisp: Co^2

I'll just stick to what he wants me to call him: Stiles. Unless I think of a nickname that sounds better (from his perspective)

Well, it was originally Man E. Stiles, if that means anything.

Call me whatever you want. I guarantee my parents and brothers have called me much worse.... GUARANTEE

I do like "Stiles" more than "Manny", though...

Men are pigs, Meg.

You're the creative one... I just do what other people want me to do. ;) And I throw in an idea here and there. But my mind can't really process at 3:00 in the morn'.

3 in the morn? Since when are you Irish?

Never have been. I'm an A-Rab.

Ezzo, "creativity" is merely taking two sets of specific vocabluaries and forcibly slapping them together:

We used to play a game in college where you take a word from one theme and combine it with another word from another theme...

Bodypart and Food - that's a fun one

Knee Burger, Elbow Sandwich, Nose Soup, etc... until you get something good (or disgusting) Cock Omelette, Vulva Stew, Nipples Au Gratin, etc.

Words are just words... when they sound good, they sound good. Writing and cooking are the same - it's all in the ingredients. Writing and riding a bike are just the same - it takes some practice and a little balance. Writing and swimming are the same - you have to learn how to float in it and not fight the water.

"Creativity" is just sets of 'vocabularies', that's all. Vocabularies come form experiences. The more exposure you have to new vocabluaries, the more you have to work with. Every invention in this world is just two other "inventions" slapped together!

Calling someone by their last name without permission is disrespectful, so, from now on, Stiles it is.