2011 Primer: Part 4 (The Minors)

In the final installment of the series that Mac has done a brilliant job with, I'm going to go over some Twitter accounts and sites that you must check out if you want to know what's going on in the minors. If you have any to add, throw them in the comments section. I'd love to learn some new ones.

Nationals Prospects
http://www.nationalsprospects.com
Nationals Prospects has done an outstanding job of covering the Nats farm system and prospects. The blog is clean and full of information, and has become my go-to for Nats minor league info since the guy below stepped aside from his official blog.

Brian Oliver
Twitter: @NFA_Brian
I know he's "retired" from the blogging world for a very noble teaching career, but he still links to really great MiLB information on his Twitter account pretty regularly. Definitely worth the follow if you don't already.

Top Prospect Alert
http://www.topprospectalert.com
Twitter: @Minor League Blog
Great source of information on the Minors, especially during the season on their Twitter accounts. Provides superb summaries of the biggest names in MiLB that evening.

Prospect Insider
http://www.prospectinsider.com/
Twitter: @ProspectInsider
Provides prospect top stories, info on possible positional battles across the league, and even has a great rundown on arbitration, the Rule 5 draft, and free agency in its own Primer section. Worth a look.

Baseball-Reference
http://www.baseball-reference.com
I know Mac has already used this for baseball blogs, but it's also a great source for getting minor league stats.

I know there are others, so add them to the comments.

2011 Primer: Part 3 (Twitter Extravaganza)

We are less than 2 weeks away from Spring Training and I can feel the crazy Space Coast wind on my face already. We have just two parts remaining, and today's post is going to focus on a particular social-networking site that some of you swear by and others swear at, Twitter. I have found that Twitter is one of the best, yet most frustrating, ways of conveying news. So here is a brief list of those that we believe are must-follows for any MLB fan, Nats included.

If you don't already, follow us!
@CapitolBaseball - Joe's personal twitter and location for official Capitol Baseball news
@CraigMac - Nats, Flyers, Beer, other nonsensical things

Nats:
@AdamKilgoreWP - Washington Post Beat Writer extraordinaire
@ballystar40 - Collin Balester, loves mustaches and the Anaheim Ducks
@billgluvna - Bill Gluvna, pun-happy Coordinator of Nats Media Relations
@ChiefsRadio - Nats' Triple-A Affiliate, Syracuse Chiefs radio broadcasters
@cnichols14 - Runs NatsNewsNetwork's popular Off the Field section & freelance photographer
@cstammen35 - Nats' long reliever, Craig Stammen
@dcsportsbog - radio transcribing expert and Washington Post writer - Dan Steinberg
@doubledays - Nats' new Single-A Affiliate, the Auburn Doubledays
@DrewStoren - Just a run-of-the-mill Stanford student and baseball star, Drew Storen
@federalbaseball - SB Nation Nats blog, Federal Baseball
@HagerstownSuns - Nats' Low-A Affiliate, the Hagerstown Suns
@HbgSenators - Nats' Double-A Affiliate, Harrisburg Senators
@hbgsensradio - Senators radio twitter account
@HendoDC - Columnist for Nats Daily News blog
@HeyClubbie - Mike Jech, Hagerstown Suns Clubhouse Manager
@JLannan31 - Opening Day starter and ground-ball expert John Lannan
@JWerthsBeard - Fantastic perspective from Jayson Werth's beard
@MarkZuckerman - Blogger for Hire
@masnBen - MASN Nats Beat Writer, extremely accessible to fans
@mattvita - Washington Post Sports Editor
@mlbtrnationals - MLB Trade Rumors: Nationals' specific feed
@MrIrrelevantDC - Side project of the Mottram Brothers
@natsdailynews - A wide variety of DC Baseball coverage, modern and historic
@NatsJournal - Washington Post's Nationals Journal blog
@NatsNewsNetwork - Credentialed Nats blog, great coverage
@NationalsPR - Official Public Relations Blog of the Nationals
@PNats42 - Nats' High-A Affiliate, Potomac Nationals
@RyanTatusko - Came over in the trade for Guzie, excelled in 6 games in Harrisburg
@StacheOBally - Exactly how it sounds, tweets from Balester's mustache
@SyracuseChiefs - Nats' Triple-A Affiliate, Syracuse Chiefs
@TheNatsBlog - Nats representative for the Bloguin Blog Network
@washingnats - Bill Ladson, MLB.com Nats' Beat Writer, used to love cheeseburgers

MLB:
@BattingStanceG - Batting Stance Guy, ridiculous musings about out-of-date players
@bigleaguestew - Yahoo! Sports MLB blog, 'Duk is a Blackhawks fan (boo)
@BtBScore - Beyond the Box Score, SB Nation Sabermetric blog
@jaysonst - ESPN.com writer Jayson Stark, has an affinity for obscure stats
@jcrasnick - ESPN.com and Baseball America writer Jerry Crasnick
@JimBowdenXMFOX - Former Nats' GM and now MLBNetwork Radio personality
@jimcallisBA - Baseball America prospect expert, very fan friendly
@jimcaple - ESPN.com writer and Sabermetric expert Jim Caple
@Joelsherman1 - New York Post Baseball Columnist, breaks many signings/trades
@JonathanMayoB3 - MLB.com prospect and draft guru
@JPosnanski - Sports Illustrated Columnist and brilliant (and long-winded) baseball writer
@Ken_Rosenthal - Fox Sports MLB expert, breaks many signings/trades, wears bowties
@MinorLeagueBlog - Top Prospect Alert, nightly tweets of top MiLB performers
@MinorsandMajors - Grant Paulsen, host of XM's Minors and Majors show
@MLBNetwork - Official twitter of the MLB Network
@mlbtraderumors - Breaking news of trades, signings, and other deals
@OldHossRadbourn - Ghost of Old Hoss Radbourn, 1880s pitcher, definition of old-school
@pgammo - Spink Award winner and Hall of Fame writer, Peter Gammons
@robyneyer - SB Nation writer, Sabermetrics-centered analysis
@SI_JonHeyman - Sports Illustrated and MLB Network Insider, Jon Heyman
@STATS_MLB - STATS LLC in Chicago, amazing baseball stats every night
@UniWatch - Uniform-centric coverage of all the major sports

Any additional people we should be following? Let us know in the comments!

2011 Primer: Part 2

For part 2 of this 4 part prep for the 2011 baseball season I want to take the time to focus on baseball's blogging world. All of us bloggers have our kinships and most include a blog roll listing other Nats blogs, because we all share in this love of our hometown team and wish each other success. We know that if you have found our home here at Capitol Baseball, that you most certainly frequent other Nats blogs, therefore this edition will be centered on non-Nats/General MLB blogs. These are some of our favorites, enjoy!

Joe Blog
http://joeposnanski.si.com
Joe Posnanski is one of the best writers in baseball today, and the AP Sports Editors have agreed, twice making him the Sports Writer of the Year. Yes, he can be a bit wordy, but more often than not his prose is moving and passionate, something that is in dire need in the sporting world today. His love of the game is both theoretical and filled with childish wonderment. Posnanski's favorite team is the Kansas City Royals, as that is where he is based and where he still writes for the Kansas City Star (in addition to his full-time job with Sports Illustrated), so it is very interesting to hear his musings on the various debacles that Dayton Moore gets the team into. If you want to be inspired you should look up his Sports Illustrated cover story on Zack Greinke's return to baseball despite suffering from chronic depression.

Big League Stew
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew
Yahoo! Sports has really hit the blogging jackpot with their sports coverage. Of the two sports I seriously follow (Baseball and Hockey) each of Yahoo's blogs on the subject is just a gold mine of quirky and must-read material. Continually running through the off-season and regular season, Big League Stew posts both newsworthy materials and Onion-like satirical stories. Besides, what's not to love about a blog who takes its name after a chewing gum stylized like chewing tobacco.

UniWatch
http://www.uniwatchblog.com
"The Obsessive Study of Athletics Aesthetics" might not be your cup of tea. But to Paul Lukas, Page 2 writer for espn.com, its become his life. The site has been around for several years and has turned into an amazing niche on the internet, drawing big name interviews with designers and clubhouse attendants alike. It is amazing what these people can pick up on, such as a slightly different style of lettering, or a drop shadow on one jersey but not on another. All in all, this blog is a lot of fun to read, and they post several reader submissions every day from eagle-eyed readers.

Baseball Nerd
http://keitholbermann.mlblogs.com
Major League Baseball has really started to improve their online presence in the last few years, and much of their improvement has come in blog form. MLB has asked several random fans and celebrities to write for their website's blogging network, and in this specific one Former-MSNBC Commentator and Pundit Keith Olbermann has taken the reins. Say what you will about his politics, but in this instance baseball has nothing to do with politics. Olbermann is a brilliant writer, and he, more than anyone, has the ability to wax poetic better than anyone short of Ken Burns about the cut of the grass and the dirt flying up from a stirrup-clad base-stealer.

Cot's Baseball Contracts
http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/
The single greatest place to go for contract information. Each team has its own section and includes information on the General Manager, Manager, in addition to each player under contract. The information included for each individual includes a detailed breakdown of their entire career, from the draft, to the minors, to the Majors. Cot's also has a complete list of arbitration eligible players, potential free agents, and team-by-team payroll breakdowns.

Fangraphs
http://www.fangraphs.com
In addition to their fantastic statistical database of all things baseball, Fangraphs also has a core staff of analysts on board. Focusing mostly on Sabermetric analysis, these writers also have quite a vast knowledge of each team's minor league system. If you are ever in the mood to see how Nyjer Morgan's steal of second increased the Nats winning percentage, head over to see what the Fangraphs' guys have to say about it.

Retrosheet
http://www.retrosheet.org
Once you start, you can't stop. This no-nonsense website is dedicated to preserving the best of MLB's history. Included on this bare-bones site is every single box score from every single game since 1919 and play-by-play for every game since 1950. And if that isn't impressive enough, they have a full statistical array of splits, batter-pitcher matchups, career ejection numbers, coaching records, umpire assignments, milestone dates for all players, ballpark directories cemetery locations, as well as noteworthy and quirky event listings (triple play, batting out of turn, passing runners on base, protested games, etc.). Warning: you will lose hours out of your day if you go to this site.

Click HERE to recap Part 1 of the 2011 Primer! And feel free to leave your favorite MLB-Centric sites in the Comments section!

2011 Primer: Part 1

Spring Training starts in just less than a month. I'll pause for the cheering to stop.

*Pause*

Good? Ok.

In honor of that, today we are starting a 4-part series, leading into Pitchers and Catchers reporting, that we are calling our 2011 Primer. Each Wednesday for the next 4 weeks we will be posting a new edition, focused on baseball's web presence and websites/blogs we think you should know.

Today's edition focuses on Baseball Websites (Non-Blog edition) which, in the course of our research/enjoyment we have stumbled upon. We hope that you will find these sites as infinitely valuable as we do; both in resources, hilarity, and enjoyment. As part of our ongoing support of all things baseball, we wanted to share these sites with you. Some of these sites you may know, some of these sites you may love, some of these sites you may hate, but either way, we would love to share these with you.

This is the Baseball Site (Non-Blog) edition.

Baseball Reference
http://www.baseball-reference.com
This site is the be-all-end-all of baseball's presence on the web. Everything you could possibly want to find, ever, if it relates to baseball. Stats, box scores, award voting, Hall of Fame voting, standings for every year in the modern era, draft results, saber stats, minor league stats, attendance figures, similar players, streaks, you name it. If you haven't yet, bookmark this site.

Fangraphs
http://www.fangraphs.com
Another stat focused website which also includes some original content. In addition to all of the traditional stats and splits, Fangraphs has much more of a focus on more modern stats in the Sabermetric ilk. The Sabermetric focus of this site is broken down further into specifics such as Fielding, Plate Discipline, Win Probability, and Value in addition to Batted Ball Percentages and Pitch Selection. One of the more fun features on this site is the Projections for future production.

MLB Trade Rumors
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com
If you are looking for anything revolving around trades, contract extensions or draft possibilities this is the site for you. MLB Trade Rumors (MLBTR) tracks every beat writer and columnist (and probably every player ex-girlfriend and clubhouse attendant as well) and conglomerates all news into their easy to read blog format. In addition to rumors and trades MLBTR also offers an Arbitration Tracker, Free Agent Tracker, Transaction Tracker, Future Free Agent Tracker, and an updated Draft Order. One of my favorite features is that they have an exclusive agreement with the Elias Sports Bureau to post an up-to-the-minute reverse engineered version of the Free Agent rankings; Type A, Type B, neither. And if you don't want to hear about anyone but our beloved Nats, MLBTR offers team specific Twitter/Facebook/RSS feeds updated only when that team is included in the post.

Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Page
http://www.sportslogos.net
You can, and will, spend hours looking at this page. Chris Creamer's has every single logo you could possibly imagine, for every single major sport. Not every major sports league, every major sport. If you are looking for any current logo of the past or present, from every baseball league from here to Korea; 23 Baseball leagues in all. When you get a couple hours to kill on a Wednesday at work or on a lazy Saturday afternoon, go over to this site and just enjoy yourself.

Batting Stance Guy
http://www.battingstanceguy.com
Gar Ryness has what he calls the "least marketable skill in America", why is this relevant? Because he can emulate any batting stance from any major leaguer ever, in a very comically accurate way. Starting as a YouTube guy, he has since been written a book, runs his website, and visits ballparks all across MLB. On his website you can see his impressions of several Nats players as well, from when he visited Nats Park and presented the starting lineup (http://www.battingstanceguy.com/2010/07/29/the-nationals-starting-lineup). Be sure to note his Ian Desmond - just fantastic.

Baseball America
http://www.baseballamerica.com
The place to go for prospect coverage. Their prospect handbook comes out once a year and immediately becomes a must read for any hardcore fan of High School, Junior College, NCAA, and Minor League baseball. Their website has content available to all users as well as premium content for subscribers, well worth the $66 a year if prospect talk is your thing. Each of their writers are considered industry insiders and are extremely knowlegable and well respected within all of baseball.

Are there any other sites that we should know about? Sound off in the comments!