I thought I’d celebrate the opening of Da Morgue.org with a Classic Top Ten Thursday. This is one I’ve been meaning to do for a while after I found out that Sean had been reading ussmariner.com. Here is a collection the best websites that I read on a daily basis.
10. Major League Baseball Trade Rumors- MLBTR.com
Your one stop shop for any rumors going on throughout the mainstream baseball media. They basically scour all of the daily newspapers, websites like ESPN and FOX Sports, and smaller blogs and weed out the nonsense and give you the rumors. The one drawback is sometimes things can be misinterpereted by the sites authors and rumors are created rather than reported. But as long as you’re careful this is a great place to get the quick and dirty news of the day.
9. Pro Ball North West (formerly Bleeding Blue and Teal)-proballnw.com
At first glance just a normal fanblog but as I kept reading the author Jon Shields who resides in Vancouver, WA has a great feel for baseball writing and gives his unique opinions on Mariner happenings.
8. The Hardball Times/ShysterBall–hardballtimes.com
The Hardball Times is a great sabermetric analysis website that has a collection of statistics and articles. Most of the articles are a little above the normal readers head, but their resident blogger Craig Calcaterra discusses all aspects of baseball. Calcaterra’s a lawyer by day and also blogs for NBCsports.com. He discusses everything from stadium politics, to baseball business, to wierd happenings around the MLB.
7. The Hot Stone League-seattletimes.com/hotstoneleague
Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone uses this venue to discuss more national topics, usually with some sort of local connection. Since it is a newspaper blog you usually get stuff that does not make it into the print articles like miscellaneous quotes.
6. Shannon Drayer 710 ESPN-mynorthwest.com
Shannon Drayer is the only beat writer that actually travels and is employed with the team. She has a truly unique perspective and her blog usually focuses more around clubhouse happenings and really interesting stories. It is much more personal than some of the other sites and is really the only place that lets you peek into the lives of the Seattle Mariners.
5. Fangraphs-fangraphs.com
Fangraphs is another sabermetric analysis website that provides a plethora of statistics and even has a search plug in for firefox. I visit this site at least a dozen times to day as a quick reference to advanced metrics such as Win Values or Ultimate Zone Rating. It really is a one stop shop for everything in advanced baseball statistics.
4.Prospect Insider-prospectinsider.com
Jason Churchill is a local blogger who’s site grew and now he writes for ESPN with BBWAA writer Keith Law. Churchill’s focus is almost exclusively about the Mariner’s minor leagues. He has many sources including scouts from all over the league and is the place to go if you want to learn about minor leaguers coming back in trades that the M’s have recently made.
3. Geoff Baker-seattletimes.com/marinersblog
We are truly lucky to have a beat writer as good as Baker for our local newspaper. Along with writing great articles in the print editions, he goes above and beyond on the internet providing podcasts, video tours of stadiums, extensive spring training coverage. I don’t always agree with his opinions but what he is doing for the newspaper industry is great.
2. Lookout Landing-lookoutlanding.com
Lookout Landing is run by Jeff Sullivan who is a biochemist that lives in San Diego who loves the Mariners. I’ve talked to him via email and on the phone on a couple of occasions for my articles at school and I’ve got to say for someone who isn’t involved with baseball for a living he knows a lot about it. Like ussmariner, lookout landing has a lot analysis articles, but what I like about it is reading Sullivans personal post game thoughts. He is frequently hilarious and extremely entertaining to read.
1. Uss Mariner-ussmariner.com
Run by Dave Cameron, who also writes for fangraphs and the Wall Street Journal, and Derek Zumsteg, USS Mariner is packed full of analysis, ideas, criticisms and praise for the Mariners. My brother introduced me a couple years ago and I never stopped going. It is one of the most nationally recognized local sports blogs out there and for good reason. If you only read one of these websites ever, this is the one.