Welcome to BP Boston

If you enjoy the Red Sox, baseball in general and the internet, we hope BP Boston is the site for you.

The goal of this project is, on the surface, pretty simple. We want to take the quality analysis, polished tone, unique perspective and all-encompassing approach to baseball writing that our mother site, Baseball Prospectus, employs, and apply it specifically to the Red Sox. Yes, there’s a lot of great writing about the Red Sox out there and we encourage you to read and react to all of it. But from our point of view, there’s always room for unique content, especially when you’re dealing with as rabid a fanbase as the one the Red Sox boast. Really, we want to build a community of thoughtful, passionate, open-minded Sox fans while usually creating content unbiased enough to appeal to a wider pool of baseball fans, too. Usually.

So what types of pieces can you expect to read on BP Boston? There’s no way to give a complete answer to that question yet, because our goal is to be as open to new and existing concepts as possible.  You’ll read some 2,000-word pieces on Wade Miley’s pitch selection. You’ll read opinion pieces about Ben Cherington’s roster construction. You’ll read shorter posts on how Christian Vazquez’s loss impacts the Red Sox’s pitch framing projections, and you’ll read prospect scouting reports, poems about Xander Bogaerts’ eyes, odes to David Ortiz and everything in between.

What you’re not likely to read, at least in the early days of the site, is news. We know we can’t beat Twitter, and we see little point in regurgitating the same news item that 20 other outlets can bring you simultaneously. Plus, Boston is a uniquely great town for beat writers, with some of the most talented journalists in the industry covering the team on a daily basis. Our place isn’t to compete with them. Instead, it’s to take the news they unearth, digest it and present it in a unique way. There might not be value in telling you exactly what’s already happened, but if we can make you think about a transaction in a new light or get you looking at the game a little differently or just make you laugh, well, there’s plenty of worth in that.

And we have just the staff for the job. From familiar Red Sox writers to objective analysts who pull for other teams, we have a diverse collection of talent here at BP Boston. Our initial roster of columnists, authors and contributors is composed of: Matt Kory, Ryan P. Morrison, Bryan Grosnick, Matt Collins, Alex Skillin, Bryan Joiner, Dustin Palmateer, Mark Smith, Wilson Karaman, Brett Cowett, Nick Canelas and Chris Teeter, and there’s likely more help on the way in the future. With this group of writers, everything from detailed statistical analysis to thoughtful opinion pieces to offbeat posts is on the table.

As you get a feel for the site over the coming weeks, please give us feedback as to what you like and what you want to see more of. In this internetting age, building a thoughtful group of commenters is essential to any site, and that’s what we want here. Be civil, be open-minded and be specific in your comments and critiques, and you’re likely to find a collection of fans as passionate and knowledgeable as you are. You can have a real say in the direction of this site, and we assure you that our staff will always be willing to continue the discussion with you.

This is an exciting time to be a Red Sox fan. The team has competent ownership, stars with a real connection to the city, talented young players and just enough question marks to make us all uneasy. Anyone who’s been a Sox fan for the past few years has experienced ultimate triumph, bitter defeat and everything in between, and this year, it seems any outcome is equally as feasible.

Will Dustin Pedroia find his power again? Will Clay Buchholz grow into his role as staff ace? Will Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts become the next faces of the franchise? Will Blake Swihart be traded for Cole Hamels? Will David Ortiz ever stop hitting?

We can’t possibly know yet, but over the course of the next 162 games and beyond, we look forward to finding out together.

Photo by Kelly O’Connor, sittingstill.smugmug.com