At some point, you simply need to applaud Baseball Prospectus for the incredible amount of writing talent that the site is generating. Another former BP staffer has been hired by an MLB team – national prospect writer Jason Parks, heading to the Cubs as a scout.
Parks was actually promoted into his former role by BP to replace Kevin Goldstein, who was hired by the Astros two years ago and currently serves as their director of pro scouting. Last year, the Astros hired former BP staffer Colin Wyers in an analyst role. Both of those hires were pre-dated by BP’s Mike Fast also getting hired by the club.
On one rather selfish hand, it really sucks to see all of these talented writers and analysts getting gobbled up by pro teams, depriving all of us baseball fans of their work. On the other hand, it’s incredible to see all of these people who made their names writing about baseball online to get dream jobs working for MLB organizations. Numerous other writers from various outlets have been picked up by a variety of teams, and more also get work as consultants for MLB clubs.
But perhaps more amazing is the never-ending pool of talent that these teams have to siphon talent from. Parks replaced Goldstein at BP, and maybe in two years, Parks’s replacement will get hired by a club. Maybe more BP staffers, or talented writers at places like Fangraphs, are going to be hired by teams to be analysts or scouts. This isn’t about “the analytics revolution”, or whatever you want to call it – the revolution has already happened. This is about talented people that normally wouldn’t even get a glance from major league teams being hired into positions that they can thrive in.
It’s awesome to see the door getting kicked open for people like Goldstein, Wyers, and Parks. Hopefully they continue to succeed, and the pipeline between the online baseball community and the majors continues.
