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means you haven't voted for the contestant to move on to the next round.
means you have. No phone numbers with mildly scammy toll charges. No texting from your mobile phone. It's that simple.
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May 25, 2009 Prospectus IdolRound One - The BasicsIt's finally here. The process that started over a month ago is now ready for your input. Our hard-working judges turned their critical eyes on hundreds of entries to winnow the field to ten worthy finalists. The finalists' play-in entries have been published, giving everyone a glimpse of what they can do. Now we've got the voting code, the front-page widget, and the display firmed up, and hopefully it doesn't break. At long last, this. Is. Prospectus Idol. Good day to you, and welcome to the show. I'm Dave Pease, and it's an honor to be here with you today. Before we get started, give yourselves a round of applause. That's a good looking audience I'm seeing out there on the other side of those monitors and displays, which the sponsors always like, and an event like this simply wouldn't be possible without you. We're looking forward to working with you to determine the identity of this year's Prospectus Idol. Sure, we said "working with." Assisting you in your task to choose the best of the best are our beautiful and talented judges, who you doubtlessly know from their roles here at Baseball Prospectus: injury majordomo Will Carroll, prospect guru Kevin Goldstein, and Christina Kahrl, managing editor of baseballprospectus.com (and mistress of transactions). You'll find the judges' comments directly beneath each of the entries each week, giving you their take on the strengths and weaknesses of the effort. But in the end, it's up to you, Baseball Prospectus subscribers. Each week, you're be the voting body that decides who went big and who goes home. The process is simple. During the voting period, you'll have the opportunity to vote for any entry you feel is worthy-just click the thumbs-up icon at the top right of each article display.
Of course, you're going to need to be logged in to vote. If you're not a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, click here to see your options. If you've got skin in this game and you want your peeps to back you up, we hope you don't drop a bunch of coin to get them all gift subscriptions. That wouldn't be right. As a voter, you're going to need to decide how well each contestant fulfilled their weekly assignment. Opening week here at Prospectus Idol was inspired by our Baseball Prospectus Basics series, and is predictably being called "Basics Week". Here are the contestant's instructions, exactly as they received them: This week's theme is "The Basics." A couple years ago, we ran a series of "BP Basics" that attempted to explain what we do at BP to some of our newer readers. You'll be doing the same thing. Craft an article around one statistic or concept and explain it. Use examples. Don't be condescending, but make it so that your average baseball fan isn't going to lose it in the calculations. Please limit these to 1500 words, though this is a "soft" limit-you can go a bit over or use graphics without penalty. Use some sense; 1600 words is pushing it, 2000 is going to get sent back. Without further ado, let's get rolling! To read the articles and vote, click here to visit the Prospectus Idol page. You'll see the articles presented in random order, with two buttons on the right side of the display for each article. The first is a checkbox that indicates if you've read the article or not, and the second is whether you've voted for the author to continue on (if you're able to vote). Ask questions or make pointed suggestions in the comments section, and thanks again for participating!
Dave Pease is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @davepease
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After reading all ten articles, I have given the thumbs up to only three. I don't know if this says more about how underwhelmed I was by the Idol submissions, or how high the bar is set by the established BP contributors. Consider me a Simon I suppose.
I gave a thumbs up to five, just based on what was written and not previous articles. That being said, I had more fun reading the initial entries than this week's entries. It might be due to the choice of topic as "The Basics" which meant I wasn't reading it as much for my enjoyment as for accuracy and clarity to new BP readers.
I still read for my own enjoyment. My idea of what's a suitable introduction might differ from the ideas of others, but that's why we all get to vote.
I also voted for just 3. I'd rather not water down my vote, so I only voted for the authors I felt fullfilled the assignemnt "the best."
I ended up voting for 7, under the idea that the best ones will float to the top anyway and I'd rather give the ones who aren't the best some time to develop their voices... and perhaps come up with some new ideas. I'll definitely narrow who I give votes to in later rounds though.