Prospectus Idol

Round Three - Below the Big Leagues

by Dave Pease

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It's the third week of Prospectus Idol, and we're ready to rock. I'm Dave Pease, and I always enjoy our time together.

Let's pick up where we left off last week and answer some of the questions that have been showing up in the comment threads.

You've been asking for:

Last comment time displayed on the landing page, so you can go by that instead of overall comment count when you're trying to determine if there have been new comments left on an entry. We're working on this, and I don't have an ETA yet.
Previous week results, so you can browse from the landing page to any week of the contest. Same story here; it's a definite need, and we've got it on our to-do list.
Announcement of results. Up until now, these have been Unfiltered posts, and we're probably going to keep them that way. What we need to do is link the results from the landing page so you can see a week's intro article, all the contestant entries, and the results in one place. That's in process.
Entrants author pages don't work. This is fixed. For example, click on "More by [entrant name]" in the Prospectus Idol box on any contest entry page, and you should be able to get to all of that author's articles.
Voting directly from the landing page. We've had some requests for the thumbs-up to work from the landing page. Right now, the thumbs-up serves as an indicator of whether you've voted or not, but it doesn't allow you to change your voting status; instead, you'll have to click through to the article and then click the thumbs-up there.

We could change this, but we want to be sure, short of pop quiz or some other active verification, that people are actually reading the articles they're voting on; that was our rationale for embedding the voting process directly in the article page in the first place. Also, I know there are a few people that want this because it's shown up in the comments a few times, but how many readers would be confused by changing this behavior at this point? If you've got interest in this particular change, please let us know what you think in the comments.

Now, let's get on with the main attraction. This week, we directed our contestants to cast their gazes downward from MLB and give us something about the lower levels of baseball. From Kevin Goldstein's contestant instructions:

This week's theme is . . . . . drum roll . . . .

BASEBALL BELOW THE BIG LEAGUES.

In other words, welcome to my world. Once again, this is a broad, broad subject. You can write about prospects, the minor leagues, the draft, high school baseball, North Dakota Little League playoffs, Japan, Honkball, you name it, you just can't write about the big leagues.

How'd the remaining eight finalists rise to the occasion? Let's have a look!

To read the articles and vote, click here to visit the Prospectus Idol page.

Dave Pease is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @davepease
Click here to see Dave's other articles. You can contact Dave by clicking here

15 comments have been left for this article.

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John Carter

(22689)

So, the hitlist, Richard?

I felt Ken's blew away the competition this week - enough to put him in about a tie with Tim for the top spot. However, based on the comments, I see Tim riding a tidal wave back to the top of your list.

Although, there was an improvement in organization from Brittany over her mess from the previous week, it was so full of errors I don't see her continuing.

Everyone else had a good worthwhile submission. Assuming Brittany is out, the BP Idol standings beyond the top three should be very compact.

Jun 08, 2009 11:06 AM