Opening Up The Site To More Writing

As you may have noticed, this place has undergone some changes this offseason. After years of letting it slowly crumble, I put some effort into making it look a little nicer and work a little smoother. The goal was to do it all for myself in an effort to grasp onto motivation when it strikes. It also got me thinking about an idea I have been thinking about for over a year.

My goal is to open the doors to this site for others to write, but in a much different way than I have approached this before. I want to be very clear this is NOT a job. This is not a job for me either. I am not looking to make money on this or start a network. I also cannot pay anyone because there is no money involved. I also am not placing any expectations or commitments on anyone. If you look at this as a launching pad to a paid writing job, I hope it gets you that job.

What I do want to do is open this as a platform for people who want to write but don’t have access to a platform or an audience for self publishing. Some idea that passed through my mind included:

• People new to baseball writing who want to try it out and/or get some things written that they can show to others for further opportunities
• Individuals who want to write once or infrequently and don’t want to or can’t commit to an existing structure
• Individuals with a thought to write about and no place to publish it

That is not meant to be exhaustive and I am open to other ideas or suggestions. My general expectations for writing on the site are simple:

• No hate or discrimination.
• If there is something negative to write about a player or other person’s analysis, do not make it personal and back with fact based analysis.
• No fluff pieces or click bait. There is nothing to gain, so why take the time to write it.
• And on a less rigid side, nominally the audience is going to be interested in minor leaguers, Phillies, and baseball related topics. I am open to branching out if you think that audience is interested, but also keep in mind who might be reading.

Overall, my goal is to extend my platform to others who want to use it. I know it can be difficult to find your voice and hard to make it heard. I am not always the best mentor or advice giver, but I will help if I can if you want to write here or you are starting out on your own venture and want to bounce ideas off of someone.

If this is something that interests you or if you have questions or concerns about this, you can @ or DM me on Twitter (@Matt_Winkelman), @ me on Bluesky (@mattwinkelman.bsky.social), or email the site email philliesprospects@gmail.com.

Just potentially jumping ahead of a question about money and the fact that the site currently has ads on it. If you ask, I can show you the absolute pittance that those ads currently make. I do not plan on changing the algorithm to allow for predatory ads, so unless something dramatically changes, I am not counting on there being more money coming in. If that does change, I will make sure that it goes to those writing, but I would not count or expect it to change as part of a decision you make.