November 26, 2014 at 1:38 PM
SoxProspects Staff Announcement: Promotions and new hires!
As we're getting into the full swing of hot stove season, I want to take a minute to thank all of our readers for reading the site, and I also want to thank the SoxProspects.com Staff for all their hard work this year. We're on pace for approximately 15 million pageviews in 2014, which will make it one of our best years ever. I also want to make a bunch of site announcements that will surely top the Red Sox' announcement of the signings of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez yesterday.
First, in the scouting world, Chaz Fiorino has been promoted to Assistant Director of Scouting. A graduate of MLB Scouting Bureau Scout School, Chaz just joined the SoxProspects staff this past January. He hit the ground running and attended dozens of games over the course of the year, making monstrous contributions to our scouting reports. Chaz will continue to report to Director of Scouting Ian Cundall, who has fairly recently taken a more active role in the management of the site. Chris Mellen, now the Co-Director of the Prospect Team at Baseball Prospectus, remains a valued scouting adviser.
Over in the writing department, James Dunne has been promoted to Senior Staff Writer. James joined the SoxProspects staff in November 2011. In 2014, he grabbed more breaking news stories than anyone on the staff. Jim Crowell has also been promoted to Senior Staff Writer. He has been with us since July 2011, contributing to breaking news, notes columns, the Cup of Coffee, and columns. John Gray, Will Woodward, Brian Gagnon, and Harry Burnham are all also back for 2015, rounding out a fantastic returning writing and editing staff, managed by Executive Editor Chris Hatfield and Managing Editor Matt Huegel, both of whom also serve as columnists and scouts. Additionally, Jon Meoli and Tim Healey will stick around as emeritus columnists, contributing if and when they can.
I'm also very excited to announce that we've added four new writers to the Staff. Katie Morrison recently graduated from Northeastern (go Huskies) with a degree in communications. She has worked as an online content contributor for WEEI.com and a broadcast statistician for WEEI Radio, and came highly recommended. Jack Mitchell is a journalism student at the University of Connecticut, currently in his junior year. He has worked as an associate managing editor for The Daily Campus and done freelance work for the Hartford Courant and the Ipswich Chronicle. Eric Gendron is a reporter for The Darien Times. He has a communications degree from the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College (go Bombers). Nick Rabasco is a junior at East Stroudsburg University, majoring in communications and minoring in English. He’s also a 2B/OF on the school’s baseball team.
It’s also bittersweet to announce that Dan Hanson and Luke Lavoie will no longer be with the staff in 2015. Dan had been with us for a while, but with a fourth child recently arrived and an expert taste in wine, he has much higher callings to attend to. Luke is writing for the Howard County Times and the Laurel Leader.
On the web editing side, I’m happy to announce that longtime stalwarts Mike Reynolds and Steve Henley will be around for another year. Additionally, Jonathan Singer was promoted to Senior Correspondent earlier this year. Jon has been with the site for about ten years, so long that I can't even nail down his start date. Additionally, JP Kitson, Andrew Kolodziej, Matt Picard, Rebecca Fishbein, and Keith Wade will return for another year as web editors in 2015. Matt will be taking on a much larger role covering player transactions, replacing Alex Skillin, who’s moving on to focus his writing with SB Nation, Hardball Times, and Beyond the Box Score.
Last but not least, the forum moderators. I’m sad to report that Adam Fox has decided to step down after over ten years as a moderator. I want to thank Adam for all his hard work and contributions to the site over the past ten years. He will truly be missed. The returning moderating staff for 2015 includes Josh (chavopepe2), a longtime Senior Moderator, John (jmei), a newly-promoted Senior Moderator, Norm (oregonnorm), and Matt Picard. We’re also adding two new moderators – longtime readers Norberto (pedroelgrande) and Joel (iakovos11).
With all of the new additions, I’m very excited about the "prospects" for 2015. See what I did there?
Cheers,
Mike Andrews
Founder & Editor-in-Chief