The Simmons Site

The site has underwhelmed. But it's still early. Still, I would say I'm not entirely optimistic of its potential. I feel most of the talent has been used wrongly thus far.

And, yes, unfortunately Simmons is the most popular sportswriter right now. It's more a statement of our society than it is of him.

 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6746478/undervalued-sluggers

With this...I like the topic, but two things about the actual article bothered me.

1) I know it hasn't been Grantland's thing to quote people too much (at least in what I have read), but it would have been nice to have heard from Bob Melvin or someone else high up with the Brewers about their team's make-up.

2) If the end point was that the 1982 Brewers were built in a similar fashion, why did there need to be so much lead-up about Tampa Bay and the 1991 Braves? I think it's good that the contrast was mentioned (and because the article also focused on how this different approach may work), but I think the lead-in ended up putting this article in the batch of, "This was too long" pieces.

 

I think it is a very positive comment on Grantland and by extension Simmons' editorial leadership that there is so much actual discussion on this thread about the quality of the journalism presented there. Praise or rips, when's the last time that happened.
I reiterate my oft-stated opinion that while I think Simmons' writing sucks, as a big idea guy, he's terrific. If I had a couple of billion bucks to throw around, he could be my surrogate mass media mogul any day.

 

We haven't been given the clicks for our stories—I haven't, anyway—but I know in the first week, Grantland was getting 1.8 million hits a day. My guess, and it's just a guess, is that the large majority of those hits are for Simmons and Klosterman. They are hugely popular writers.

 

Grantland fact: No one can match this level of intelligent essay writing: http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/07/07/3000-words-about-derek-jeter/

 

Well done. Really defines the complexity in getting 3000 hits and Jeter's place in baseball.

That is the type of story that Grantland needs more of if they want to retain my interest.

 

I need to read 3,000 words on Jeter the way I need to read a Reality Fantasy League story.

 

I remember reading somewhere (probably Poynter) that MMQB is the most read story on SI.com every week and that it gets more hits than stories No. 2 through No. 10 combined.

I'll bet Simmons' columns on ESPN.com cleared 2.5 million.

 

Does it kill you to not know your numbers?

 

I'm surprised they don't know their numbers. We knew our numbers every day, which was just as demoralizing. "Oh, so a photo album of people at the state fair got 500,000 more clicks than a NFL game that we sent four writers and two photogs to?"

 

I'd rather know 'em than not.

Walking around ignorant is seldom the preferred state of affairs.