IPI Site News: Changes To Announce

As I hinted about back in September, some changes were coming for me this offseason. Nothing will change with this site as everything will stay the same.  In fact, things should only continue to (hopefully) get better with more content and information being provided.

The biggest change involves me now doing an exclusive blog called "Minor Happenings" on SportsTime Ohio's site at http://www.stohd.com/. I'll be blogging there throughout the week with some flash analysis, commentary, breaking news and more on anything Indians related, be it the big league team or the minor leagues.

The content on the blog will be exclusive only to STO's site, so I won't be replicating it here at the same time that it posts there. This is a big change as in the past everything I used to post on STOHD.com which directed back to TheClevelandFan.com (TCF) was also posted here.  That will not happen anymore as the posts will now exclusively go to STOHD.com and will not be directed back to TCF or my site here at the IPI.

It should be noted that a lot of the things I post on the new "Minor Happenings" blog at STOHD.com will still find their way here and with more detail. I'll explain more later how this change will impact things with coverage next year, but like I said, nothing will change with my site and no content will be lost. Everything, in some form or another, will make it back here.

The other change is I am doing some writing for a local newspaper in Northeast Ohio, the Ashtabula Star Beacon.  I have been doing a weekly Indians "notes" column and a few of my other columns have been appearing in their paper and on their site for almost two months now.  These articles are not exclusive to the Star Beacon, so they have and will continue to post here on the IPI as well in their entirety as soon as they post. 

The other change is I unfortunately have to say goodbye to TheClevelandFan.com (TCF) as with the parameters set forth by the new blog on STOHD.com nothing is to post anymore to TCF.

It's a bittersweet feeling as TCF was the place where all of this really started five years ago.  I was part of the original group of writers at TCF (formerly SwerbsBlurbs) that site owner Rich Swerbinsky unveiled to the masses back in January 2006. I had been writing at SportsTalkCleveland.com for a few years, but had never really 100% dove into writing until joining forces with Rich and his staff.  From day one he and I worked together with a few others in getting the site prelaunch setup in December 2005 and January 2006, and then once it was launched actively promoted it to every Cleveland sports message board and any other outlet I could find in order to help increase exposure as fast as humanly possible.

One of those message boards back then I actively promoted TCF's efforts to quite often was STO's old message boards. I used to link out my Minor Happenings column to their message boards during the 2006 season, and somehow an executive got wind of a linked story on their message board that October.  After the executive got in contact with me, I quickly forwarded him on to Rich and the rest is history.  In the four years since then TCF has become STO's main vehicle for on-line content and I myself have benefitted by becoming much more involved in the baseball scene. For that I am truly thankful of the opportunity that Rich gave me back in the days when his website was just an idea, and has since become a haven for many Cleveland fans.

About three years ago I approached Rich to add a page to his site so I could better provide content specific to the Indians minor league system.  At his request, I started my own site, and that is where the IndiansProspectInsider.com was born back in October 2007.  Since then my primary focus has shifted to my site, especially in the last year, but I have always continued to actively promote TCF when and where possible and continued to do things for the site.

Over the years Rich has always actively promoted his writers for a more involved role with STO.  We have seen it in the past with Paul Cousineau hosting an episode of "All Bets Are Off With Bruce Drennan" and others being involved in some projects.  I am extremely grateful for that, and in the end it was pretty much a mutual parting for me and TCF.  If there is any disappointment, it is the lack of communication Rich and I have had in the past year, especially with the new change as to date I have not received any communication from him giving a simple "congrats" or "thanks".

But that all said, I leave with nothing but the utmost respect for the entire staff at TCF and wish them the best going forward. There is a boatload of talent on that site, a lot of which I am not afraid to admit are much more talented "writers" than myself.

Anyway, with these changes you can expect even more coverage of the Cleveland Indians minor league system. Many new ideas are in play for next year with new features, some specific only on STOHD.com and some new wrinkles being added to my site.

In addition to all of that, as you may have noticed I am also now concentrating a lot more on the big league team and will be doing that a lot more going forward. I'll also look to continue to add more writers to my site looking to cover the Indians from the big league team all the way down to rookie ball in the minors. My hope is in the very near future this will be the #1 site for everything that is Cleveland Indians baseball.

So check out the new blog at STO often, and thanks for the continued support and most of all thank you for reading!

Posted in: SportsTime Ohio,STO