Oh, and congrats to Ben Lindbergh and Steve Goldman for getting acceptance into the BBWAA.

I sure hope that all the outraged SBN backers will be loudly proclaiming and supporting Bleacher Report in getting membership next year.

Does SB Nation actually do any writing to speak of? Every time I go over there, the articles are either snark fest or basically the equivalent to a twitter posts. People tell me if you search through it enough, you might get lucky to find a 500 word article by Neyer, but I haven't been able to do that.

I sure hope that all the outraged SBN backers will be loudly proclaiming and supporting Bleacher Report in getting membership next year.

Bleacher Report makes SBN appear to be ESPN combined with the Wall Street journal in comparison. They do these stupid ass slide shows masquerading as articles so that they can up their page hits. Cracked.com has the right way to up your page hits, without pissing off your readers, all articles are two-three different pages, not 30 pages for something labeled 30 greatest of whatever, using stock photo of the players and writing a one sentence summary.

Bleacherreport is really annoying as it clogs up my Tottehham news feed with an endlesss stream of uselessness. ####### hate bleacherreport. I like SB Nation for the individual team sites. It never occurs to me to check it out for more general sports news.

More importantly, when does BBTF get voting rights for the indie rock HoF?

"Too new" is the nice way of saying "their website looks like a cat through up all over 1992 AOL."

SB Nation is mostly snark, but there are a few sites - Beyond the Boxscore and John Sickels' site in particular, that I think are professional-quality writing.

I do think that Neyer should do more long-form writing a la Grantland or Joe Posnanski. Seems like too much of his stuff is just a few paragraphs - with most of that a block quote from another site.

When Neyer switched over to SBN I eagerly added it to my bookmark list. It took very little time for me to reach the same conclusions cfb reached and I deleted it (and I agree with his opinion of SBN vs. Bleacher Report).

Relative to what Craig wrote, it IS new, isn't it? Wikipedia (I know) says it started in 2009 which is pretty recent. FanGraphs has certainly existed longer than that. I think it sucks if Neyer is stripped of his membership because he clearly is writing about baseball and has a track record. I don't get the idea of stripping him of his membership but letting retired writers who by definition no longer have an affiliation or write about baseball maintain theirs.

Does SB Nation actually do any writing to speak of? Every time I go over there, the articles are either snark fest or basically the equivalent to a twitter posts.

Seriously, SB Nation is to sports news and analysis what Taco Bell is to cuisine. To compare them to a site like FanGraphs is insulting and ludicrous.

Bleacher Report makes SBN appear to be ESPN combined with the Wall Street journal in comparison. They do these stupid ass slide shows masquerading as articles so that they can up their page hits. Cracked.com has the right way to up your page hits, without pissing off your readers, all articles are two-three different pages, not 30 pages for something labeled 30 greatest of whatever, using stock photo of the players and writing a one sentence summary.

This - cripes I hate those slideshows... If you're going to do a list, just give me the damn list with capsules spread over a page or two -- enough with the stupid slideshows!

Exactly which part of SB Nation is insulting and ludicrous? There are so many writers and so many different styles I don't think you can pin it down. Some team sites are heavily stat and analysis oriented while others are rah rah while others are snarky and ironic. It's kind of a weird site that way in that it lacks any kind of unified editorial voice. It's also dependent on what kind of interaction it gets from its audience who produce a lot of the content. I actually think the site is an interesting experiment. Again, I don't really think of it as a "news" site, though.

Exactly which part of SB Nation is insulting and ludicrous? There are so many writers and so many different styles I don't think you can pin it down.

Right. That piece that Vlad wrote yesterday previewing the Rule 5 for Bucs Dugout I thought was as good or better than a lot of professional writing.

This - cripes I hate those slideshows... If you're going to do a list, just give me the damn list with capsules spread over a page or two -- enough with the stupid slideshows!

And what really ticks me off about it, is I'll do a quick research for something that I don't know much about(say top 30 wide receivers of all time) and because this gets so many page hits, it's the first one to up most of the time. I'm just curious to know where Isaac Bruce consensus rank is, I don't need to click 30 links to find out he isn't on a list.

Google lets you block domains from appearing in your searches now. I did that to bleacherreport.

I'll defend SBN. I don't bother reading the main sections or the city pages, as they seem to be closer to Bleacher Report than ESPN, but the team-centric blogs are great. Amazin Avenue, Royals Report, and a bunch of the others are quite good. But as pointed out by #11, there is no real central editorial voice -- probably why BBWAA doesn't like it. But then again, Fangraphs doesn't have one either.

It's Grant Brisbee's fault.

I read #16 too quickly as "It's Frisbee's fault," and for a half-second wondered why Frisbees were to blame in all of this... With the BBWAA you never know what their rationale might be for something, so it seemed plausible.

Good for FanGraphs. I don't always agree with them, but they do a lot of good work. They clearly deserve it, which is why I'm surprised it actually happened.

"Google lets you block domains from appearing in your searches now. I did that to bleacherreport."

Do tell.

I think SBN's appearance doesn't help. Visually it looks like the National Enquirer, and let's be honest, people form quick impressions.

I also find it a bit annoying to navigate -- and I say that as someone who still reads ESPN's site from time to time.

But yes, there are some good team-centric blogs and other articles there.

Do tell.

I think this is the link. You have to have a google account.

I think SBN's appearance doesn't help. Visually it looks like the National Enquirer, and let's be honest, people form quick impressions.

Years ago I saw a study that said peoples impression of a website was determined by the first .3 seconds visiting it. The visual appearance matters a lot, along with load time. One of the reason I think that baseball-reference used to be so great was it's quick load times(and in the past it didn't used to crash my browser if I had 10 of the same tabs open...thanks to the stupid tv on their site that is no longer the case)

I also find it a bit annoying to navigate -- and I say that as someone who still reads ESPN's site from time to time.

But yes, there are some good team-centric blogs and other articles there.

I hate sites that try to be different on their navigation, instead of just following the norm. MLB is like this, their team site is located way off to the right separate from their navigation page, I missed it for months because I just assumed anything far right was unimportant on a web page, as it is on useable web pages. It's where you put the about, the credits for the site etc. Not you put arguably your most important navigational tool. SBNation isn't so bad, except you have to dig down, except their front page of whatever sport you are looking at isn't well organized. They really need to have a central page dedicated to articles with a national interest, instead of highlighting them for a few hours and letting them drop off the page whenever someone wants to write a post about how Bobby Valentine didn't invent the pita wrap.

SBnation isn't even really a website so much as a content management systems used on 200 loosely-related websites.

If they were accredited, who would recieve accreditation? Just the full-time staff members, or every chump editor on every affiliated site?

I like many SBN sites, they seem to be the center of the hockey blogosphere for one, but the quality is variable to say the least.

Dave Cameron will become the 6th best Hall of Fame voter.

This place is SBNation...without the pretty pictures.

I can totally see Repoz not voting for Jeter because Jeter doesn't know #### about the 75-77 Indie New York Punk Scene.

SBNation is great for college football-I read Roll Bama Roll every day. But I always forget they have Rob Neyer, and at heart, they still are a fan site rather then a place for deep analysis. Though for entertainment, nothing beats the Meltdown, posted every Tuesday on RBR, for the sheer anguish teams fans feel in defeat.

I’m not at all pleased with SB Nation not making it. If for no other reason than this means that Rob Neyer and Amy K. Nelson, who have been BBWAA members for several years by virtue of their ESPN affiliation, are now officially on a one-year at-large membership. If SB Nation is not reconsidered next year, they presumably lose their ticket.

I'm very skeptical about this claim.

Commenters here are a lot more engaged with and informed about baseball than those at SB Nation. The pretty pictures don't matter here because they exist in the linked articles

Love fangraphs, but still, there are some things on that site that just don't belong.

That piece that Vlad wrote yesterday previewing the Rule 5 for Bucs Dugout I thought was as good or better than a lot of professional writing.

Thanks!

I can totally see Repoz not voting for Jeter because Jeter doesn't know #### about the 75-77 Indie New York Punk Scene.

Not true. Supposedly, Jeter is a big fan of The Dictators' "Manifistpump Destiny".

Doesn't SBNation have to get in line behind Hardball Times? Or are they already accredited?

That piece that Vlad wrote yesterday previewing the Rule 5 for Bucs Dugout I thought was as good or better than a lot of professional writing.



Thanks!

Pretty low bar, Vlad.

(No, seriously, it was great).