What are your thoughts on Andrew Stoeten and The Batflip?

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'm just curious what Jays fans think of him and his writing. I know he has moved publications a few times and is currently out on his own with The Batflip. With most of you being more on the analytical side of things, curious to hear your thoughts on him.

[Spanky99]

53 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I'm just curious what Jays fans think of him and his writing. I know he has moved publications a few times and is currently out on his own with The Batflip. With most of you being more on the analytical side of things, curious to hear your thoughts on him.

Stoeten had a beef with BlueJaysMessageBoard.com, lol.

[Jonn]

I know he has a lot of us blocked on Twitter.

[Terminator]

1 hour ago, Spanky99 said:

Stoeten had a beef with BlueJaysMessageBoard.com, lol.

Yeah he hates us lol. I can't remember what he called us. "Insufferable wet blankets" or something like that.

Aside from that, which I thought was funny more than anything else, he's not really my cup of tea.

• I find him to be nothing more than a passive observer. He doesn't really take a stance on anything, he just offers up milquetoast observations. Even the writers who work for the actual team offer up much sharper critiques than he does.
• Doesn't get into analytics much at all, though he's not completely ignorant of them.
• Gets way too political with things and lets it bleed into his baseball analysis. He is a bit of a social justice warrior which is rich coming from him. His Drunk Jays Fans days would make Andrew Tate blush.

 

[BatFlip]

5 hours ago, Terminator said:

Yeah he hates us lol. I can't remember what he called us. "Insufferable wet blankets" or something like that.

Aside from that, which I thought was funny more than anything else, he's not really my cup of tea.

• I find him to be nothing more than a passive observer. He doesn't really take a stance on anything, he just offers up milquetoast observations. Even the writers who work for the actual team offer up much sharper critiques than he does.
• Doesn't get into analytics much at all, though he's not completely ignorant of them.
• Gets way too political with things and lets it bleed into his baseball analysis. He is a bit of a social justice warrior which is rich coming from him. His Drunk Jays Fans days would make Andrew Tate blush.

 

Term hit it on the head.  He’s a decent writer when he tries and he has put more effort into analytics in recent years.

I find two things really annoying:

• He often squeezes in these social justice political takes and anti-corporate diatribes that I find condescending and off putting.
• He’s a master at double negatives which I find tiring, (made up example: “I don’t not like what Atkins is doing, but at the same time shouldn’t he not be judged by his teams performance, or lack of?”)  where he debates both positions and doesn’t end up taking a firm stance on anything.

All that aside, I do think he’s better than a lot of the other jays coverage out there, which may not be saying much.

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

16 hours ago, Spanky99 said:

Stoeten had a beef with BlueJaysMessageBoard.com, lol.

Well that's funny. My first Twins board had a beef with Aaron Gleeman (now Twins beat for The Athletic), though we buried that hatchet ages ago. I don't even know how it started, Gleeman is a really good writer, some of the board users just liked to harass him for whatever reason.

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Well that's funny. My first Twins board had a beef with Aaron Gleeman (now Twins beat for The Athletic), though we buried that hatchet ages ago. I don't even know how it started, Gleeman is a really good writer, some of the board users just liked to harass him for whatever reason.

This board would never harass anyone 🤥

[Terminator]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Well that's funny. My first Twins board had a beef with Aaron Gleeman (now Twins beat for The Athletic), though we buried that hatchet ages ago. I don't even know how it started, Gleeman is a really good writer, some of the board users just liked to harass him for whatever reason.

During the great Orioles Hangout wars earlier this century we also got into a battle with real life celebrity Roy Firestone

You don't hear too much from him anymore after he ran away with his tail between his legs after Spanky dropped the hammer on him for his disgraceful interview with OJ Simpson in the 1990s

[Brock Beauchamp]

7 minutes ago, Terminator said:

During the great Orioles Hangout wars earlier this century we also got into a battle with real life celebrity Roy Firestone

You don't hear too much from him anymore after he ran away with his tail between his legs after Spanky dropped the hammer on him for his disgraceful interview with OJ Simpson in the 1990s

The internet is a wild place, man. That's hilarious.

[Laika]

Have you ever seen two people meet IRL and they should be best friends but they end up as instant enemies because they are too alike? Almost a "this friend group isn't big enough for the both of us" situation? 

That is the relationship between Stoeten and this message board. 

On paper it's a perfect fit. He's a good writer, a bit analytical, extremely lazy, with a liberal slant. If you smush the entire message board into one loser, it's basically that ^. 

Oh well. 

I don't remember why he hated the message board in the past. I want to say it was political.

[Terminator]

14 hours ago, BatFlip said:

Term hit it on the head.  He’s a decent writer when he tries and he has put more effort into analytics in recent years.

I find two things really annoying:

• He often squeezes in these social justice political takes and anti-corporate diatribes that I find condescending and off putting.
• He’s a master at double negatives which I find tiring, (made up example: “I don’t not like what Atkins is doing, but at the same time shouldn’t he not be judged by his teams performance, or lack of?”)  where he debates both positions and doesn’t end up taking a firm stance on anything.

All that aside, I do think he’s better than a lot of the other jays coverage out there, which may not be saying much.

 

He is a decent writer. His laid back style drives me nuts when he doesn't take a stance on anything, but it also makes for an easy, quick and somewhat interesting read?

Agree on the analytics. I think he could speak to them more but a lot of his readers are casuals so I don't think he can push it too much.

And yeah, he is better than a lot of the other coverage. The At the Letters guys are growing on me. So are the Gate 14 guys actually who are just letting loose more than before and aren't afraid of offending anyone anymore. Stoeten probably right up there with the rest.

[Terminator]

49 minutes ago, Laika said:

I don't remember why he hated the message board in the past. I want to say it was political.

Does anyone here have the tweet? I think someone on twitter sent him a thread and asked him his thoughts and he said we were a bunch of kill joys or something. I think he thought we were being overly pessimistic about something because of analytics.

In addition to that, we have a loosely moderated style that he probably doesn't want to associate with but he should lighten up, it's a message board on the internet.

[Laika]

2 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Does anyone here have the tweet? I think someone on twitter sent him a thread and asked him his thoughts and he said we were a bunch of kill joys or something. I think he thought we were being overly pessimistic about something because of analytics.

In addition to that, we have a loosely moderated style that he probably doesn't want to associate with but he should lighten up, it's a message board on the internet.

I don't think he would care about loose moderation. He's a loose butthole kind of guy. 

But he probably came here one time while Connorp was on a steroid bender and thought we were all Nazis. Can't really blame him. 

He should have stuck around long enough to notice all the pinkos / Jimbos. 

[Gen.Disarray]

I think the uncharitable take is this board gives him imposter syndrome. 

He's a "real" baseball writer/thinker and so he's supposed to be more knowledgeable than most. But would he even be a top 10 baseball intellect on this board? Probably not. Can't imagine he likes that, and it's probably easier for him to just pretend to be above it.

[Laika]

That's true. 

Half of this message board would self-describe as "apathetic, anhedonic, no motivation, overweight, disappointment to my parents despite a slightly above the mean 105 IQ" so he would just be one of the gang. 

[John_Havok]

8 minutes ago, Laika said:

That's true. 

Half of this message board would self-describe as "apathetic, anhedonic, no motivation, overweight, disappointment to my parents despite a slightly above the mean 105 IQ" so he would just be one of the gang. 

Patently false. I don't care to describe myself as apathetic

[Spanky99]

Laika and Term, killed it in this thread, some sick knee slappers, " I WAS LAUGHING"

[Jimcanuck]

22 hours ago, Laika said:

He should have stuck around long enough to notice all the pinkos / Jimbos. 

I'm happy to be lumped together with pinkos

[dineke]

I liked Drew Fairservice and the other guy(I forgot his name) more than him when they were doing the score podcasts. Are they still around?

[Ryu In My House]

I have loved Stoeten's stuff for a while. I read his stuff probably before a lot of other writers, tbh. I also love anything written by Shi, even though he needs to be a company man.

[Laika]

There are lots of quality baseball guys in Toronto now.

I like Shi, Zwelling, BNS, and Keegan Matheson. 

[Dr. Dinger]

I heard he got s***-canned from TheScore for being drunk on the job. 
 

[Dr. Dinger]

8 hours ago, dineke said:

I liked Drew Fairservice and the other guy(I forgot his name) more than him when they were doing the score podcasts. Are they still around?

Dustin Parkes, who IIRC got hired by a front office. 

[max silver]

50 minutes ago, Dr. Dinger said:

I heard he got s***-canned from TheScore for being drunk on the job. 
 

That was the Athletic who fired him. I believe he was drunk for a podcast where Stephen Brunt was being interviewed. It's a shame he got himself shitcanned from the Athletic job as that publication used to feature 3 Blue Jays centered writers and now is down to none. 

[Brownie19]

7 hours ago, Laika said:

There are lots of quality baseball guys in Toronto now.

I like Shi, Zwelling, BNS, and Keegan Matheson. 

100%. Those are the guys.

[Dr. Dinger]

24 minutes ago, max silver said:

That was the Athletic who fired him. I believe he was drunk for a podcast where Stephen Brunt was being interviewed. It's a shame he got himself shitcanned from the Athletic job as that publication used to feature 3 Blue Jays centered writers and now is down to none. 

You’re right, it was the Athletic not The Score. I think maybe he felt like a sell-out and an imposter once they went corporate. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

12 hours ago, max silver said:

That was the Athletic who fired him. I believe he was drunk for a podcast where Stephen Brunt was being interviewed. It's a shame he got himself shitcanned from the Athletic job as that publication used to feature 3 Blue Jays centered writers and now is down to none. 

The Athletic doesn't have a Jays beat writer? Seriously?

[Spanky99]

32 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

The Athletic doesn't have a Jays beat writer? Seriously?

Was Kaitlyn McGrath but she moved on to a promotion.

[BB17]

Reality is being a beat writer is a pretty s***** job. You're probably making like 50K a year and have to work basically every day in the summer. 

[Mac]

I remember reading DJF near-daily and while I haven't kept up with his work as much since (especially post-Athletic), I have always counted myself as a fan of Stoeten and read/follow when I can.

FWIW, I had reached out to Stoeten over a decade ago for a project I was working on at the time and he was nothing but friendly and courteous to me with his time.