In the three weeks since we announced RAB is shutting down, I’ve been overwhelmed by thank yous and people reaching out to tell me what RAB means to them. It means a lot to me (to us) and I thank everyone who reached out.
In those three weeks I’ve also been overwhelmed by folks asking where they can get their Yankees fix going forward. With no more RAB, people want to know where to go next, so I figured it was worth putting together this “guide to life after RAB” post. It feels presumptuous (who made me bloglord?), but people want it, so here it is.
Going forward, the RAB website will remain live so you can go back through the archives, though the site will not be updated. Our Twitter account @RiverAveBlues will remain active though. That’s easy enough. Here is everything I could cobble together for the post-RAB world. I hope this helps, and thank you again for reading.
“RAB Thoughts” Patreon
In our shutdown post I said I was considering a mailing list/newsletter type thing with a weekly “thoughts” style post. Posts like this. You’ve seen plenty of them even if you haven’t been reading RAB all that long. I’ve decided to go through with the once-a-week thoughts posts. I’m still going to have the itch to write (and fanboy and complain) about the Yankees, and one post a week shouldn’t be a burden.
These weekly thoughts posts won’t appear at RAB and they won’t be free. I’ve set up a $3 per month Patreon page called RAB Thoughts. Create a Patreon account (the account itself is free) if you don’t have one already, then click the “Become a Patron” button on the RAB Thoughts page, and you’re in. Weekly thoughts posts for the cost of one non-Starbucks cup of coffee a month. You’ll get an email each time a post goes live. There’s also a Patreon mobile app and you can received a notification for new posts. Easy peasy.
I am leaning toward Wednesday being thoughts post day. I definitely don’t want to do it Monday because it’ll hang over my head all weekend. Wednesday’s a good day right in the middle of the week. Maybe Thursday works better because it is typically the end of the previous series and start of the new series. I’ll see how it goes. For now, the first post will be Wednesday, May 8th. I’m taking the rest of this week off, so it’ll start up next week.
(Update: Just to be clear, the Patreon will be year-round, not just during the baseball season.)
Where you can find us
- Mike Axisa (Twitter: @mikeaxisa): CBS Sports
- Ben Kabak (@benyankee): Second Ave. Sagas
- Joe Pawlikowski (@joepawl)
- Jay Gordon (@jaydestro)
- Derek Albin (@derekalbin): Bronx Beat podcast (occasionally) and Baseball Prospectus
- Matt Imbrogno (@mimbro1): Locked on Yankees podcast (occasionally)
- Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim): FanGraphs, The Athletic
- Bob Montano (@mr_bobloblaw)
- Katie Sharp (@ktsharp): Talkin’ Yanks podcast
- Steven Tydings (@StevenTydings): YES Network
Yankees news and analysis
- Lindsey Adler at The Athletic (subscription site but well worth it)
- Bronx Pinstripes
- It is High! It is Far! It is … Caught.
- Pinstripe Alley
- Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
- Start Spreading the News
- Yanks Go Yard
I leave you with a smorgasbord. Try a little of everything and see what you like. Personally, I read everything Lindsey writes (no, The Athletic is not paying me to say that) and pretty much everything at RLYW. I enjoy the snark and the short, snappy posts.
Minor league daily updates and analysis
- Bronx Baseball Daily
- Pinstriped Prospects
- Prospect Pipeline (daily box scores in one place)
- The Bronx View
The Bronx View runs a daily update post similar to DotF. Pinstriped Prospects is the best independent source for farm system news and they provide lots of original reporting, including Extended Spring Training information that is impossible to get anywhere else.
Stats and other information
- Baseball Savant (Statcast data and the site has so many tools that it’s intimidating)
- Baseball Reference (my go-to for quick look-ups)
- Brooks Baseball (PitchFX data)
- Cot’s Baseball Contracts (in-depth contract information)
- FanGraphs (good for easily accessible batted ball and plate discipline stats, among other things)
- The Baseball Gauge (many neat tools, including Championship Probability Added)
FanGraphs has a bullpen workload page similar to ours, though it doesn’t include warm-ups or Triple-A pitchers. The individual player pages at Baseball Savant (here is CC Sabathia’s, for example) are incredibly useful. Traditional stats, Statcast, heat maps, the works. My best advice — my only advice, really — is to keep playing around with each site. There’s so much information and so many tools available these days that it can be overwhelming, I know. Give it time and you’ll learn your way around.