The Daily Grind Transforms

The Daily Grind will become something new this year. Fans of the column can rest assured; it will be a familiar sort of new. The motivation behind the changes is to improve the overall product. My personal goal is to win the FSWA award for best fantasy baseball column. Today’s post will introduce some of my plans and open the comments to reader ideas.

Years ago, when I created TDG for The Hardball Times, it was designed as something I could whip together in 30 to 40 minutes before work. The mission was to provide traditional fantasy owners in daily moves leagues with a wide slew of streaming options. Over time, daily fantasy was included in the analysis.

I’m proud of what we accomplished in the past. I recommended that users stream a long list of fantastic hitting and pitching performances – most memorably Phil Humber’s perfect game. However, it’s time for the column to transform from a list of rapid fire impressions to something more lovingly curated.

The new Grind will lack the breadth of streaming and DFS picks of past seasons. Instead of listing nearly every streaming eligible player, the column will focus on more detailed analysis of just a few players. The specific execution is still undecided and will likely vary in the first few months.

There’s a good reason to drop the scattershot approach – we have comments. We’ve always had great chats, and I intend to encourage further interaction this year. If you want the old rapid fire impressions about certain players, you need only ask.

In addition to a more focused approach, the Grind will regularly include whimsy from the previous day, tactical and strategic advice for a wide range of formats, swing analysis from expert Dan Farnsworth, and GIFs to support my wide and wild assertions.

The best news – I’ve shaken the FanDuel sponsorship for this season. No more annoying ad, no more generic headlines. FanDuel remains my favorite DFS site, but that doesn’t mean they need to be splattered all over the column. I’ll use MLBTR style headlines this season. For example, The Daily Grind: Opening Day, Hughes, Carrasco, Yankees would indicate that I’ll have some opening day info, pitcher analysis of Phil Hughes and Carlos Carrasco, and something to say about the Yankees.

The first month of the season is always a work in progress. That’s where you come in. I appreciate any feedback or recommendations for the column. Do note that there are still time constraints. I won’t be able to implement some good ideas simply because they’re too labor intensive. However, there might be an easier way to offer similar content, so don’t self-censor. Just don’t take it personally if I can’t fit your idea into my morning routine.

Those are my plans for the column. I want to foster a place where folks can congregate and chat about a variety of fantasy baseball topics. Most importantly, I want the Grind to be a place of teaching and learning. Around the World Wide Webs, most fantasy analysis is geared towards shoving halfcocked analysis down the reader’s throat. We don’t need more of that. Instead, let’s make a micro-community for information exchange.

The ball is in your court (yeah, wrong sport). What do you want to see in The Daily Grind this year?