Baseball America
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Baseball America is a magazine covering baseball at every level, and a particular focus on up-and-coming players in high school, college, Japan and the minor leagues. Baseball America also regularly publishes lists of the top prospects in the sport, and covers all aspects of the game from a player-development point of view.
Founded in 1981, Baseball America quickly established itself as the foremost baseball-only publication and has grown into a full-service media company. Founder Allan Simpson began writing the magazine from Canada, originally calling it the All-America Baseball News. By 1983, Simpson moved the magazine to Durham, North Carolina, after it was purchased by then-Durham Bulls owner Miles Wolff. Simpson has since resigned his position at the magazine, and the publication has passed to co-editors in chief John Manuel and Will Lingo. Baseball America is home to a ten-man editorial staff. It also uses out-of-office correspondents for its print content. Baseball America works in conjunction with Major League Baseball, ESPN, and the NCAA.
The publication's headquarters are in downtown Durham, just blocks from the home of the Durham Bulls, a minor league team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. Its motto has been, and continues to be, "Baseball news you can't find anywhere else."
Baseball America is currently available in a bi-weekly newspaper publication, a total of five annual reference book titles, a weekly podcast, and a website - now equipped with blogs.
Since 1981, the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award is given to a single minor league player judged as having had the most outstanding season.
Philosophies
Baseball America attempts to capture the consensus views of the scouting community in its writing and rankings. They are able to provide the information that they do because of their strong relationships with this community. The publication was known for using statistics sparingly, and primarily emphasizing stats like wins and batting average when it did. Since the departure of Simpson, Baseball America has started using the newer batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage stat line when referring to hitters in place of the traditional batting average/home runs/runs batted in stat line.
