Baseball Prospectus announced yesterday that they’ve been bought by a group led by Jim Walsh. Walsh is the founder of the now defunct Maple Street Press, which produced annuals about the Boston Red Sox and Notre Dame football, among others.
Dave Pease, a writer for Baseball Prospectus, made the announcement on their site, saying, “Over the past few months, we’ve been in discussions with a group of baseball enthusiasts who think the same way we do about putting quality content at the top of the list. Late last week, we completed the sale of the company to this group, which is led by Jim Walsh.”
Baseball Prospectus is well known in baseball circles for their eponymous bestselling annual magazine, the 20th edition of which was recently published.
They are also known for their PECOTA player forecasting system, created by former Baseball Prospectus writer Nate Silver, who went on to write the New York Times bestseller The Signal and the Noise as well as found FiveThirtyEight.com.
The list of Baseball Prospectus alumni is an impressive one, and includes current ESPN writers Keith Law, Christina Kharl, Ben Lindbergh, Jonah Keri, and Rany Jazayerli, as well as Jay Jaffe and Joe Sheehan, who write for Sports Illustrated. Baseball Prospecutus has also had a number of contributors join MLB front offices, like Mike Fast, Colin Wyers, and Kevin Goldstein of the Houston Astros, Keith Woolner of the Cleveland Indians, and Dan Turkenkopf of the Tampa Bay Rays, among others.
Keith Law chimed in on the sale by commmenting, “I’m thrilled to hear this news, even though it ends any formal tie I had to BP. I got my start here, so it still holds a special place in my heart. I’m glad to hear of the new leadership team and the strong financial backing BP will have going forward.”
Pease emphasized that things would not be changing at Baseball Prospectus as their current staff of writers will remain and continue churning out content for analytics-minded baseball fans. For those interested in learning more about Jim Walsh, there is an interview with him on the FanGraphs podcast with Carson Cistulli.
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