Minor League Ball: State of the Union

It is time for a State of the Union address and an update on how things are going around here.

As you know, I am working on the Top 20 Prospects list per organization and 2014 Baseball Prospect Book. This is not an either/or thing: the prospect lists are generated as part of the book-writing process. The book is the foundational research document for everything that happens here in the coming season: researching and writing the book is how I know what I know (and how i know what I don't know). Without the book writing process, there is no blog.

This process has developed over the last decade and it works pretty well. But as you also know, the process is way behind schedule this season, thanks to the concussion I suffered back in October.

The concussion left me almost completely unable to work properly for almost two months. When I got back in the saddle in December, I hoped I could finish the book in a timely manner and come out with the book and the prospect lists only a couple of weeks late.

It turns out that this was unrealistic. Try as I might, I am still not 100%. It is taking me much longer than normal to write, it is difficult to make judgments on borderline cases,  and  it is taking me three days to write what I can normally write in one. In the last few days the physical symptoms from the concussion are returning, with headache, depression, and difficulty to concentrate foremost. It is not as bad as it was back in November, but I have clearly pushed too quickly and my body is letting me know. This is not normal writer's block. It is biological.

Most everyone has been supportive, but the clock is ticking and I'm now getting frequent questions about when the book will be out and the lists complete. And the honest answer is that I don't know. I'd like to think I can have everything finished in another three weeks, but even that would require an accelerated pace that I don't seem able to sustain right now.

The book will get done: lots of people have already pre-paid and for financial reasons alone it has to get finished. Not to mention, If I don't write the book I would not be properly prepared to run things around here during the regular season. So it will get done. I just don't know when. I know this is inconvenient for people with fantasy drafts before spring training, but there is nothing I can do about it. The book doesn't write itself, and I'm the only one who can do it.

This weekend I have to take a few days away from my computer and travel to an autism conference, where I will be delivering a presentation on what it is like to be the parent of an autistic child. I hope that getting away from the computer and the book for 72 hours will help clear my mind and enable me to get back on course next week.

I once again want to thank everyone for your patience, kindness, and generosity during this problem. I would also like to extend my thanks once again to Matt Garrioch, Lee Warren, and most especially Nick Melotte for keeping the content flowing while I work through this.