Introduction to Minor League Ball: New writer Rob Willer

Hello, I'm Rob Willer.

It all started in 2003 when I was in a third grade and got the chance to experience spring training for the first time. I had just gotten off the plane and was heading to Mesa, Arizona to see the Chicago Cubs play for two weeks. In my mind I felt I was going to be a spectator and be lucky to maybe grab and autograph or two but boy was I wrong. My grandpa had a connection with Dusty Baker and I got to participate as the bat boy for games throughout my trip. I got to experience the backfields at Fitch Park the Cubs minor league park. It was unreal seeing so much baseball going on at one time and having the ability to be see close to potential stars.

In college, I started to get involved in the writing/blogging sphere it started due to Twitter post. A post came up on my feed that they were looking for baseball writers that would cover divisions throughout the season. The site had one editor and expected a few pieces a week. It was a great experience where I could regularly deal with an editor and we had a lot of freedom being it was separate entity covering all of the MLB.

I got to work for a variety of sites on the Scout Network, ESPN Sweetspot Network, SBNation and the Chicago Now Network. I also was blessed to intern for Baseball Prospectus working within research and a variety of roles behind the scenes. I even got to experience the Winter Meetings in 2014 and was in the lobby when the Cubs made the Lester signing. In every experience I felt I continued to learn more about different styles and the ability to focus on different things such as the minors, features, series previews and recaps and even player interviews.

I graduated from Northern Illinois with a degree in Marketing and Spanish this past May. I accepted a job with Nielsen the leader in Market Research as a Business Associate. I owe a lot of my success to mentors and I even mentor a student from Northern Illinois in my spare time. I look forward to contributing many different pieces to the site in future.