Baseball Digest Daily is dedicated to bringing you the best in baseball coverage. Our team of baseball fanatics combine for decades of experience. Meet the people behind the writing, and the faces behind the opinions! Our team thanks you for your interest, and invites you to write to us personally. Whether you agree or disagree, we love to hear from people like yourself, who love baseball. Thanks for visiting us at Baseball Digest Daily!

Joe Hamrahi | Founder
Joe Hamrahi is a licensed CPA with an MBA in accounting. He's currently employed as the CFO for a Manhattan public relations firm. Joe is married, has 3 children and lives in New York.

In 2004, Joe came up with the idea of starting a web site that focused on all facets of baseball, from news to statistics to analysis and player development. He partnered up with a long time friend and colleague, Matt Gabriel, and together they developed what we now know as Baseball Digest Daily. Over the past few years, Joe has become well known within the media circles of major and minor league baseball. He represented Baseball Digest Daily at the 2005 All-Star Game in Detroit and has interviewed countless professional players and executives including Mike Piazza, Jeff Francoeur, Mariano Rivera, Rickie Weeks, Josh Beckett, John Schuerholz, Doug Melvin, Dayton Moore, and the legendary Johnny Podres.

Matt LaPorta | Professional Baseball Player/Columnist

Matt LaPorta is a professional baseball player and a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. Matt was selected 7th overall by the Brew Crew in 2007 after a stellar career at the University of Florida. The 23 year-old LaPorta, who hails from Port Charlotte, Florida, led his team to the College World Series final in 2005 and earned All-American honors in both 2005 and 2007. Matt got his first taste of professional baseball last year when he hit a home run in his very first at bat while playing for Milwaukee's rookie league affiliate, the Helena Brewers. LaPorta is making the transition from first base to left field and will be working on his craft this spring with the major league club in Maryvale Park in Phoenix, Arizona.

Voros McCracken | Writer

Voros likes Gyros. I mean he really likes Gyros. He's almost certain his obituary will read "died of pulmonary artery diseases in a Chicago eatery while wolfing down a Gyros sandwich."

The key to any Gyro is the cucumber sauce. Some lame outfits throw some sour cream on there and call it a 'Gyros.' Voros is leading the fight in Congress to have these people jailed and executed. Let's not forget the lamb and beef hybrid roasted on a spit. Rare is the fast food where you can sit back and watch your meal being cooked. When you wrap it up in some pita bread, top it with onions and tomatoes and serve it with french fries, you have a meal that will surely remove several months from your life span. It's all worth it.

In addition to eating Gyros, Voros also invented Defense Independent Pitching Statistics, worked for the Boston Red Sox from 2002-2005 and has legions of people on the internet who detest him because he likes math. His Wikipedia entry helps fuel their seething rage.

Martin Gandy | Reporter/Writer
Martin Gandy has been an Atlanta Braves fan since 1991…yes a fair-weather fan and proud of it. It hasn’t let him down for 15 years. Martin was in the stands when Ryan Klesko slammed a home run against the Cubs in the playoffs and had the great thrill of sitting about 15 rows behind home plate when John Smoltz threw a one-hitter against the Reds on April 20th, 1999.

In 2002, Martin moved within about a mile of The Ted. He has a view of the stadium from his window and has the privilege of being able to walk to Braves games.

In his spare time (ok maybe not!), Martin works as a computer programmer and consultant in the Atlanta area.

Martin started his own blog, A Ballpark View, before moving on to write for TalkingChop and Baseball Digest Daily. As it turns out, Martin has a whole lot more to say about baseball that he never knew.

Craig Brown | Writer
Craig Brown hasn't missed a Kansas City Royals post season game since 1980. Unfortunately, that's not quite as impressive as it sounds.

Craig began blogging about the Royals prior to the 2005 season, which was just in time to chronicle their franchise record 106 loss season. Since he began jotting down words on the cyber pages, he's contributed to Creative Sports, HEATER Magazine and The Hardball Times. Currently, Craig's Royal musings appear on the Most Valuable Network at Royals Authority.

A lefthander, Craig is disappointed he didn't understand the value of being a LOOGY until it was too late.

When not thinking about the Royals, Craig works as a post production video editor in Kansas City where he lives with his wife and two daughters.  

Rob McQuown | Writer
Rob McQuown is addicted to baseball, with a special interest in how winning teams are "engineered". A longsuffering Cubs fan, the idea of "serious" fandom and analysis didn't really enter his mind until the 80's. After reading his first Bill James Baseball Abstract as an engineering student in 1986, a new world was opened up to him. First, as hobby, Rob helped start a Strat-O-Matic league with some long-time SOM players.  "Experimentation" into fantasy baseball and other simulation games also took place, but he didn't inhale.

Combining passions for baseball and math was also combined with an employment position in 1992, as Rob took a job as a programmer for STATS, Inc. Working for such a small company (he was 7th full-time employee, even though the scouting network was huge) led to many other opportunities, such as working with GMs and sports agents for both tactical research projects and arbitration cases, writing for The Scouting Notebook 1993-1995, and recording games from the press box.

The Internet explosion and baseball implosion (strike) led to a long "dry" period of baseball "sobriety" from 1995 through 2002. During this period, Rob helped start up (and later sell) two dot-com's, attended seminary (briefly), and then went to work for a multinational corporation. But, in 2004, while working at Motorola as a Project Manager, the bug bit again and Rob re-joined the Strat-O-Matic league he'd helped start, joined a few others for good measure, and - in 2006 - even joined a few roto leagues. 

After five years with Motorola, Rob recently left his job and has been nominally working on his investment company while playing a little online poker. But the 2006 baseball season mostly involved a lot of MLB.tv, helping get an extremely realistic Strat league off the ground, and some reading of the latest research from the many smart people doing baseball analysis. He lives in NW suburban Chicagoland, and is within about an hour of the two Chicago teams, as well as Milwaukee. Always up for a discussion on baseball.

Dave Rouleau | Writer

Dave, the ‘Canadian Guy’, swears by his beloved Blue Jays.  He started blogging only a short time ago (March 2007) on Blue Jays Dugout, but worked all summer enhancing the Jays major league and minor league coverage over at MVN, from his home in Quebec City, QC. He is now an Associate Publisher for Inside the Dome (Scout.com) and strives to know everything there is to know about the Blue Jays organization.

Dave's passion lies in player development and statistical analysis.  He truly believes in scouting and stats always working together...not being part of a debate that’s been resolved long ago…except for certain stubborn writers.

Blue Jays resident expert, Dave will tackle every aspects of our great game with a no-nonsense approach.

Geoff Young | Writer

Geoff Young first caught baseball fever in the late-'70s and began following seriously in the early-'80s, when a friend introduced him to the Bill James Baseball Abstracts. In 1997 he created the web site Ducksnorts, which in 2001 became a blog covering the San Diego Padres. Since then, he's been thinking way too hard about the Padres, but he has no life, so it's all good.

Geoff also writes daily at Knuckle Curve and is a regular contributor to The Hardball Times. He self-published his first book, the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual, in March 2007. A follow-up is due out, er, any moment now. No, really, it is.

When he's not busy thinking about baseball, Geoff spends time at home with his wife and two dogs. But let's be honest, he's always busy thinking about baseball.

Jonathan Hale | Writer

Jonathan Hale is an editor and an English major who transforms into a stats geek whenever he starts talking about baseball. He tries to keep it to a dull roar but the fact that you can learn more about the game using numbers secretly thrills him to no end.

Jonathan lives in Toronto and has always been a Blue Jays fan, although he considers himself a baseball fan first. He blogs about the Jays at The Mockingbird.

In his spare time, he is a very good poker player and a very poor middle reliever. He comes out of the bullpen throwing chin music and an uncontrollable slider, and has never hit a home run despite playing baseball for two decades.

Gordon M. Berger | Reporter/Writer

Gordon M. Berger is an attorney located in Atlanta, Georgia.  He is a principal in a small law firm representing businesses in labor and employment law and corporate matters.  For several years he taught sports and entertainment law at a local law school in an adjunct capacity.  In addition, for two years he was a licensed contract advisor (agent) through the NFLPA and the Canadian Football League.

A life-long baseball fan, Gordon grew up outside of New York City rooting for the New York Mets.  While in college, he interned with AAA baseball team.  In addition, he was a writer and sports editor for his college newspaper.  His experiences included covering the NBA All-Star Game in Chicago, the 1986 New York Mets, and interviewing numerous players and coaches.

Gordon maintains a blog on employment law and is a periodic author for various trade publications.  He has been interviewed on Atlanta and Chattanooga television stations on various “sports and the law” topics, as well as made multiple appearances on the Emmy-award winning PBS series “Layman’s Lawyer”.

Jim Pratt | Writer

Jim Pratt is an Assistant Route Mgr. for the local sub-division of the Tennesean newspaper. He is married with 2 children and another on the way. The Pratt family resides in Columbia,TN , which is just south of Nashville.
 
Jim has been a Braves fan since the days Chief Noc-A-Homa roamed 'The Launching Pad' in Atlanta. The greatest moment of his Braves fandom was watching Sid Bream slide safely into home to cap a great comeback and send the Braves to the 1992 World Series.
 
Jim is the founder of Big League Futures, a daily updated prospect news and information website, soon to be incorporated into Baseball Digest Daily.

Eric SanInocencio | Writer

Eric SanInocencio is the Assistant Sports Information Director of the Gulf South Conference and the man behind MVN's Rays Anatomy. Eric came to the GSC from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where he served as the Assistant Director of Media Relations beginning January 2006. While at UAB, Eric was the primary contact for baseball and volleyball and also assisted in game operations for men's basketball.

Prior to his stint with UAB, SanInocencio was the Media Relations Intern for the Southeastern Conference in Birmingham, AL, serving as the primary contact for volleyball, swimming and diving, track and field and softball. He was also on staff to work the Nokia Sugar Bowl and the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

The Bronx, NY native is no stranger to the GSC, graduating from the University of Montevallo in 2003, where he was a four-year letterman in baseball and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications.

Mike Lynch | Reporter/Writer

Mike Lynch has been a baseball fan since he was old enough to hold a bat and ball.  He was born in the heart of Red Sox nation in the year of Yastrzemski and has been a die hard Red Sox fan ever since. He lives in Portland, Oregon and has been writing on the Internet since 1999.  He’s the founder of Seamheads.com, he’s been published by The Oregonian newspaper and on the Sporting News' web site, he’s been a member of SABR since 2004, and his first book, Harry Frazee, Ban Johnson and the Feud That Nearly Destroyed the American League, will be out on March 30, 2008.

John Brattain | Writer
John has been tilting at baseball's windmills for over a decade. He currently writes for The Hardball Times and Sympatico/MSN Sports. He makes guest appearances at such exotic locales as The Baseball Analysts, The Baseball Journals and the Biz of Baseball. Previous stops along the way include Baseball Prospectus, TOTK.com, Bootleg Sports, ESPN Insider, MLBtalk, Yankees.com, Replacement Level Yankee Weblog and About.com.

He has made two forays into the blogosphere with The Progenitor of Severe Gluteal Discomfort and Synaptic Flatulence. He can be heard most Wednesdays on ESPN 1450's Mike Gill Show and occasionally on The Jed Donahue Show on WTKT-AM 1460 and other stations.

John is a Blue Jays fan since their inception and is still ticked at MLB's destruction of the Montreal Expos--a team he followed from days of Coco Laboy and Bobby Wine. John aspires to team up with David Samson in the National Dwarf Tossing Competition and prove that Alfred E. Neuman was actually Bud Selig's high school yearbook photo.

Brandon Heikoop | Writer

Brandon Heikoop is a Master's of Education student in Buffalo, NY, but was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  He is a baseball fan first, a Buffalo Bison's fan second and a Cleveland Indians fan through association.  One of Brandon's passions is to play scout while attending ballgames.

Writing for his personal blog, The Outsiders Look at the Insides of Baseball, has allowed Brandon to examine the sport he has become so fascinated with. He thrives at looking at all aspects of the game and thoroughly investigating even the smallest of moves.  Brandon has also finally admitted to "breaking the dam".

Matthew Whipps | Writer

Matthew Whipps has lived and breathed baseball ever since the day he could first pick up a baseball. That passion was lived out by playing baseball from the age of eight years old all the way into college until his beaten up old catcher’s knees finally gave out. Since then that love for the game has taken a new form in his baseball writing through his personal baseball blog “The Diamond Cutter” where he covers all of Major League Baseball as well as a special look at baseball’s prospects. Whipps started his professional writing with MVN by writing a column “Minor Details” (since ended) about baseball prospects before moving on to “Twins Killings” about his hometown Minnesota Twins.

Whipps now brings a new dimension to his Diamond Cutter baseball and prospect coverage over to Baseball Digest Daily and Big League Futures. To go along with his current coverage, he will now provide a first hand look inside the Metrodome with views, analysis and interviews by all the players and teams that make a stop over in the great state of Minnesota. 

Alex Eisenberg | Writer

Alex is 22 years old, a recent college graduate (James Madison University in Virginia) and has a BS in Kinesiology/Sport Management and a minor in business.

He runs the website www.baseball-intellect.com, a site that uses both sabermetric analysis and player scouting to evaluate players from both major league and minor league baseball.  The site offers readers the unique opportunity to actually see what the scouting report refers to by using video of the player being evaluated.

In addition to Baseball-Intellect, Alex is a contributor (or will be) to the Hardball Times and has worked as a sports writer for the past eight years with the Sun-Gazette, a local newspaper that covers much of the Northern Virginia area.

Alex is also an Oriole fan and at some point, he would like to find a way to quantify a player's mechanics/stuff by merging that with a player's stats into a figure that helps predict what a player is likely to do at the MLB level.

Paul Nyman | Engineer/Analyst

"Paul Nyman has looked at throwing the the baseball like no other has. His unique way of looking at how the arm and body learn to throw from the most efficient way to how one learns to throw is truly remarkable. No one, and I repeat no one, has looked at more video, done more research and left no stone unturned in the quest of finding out about the throwing process than he has. Step aside and let you ego go for a moment and see what he has to offer. As a professional coach I did and it has opened up a whole new view for me. While I have gained, my pitchers have been the ones who have benefited and in essence isn't that our job as coaches."  -Brent Strom (former major league pitcher, major league pitching coach, pitching coordinator Montréal Expos/Washington Nationals, currently in charge of all minor-league pitching instruction, St. Louis Cardinals)

After 20 years in industry holding positions ranging from junior engineer to VP of engineering, Paul Nyman made the decision 15 years ago to pursue his lifelong passion and started Sports Engineering and Training Products (SETPRO). SETPRO focus is the development of proprietary training systems and methods for swing and throw development.

Much of Paul's work has focused on understanding the intricacies of how the body swings and throws. Biomechanical oncepts/methods developed by Paul such as scapula loading, pelvic loading, analysis and explanations of arm actions such as "inverted W" and the importance of quantifying throwing tempo a just a few of the contributions ball is made to better understanding how to optimally throw the baseball and swing the bat.

Paul has also pioneered the application of motor learning concepts in developing more effective and productive swing and throw development instructional's and has worked with players at all levels from youth to major-league.

Bill Baer | Writer

Bill Baer is a diehard Phillies fan who has quickly risen the ranks in the blogging community with his Phillies-themed blog Crashburn Alley. A relative newbie to Sabermetrics, Bill has a thirst to understand and utilize all of the new methods of baseball analysis. He was going to college and majoring in journalism, but soured on it once he was introduced to the industry and dropped his courses. However, he plans go go back and earn a teaching degree. In the meantime, he is enjoying the baseball blogosphere, trying to learn as much as he possibly can.

Jeff Louderback | Writer

A professional freelance writer and author, and an independent publicist, Jeff Louderback lives in Orlando, Florida and was a member of Red Sox Nation long before the term existed. When he was growing up in southwest Ohio, amid Big Red Machine country, he pretended to be Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans and Jim Rice while his friends emulated guys like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench in backyard wiffle ball games.

Jeff has 17 years of professional writing experience. Earlier in his career, he served as a sports writer for a daily newspaper in Ohio, covering the Reds and Bengals along with high school and college sports. He has written for numerous baseball team magazines, is the former editor of OverTime (a magazine for and about professional athletes) and is the founder, editor and Red Sox writer and moderator for Sox and Pinstripes (www.soxandpinstripes.com), a forum for all things Red Sox, Yankees and baseball.

Jeff is also launching Red Sox Traveler (www.redsoxtraveler), a subscription e-newsletter focusing on destinations, attractions and baseball-themed activities in Major League and Minor League cities where the Red Sox and their affiliates play.

Though he is 39 and prepared to turn 40 in July, Jeff still plays in 30-and-over amateur baseball leagues. He claims to spray line drives like Sean Casey, and also run the bases like Casey with a piano on his back. Yes, Jeff is that slow.

Bill Chuck | Reporter/Writer

Bill Chuck is the Communication Czar of B.Czar Productions, a marketing consulting firm he founded 18 years ago. A New York expatriate, he lives two miles from Fenway Park with his wife Maxie (Red Sox fan), his daughter Jennifer (Yankees fan), his dog Mookie (Mets fan), and his cats Wilson and Allie (being cats they refuse to acknowledge who they root for). His eldest daughter Elizabeth (Mariners fan) lives in Seattle.

For the last 8 years he has written Billy-Ball.com, a daily baseball column of observations, anecdotes, and history that was started before the word “blog” was invented. It has a worldwide audience and Bill has been quoted in Newsweek, the SF Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and numerous other periodicals.

Bill also consults for minor league baseball and was featured in an article written by Ira Berkow in the New York Times in 2006.

Bill has been a frequent contributor to MSNBC.com and MLB.com and with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales” to be published by ACTA Sports, later this year.

Kira Jones | Writer

Kira Jones got her first taste of baseball at the age of 6 when she played on a tee-ball team. Although she has since switched to playing varsity softball, her love for the game of baseball has never ceased. She enjoys watching the game at any level-- high school to the Majors.

She’s lived in Phillies country her whole life and advanced to the final round in the Phillies Homerun Derby in which she had the opportunity to bat at Veteran’s Stadium (the old home of the Philadelphia Phillies). Even so, she is a devoted Yankees fan and can often be seen watching and writing about their AA affiliate, the Trenton Thunder.

Baseball was Kira’s first love, but she has become passionate about most sports seen on ESPN.

Bill Richardson | Photographer
Bill Richardson resides in Orlando Florida and is employed with an area defense contractor. Bill is a life long fan of baseball and the Minnesota Twins, having been born and raised in Minneapolis. He typically attends 25-30 Grapefruit League games each March in Florida with his spouse.

Bill has developed an interest in sports photography and has covered a variety of NCAA intercollegiate sports including baseball, softball, soccer and basketball for the University of Central Florida. Look for Bill’s MLB images at Baseball Digest Daily.

Rudy C. Jones | Photographer

Rudy C. Jones’s love of baseball began as a child in New York City --his world revolved around the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played ball, watched ball, and worked at ball games selling hot dogs at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. Photography became his second passion when his parents bought him his first Nikon at age 14.  He finds photographing baseball games to be as close to heaven as he can get--his two great passions combined into capturing moments that tell a story. In the off-season he works for Jones Multimedia as a Producer/ Director.

Brad Laney | Media Relations
Brad Laney has worked for over ten years in the public relations industry focusing on tourism, recreation, and consumer products. A native of Seattle, Brad graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communications minor. He also holds a Consumer Marketing degree from New York University and was named to the “15 To Watch Hot List” by PRNews.

Brad is responsible for issuing all BDD press releases. He is an invaluable resource and directs various media and public relations projects. Brad is also naturally fluent in Spanish and acts as the organization’s liaison with baseball’s Latino community.

Matt Gabriel | Consultant
Matt Gabriel has been employed as an actuary and web systems developer for a major human resources consulting firm for the past ten years. He enjoys playing softball from March through November and has been playing fantasy baseball since 1995.

Matt was also the commissioner of a Strat-O-Matic online league from 2000 to 2004 and designed the league's fully interactive website. He is the architect of the original Baseball Digest Daily web site and developer of the, ever popular, My Digest player tracking system. Matt is responsible for bringing you all the stats you see today.

Luis Garcia | Web Developer
Luis has been involved in web development and online marketing since 1997. He is the proud father of two beautiful daughters. He is a Southern California native, which partially explains his loyalty to the Los Angeles Angels.  Luis currently resides in Palm Springs where he and his wife teach Salsa dancing 2 evenings a week. Luis is responsible for maintaining and expanding the current information you see on Baseball Digest Daily.