Last week we concluded our crowd-sourced guide to the best and worst beat reporters in Major League Baseball. Today, we collate. We read your reviews and picked out the best and worst beat reporters for every team where some consensus could be discerned. We also pulled some of your choicest comments, Zagat-style.
Please feel free to go back to the original threads for each team, or put any fresh observations in the discussion beneath this post.
NL East
New York Mets
Best: ESPN New York's Adam Rubin "is, by far, the best Mets beat reporter."
Worst: The Daily News's Andy Martino is the "worst" and it's "by a country mile. He openly roots against the team, doesn't do his research, brings no new relevant info to the table, and openly trolls the fans."
Atlanta Braves
Best: MLB.com's Mark Bowman "is easily the best."
Worst: Atlanta Journal-Constitution's David O'Brien "uses Twitter to flirt with women during the game. Routinely." But some disagreement: He also offers up better "analysis" and "far more content."
Washington Nationals
Best: The Washington Post's Adam Kilgore "is one of the best beat writers in baseball, if not all of sports. More often than not, his ledes are pure poetry."
Worst: MLB's Bill Ladson "is without a doubt a contender for worst DC sports journalist (non-columnist division) and would probably take a regional 1 seed in a national tournament."
Philadelphia Phillies
Best: The Daily Times's Dennis Deitch has "good insight into players, offers thoughtful analysis, and as an added bonus he's entertaining too."
Worst: No consensus (I have a hard time believing this, but alas).
Miami Marlins
Best: MLB.com's Joe Frisaro "does a really good job."
Worst: No consensus.
NL Central
Pittsburgh Pirates
Best: The Trib's Rob Biertempfel is "tapped in" and the "most informative."
Worst: No consensus.
Chicago Cubs
Best: The Daily Herald's Bruce Miles "has consistently been the best beat writer for the Cubs over the past decade plus."
Worst: MLB.com's Carrie Muskat is "a total team mouthpiece."
St. Louis Cardinals
Best: He's a columnist, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Miklasz is "an absolute treasure, and his commitment to reasonable analysis (using actual stats—gasp!) is great to read everyday."
Worst: Cardinals fans are nice.
Cincinnati Reds
Best: The Cincinnati Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans is the "best of the bunch. His saving grace is that he has some appreciation for advanced stats."
Worst: No consensus.
Milwaukee Brewers
Best: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Haudricourt "is the best. He is an excellent writer, not a homer nor does he troll his audience or say shocking things for attention."
Worst: Lack of coverage. "How sad is it that this team has only TWO outlets covering them on a daily basis? They suck this year, but this was a playoff club in 08 and 11."
NL West
San Francisco Giants
Best: McCovey Chronicles's Grant Brisbee is not a beat reporter but has the "best blog on Giants if not planet," is "the best Giants writer out there. And it's not even close," "is the all time best. Like serious Hall of Famer G.O.A.T. status," "is flat out the best," and "is a God." Brisbee responded to all the praise.
Worst: No consensus, exactly (We put Comcast's Amy Gutierrez on the list but that wasn't really quite fair since she's more of a sideline reporter).
Los Angeles Dodgers
Best: Los Angeles Times's Dylan Hernandez "wins by a landslide. Smart, funny and embraces stats."
Worst: ESPN's Mark Saxon "whose writing truly captures the daily schlep of being a beatwriter. The guy doesn't seem to enjoy his job and enjoys covering Dodgers even less."
Arizona Diamondbacks
Best: Either the Arizona Republic's Nick Piecoro, who is "clearly the best," or Fox Sports's Jack Magruder.
Worst: No one.
Colorado Rockies
Best: The Denver Post's Troy Renck is "pretty good."
Worst: No one.
San Diego Padres
Best: MLB.com's Corey Brock is "by far the best. He breaks stories, writes well, converses and meets with the fans, and isn't a boring old dinosaur like Center."
Worst: The San Diego Union-Tribune's Bill Center is a "stereotypical ancient journalist who hasn't taken well to the transition from print to digital. The guy can't spell whatsoever. He misspells players names constantly, in tweets and game stories, and is just bad at his job."
AL East
New York Yankees
Best: The Journal News's Chad Jennings is "the best," and one commenter is "not sure why (the Pete Abe legacy? The provincialism of a White Plains newsroom!?)" but he has "weirdly found Journal News to be consistent best day-to-day for at least five years now."
Worst: The Daily News's Mark Feinsand for his "trollish ways" and for being "truly awful." Feinsand "spends most of the game responding to only the dumbest comments people tweet so he can feel superior. Rarely engages in anything resembling good discussion. Thinks the beat writer inside jokes are hilarious. Has 'his' players. Hates 'new-age' stats."
Boston Red Sox
Best: WEEI's Alex Speier is "really, really good" and "knows his shit."
Worst: No consensus.
Baltimore Orioles
Best: MASN's Roch Kubatko "is by far the best Orioles reporter. His blog posts are very well-written and informative, and his sense of humor, while dry, is excellent."
Worst: No consensus.
Toronto Blue Jays
Best: Sportsnet.ca's Shi Davidi is "the best beat guy the Jays have. All over breaking news, and pretty decent as a columnist" and "incredibly plugged in."
Worst: The Toronto Star's Damien Cox is "just the worst."
Tampa Bay Rays
Best: The Tampa Bay Times's Marc Topkin is "the best" since "he works for the only real newspaper in town."
Worst: The Tampa Tribune's Roger Mooney "just parrot[s]" whatever Topkin reports, often on Twitter.
AL Central
Cleveland Indians
Best: Either the Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes ("he's not the greatest, but he's the best of this bunch") or MLB.com's Jordan Bastian ("he is the 'young mans' beat reporter").
Worst: No consensus.
Detroit Tigers
Worst: The Detroit News's Lynn Henning "is by far the worst beat writer, but he may not qualify, as everyone is pretty sure half of his salary is paid by the Tigers, contingent on his agreement with every move the front office makes ever." And here's a compelling argument on why they—save Beck—all suck.
Minnesota Twins
Best: The Star Tribune's La Velle E. Neal III "isn't a homer. He actually gives an honest opinion on the team, and doesn't seem to jump on the emotional roller-coaster."
Worst: No consensus.
Kansas City Royals
Best: The Kansas City Star's Bob Dutton "is great. He always provides the organization's (faulty) rationale in an informative manner, seemingly knowing the response he'll get from readers."
Worst: No consensus.
Chicago White Sox
Best: No consensus, since the Tribune's lead beat reporter, Mark Gonzales, left the beat last week.
Worst: No consensus (pretty boring, Chicago).
AL West
Seattle Mariners
Best: The Tacoma News Tribune's Ryan Divish is "head and shoulders above the rest" and "the funniest on Twitter."
Worst: The Seattle Times's Geoff Baker is "intolerably smug" and a "troll" whom quite a few people can't stand, but then again he's also "brutally honest in his analysis. Mariner fans hate that because they still look at the team through some rose-colored prism of 1995 or 2001. That's why a lot of fans hate him, but I think that's why he's the best."
Oakland A's
Best: The San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser is the best "by so much it's not even funny. She might be the best beat reporter in all of baseball; there's a reason she's the BWAA president and not even a national writer."
Worst: No one! "It's a solid group, really. A's fans are lucky."
Texas Rangers
Best: MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan "is fantastic. It would be wise to just ignore the others."
Worst: And they sorta do! No consensus here.
Houston Astros
We got nothing for you! The Astros are as irrelevant to this list as they are to the AL West. "It's just pathetic that we have two beat writers."
Los Angeles Angels
If you'd like to go back and read all the comments, here are the threads for each team:
AL East: [Yankees] [Red Sox] [Orioles] [Blue Jays] [Rays]
AL Central: [White Sox] [Indians] [Tigers] [Twins] [Royals]
AL West: [Rangers] [Angels] [A's] [Mariners] [Astros]
NL West: [Dodgers] [Giants] [Diamondbacks] [Rockies] [Padres]