Hotstove Interview and Site Overview

The recent interview I conducted with Hotstove.com is included below. I will be adding more of these types of interviews as the season wears on, and have already received word from Jays minors sources that I will be able to get some interview questions answered by players we have interest in. Here is quicker access to the interview:

The main page: http://www.hotstove.com
Allows for quick navigation to the top stories posted and to comment quickly about these posts. It provides access to a free agent list, to subscribe through Twitter, and has association with the YES Network, which is not that easy to get. Unlike MLBTR, a major portion of the site is dedicated to a TV aspect, which enhances and personalizes the experience and should improve over time.

The Team Pages: http://www.hotstove.com/hot-stove-central/?team=TOR
There is a scroll down application on the right hand side of the site that allows you to select the franchise you’d like to read about. Yet another difference between MLBTR and Hotstove.com is the clear-cut separation between teams that allows you to get more up-to-date thoughts about the franchise from key sources. It does this through this scroll down link access and once you get there you see Tweets from sources, Tweets from fans (nice separation) and then Jays articles on the right hand side. For the Jays, the reporter Tweets mostly come from MLBastien and the Jays Website, meaning that you get quick and easy access to all of their latest reports and rumors without having to go to MLBTR and then check your Tweets. Nice job of integrating the two sources of information here.

I commend both Paul Rubillo and Tom Reese for doing a great job of integrating live access, expert rumors and source information, as well as fans thoughts and implications on one site that is easy to read, as well as for adding the TV reports into MLB coverage on Hotstove.com. It’s a nice niche market which should do very well for them in the long term. While I still believe that MLBTR has grown to an audience that will be hard for anyone to surpass or to supplant, I also believe that the two sites are different enough to coexist and allow for enhanced and mutually beneficial MLB coverage. I look forward to looking to both sources for MLB information!