Getting to Know You

Meeting new people is always a bit awkward, so it’s best to just jump in. My name is Meg Rowley, and I’m the new managing editor of The Hardball Times and a new writer for FanGraphs. After a stint at Lookout Landing, I’ve spent the last three years as a writer at Baseball Prospectus, where I wrote about topics ranging from diversity in front office hiring, to Adam Lind (maybe) farting, to the problems with replay review, to the faces you see when the Twins cause a long delay at Dodger Stadium.

But before I wrote those pieces, I came to baseball, as so many where I’m from do, through my parents and the late-90s Mariners. That team taught me about joy and winning, but also about thrilling disappointment and the small moments that snuff out a season. Smart, tenacious writers here and elsewhere taught me to look at the game through a sabermetric lens. And now, David Appelman has trusted me to supply and shape some of your baseball words. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity and will strive to prove myself worthy of that trust.

As a writer, I hope to ask interesting questions and unpack thorny answers in an intelligent way, and to keep looking at baseball faces. I hope to make you laugh without being clownish, and not to be too self-serious. Mostly, I hope that my writing will help you to enjoy baseball a little bit more, and occasionally surprise me and you.

As the managing editor of The Hardball Times, I hope to continue the good work Paul and his team of great editors has done, to bring you stories that are funny, and moving; stories that teach us and you something new about baseball; stories that answer hard questions and sometimes pose questions in the hopes of better defining a problem, even if we don’t have answers right now. And I hope to continue to do that with the diverse, passionate staff of writers we have now, and the next crop I and you haven’t met yet.

Every writer is at least a little bit lucky. We’re lucky to have people read our words and forgive our mistakes. We’re lucky to have managers who stumble on our work and hire us to do more, and to have editors who help us improve. I’m grateful for all those bits of luck and count them among the many ways I have found myself here today. But I think the way in which I have been the luckiest has been in always encountering smart, dedicated readers and commenters. At Lookout Landing and Baseball Prospectus, and now at FanGraphs, I know I will find people who challenge me to improve, and make me smarter. I can’t wait to get to know all of you. Let’s have some fun.