Monday, August 22, 2016

Guide to the Angels Halosphere


There's some interesting quirks in the Angels Halosphere (as coined by long gone blog Purgatory Online). Angels Insider's owner aggregates beat writers (national as well as local) as well as his own writing and creates game threads where no one comments (sad monkey). 6-4-2 covers both Angels and Dodgers -  it hasn't been updated since spring training but has existed since 2004. The Halo Way is a mlb.com affliate photo blog that features the work of the team's photo services. Why don't we have one of those?

Here are the three more conventional blogs:

Angels Win

Around since 2004, this is another blog with a quirk as they have a partnership agreement with the Orange County Register to have some of their writers appear on the paper's website. According to the founder, after struggling for a couple of years he got put on a radio show and shortly afterwards a bunch of folks migrated from the ESPN messages boards and it started to grow. They now run two fanfests a year, one during spring training and one during the season. They've gotten some of their writers accredited. They even got Arte Moreno to speak at one of their events.

In the interview found in the about section, the founder, Chuck Richter, had this to say about it:
With no disrespect to other fan run Blogs, it's one thing to read a Blog article and comment on it, then leave, but what's special and what separates us from other websites is that there's a sports bar type atmosphere of thousands of people that all have one thing in common, that extend beyond just being Angels fans talking all things Angels Baseball and more all year round -- but to also have the chance to meet face to face at our spring and summer fanfests annually where the online relationship turns into a real, tangible friendship.
There's an extensive message board with forums to talk about pretty much everything (there's even a religion board you have to ask to be let into). Their members count in the thousands. One of the writers, Glen McKee, subtitles his byline with every post (he's currently Chronicler of Misery). There's a list of team leaders on the sidebar (did you know Yunel Escobar is currently hitting .316?). There's a section of interviews they've done with key people in the Angels org. There's a gallery of photos from their events and albums created by members. The batting and pitching stats are top menu items. There's a tab specifically for Trout love. And you have to see what's under the standings-schedule tab to believe it - just too many things to chronicle here..

Looking at them is like looking into the future. A little scary.

Recent post: Last Week In Angels Baseball - the Imperfect 10 Edition

Monkey with a Halo

This site has been around since 2009 and seems to have co-opted writers from a variety of other blogs. It's the first blog I've seen that has bullpen usage, depth charts, and top prospects on the menu bar. A Sports Daily blog, it also sells tickets. The archive is a mess so I couldn't find the origins but you've got to like a blog where the founder calls himself the Supreme Overlord.

Recent Post: For the first time in years...optimism

Halos Heaven

Do I have to talk about the SB Nation blog? I guess I have to. Halos Heaven is to Angels Win as Over The Monster is to SOSH. Just pales in comparison. It's all the standard SB Nation stuff, (with a lovely meme guide for newbies) nothing to distinguish it in any way. Well, there might be something if you squint.