Meet The MLBTR Writing Team
ByTim Dierkes | at
MLB Trade Rumors employs a team of writers to bring you the latest hot stove news and analysis. Let’s meet the team:
Tim Dierkes started MLB Trade Rumors as a hobby in 2005, and has since written over 12,000 posts as MLBTR grew into baseball’s most popular hot stove website as well as his full-time job. MLBTR has received over 3.1 billion pageviews since its inception and is a favorite of baseball writers, executives, agents, players, and fans everywhere. Tim currently lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and four children. He is a lifelong Cubs fan, but swears it does not affect his objectivity on MLBTR. Follow him on Twitter:@timdierkes.
Steve Adamsis a full-time staff writer for MLB Trade Rumors. MLBTR’s longest-tenured writer, Steve grew up in the Twin Cities and currently resides in Minnesota. He is a graduate of St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, where he studied English Literature with a Writing Emphasis and Public Relations (when his fantasy baseball schedule permitted). Steve has been a baseball fan since he can remember, and is thankful to be (barely) old enough to have vivid memories of his beloved Twins’ most recent World Series title in 1991. Steve has been writing for MLBTR since May of 2008, and began providing fantasy analysis for MLB.com in May of 2011. He has also written about the Twins forSB Nation’s Twinkie Town and fears that his voice may never fully recover from 2009’s Game 163 tiebreaker against the Tigers. You can follow him on Twitter:@Adams_Steve.
Anthony Franco gave up his dream of being an MLB player when he went hitless all season his final year of youth baseball. A Buffalo, NY native, Anthony was a Cubs fan growing up but lost track of baseball for a few years once he stopped playing. He rediscovered his passion for the sport in college at the University at Buffalo, where he got his first opportunity to write about baseball for Fantrax, a fantasy sports site. A part-time writer at MLBTR since 2019, Anthony joined the full-time staff in June 2021. Anthony graduated from UB with a history degree in 2017 and graduated from Boston College Law School in 2020. You can find him on Twitter discussing baseball, complaining about the Las Vegas Raiders, and raving about the occasional 1950’s movie:@affranco10.
Darragh McDonald grew up in the Toronto area and got to watch the Blue Jays win the World Series when he was 9 and 10 years old, thus dooming him to a lifetime of baseball fandom. He started writing for MLBTR in March of 2020, which somehow got nudged out of the worldwide headlines that month. A graduate of the Ryerson University Film Studies program, Darragh has also occasionally worked in television and written bad screenplays.
Mark Polishuk has been part of the MLBTR crew since October 2009. He has also written about baseball, soccer and hockey for such outlets as Field Level Media, ESPN.com, The Boston Herald, The Canadian Press, The11.ca, Plastic Pitch, The Sports Xchange, The New York Post, and the official websites of both Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer. A native of London, Ontario, Mark holds a BA in English/Film Studies from the University Of Western Ontario. His greatest on-field achievement was performing an unassisted triple play during a softball game in eighth grade gym class — “Just like Bill Wambsganss!” Mark yelled at the time, a reference lost on his classmates.
Nick Deeds grew up in the Chicagoland area and has joined in his family’s generations-long tradition of Cubs fandom as long as he can remember. He was in high school when the Cubs finally ended their World Series drought in 2016, and since then his love of baseball has grown to include the entire sport, rather than just his home team. He began writing for MLBTR shortly after graduating from Western Illinois University with a degree in Political Science.
Leo Morgensterngrew up in Toronto but fell in love with baseball through Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and the rest of the 2008 Phillies. Since graduating from the University of Toronto in 2020, he has written about baseball all over the internet, covering the Phillies for the dedicated team blogs at SB Nation and Sports Illustrated and covering the game at large for FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus, Just Baseball, Pitcher List, and, most recently, MLB Trade Rumors. When he isn’t writing about, reading about, or actually watching baseball, he tries his best to be funny for The Beaverton, Canada’s least-trusted source of news. You can follow him on the website he still refers to as Twitter@morgensternmlb.
55 Comments
Whoo! Go Jays!
go jays!
Cool man. Loving this post. It’s really neat to get to read more about the writers at this site. MLBTR ROCKS!
Slow day boys?
MLBTR is a site I check every single day. You guys do a great job… keeep up the great work.
Ditto. I love the site, and I can guarantee I check it about 5 times each day. Seems like today has been slow though with a “Meet The Writers”, a RotoAuthority article of “Pitchers to Watch”, a “Market for Cuban Players” that has no new info, and a heads up of some possible 2012 Free Agents. It’s not an insult Dierkes, just an observation.
Try like 5 times a day. Great work guys!
even 40 times per day. How’s that!
I refresh every 5 minutes…WHAT!!?!!
Damn, I was hoping that MLBTR would finally get pictures in at-least one article.
MLBTR rocks! I’ve been checking this website just about everyday since 2007. I remember seeing a post from Tim saying that he had taken MLBTR as a full-time job and thinking “Does it get that much attention?”. Glad it does, great job Tim and the rest of the MLBTR staff!
I think you ought to hire me to make it an even 10.
Keep up the great work boys.
Not that your loaded with free time, but any hope you’ll start up a Website for my other love? Football?
Tim,
I’ve been a reader since the early days and appreciate the work the MLBTR team does for the sport. Baseball has always been a year long sport with different seasons, but the contribution your team has offered us has solidified that notion. You keep us tuned in even during the coldest months of winter.
And for that, we thank you.
In conclusion, Canada has the smartest baseball fans in the world.
Thanks Tim!
Good read. I have been checking this site daily for the past few years like many others, and I feel like it has made my baseball knowledge grow exponentially. There is always something going on at every point in the year, even when there isn’t, Tim and the crew find something to post about.
Here’s to many more years of great baseball coverage from the best site on the net!
I check this site maybe 6 times a day, and have been consistently for the past few years. And today I’ve found out that Tim Dierkes in fact lives in my home town!! That is awesome except the fact he’s a cubs fan. Keep up the great work guys!!
Wow, so many Canadians. I knew there was something off about this site.
Just kidding guys, keep it up, and make less bad things happen to the Mets if you could.
The only thing the site is missing IMO is a mobile version of the site. My iPhone agrees.
Great work with the site Tim & crew.
What about mlbtraderumors.mobi?
I can get the site on my mobile easy, but I can’t sign into Disqus no matter what I do.
I can get on the regular site easy, but the comment section half the time doesn’t load, and the odd time the disqus doesn’t load either. I believe you have to delete all the cookies to fix that problem.
Thanks! I will definitely give that a shot.
Well paint me green and call me gumby. Thanks Tim for the heads up on the mobile page. It’s a little bland, but it’s simple and is bandwidth savvy.
there is a mobile site. it is mlbtraderumors.mobi i use it alot
“He grew up learning Spanish from the sides of taco trucks…” hilarious.
Would the walled city in Spain be Toledo?
You guys do an excellent job!
Tim, I didn’t know you went to UIUC. But I should’ve known only an ILLINI alum could have come up with such an excellent idea!
Errr… I never knew so many of the writers here were from Western. May have to stop coming to the site now…
Haha, kidding, great to see so many Jays fans around!
I, as a Canadian, am proud that so many other Canadians make this site what it is. However, unlike them I am not a Blue Jays fan, I am a Red Sox fan. And I am surprised that a fellow Ottawian like Ben would like the Jays, R.I.P. Les Expos. Anywho, good job guys!
Nice job guys, I don’t always agree with your takes, but always enjoy the site.
Well done.
Great to meet the team behind the scenes. Keep up the great work, guys!
Nice work guys, keep it up, I appreciate it! I’m on the site about 10 times in an average day!
You guys are awesome. I consider you the online bible of player/team ongoings in baseball.
Shout out to Illinois! Tim, I grew-up in Macomb, but I now live in Bloomington-Normal, life-long White Sox fan.
Very Good job guys. I am constantly on this site. Avg about 8 hours a day. Even though I’m a die-hard red sox fan, I consider myself a fan of baseball in general. Tim, I think I started reading MLBTR around early 2008. Thank you for breaking down articles and generating a wealth of information. Even though I do not post comments often, I had to take the time today to give you guys my appreciation. Thank you very much and continue the great work you’re doing.
Hey Polischuk,
I remember that inside the infield home run you speak of. I believe I was on deck.
Keep up the great work gents!!
I realize this is more of a football thing, but I find myself wishing this site would have it.
What do you think about having a section with depth charts for each team. Sometimes I find myself arguing about who has a better rotation, the brewers or the reds, and I don’t have a good place to look that up. You could have contract length and salary next to the names as well.
If this does exist already or if it’s already on ROTO or something like that let me know.
Tim, you’re doing such a great job and have created such a great community that I had the oppurtunity to write a college paper focusing on the community of mlbtr. I’d be happy to e-mail it to you if you’re interested in reading it.
An impressive lineup of writers Tim, but how about someone west of the Rockies (the mountain range and the team)?
I didn’t realize that there were Canadians on your team. Way to go. Go Jays.
Where’s Dan on here?
One of these guys has to be able to pitch.
-B. Cashman
If the Pirates can somehow grab another bat they’re going to compete until the end because they’ve done well against the NL Central…. except Milwaukee.
keep the news comming guys im an admin for mlb forever page on face book and you guys are like my num 1 source, thanx alot best news site ever!
I’ve been visiting this site regularly for probably at least 4 years now. It’s good to meet the folks I spend so much of my life paying attention to.
Excellent staff.
would really enjoy covering baseball down in the Tampa areafor someone
I can play base ball and i can hit the ball
love it
I was just trying to figure out how long I’ve been using this website. Then I found this page. I’m thinking 2010 was when I started. Finally created a screen name recently. Being newly retired has it’s advantages.
Its, not it’s
Where is George Miller’s bio? Is he still with the site?
The guy who would put out one article per shift?
I knew by reading the Redsox 2024 outlook that Darragh McDonald was a fan of one of the AL East Teams not named The Redsox. I was right. So the article talks about Devers moving to first, a C being needed, and that they may shop the bottom bin of the SP market. All of that is garbage
Boston will be looking into trades of Alex Verdugo & some prospects for Juan Soto if he becomes available and can be extended. I think in this example Yoshida gets moved for possibly an arm and to free up the DH Spot for the eventual move of Soto there soon as he is not a good OF defensive option. C we have 2 serviceable ones there now and Teel on the way and the main focus will be SP arms. Think 1 possibly 2 of of Yamamoto, Nola, Snell, Montgomery…and if it’s 1 a secondary arm from Stroman, Gray E-Rod, group. They will also need an everyday 2b and have options internal to fit there. Ohtani is possible if they believe he can pitch in 2025 which would dampen a Soto deal/Trade involving Verdugo and prospects but Yoshida could still be moved in that case. Due to the lack of power from Boston you could see both Soto and Ohtani and 1 Ace which would see both Yoshida and Verdugo gone and replace the upcoming Chris Sale departure after 2024 slotting Ohtani in that rotation spot. Cody Bellinger could also eliminate any Soto possibly being a straight free agent for much less in both dollars and eliminating any prospect loss. Verdugo and/or Yoshida would still be on the trade block for arms or a controlled 2b…possibly the NYY even Torres for Verdugo. Whit Merrifield remains the best 2b short stop gap as the 9 SS listed in the systems top 30 prospects vie for a spot at 2b/SS/Utility on the big club as Story is there another 4 seasons barring a trade there.
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