About

I'm a Senior Baseball Writer at The Athletic, which I joined in January 2020 after thirteen and a half years at ESPN. Before that I spent four years with the Toronto Blue Jays, most of it as Special Assistant to the General Manager, where I was responsible for what passed as statistical analysis at the time, and was fortunate enough to learn from some amazing scouts and young front-office folks.

I studied sociology and economics at Harvard and earned my MBA at Carnegie Mellon, both of which turn out to explain a lot about how organisations talk themselves into bad decisions.

I've written two books, Smart Baseball and The Inside Game.

What's here

This site has been running since 2006. It is where everything that isn't baseball goes, including but not limited to these things...

• BooksNovels mostly, and I finish nearly everything I start, which means the reviews include the ones I regret.
• Board gamingReviews and rankings, plus the annual Gen Con writeup. I covered board games for Paste from 2013 until 2026.
• MusicWhat I've been listening to, updated monthly, along with year-end lists of my favorite songs and albums.
• FoodMostly notes on restaurants and coffee roasters I visit while traveling, with the occasional cooking commentary.
• KlawchatThe long-running chat, albeit on hiatus for 2026. Baseball and non-baseball questions answered.