How to become an Insider's Source

[comish4lif]

from Mike Engle, a Royals' Blogger:

This is my tale of a little social experiment.

First, a disclaimer: I don’t work in the Royals front office in any capacity. I don’t have any league sources. I enjoy writing about my favorite team in my free time. That’s it. I doubt I’ll ever be in a spot to break a story, and I’m not sure I’d want to be. I’d be so paranoid I’d double check, triple check and keep checking until someone else broke it.

With that in mind, I felt like testing something out.

It started by my requesting to be followed by one of these accounts so I could share a tip with them. My theory was that if I sold a bogus trade rumor the right way, they’d do no additional digging and report it, on the idea that being “first” would be more important to them than being “right”. They’ve reported things like Joakim Soria going to the Angels and Yu Darvish returning to Japan. It’s like tossing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. If you get one out of 100 right, push the one and delete the other 99.

I have to admit, this wasn’t a noble task, and I feel a little dirty about it. But I had to know how these guys operated.

Here’s how things went down:

http://kingsofkauffman.com/2012/01/24/check-your-sources/

[sportsfan882]

and people still believe these "insiders"

[Lintyfresh85]

Damn psychopathic lying sources.

[sportsfan882]

Don't be all salty because your boy that "broke the Pujols story" was proven to be a fake and a nobody.

[Lintyfresh85]

Only one of us follows 'my boy' on Twitter, and it isn't me.

[tomterp]

and people still believe these "insiders"

of course, there ARE insiders out there willing to leak, but there's little one can do to determine the credibility of any information released.

[PANatsFan]

of course, there ARE insiders out there willing to leak, but there's little one can do to determine the credibility of any information released.

MLBTR use to report any weirdass rumor that anyone ever sent them, before they became a respectable news site. Props to Dierkes for making a successful business out of something SF would call a donkfest or some other gibberish word.