I get these all the time, figured I should finally respond to one ...

Rob, I'm a big fan of your SweetSpot Blog Network, as well as a big fan of the Troy Haymakers (yes, we do exist!). However, I've always been a bit melancholy because of the lack of blog coverage for the Haymakers. I'm current a junior in college, so you can imagine all the spare time I have, and I was hoping to inquire how I could have a blog entered in your Blog Network. Please let me know if such a thing could happen and how.

Thanks. - Billy

As you've noticed, Billy, we don't yet have all the teams covered. I'll be completely honest with you ... I thought we'd have 25 teams covered by now, and probably all 30 by the All-Star break.

Instead we've got 21, with (at this moment) no real prospects for more. I do think we'll make some progress this season. I just don't know when, or how much.

I do get a lot of "letters" like yours, Billy. And my best advice, if you're sincerely interested, is simple: do it. Last time I checked, the barrier for entry was exceptionally low. I believe it takes about three minutes to get a blog up and running.

Of course, there aren't any guarantees. The sad truth is that even if you've got the time to write about your favorite team every day, you probably don't have the analytical skills or the writing chops we're looking for. You might, someday. But writing, like most things, takes a fair amount of practice. If it were easy to write (and analyze) well, we wouldn't have nine openings in the SweetSpot Network, because I would have filled those slots already from among the many dozens of unaffiliated blogs that are out there right now.

Sometimes I worry that my standards are too high ... but that's better than the alternative, right? If I'm going to err (and I will, inevitably) I would rather err on the side of good writing and analysis.

So that's where we're at, Billy. I get letters like yours all the time, and my advice is always the same. Do it. Write about your team, and prove to me that you can write often and well and smartly. Then we'll talk.