As I see it, we’re running a compelling experiment on many different levels here at The Athletic.

At a time when many outlets are treating content creators as interchangeable, we’re making an investment to find the best. Some may feel that the internet is there to make things free for all; we feel that great content, delivered cleanly, is worth paying for. Other great writers have already focused on those aspects of this grand experiment.

As a generalist who has also specialized, though, something else drew me to The Athletic: A real chance for synthesis and original thought, born of the structure that’s unique to this new venture.

I’ve written all over the baseball internet, where two dominant structures emerged. I’ve worked for blog networks that aggregate local sites, and for big national brands that approached the game from a broader perspective. Both have their merits, but also their drawbacks.

What if we did both? What sort of thought could we spur if we synthesize the efforts of those who drill down and know everything about a smaller topic with the work of those who focus on the larger trends? What if we really invested in both sides of the equation?

What if we had the best local writers in the business and then supplemented them with an equal investment in national analysis?

Take a look at the talent that’s gathering in each market here at The Athletic. It’s a who’s who, a collection of the best local writers in each area, and a near guarantee that your favorite team will be covered by a writer who knows which strings to pull, which sources to question, and which stories to tell. I won’t even try to name them all for fear of leaving out someone excellent. Every time I heard about a new person joining, I thought, Oh, that’s exactly who I’d pick from that market.

Take a look at what’s happening on the national page. Ken Rosenthal’s got the best bowtie in the business, and a Rolodex to match. You’ll know what’s coming first. Jim Bowden brings a former GM’s perspective. I’ll try to make sense of the numbers as best I can, and so will Ben Harris. Peter Gammons needs no introduction, though I can’t think of a writer I admire more—maybe Jayson Stark is right there. We got him, too? Sweet. More national writers are on their way. And there’s Emma Span to help us put the words in the right order! This tiller will have a steady hand.

To celebrate, we’ve got an introductory offer — 25% off and a free T-shirt — that will allow you to read deep, well-researched and -written local fare in each hub, as well as the excellence on the national page.

It’s really the space between the local and the national that gives me the most energy, particularly given my background. I studied for degrees in art history, psychology, creative writing, film history and journalism. I launched a successful national educational publishing brand, wrote for a couple of Mets sites, helped establish a great fantasy baseball section, and started two beer websites.

My best pieces, fittingly, have brought together elements of each of the things I’ve learned, along with things the players I interview have learned, while adding analysis from looking at the numbers. Scratch that, our best pieces in baseball bring together the disparate parts of our knowledge bases to try and push towards a better understanding.

Teams are learning this in their own way. Once, it was good enough to have the best scouts and find the next stars. Then it was good enough to break down the numbers best and win each trade, each deal. Now the focus seems to be on development, that difficult process which seeks to use the best of our acquired beliefs when it comes to mechanics to map out how each player can find their own unique pathway to their best self.

That sounds like it would take a synthesis of different sources of knowledge, and it does. Teams are bringing in neurologists and astrophysicists and psychologists and physiologists, just to name a few –ists, to figure out as much as they can about the human brain and body in the act of playing baseball.

This team right here? We’re bringing the best of the local and national minds on what is hopefully a new scale. I’ll be tasked with helping to find the best local analytics writers along with working on my own pieces, and those writers—along with the great local reporters we have in place, and the top shelf national talent that has joined up—will percolate together. And hopefully, those thinkers we find will have as eclectic a knowledge base as the writers who have signed on so far. We’re building something here, and we want to hear from many different voices.

I’ve already started correspondences with many of your favorite writers on here, which makes me entirely too excited, since they’re also my favorite writers. We’re already bouncing ideas off each other, and hopefully I can help them as much as they can help me.

Let’s see what happens when we really put our heads together.

(Top photo: Stan Szeto/USA TODAY Sports)