I’m actually paying for my internet right now in Boston. I signed online to check email that needed to be checked. And I decided to stop in here just to make sure everything was ok. And I come back to people still making condescending remarks in the “Off the grid” post. Seriously, you couldn’t pick up the joke in “e-beatdowns”….? I attempted to change the format here, to require people to register at wordpress, thinking that if people really wanted to be a thorn in the side, they wouldn’t take the time to actually sign up and continue to be that way. But that isn’t going to stop people. So I’ve opened up the flood gates again. You know longer have to log in. I’m done trying to “stifle discussion”, but I’m also done posting in the comments section here. I’m going to get back to doing what I intened for this site. I’m simply going to write and share my opinion in the main piece. If I have anything else to add, I’ll update the main post. But I’m not posting in the comments anymore, I’m not going to allow myself to be drawn in to any more of the ridiculous back and forth banter. So, those of you who were so put off that I decided to add a registration process (that would take all of 60 seconds), you win, the site is yours again, feel free to make the snide remarks, the mindless banter, and whatever else you want. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my vacation. The flood gates are back open. Enjoy.

I’ll be out of town until this weekend, so nothing new from me in the coming days. I’m deputising all of the contributors here to issue e-beatdowns if anyone gets out of line. Next week I’m going to focus on the 2008 Draft, give some detailed thoughts on each pick. After that, I’ll do my affiliate by affiliate breakdowns and then work on the Top 30, as well as some other good stuff. Until then…

Hey, what timing!

Link.

Just like the Phillies with the Paul Owens Award, I’m going to give a PPPoY to my most outstanding pitching and positional prospect. This year, the inaugural year for the award, the winners are JA Happ and Michael Taylor. Neither choice was particularly easy, and I moved around a bit on both selections, but in the end, I was fairly confident in the Happ selection, and marginally happy with the Taylor selection. I’ll go through my reasoning on each guy, as well as the runners’ up and some more details below…

Continue reading Phuture Phillies Player(s) of the Year →

No big writeup, just his stat lines, but Taylor was on BA’s Second Team in the OF along with Dexter Fowler (COL) and Travis Snider (TOR), both of whom are now in the majors. This caps a huge season for Taylor, one that will see him shoot way up BA’s rankings this winter. Congrats to Michael, he finds himself in elite company on this all star list.

I’m in the process of preparing to move, and with that obviously comes a lot of other stuff. I was planning on writing the in depth draft recap starting next week, but I will be out of town from Tuesday through Saturday. I think the better course of action is to devote the following week to the draft. On Monday I’m going to roll out the “Phuture Phillies Player of the Year” feature, which is kind of what it sounds like, just my answer to the Phillies Paul Owens Award. I’ll give you my winner, and then 2 runners up for both position players and pitchers. Then I will be out of town, and when I get back, the draft is of prime focus. For today, in preparation for the PPPoY special, I thought I’d allow you to weigh in with your selections. Simply list them like

Winner
Runner Up
Second Runner Up

One for position players, One for pitchers.

Have a nice weekend.