So, this is something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, and I finally got around to it tonight. We now have a phuturephillies message board/discussion forum. You can find it here. Proboards seems decent enough for a free discussion forum, its going to take some time to figure everything out and add different things to it, but I think it will serve the purpose for now. As I’ve mentioned before, the purpose of this site has never been to turn it into a message board, though the discussion is great. I don’t want to extinguish all of the discussion from this site of course, but I wanted to provide another outlet for people to discuss whatever they’d like relating to Phillies prospects. Its a work in progress, but it should be fun.
Category Archives: 07. Site Info
Site tweaking
I’m going to do some work on the site this weekend, including possibly changing the layout/design/color scheme and all of that stuff. It feels like its time for a face lift. So if you check back and things look out of whack, don’t sweat it, I’ll get it back in order. Thanks.
[Update 1]
So I’ve done a bunch of re-organizing. I changed the main theme of the site. It seems a bit more bright and less dark/dull, which I think makes it easier to read. I’ve changed the hierarchy on the left side, using a few more category headers and trying to better organize the categories. I also added a FAQ/Intro type statement and some site rules.
[Update 2]
Ok, I’ve scrapped the new design and brought back the old version. I changed the red color to a brighter red, and I’ll continue to work on some other things.
Musings, thoughts on the site
This post has been in my head for the better part of two months, I was going to hold off on writing it for a while, but I’ve gotten quite a few emails in the last few weeks about the site in general, and specifically about my involvement in the discussions here, so I felt it was time to write this up. This will be wordy, and though I haven’t decided yet, I think I’m going to lock the comments on this post, because I have no intention of this being a back and forth shouting match, I’d just like to clear the air and then move on. But by the time I’m done, I might change my mind. So anyway, for aesthetics purposes, I’ll add the divider here and then get going…
WordPress has added polls
I was going to use the poll feature for Top 30 #6, but I figured it might be better to test it out first. So I’m going to add a poll to this post just using a generic question. Vote and we’ll test the process. Also, it allows write-in votes, which will be important if we use it for the Reader Top 30 voting. Could a few people please use the “Other” option and write in your answer, then post in the comments what you wrote in? Thanks.
[Update] It looks like 7 people have voted “Other”, and 4 choices have shown up. So if 3 people voted “Other” and forgot to write their answer in the box, that would explain it, or it could possibly be a delay in updating the data. Either way, it looks like the method should work.
Upcoming schedule/Question 1
Just a brief upate here, and then the first of a series of questions as we adresss the farm system. I’ll be out of town through the end of the weekend, and when I return I’ll get back into the swing of things. I’m planning to start the Reader Top 30 in the beginning of December, which will coincide with the end of the Arizona Fall League. Last year’s incarnation was a success, and it will be a fun exercise again this year, especially since we have more regular readers and contributors. I’m also going to get in touch with the contributors from this past season and try to figure out what next year will look like, and then I’ll search for new correspondants if they are needed. So, with that said, here is question #1.
With the Phillies winning the World Series, and with Carlos Ruiz seemingly handling the pitching staff in the manner he did, what does 2009 look like for Lou Marson?
State your case in the comments, and be respectful of the opinions of others.
Project wikispaces
I’ve been waiting a few days to unveil my latest project, but I figure now is a good time, because its also a plea for help. I decided to go ahead and create a wikispaces page, which you can see here. Basically, its just the template right now. I’ve laid out a few things, I created a few pages just to get a feel for how the site works, but I obviously have a massive amount of information I’d like to add to the page. My goal is to eventually have the wiki site integrated seamlessly here. I think it will make this site much easier to navigate and filled with less clutter and disorganization. The wiki site should make player profiles easier to do, it will be easier to organize things, and generally, will be a lot easier on the eye. This site will still be the main discussion hub, but the wiki site will have all of the information neatly organized. I’m more than prepared to spend the bulk of the time adding information, but I’ll of course open it up to volunteers who would like to spend some time adding information to the database. The obvious caveats apply; be a good writer, be willing to put some time in, etc etc. Right now, the plans for what I want to add are still kind of rough, and its going to be an ever developing project. If you have an interest, drop me an email with “wiki project” or something like that in the title. I’ll wait a few days to try and get a better grasp on it and to see who replies, and then I’ll send out a general email to everyone (anyone) who gets back to me. Thanks, and happy Thursday. Oh, and VOTE FOR PAT.
A thank you is in order
Normally you’d find the Monday Morning 6 Pack here, but I am in the process of signing a lease for a new apartment, and still trying to get work done, so I don’t have time to put together the update right now. However, hopefully I’ll be back with that tomorrow, plus a few more things in the pipeline. I’ll roll out my Jeremy Slayden profile this week, as well as more on the draft, and maybe some other stuff as well. However, I want to take this space and thank each and every one of you who have come to the blog since I started last December. We hit a bit of a milestone today…
When I started writing, I thought I might do it for a day or two, maybe a week, and I guessed that maybe 20 people would read it. Well, 181 posts later, 806 comments later, and 100,000+ visits later, I’m still at it. Thanks again for all the support, thanks for continuing to come back, and thanks for telling your friends about the site. I keep writing because you keep coming, and I’ll continue as long as there is interest. Thanks again, and happy Monday.
New Feature: Prospect Tracker
If you check the top of the blog, you’ll see a page/tab called “Prospect Tracker”. It’s simply a page with links to the 2007 statistics of all the Phillies prospects, linked at minorleaguesplits.com If you’re curious how a player is doing and don’t feel like searching and clicking through various pages, just click on his name and his splits will open in a new window. Minorleaguesplits is the best minor league stats site out there, and offers much more than the standard 3 slash stats, including balls in play data and month to month splits. Check it out.
Another call for help
I’m pleased to announce two new members to the phuturephillies staff, Jeff who will be giving the Clearwater weekly report, and Gregg, who will be giving the Reading report. I still have an opening for someone interested in writing a once a week report on Lakewood, so if interested, or if you know someone interested, get in contact via email. I’d also like to ask for help of a different kind. I’m looking for a way to make tables to present statistics, and then save the table as an image so I can upload it and insert it into the middle of a post here. I don’t need anything elaborate, just a simple table that allows for columns and rows. If you know how to make something like this and would be willing to help, drop me an e-mail at phuturephillies at hotmail dot com. Finally, you may start to notice that posts are shorter with a “Click here to read more” link. I’m going this route because I want to make the first page easier to read. Thus, shorter posts with a link to read the rest of the writeup. This seems like a win-win type thing, but if it doesn’t go over well, we’ll revert back.
And just a brief thank you to those who keep coming back every day. This has been an enjoyable process, I have a lot of cool ideas for future development, and it should be fun. Thanks to those who just found the site, thanks to those who keep checking back, and please pass along the link to the site to anyone who you think may be interested.
Happy Easter
No games today, nothing really to report other than the fact that Chris Coste has been optioned to Ottawa. No surprise there, but we may see him in Philly at some point, in September at the latest as a pinch hitter. So, enjoy your holiday, if you haven’t gotten caught up on past writings, do so today, and then check back tomorrow for my first edition of “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not”.
Phuture Phillies 