Sox Therapy: The Kids

The Red Sox have been unexpectedly watchable of late, and it’s greatly thanks to three people.  One of them is Adrian Gonzalez, a .gif of whom is linked in the comments.  The other two are the kids on hot streaks, Will Middlebrooks and Daniel Nava. 

You might say that it’s not a good idea to write a blog post about two kids with a combined 70 PA in the majors, Dr. Jinxtable.  While I can’t deny the extent of my nefarious mind powers, Middlebrooks and Nava were hitting just as well in ...

Sox Therapy: Minor League Thread: 150 PA Prospects

I like to look at minor league numbers about 150 PA into the season because this is when a few of the component numbers start to stabilize.  For strikeouts especially, and to a lesser degree walks and some of the power stats, we’ve got enough of a sample to begin to make some claims.  And I’m claiming that there are a bunch of good things going on in the system right now.  This is particularly fun because the Sox drafting and development has been in a slump with the last few drafts in ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1972 Ballot

Here are the specific rules for this election:
Candidate Eligibility: Any North American professional baseball player is eligible for the Most Meritorious Player (MMP) award including players in the top Negro Leagues or independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to Major League Baseball (MLB) team(s) in that season only. If part of the season was spent outside MLB, that value may be considered as well. However, the player’s on-field contribution should be ...

Sox Therapy: A Losing Ballclub

I thought 9-6 was a reasonable expectation for the road trip, and a 10-5 run that put the Sox back on track was within reach.  In that stretch, instead, they have been outplayed by the Orioles and A’s, and failed to outplay the Royals.  The pitchers didn’t turn in a single well-pitched game, and the offense could not find a game-winning hit despite loads of opportunities. 

I have a lot of trouble believing this club has strained its clutch muscle, and I expect the hits will start ...

Jim's Lab Notes: Staying Logged In Issue

This is a new thread dedicated to the “staying logged in” issue that has reappeared after I updated our backend to Expression Engine 2.4. The issue has been discussed in a few places but it would be more useful for me to consolidate the conversation to one place. Additionally, it provides a more prominent placement for the discussion.

This issue cropped up initially with our upgrade from Expression Engine (the Content Management System the site is built on) 1.6.8 to 2.3.1. At that point I was ...

Sox Therapy: The 11:15 to Nowhere

After 26 games the Sox are 11-15 as they were last year having lost two home games to a team they should not be losing series at home too (Baltimore this year, Seattle last year).  They have been outscored by a similar amount (8 runs this year, 6 last) and it feels like the Sox are headed nowhere.

You are never as good as you look when you are winning or as bad as you look when you are losing (is that a Vince Lombardi-ism?).  Where are the Sox and where are they going?

What’s Right That ...

Gonfalon Cubs: Month 1 in Review

So one month in the long, dreary season is in the books.  Cubs sit at 8 and 14, on pace for a pathetic 59 wins*.  That would tie a franchise low, in the 162 game era, with the 1962 and 1966 anti-powerhouses.  But it’s not all bad, right?  Without getting into too many specifics, here’s what I see so far.  Feel free to add more in the comments below.


The Good
Bryan LaHair - As talked about at the end of last month’s thread (linked in the title), he’s due for a reality check.  In the meantime, ...

Jim's Lab Notes: microBBTFs: I Have Keys and I am not Afraid to Give Them Out

I am plodding along with the update. One of my main goals is simplifying our overall setup to make it easier for people to find what they are interested in *and* to make it easier for members to submit content. With that in mind I am streamlining the structure of topic specific areas. This includes changes to the way content areas are created and managed.

What’s this change all about?
In the past, I’ve created new blogs within Expression Engine’s Control Panel and then created new template ...

Sox Therapy: Almost There (Again)

Two weeks ago, it looked like the Red Sox were back to normal.  They came home after a tough road trip and won three straight against Tampa.  A win in the Patriots’ Day game would bring the Sox back to .500.  Given the difficulty of the early season schedule, a .500 record would have been just about the expected record for a projected 90ish win Sox club.  They were almost there.

Instead of picking up that last win to get back to .500, they dropped a game in which the bats went silent and ...

Jim's Lab Notes: Squishing Bugs

Yesterday morning I updated our underlying CMS (Content Management System) Expression Engine. I needed to apply the maintenance release to better take advantage of the new caching system I’m using with the updated site. It wasn’t a major release and during my testing on my development system I didn’t notice any issues. Well, after applying the update to the site, a few issues have cropped up. I am working to squish those bugs.

To date: the bug affecting comment numbering has been fixed. I am ...