Waiting for another grounder to second
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Feb 12, 2010 
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When Sam and I were putting together the Pinch Hitters series, there were a few proposals that stood out as obvious parts of the series. There were a few tough decisions and a few difficult omissions, but Pete’s post was always the one we wanted to use as the finale.
On Thursday, Frank wrote about the way a World Series can suddenly take a unthinkable turn for the worst. This morning, Pete wrote about the way a routine grounder to second can become a monumental moment. I don’t think I’ll ever forget talking to Mark Teixeira after the 2009 clincher — No. 27 on Pete’s list – and having him ask whether anyone could remember who he hugged first during the infield celebration. He honestly couldn’t remember. After that groundball, his world became a blur.
“I didn’t feel it,” Teixeira said of the throw to first. “I literally did not feel it hit my glove. I had to look down afterward to make sure that I caught it.”
Pitchers and catchers report to the Yankees spring training complex on Wednesday. In five days, the Yankees will turn the page and begin actively chasing No. 28.
Hope Pete left room in that notebook.
Threaded comments don’t work on blogs for the following reasons:
- With messageboards, ‘threads’ are bumped to the top of the page when they are replied to, and many messageboards have buttons which take you directly to new posts and / or color old posts so you don’t waste time slogging through stuff you have read
- Blog ‘threads’ are static entities on a page and do not move, which means conversations could be happening at the top AND bottom of a blog comment dump simultaneously
- For posts which are top to bottom , chronological makes the most sense, because the order and location of the comment matter. Threading posts just jumbles things up unnecessarily.
–
This is not a messageboard, unless you want to make it act like one I say get rid of threaded comments, they are obnoxious in anything other than a forum.
Go back to chronological and have the reply button automatically paste the comment you are replying to into your comment box.
I concur with Jerkface.
I still disagree. haha
Well, we can ignore the function and just keep replying at the bottom, as we always have.
Yes but you could miss other comments you would have wanted to see, right? Not to miss a comment, you have to scroll through all the comments every time you click, correct?
If there was some way that when someone replys to someone else that that could go to the bottom instead of staying in the middle of the page or wherever then it might be better.
Well said Jerkface
I repeat- This is INEFFICIENT!
Hi everyone. Obviously we’re trying some new things here. We’re going to give it a shot and see how it works, but we’re more than happy to hear feedback. Shoot an email to Jeff, our tech guy, at: jmarx@lohud.com. Let him know what you like and what you don’t, what’s working and what isn’t.
It boggles my mind why people would be against having all the comments in a specific conversation in one concentrated spot. But it appears I’m in the minority (at least so far). Oh well…
I agree with Jerface-not a fan of the new format.
If you missed this week’s Yankee magazine on YES, they have a nice little interview with Jesus Montero, who’s been in Florida working out since January
Not digging the new format.
What is vegas giving us to repeat thus far? don’t know the link.
Edit- **Jerkface**
Chad,
People always rebel against new things. Erica said there should be a poll to see who likes/dislike the reply button. I think that makes sense. But I think you should have the poll after a few weeks so people can get a chance to use it and really see if they like it or not.
I won’t beat a dead horse and keep trying to change people’s opinions. I just think they need to get used to it.
Lincecum signs for 2 years at $23 mil.
If you like or hate it is up to you. But inefficient is the last thing it is.
The mystery of spring training is that nobody on the team knows who will cause or create the final pitch for the final out of the World Series or who will have the game winning RBI.
Joba needs as much work on his secondary pitches (some would argue more given his walk totals last year) as Phil. Just because he started last year, that doesn’t give him a leg up on that front.
He has a leg up on innings. That’s it. Truth be told, Phil had a better season than Joba did last year. That also plays into the decision.
In case some forget, Joba was the worst starting pitcher in the AL for the last 5 weeks of the season.
His curveball, slider (throwing it for strikes rather than continuing to miss away) and change up, as well as fastball command, all need work.
Betsy,
There is an old baseball axiom which states, “Never reach a conclusion on a player in September or Spring Training”. You often get false reads.
The Yankees aren’t going to choose their fifth starter based on who has the best stats at the end of the spring.
We have this discussion every year on the board with people who use ST stats as an argument for why guys should play.
That’s not how teams evaluate guys.
If Derek Jeter goes 0-40 in the spring and Ramiro Pena goes 35-40, guess who the starting SS is on Opening Day?
If CC Sabathia is 0-4 with a 10 ERA and Chad Gaudin is 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA, guess who is the Opening Day starter?
The Yankees will choose the fifth starter based on whomever they feel will give them the best chance to win.
That will come from watching how free and easy guys throw…..how their secondary stuff is translating…..and fastball command.
The stats won’t play a role in it.
no, i like it as well. In typical Yankee fan fashion, some need to complain about everything….
You can disagree, but there is no logical way to determine where new postings are other than to check the entire comment area.
This is completely inefficient and people who claim that threaded blog comments are better or somehow easier to read are merely lying to themselves and ignoring the extra work that goes into locating new posts.
Good for him. He gets some financial stability for the rest of his life and after two years he can try for the mother load.
I know its getting close to the start of the season because my nephew left today for Bradenton and his first big league ST.
To say he is psyched up about it is an understatement.
Hope he has a shot at playing in the ST opener against the Yankees on March 3.
anyone see the Swisher piece on the recent Yankee Magazine? ha love that guy
part of the Pirates organization?
How exciting!!! Are you just as excited as he is?
Concentrating posts is overrated on a blog because there is no way to alert a user that new posts are available. Additionally, there are no subjects, so to discern the ‘topic’ of each thread you have to read it, which means reading stuff you don’t care about.
Basically, this is like a half-rate messageboard.
I want a full rate blog comment section, not a half rate messageboard. And trust me when I say I am not ‘railing against something new’. I have been on the internet since its popular inception with prodigy, aol 1.0, and various BBS and dial up services. This is completely inefficient in terms of reading and replying.
NEVER use the reply link when responding to trolls.
It will only incite them more.
If you want to call them out, please write a separate comment.
There may be a pop quiz on this later in the day.
OK, I’m leaving work in a few minutes-when I check in later this afternoon, will the blog be back to normal???
It is efficient for the CONVERSATION to be in 1 place.
It is INEFFICIENT for the READER to find all the new posts in multiple conversations.
The internet should always be about efficiency for the user. Only when the conversation suffers should other means be tried, and I think its safe to say that the Yankees most popular blog has not lacked for conversation.
oohh, what happened to the blog?!
(go away to work for a couple of weeks in the off season, and the reply buttons have multiplied in a dizzying new format. grumble, grumble.)
If most people don’t use the reply function, we should be ok.
SJ, and I completely agree about using ST that way. It’s why I never thought this “competition” was a good idea. If the Yankees are going to treat it like you think, then it’s fine.
I didn’t think Joba pitched well last year, especially in the second half. I do think most fans still drool over his velocity and think that if it returns, he will be dominant. I still don’t like his stubborness and the velocity thing bothers me. There are plenty of pitchers who throw hard who can’t hit the side of a barn. By the same token, there are fans and others who think Phil won’t succeed as a starter because his velocity will drop upon his return to the rotation. That’s silly. He was healthy last year and his velocity returned to 92-94 as a starter. He’s got great late life and, when he’s on, amazing command. I enjoyed watching him paint the corner – it was fun to watch. As a fan of Phil personally, I just want to see him fulfill his potential. As a fan of the team, I want both Joba and Phil to do well.
Hi muffin stump!!!!
Feedback has been sent!
This format is cumbersome but feasible when the comment volume is low.
But once the season starts and you start getting three or four hundred or more comments to a blog post, it’s going to be nearly impossible to find all the new messages and read them.
Lets all join hands and yell “INEFFICIENT” together!!!
I generally agree with your post. But I think Joba is the starter unless he gets hurt. I agree with others when they say that the Yanks didnt build him up for the past two years (and take the criticism) just to throw him back in the pen. They will give him every opportunity to stick in the rotation this year.
I second this
hi erica. have you divested yourself of the guess the lineup for the 2010? what will you do all day at work after tax season is over?!
Yes I am. Really for him because all the hard work he has put in is paying off.
This is going to be a good experience for him. He will get a chance to mix in with major leaguers and get more insight on what its going to take to make it to the majors.
He is going to start the year in High A ball with the new Bradenton team in the Florida State League. Big ballparks, mostly a pitcher friendly league.
Its going to be interesting to see how he adapts to that as opposed to the SAL (South Atlantic League) which is mostly a hitters league.
Most people wont be replying to people during game posts. they’ll have their own comments to make. Conversations are rare during games.
ooohh, will this do ever shrinking boxes of replies?
wow, what happened to the blog?
Do you have to keep scrolling up to look for responses, or do new responses automatically go to the bottom?
That’s just awesome. You must be so proud.
I see the Yanks have 4 games against them.
I hope we get a chance to see him play on YES.
haha. yeah, I’m lying to myself about a freaking blog. At the end of the day, I’ll accept whatever format the blog goes with. But the threaded version is much better.
I can’t find it. Any help, please. Txs.
Unfortunately, after busy season the work is still there. The hours just go down and the tax retruns disappear. But the CPA’s job is never finished!
Doreen is officially taking over GTLU duties and I know she will be awesome at it.
I will miss it a little. But I knew it was tiem for a change when I started planning meetings so they wouldn’t interfere with GTLU
No
Hey Guys, we hear you loud and clear. Just try and give it a chance for a couple days. This is a bit of a trial period. Email me your thoughts at jmarx@lohud.com.
i say give the new format a chance.
use the “reply” where it makes sense.
like me busting gb7 for breaking nurse karloff’s heart and now moving on to greener pastures.
in other words use the “reply ” function when you are talking more to that specific person than to the whole blog.
the blog may even appreciate it
the lst 5 weeks Joba made a series of 2 and 3 inning starts….prior to the abbreviated start portion o his season joba was top 10 era in the Al and only CC had a better era on the Yanks.
Joba has also certainly been a much much better starter than Phil so far in their early careers and right now has a much more advanced arsenal of pitches to attack hitters with right now.
The fact is Joba should right now be the 5th starter based on performance and merit and Phil, while he still has a bright future as a starter in my opinion, is behind Joba in both development and ceiling.
Wow, I give up. I guess I just differ with most of you. i think the worst part of this blog in the past is that you had to always scroll to the bottom to find a response. But it appears most of you like that. I guess I’ll shut up if that’s the case.
If everyone agreed to do it as we always have, then there would be no problem. I think.
Well, anyway, it looks kind neat.
What would be nice, is if comments are sorted chronologically, by date of last post. So new posts would move an entire thread to the bottom. That’d be a good solution.
Like most, Jack Moore of FanGraphs finds it hard to imagine 2011 free agent Derek Jeter finishing his career with a team other than the Yankees. One reason Moore believes Jeter’s a fit in the Bronx: the shortstop’s inside-out swing is perfect for Yankee Stadium.
————————————————————
Only one reason, Jack?
How often do you read the blog? If you refresh, it automatically takes you to the last post you were looking at (the ‘scroll point’ for the page) which meant merely scrolling down to read new posts.
Your preferred method involves scrolling down AND up.
Are you selfish and only care about your particular conversation? Thus you only sit at your own thread and click refresh constantly?
Ideally, a blog like this would have a forum. It operates more like a message board and allows people to post and reply in threads. I dont know if that is a real solution for this blog though. I’m not sure how open a lot of posters would be to that since most people here have gotten used to the ‘free flowing’ conversation style.
You know we’ll all be pulling for him, SJ!
I hate it!
Oh, you said email you.
There is an undeniable inefficiency to the whole thing. You are trying to deny it.
- Lack of updated postins moving to a more visible location
- No subject lines to denote thread contents
- No information as to new postings
=
Scrolling the entire comment field looking for updates, and only knowing that a comment is new by remembering previous comments
So people that don’t like the new format are spoiled complainers? It’s ridiculous, I’m sorry; Jerkface has said it better than I ever could.
Never have I gone through 59 posts in such short order. That’s because I skipped over most of them.
Do NOT like this format.
Will email jeff.
Looked at the TOS and my lohud Yankee fan card and neither said I had to like the new format.
THANK GOD!
great motto: “the cpa’s job is never finished!” i can see it as a tag line when you set up your own shop.
so, the boxes don’t actually shrink, they just expand. hmmm….
glad you talked doreen into it. she was the voice of sanity on the blog for a couple of years there. kind of a blog mother. but doreen seemed not to post as much last season or so. maybe gtlu duties will bring her back.
muffin stump -
Erica has said to me that she will fill in when I am unable to perform GTLU duties.
I’m looking forward to bringing GTLU to you all, and hoping to have a little spring training of my own maybe the last week to 10 days of spring training games.
Don’t be bashful, Randy. Borissa says that you was a perfect gentleman last night….and a real “stud muffin”. I hope she didn’t notice when I threw up on her shoes with that news.
As my dad always used to tell us, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
I have a suggestion for the IT department. Can we use the email addresses we put in everytime we post to get notifications if one of the replies we made gets commented on or one of the comments we are involved with gets replied to? That way a lot of the “We need to keep scrolling up and down” problems get alleviated. Just my two cents.
It is just an undeniable fact that threaded static comments require more work overall to read and respond to, and only dedicated conversationalists will take part in the discussion.
Or parties arriving late to the discussion who will post something that no one will read.
This format would probably make GTLU easier for me. All the lineups would be in one string.
that would be a perfect solution. Then you wouldn’t have to scroll up and down to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
A lot of people don’t understand, or want to acknowledge, how much of a role luck plays in the postseason.
I’m on here every day. Selfish? No. But there are a lot of people on here that post drivel. And I’d love to be able to bypass their conversations. It’s much easier to do that in threaded commenting. Also, it’s much easier to follow a conversation that I’m interested in (even if I’m not a part of it).
We disagree, not the end of the world
As do I.
Threaded commenting is the best way to go. The only reason you would have to keep checking the whole post is if you’re involved in a specific conversation, or if you are interested in it. If so, you know where it is.
The old format lost a lot of good posts because it was more of a steamroller approach to conversation.
I havent seen one person call you or anyone else a spoiled complainer.
Doreen – you would hope! Someone coming late to the dance might do an individual post.
This definitely could discourage me from both reading and posting here. That might be a good reason for a variety of people to vote for it, Randy…
Yea so now I have to check my email to see if someone talked to me on a blog? Forget this. I do not want my inbox spammed up with emails that RobbieCano69 just responded to me on Lohud.
the velocity “issue” that you guys constantly refer to was more about using the two seamer as opposedto the four seamer. Girardi and Eiland implored Joba to feature his newly developed two seam fastball and pitch to contact as they had him on both a pitch count limit and an innings limit. Joba as a reliever had always featured his four seamer and slider as a strikeout pitcher usually would. When he went back to the pen in the postseason he went back to that mentality and back to the four seamer hence the higher velo.
The Yanks should let Joba pitch the way he’s always pitched and refine that as opposed to trying to remake him into something that he’s not.
Imagine the Tigers ordering Verlander to throw fewer four seamers and feature a sinker as his #1 pitch. He wouldn’t be the same pitcher.
This by the way came straight from the horse’s mouth. Joba said exactly this when he came back from the break and had that 3-4 start run when he looked like the best young gun in the game,when asked what the difference was he said he went back to throwing his four seamer and being aggressive as opposed to the two seamer and trying to paint the corners.
I tend to post less if I have nothing new to say.
But I’m always reading…
SJ 44
champ809 says:
February 12th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
the lst 5 weeks Joba made a series of 2 and 3 inning starts….prior to the abbreviated start portion o his season joba was top 10 era in the Al and only CC had a better era on the Yanks.
Joba has also certainly been a much much better starter than Phil so far in their early careers and right now has a much more advanced arsenal of pitches to attack hitters with right now.
The fact is Joba should right now be the 5th starter based on performance and merit and Phil, while he still has a bright future as a starter in my opinion, is behind Joba in both development and ceiling.
Efficiency is lost whenever there is more than one conversation on the old format. It is wildly inefficient when 50 people are all talking about different topics in the same area. Threaded commenting corrals those conversation into one easy to find blue field. It’s more than just efficient it’s the MOST efficient way to run it. I am for e-mail notifications, which would stop anyone who doesn’t remember what conversations they’re involved in.
hi doreen! glad you will be around and that you and erica will have the chance to work together. spring training gtlu sounds like a great idea. my only claim to fame is never having won gtlu. (i usually miss the deadline.) hope to keep my record going this year.
Not saying it will happen, but what will you do if he busts?
I hope you are around for his success or failure, it’d be interesting to have a near first hand account of it.
In which case, it would instead be a nightmare! Oy.
love the new format and am baffled by the criticisms. Mostly because they don’t seem to be logical to me.
Can we trade the reply function for an edit function?
LOL give it a chance? Why does every change necessarily have to be a good one? This one stinks.
If I can get used to seeing Don Mattingly wear Dodger Blue I guess I can get used to this.
So, you mean the latest reply would be the sort criteria? Can they do that?
CC, not me, but someone said that people that don’t like change are whining or complaining or something like that. That’s not true, not IMO.
hey, having nothing to say doesn’t seem to deter anyone else. besides, how else are we going to test this new reply system? how many boxes within the boxes can it do before it crashes the server?
Your assumption is that people are only interested in one conversation or that everyone would suddenly start grouping their conversations accordingly.
Your ideal
Blog topic – Damon signs with the Losers
Thread 1 – Damon signs with the losers what a moron!
Thread 2 – Off topic about Erica’s pantyhose
Thread 3 – SJ44/Randy rambling about something
Thread 4 – Joba/Hughes the revenge
THe reality is that there are going to be multiple threads all relating to the same thing, and the comments only nest 3 deep anyways so at some point you lose the ‘reply’ function.
And it still means having to look at all postings to find new ones.
I think some people are obviously interested in EVERYTHING posted on the blog. I will ignore drivel and scroll by it, but I still want to see what was posted as I might want to respond to it.
Threaded comments do not work on this blog because we have real time conversations. Blogs that receive periodic comments are appropriate for threaded comments, but it destroys the flow here.
Rich in NJ says: February 12th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Can we trade the reply function for an edit function?
__________
Well said!!
Threaded comments might work fine on River Ave Blues, but that blog is more about analysis anyways, and doesn’t receive the same traffic.
(And surprise, it is also obnoxious to read and follow!)
Boo.
Do not like this new format.
Especially if you were at the stadium, Girardi’s triple in 1996 was an incredible moment!
This blog is very stream-of-consciousness at times. Topics all over the place, at least when there aren’t games or a very compelling main topic. Sam & Chad’s topic posts generally rule for a while, but then we tend to go off on tangents or strike up entirely new themes within the post.
All that to say, I don’t know how you really break the body of these into “threads.” Which is why it really was not a problem the way it was.
So far, the new format makes it a little more work, and since most of you all are browsing this from an actual job, that’s probably not a good thing.
So now I have replies to the top, middle, and bottom of this thread. I will now scroll the entire thing to see if anyone replied.
Nope, but now I know to DVR it thanks.
Wow, I think we need a new post specifically for people to complain about the format of the blog. Can we comment about the post? Come on.
How arduous of a task is it when you check your email? Usually a little info box pops up on my screen and gives me the subject and first few lines of the message. Then I could say “Oh now someone has responded to my comment.” As opposed to walking away from the computer for 15 minutes during a game thread and having to sort through 200 posts to discern if anyone has responded to the issue I was talking about.
I have now quadrupled the amount of time it takes for me to see that no one has responded to anything I said.
Mark Teixeira had no feeling in his glove, but I feel very strongly about this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha! I’m still not used to Mattingly in Dodger Blue – or, perhaps better to say, I’m used to it, but I still don’t like it!
Hit cntrl F and type your name in and you can go through the thread that way.
It doesn’t appear to be working for the mobile version as all the “replies” just show up in chronological order.
And this does not work because most of the replies don’t make sense unless you know the context of the original post.
If he busts, he has a Boston College degree and over a million bucks in the bank. Good way to get started on a life after baseball.
Whether he makes it or not, he will do just fine. He’s a solid kid and thankfully has his head on straight.
That would absolutely be my ideal, that people realize they can respond in one area and have a conversation on a particular topic in a particular area. That way I can see the topic of the first post when (as inevitably happens) I come late and want to catch up. If I don’t like the first post I can avoid the rest. If I like the first post I can do like I always do and keep someone’s name from it in my ctl F box. I usually search for specific posters and sort it that way anyhow.
As an aside I wonder what the breakdown of this by age would be. Not trying to call anyone old or anything but I was 9 or 10 when aol 2.0 came out.
I just wanted to see what happens if I reply to this one, because it’s the most dense.
It’s the kid’s first spring training. Let’s quiet the talk of busts and asking his uncle to speculate on that which is out of line.
SJ has always been candid and up front with all of us in this blog from jump street. Asking him to speculate on the negative possibility of probably the most exciting thing in his family right now is rude.
I love it Jeff. It makes the debates about someone’s posts much easier to follow.
I don’t crap up my email with unnecessary crap, and I often check the blog from work where I will not check my home email and my home email is Windows Live Mail which is an email client and I do not receive notifications.
Its an obnoxious step to keep track of a blog.
Rob,
I am going to be 52 next month. I am the one who talked my husband into going online with Prodigy and even did some online shopping on Speigel catalog (early 90s I guess). So I’m not averse to change at all.
I think what the deal is here is the entire nature of the conversations that happen here, as well as the volume of posts. If you’re following several “threads” then you’re going to be constantly scrolling up and down to see if there’ve been responses.
It’s going to take a lot more concentration and a lot more work, and I’m guessing it’s extra time a lot of people don’t have. I think it will end up discouraging conversations and inhibiting people from posting at all.
I really like the idea of us getting notified when you’re replied to.
If you don’t like it, you could just label the thread reply updates to spam and never see them.
It also says “says” after everyone’s name.
You seriously ctrl-F to find posters? This is just adding so much extra work to a blog comment space. I dont want to specific search for posters. I want the least amount of work possible.
On messageboards I won’t read ‘off-topic’ type threads, but I have missed really good conversations/posts that way. The stream of consciousness posting on lohud allowed me to see everything.
And I continue to be selective on normal messageboards.
I replied to a a reply of a reply to one of your posts above.
Ha! Thanks for pointing that out. I didn’t notice that.
maybe is should say wrote
I know this is an experimental thing, but this kind of format should be saved for actual forums, message boards usually don’t have a dedicated reply button per post, simply because scrolling down through all the quotes quickly becomes a pain.
If there’s gonna be a Reply button, might as well have a regular forum with threads and usernames.
Jerky, totally agree that this format stinks.
This is dumb, I’m sorry. It’s VERY time consuming whether you are checking the blog out from work or not. You have to go back and check posts you already read in case you miss a comment. The other way was working fine – I don’t get why we have to give it a shot and why it was even necessary to change.
What’s also tedious is figuring out which “nest” you really want to reply to, especially once it gets crowded. Do you know what I mean?
I do not want to get notified when I am responded to. Sorry, the idea of having to go to my spam (or regular e-mail) and delete a ton of messages is just not appealing.
I never thought age would have an effect on a comment.
Jerkface says:
February 12th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Your assumption is that people are only interested in one conversation or that everyone would suddenly start grouping their conversations accordingly.
Your ideal
Blog topic – Damon signs with the Losers
Thread 1 – Damon signs with the losers what a moron!
Thread 2 – Off topic about Erica’s pantyhose
Thread 3 – SJ44/Randy rambling about something
Thread 4 – Joba/Hughes the revenge
*****************
Excuse me! I don’t wear pantyhose!!!!
Loving the new look. I just wish the reply button was a little bit smaller.
Unless you have nothing better to do than constantly refresh and read every post and every comment to every post than it was always like this anyway. I could never understand what half the people were talking about before, cause everyone was having their own conversations spread out through the entire comments.
How small can we make the little box???
And you do not look a day over 35!
This is the kind of information that requires its own thread
So the new set-up works because people will ignore the new set-up? Huh?
And game-day threads, not game threads, can sometimes run to a 1,000 comments. How are you going to check all of those?
And you probably won’t reply to this because you won’t see my response because you’ve participated in at least a dozen threads by now.
whatever happened to damon? did he actually sign somewhere?
I just wanted to make sure your facts were clear!!! LOL
Thanks, Erica.
I want to see how small the box will get, too. Is that not ridiculous!!!! I’m sure I could be doing ANYTHING else right now.
No, but the talk is heating up. I miss him already!
I’m responding but is anyone seeing it???
it is kind of dominating. an easy fix, eh?
But she was responding to you!
Friday Before 3 Day Weekend + Crazy chaotic new blog format =
Perfect storm of no work getting done!!!!
At least you can edit bad spelling and everyone will know what it means! GB is probly screaming with joy about it right now…
Not tiny yet!!!!
Maybe I should discuss my lack of pantyhose more. LOL
Quick, which of the above comments in this thread am I responding to?
man, i just read the “condition of use” paragraph. i better stop posting.
i think it’s absolutely brilliant of Brian Cashman to get rid of the player who made what was no doubt the most significant World Series play – Damon’s Paul O’Neill vs. Armando Benitez-like at-bat and double-steal.
that doesn’t happen, then the Phillies chances of winning game 4, and thus the series, would’ve increased dramatically, since Mo probably wouldn’t have pitched the 9th.
I realize that postseason play alone is not a deciding factor, otherwise Brian Doyle would have a monument! But Damon is a good player whose applied his ‘tough at-bat’ and base-running skills in a clutch moment, and who’s shown an ability to play in big games, and clutch should get SOME consideration. especially for the NY Yankees!
I don’t know. Maybe this could work if we get the hang of it. But I do get the feeling there’s going to be too much scrolling around.
I like following the different trains of thought of people. And it’s looking like you can tell the really compelling subject matters by all the boxes surrounding it.
One thing about this format…GTLU will be MUCH easier.
Are you obsene???
Right, I was also looking for some Johnny Damon discussion!
so sorry erica. i held out hope that he’d be back for so long. i really will miss damon’s postgame interviews(and his postseason at bats!).
This new format makes reading the comments a monumental task!
Nick, all the boxes look like 60′s op art.
Threaded comments get a gigantic thumbs down from me. I wholeheartedly agree with Sir Jerkface.
That’s one of the reasons I prefer this blog to the RAB blog. Threaded comments on a blog suck!
Hi Nick in SF. I’m keeping my eye on this particular section. Trying to see how small we can make it before it disappears.
No amount of time is going to make this work. Active conversation blogs are no place for threaded comments.
no, but my thoughts are really vulgar and i wanted to defame a lot of posters during the johnny damon wars.
Yes!!!
This is ridiculous!
Smaller….
This is a post just to fill space. (Not much different than any other Erica post). I want to assist in making the box as tiny as possible but feel we need a longer reply to do it.
So I am just typing for the sheer fun of typing.
Thank you very much for your cooperation.
don’t you love the integration of pantyhose and johnny d. in a single thread? jerkface is probably upset.
I would have appreciated that!
The point is is that if I reply to a person who is using a mobile device, he’ll have no idea that my comment was meant for him/her.
And if I’m on a mobile, I can’t reply nor will I know if someone replied to me.
see, this observation was made earlier and the new reply format did not affect the “problem” of repeated comments.
This is filling space within Erica’s filling space post. However, I think it does show that at some point you lose contact with what the original post was that people were replying to.
Hoffa,
Well said.
And as a dissenter, I’m starting a new thread.
smal….
I’m just scrolling up here to see who is rambling about Johnny Damon’s pantyhose.
It is also showing me, that if I am interested in only one topic of conversation, this format is okay. When I refresh I go immediately to where I last posted within that particular topic.
But if I were following a couple of different topics, it would get tedious. Really fast.
Jennifer,
Thanks much for the control F tip, great way to find things on the blog.
Dave
What are you talkign about?
You learned I don’t wear pantyhose!
Yeah I get that. On a related topic, I’ve thought the mobile version sucks ever since they “upgraded” it. I hate having to load a new page to read a full post. It definitely makes the whole experience take LONGER for me, not shorter. I used to be able to go to the john in my office, load up the blog on my iphone and read a post or two. Now I’m done with my business by the time I even get a full post to load. TMI?
Clever Nick!
Did you notice there’s now a button if you want to cancel a reply? That’s actually a good thing. I think. But you have to scroll up to get to the button which is at the top of the TOS.
I guess it was already “optimized” for iPhones because of the narrow column the posts appear in. But it probably wasn’t so great for other mobile devices.
Wow, New look….Is there a real upside to this feature ???
Scroll up to the top and participate in our game – we’re trying to see how small the boxes can get before they disappear! You’ll notice the thread immediately!
Only if people search for the GTLU thread. Otherwise, it will be far worse!!!
almost scrolled past your post. think one of the reasons the lohud blog has been so successful is the sense of community that’s been created, not just the exchange of information and argument. is this what you mean by an active conversation blog?
jeff, are we stressing the system yet?
This will take some getting used to. Hopefully it doesn’t invite argumentive posts or some “hit and run” trolling from fans of other teams.
With this format, each post is essentially its own thread.
Another thing, this format invites very personal attacks, especially since you can target a single user.
or maybe the really inane conversations about pantyhose, as jerkface put it.
i agree, though, too much scrolling around.
I almost wish I had some more snow to shovel.
oh, i meant this response to doreen’s last post. did i hit the wrong reply button, or is this a kink in the system?
And now, I’m talking to myself up here.
Doreen, what does the smaller boxes represent ???? I’m not the very savy when it comes to computer features….Just witness my keyboard skills..GB infliction
Pat M. I don’t see any real upside to this feature at all. But apparently quite a few posters enjoy it this way.
You moron, will you get with the program and go scroll through and find the most appropriate thread to put your comment in so that you can participate in the most appropriate conversation in an organized way?
(jk about the moron business)
But it is getting really small now. I wonder if it would just go to one word per line?
I was Pete’s idea to do the pinch hitting thing. They just carried on the tradition.
this is cool
I getting DIZZY already!
Sorry, I appreciate the efforts of the programmer(s), but this format just plain sucks.
more time consuming, too!
Well, Pat M., every time you reply within a reply, the box around the reply gets smaller and smaller. It is really of no signficance, except as a game on this first day of nesting posts.
I can see the possibilities the nesting would allow for – but I think overall there are more disadvantages in a forum such as this one.
oh, here’s the experiment!
Suppose for instance the Yanks just announced they traded Joba for Shin-Soo Choo. Can you imagine how insanely chaotic the comments would be under this new system?
Sma…
when i refresh the blog page, it’s not taking me to the last post or the bottom anymore.
This would be a really fun place to post the rules for the GTLU v2, wouldn’t it? I mean, who would bother follow this nest inward to see the last response? I suggest no one would bother.
oh, wait, it did that last time. sorry.
Not 100% alone
Thanks for the positive comments. It looks like the Yankees are doomed before they even go to spring training.
We are the change we’ve been waiting for?
OK, how about we do a thread of votes for who likes or dislikes this new format? If you like it answer with “Yes” and if you dislike it answer with “No”.
I don’t remember playing baseball to be akin to working out
Interesting article about Heyman pushing Boras agenda.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports......d.html.php
NO!
Very philosophical.
Soon only Edwar will be able to fit in here.
If you think this thread looks bad now, wait until you have threaded comments during a game.
No.
Ooh – we’re getting there! Is anyone else experiencing a slowdown when they refresh?
Are you changing the rules up at all?
okay.
it’s definitely a friday afternoon at work in the off season. sad, really. 
I am laughing so hard at my desk right now!!!
I can definitely imagine how crazy it will be. I don’t think this format will be around all that long however.
MUST MAKE BOX SMALLER!!!!
how about prizes?
Me me!!!
See how personal it is?!?!? lol
I am too!
How small can we go?
Erica -
Not significantly. Mostly to do with timing. I’m deciding whether or not to accept changes (not entire lineups, but, if someone puts two DHs, allow them to change it. I figured spring training will give me the opportunity to see what’ll work.
Just like last year!
Me too.
This may possible be one of the most silly things I’ve done with my time in quite a while!!
Wave, once the season starts and we have a 1,000 in game posting it’ll be insane here…..
yes, along with overall suckage, this is making the blog slower too.
I don’t know. Have to think about that one.
Agreed! Me too.
only because I didn’t look to see if she, or anyone else, made a comment about it.
lol @ the GLTU getting that much worse. you could always have a hyperlink back to the game thread to clear up confusion. Well, you’d clear confusion for the contestants at least…
Are we going for skinny and long, or more like a square?
Game day posting’s will be interesting…..Too much scrolling up and down to locate responses
I usually allowed that if it was an honest mistake.
But I drew the line at people just changing their minds.
This is insane!
The lag is a giant drawback
Well I was simply going for smaller, but I think the skinny long may prove the point better. It appears that we may be close to reaching the size limit.
I’d also think this makes it harder for Sam/Chad/Josh to monitor what people are saying
huh?
jmarx@lohud.com
Email the tech guy if you have complaints. Much simpler way to express yourself, IMO.
Do you think we can break the blog? I don’t really want to do that.
But now is a good time to test new things out, before the games, and the inevitable trolling and crying, start.
Game day would be a giant mess with this system, definitely.
Reading it on my iPhone sucks even more!
I have no idea what anyone is talking about 
how about all the gtlu winners go into a weekly drawing. the winner of the weekly drawing gets a cheesy coffee mug or t-shirt from the folks who brought us these shrinking boxes–um, i mean the gracious people at lohud. they’ll rake in even more ad revenue with the increased traffic.
given that i’ve never won gtlu, i don’t have a vested interest here.
Pinstripes!
Poor Edwar
Chad, Sam, Josh, Jeff – Why not just take vote right now – it seems the main Lohud Bloggers are here to vote on…
the one thing I’m not Lady gaga over is the continuing shrinking box when someone replies to a reply to a reply to a reply…it looks like if there are enough replies to a comment (and on here its not hard to do) the box would get as small as a thumbnail which would make it rather impossible to read…if anything Lohudders are pretty good at a quick read and analysis (the main concept of the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell)so i’m sure they already have a decision made….unlike the damon saga lets gets this thing decided rather quickly
your text has broken out of the box!
Got the nest down to pinstripes.
check out the thread at the top of the page. the boxes got so thin and small that the text broke out. and, as someone noticed, it looks like pinstripes.
You can never tell who replied where and when they did so. The timestamps are all over the place with the nested replies.
Nope, I’m here. Me delay was due to me getting some lunch. What I was trying to say was that people dont really have conversations during games. They say things like “YES!” when someone hits a HR or “Mitre sucks!!!” when he’s knocked out in the 2nd. There’s very little back and forth becasue the game moves too quickly. So there’s no reason to really reply to anyone.
This site isn’t just for “a chosen few” of Lohud bloggers. That’s kinda shortsighted, dont you think? We’re (mostly) all here to talk baseball, not how the site is set up. Try it for a week, see how it works, THEN take a vote.
In theory this sounds like a good idea. You could just read/respond to the posts you are interested in. In reality, it is very time consuming if you just want to cruise through and see what is going on.
Oh God. Too Funny Nick!
As a #1 Joba fan, this post is great. I remember that Joba had a great ERA at the start of 2009 and it was well documented by some columnists. Give Joba credit for sticking to what the Yankees planned for him in 2009. It was frustrating to watch as a fan. How did Aceves get 10 wins – by mopping up for Joba in the late season. A couple of times he had 2-3 good innings and he would be pulled and he could possibly won the game.
As far as his development – 2009 was the worst. If Phil does become #5, he will have restrictions on IP, mean while Joba will be wasted in the pen waiting to pitch ONE inning.
Email the IT address they gave us up top. RiverAveBlues has threaded comments and it works on mobil devices. So Lohud should be able to fix it.
SJ — A great accomplishment for your nephew. Will be a tremendous experience no matter what happens. I’m betting he does great.
Yes, because they should pay Damon for what he did last yr and not for what they think he’ll do in the future. And people keep ignoring that the Yanks offered him 14 mil and he turned it down.
Do the comments appear chronologically on an iphone? I’m on my blackberry now and there is still nesting, though no pinstriped boxes.
It still looks ridiculous and would make following along very difficult.
Lost in all this silliness is Cashman confirnation that the Yankees did make a real run at Johnny Damon even AFTER they’s signed Nick Johnson.
And the best Yankee news of the day (so far!): that Phil Hughes might be learning something from Christian Garcia.
this is cool
I getting DIZZY already!
Diminutive, eh?
Cool article. I read Heyman’s orginal article and was going to bring up how transparent he’s become–I mean, he no longer makes any attempt to hide his pro-Boras agenda. The author raised some really good points, especially the last one about Damon’s original demands not really being his, but rather just a public creation. So I guess it was actually people like us that overvalued Johnny and misread the market…Does that mean we need to go into spin mode??
New post on Joba and Phil already working out in Tampa. Bring your love for the new threads on over!
although i agree – but the “chosen few” on here do carry alot of weight – and they tend to rule with a iron hand at times (not that i’m opposed to it) – as well as they are on here all the time so who best to decide but the ones that made this blog what it is today – i don’t know if the “casual observer/commenter” should have as much input as the hardcore bloggers – just my opinion.
That is so very cool SJ. I wish him the best
Agreed G Love
I think you are completely missing something here.
Threaded comment sections ARE in fact better. In every way possible.
THIS particular implementation of it is not because it does not bump the updated threads.
Fangraphs lives off of a comments section similar to this, and they survive, you’ll just have to get used to it.
your argument against this is completely ridiculous. the only problem is that they implemented the threads in a poor fashion. If it was threaded and reordered by last post, there would be nothing for you to complain about.
so stop crying about “threaded” being the problem. if you don’t understand how it is infinitely more organized, you are a fool.
Yeah I just read them all lol and still enjoyed it. Pinstriped Comments FTW.
I do hit ctl F and it’s the easiest way to find somebody I know generally makes sense and working the conversation from a position of sanity. That is if I missed the conversation as it happened. It isn’t more work, just doing things in a way that makes more sense to me.
Sam, you’re awesome. As is the new threading system. But I’d be bucking the popular sentiment here to say you should keep it.
Way to go, Rob – you succeeded in getting one word per line. Wonder what will happen with this post?
Can you see this?