2014 Season, Site News

DTW Remix

26 Comments

The time has come.

DTW is ready for a design & usability overhaul. Yes, this includes the ability to edit comments.

I’m not sure how quickly this can be accomplished, but let’s get started.

1) We need a Word Press developer. As you likely know, the DTW is built on Word Press. Word Press has plenty of plug and play options, but we’d feel much better with an expert performing the upgrade. Please speak up if you are a Word Press guy or gal, or know of one.

2) We’ll likely need some funds. Not much, but we may ask for some small donations.

3) Let’s talk about requests.

– Ability to edit comments, check.

– Better mobile site, check.

– Updated design, check.

– What else?

In other news…

I read a bit about Brad Ausmus today. Did you know that he went to Dartmouth?

 

26 thoughts on “DTW Remix”

  1. Let us know what you need from us peasants! You know how helpful we all can be!

    edit…and correction vote 1

    request(2)…..80 points to Avilas batting average and 40 more rbi

  2. Let us know what you need from us peasants! You know how helpful we all can be!

    edit…and correction vote 1

    request(2)…..80 points to Avilas batting average and 40 more rbi

    1. …in case you were wondering, the seat JV & Ms. Upton are sitting in for the photo is in fact the fabled cat-bird seat. Let’s look at the current scoreboard, $180M – $202M (not including endorsements) in guaranteed contract dollars through ’19 or ’20; and Kate Upton as his “sweetie”… the Tiger fan in me is 1/3 happy for him, 1/3 jealous of him and 1/3 concerned for how all this translates to the playing field over the next few years. Call me selfish.

  4. Interesting baseball stat of the day:
    Despite running about three hours, actual playing time in a Major League Baseball game is under 18 minutes.

    According to the Wall Street Journal’s own calculations, the 17 minutes and 58 seconds of action includes “balls in play, runner advancement attempts on stolen bases, wild pitches, pitches (balls, strikes, fouls and balls hit into play), trotting batters (on home runs, walks and hit-by-pitches), pickoff throws and even one fake-pickoff throw.” Take all those away, and the amount of time that is pure action on the field is about 5 minutes and 47 seconds.

    1. Football isn’t far behind in play action/time elapsed. The beauty in these mostly stop and sometimes go sports, as compared to more fluid games like basketball and hockey, is in the suspense. Among other things. I do, however, continue to find it laughable that baseball players aside from starting pitchers and catchers EVER need “a day of rest” from playing “action.”

    2. Yeah, but to true baseball fans the silences between the action are equally interesting. That’s when all the strategizing goes on and the many games within the game get played out – the pitcher vs batter matchup being the primary one I guess, but there are others. Looking at the ‘action’ only is a sorry way to watch a baseball game. I think it’s appropriate that the research comes from the Wall Street Journal – the bunch of bean counters.

      1. I haven’t seen the article SN$ refers to, so I don’t know the bent of it, but it’s still interesting to know how slight the action part of baseball is, not that the concept itself is news. It’s not necessarily a putdown of baseball.

        One of the best things about baseball is the absence of a time clock and the inability to manipulate said clock as a winning strategy. I find the time-killing strategies of the other three major sports unappealing (especially if my team is the victim), though maybe I should cut hockey some slack. Penalty-killing isn’t that bad.

  5. Off the cuff suggestion on site design:

    Stats are often cited here, in comments and in articles above. Often in lists and stacks. It would be nice if there was some built-in feature that made it easy for ANYONE to make an easy-to-read presentation. Without having to know HTML or XML or be some kind of formatting whiz like that Smoking Loon guy.

  6. There are commenters here who could be contributing articles. You know who you are. Think about it. Not suggesting that I have the say-so about it, but a few more “editorial” voices would be nothing but a good thing in my view. More participation.

  7. Here’s a question for readers: What is it you come here to read? What would you like to see more of? Less of?

    There are dozens upon dozens of sources for Detroit Tigers news and information. Most of it is rebroadcasting. Virtually every Tigers blog is a rebroadcast; you won’t find any news/info there that wasn’t already somewhere else first. So I pose the question, not cynically, but openly: Is there any point to articles? What if this site was – on a running basis – a clearinghouse for just about every possible link to Tigers news/info and also a repository for all manner of currently relevant stats, box scores, and what not, along with a simple open forum for discussion of any of the above? The clearinghouse/repository idea appeals to me strongly as a reader.

    As a reader, I *do* like articles. I like to get the news along with discussion and opinion, and I prefer the writing of literate fans to that of sportswriters, fans who can be a little more colorful, emotive, opinionated, and irreverent than writers more or less beholden to MLB somehow.

    I’d like to see during-the-game banter separated from discussion. I enjoy blurting out “MIGGY!” or “Unbelievable…” as much as anyone, but it’s not discussion. I think it should have its own place, that banter, its own thread.

    I’d prefer that content were not subject to automatic filters for profanity. There can be rules, and these rules can be enforced by someone living. Warning. No heed? Banned. Simple. Mind you, I know that this is billfer’s blog, so take this as outside opinion: A “bad word” here or there isn’t killing anyone. Discouraging profanity has the advantage of encouraging more thoughtful comment, but there are times when having to resort to “crap” when you mean something else is… well… a bunch of crap. If I had my own blog (as if), though, it would be so licentious that you might not want to go there, so pay no attention to me.

    I’d like to see more regularity and coherence, if this is to be your standard blog with an article followed by discussion. I’d like to find something new to read here more than once a week, or once a month. I’d like game posts to really be game posts. With a post-game. In the game post it belongs to. I don’t like reading about Game 54 in the Game 55 thread. Maybe it’s OCD or some other disorder. But, as a reader, I don’t like it. I’d like a game post to have something – a lot – to say about a game. Ideally, a game post, along with the discussion, would really encapsulate a game. It would be a resource for later research and fact-checking, capturing detail you wouldn’t find in ordinary game accounts.

    Whether in articles or comments, I like statistical inquiries and investigations a little beyond the ordinary as a point of departure for friendly argument and discussion. I’m fond of things the ordinary fan can uncover, as opposed to the super-heavy FanGraphs or Lee Panas stuff (not that I’m opposed to the latter – it’s just that it kind of makes your jaw drop and think, what can I say to *that*, we who just make obscure connections with stuff found on bbref and feel cool for having done so?).

    I’d like to see this blog come alive. What can we do to make it so?

  8. Seattle signed Rodney (2yr/$14M) for their closer job. They have been spending like drunken sailors this off-season. Appropriate for a team named the Mariners.

      1. I hope it all pays off for the Mariners when they’re not playing the Tigers. A Seattle-Detroit ALCS would be cool.

          1. Good point. On the other hand, there’s Cano, 10 for 55 vs. Tigers in the postseason with an OPS Ramon Santiago could trump.

  9. Happy Year of the Horse to everyone. Since Leyland often referred to JV as a horse, this should mean good things….

  10. The Ramon era comes to a close: Ramon Santiago has signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds. That leaves Jeremy Bonderman as the only remaining Tiger from the legendary 2003 team.

  13. Just back from NYC to find time to read this post. Let me know if you need any donations for the upgrade, however the comradery and their Tiger knowledge and humor is what I come here for.

    Didn’t see Verlander in NYC but had lots of guys come up to me in Times Square asking whether I was interested in tickets to the “Comedy Store.” My response was “Why, are the Yankees in town!?” (followed by a drum roar). Good comedy is hard to find in NYC!

    Happy Pitchers and Catchers Report Day!

    OTFiM

  14. **whether I was interested in tickets to the “Comedy Store.” My response was “Why, are the Yankees in town!?”**

    Ha! Nice.

    1. And this is why I love this blog…. speaking of the Comedy Store, how are we feeling or evaluating the end of the career of DJ? Is he a Michigan native?? I was talking to my youngest bro ( we always talk on P&C report day ) and he feels that a case can be made that #2 is the greatest Yank ever: longevity, numbers, clutch play, and all around good citizen. My take is that the only chink in his armor is the fact he broke up with Minka Kelly!

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