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Our new design, to be unveiled soon, will make Da Box easier to navigate, but we can always use a little help. By popular demand, we will be creating a Features page, listing articles of special interest. You know, those timeless posts that newcomers may have missed, and regulars might want to revisit.

Though many of the more than 1,300 entries in the archives had a limited shelf life, and a few are best forgotten, here's your chance to nominate other deserving threads. We're not issuing any awards, merely trying to compile a convenient directory of the articles you liked best.

For example, Dave Till's "Blue Jays Minor League Register," which records for posterity the Buzz Factor of prospects past and present, appeared in two parts: Hitters, A-K and Hitters, L-Z. Comments at the time included "epic," "awesome," "tremendous," and Dave's own modest description -- "bandwidth-choking." Consider it included.


It's not always easy to find something specific in the BB archives, especially if the title doesn't literally describe the content. An interesting piece about Vince Perkins was linked in a thread called The Pacific Express. If you're looking for our discussion of the Richard Griffin column in which he predicted the 2003 Orioles would finish ahead of the Jays, it's hard to remember that "Doublespeak," appropriately enough, was the title.

Attempting to simplify this needle-in-a-haystack task, we've added a Google search form (see the bottom of the page) that is much faster than the Greymatter search in the sidebar and allows you to use keywords to locate those memorable threads.

To nominate an article as a Feature, please note at least one of the URL, the BB number and the title in a comment, or e-mail that information to me. This is also a good time to suggest additional links, and any other ways we can improve the site. Thanks in advance for your help and your feedback.
Best Of Da Box | 13 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Lucas - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 05:29 PM EST (#15131) #
http://bbfl.scottlucas.com
A potential improvement:

I keep track of the Rangers' 40-man roster/salaries, transactions, and an organizational depth chart with status of high-level draft choices and minor-league free agents. (I stole the depth chart idea from USS Mariner.)

Perhaps someone at The Box could do something like this for Toronto.

Rangers 40-man roster
Ranger depth chart
Ranger transactions
Gerry - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 05:43 PM EST (#15132) #
Perhaps someone at The Box could do something like this for Toronto.

Rangers 40-man roster
Ranger depth chart
Ranger transactions


They look great Lucas. I know the depth chart is "on the way", we will look at the others.
Mike Green - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 06:05 PM EST (#15133) #
Coach, Robert Dudek has done huge amounts of original research- speed scores, minor league pitcher's rating, minor league equivalencies, the Diamond Mind Simulation. I'm sure that I am just scratching the surface. I'd be grateful if he could provide you with a list of the work of his choosing for the features section.

One thing that I tried (unsuccessfully) on the official site was to find correspondents in Jay minor league cities who regularly attended games to provide reports (somebody here might have more luck at it). Instead, we had a daily minor league update thread, which included statistical information similar to that found on the Box from BA as well as anecdotal information from local newspapers. My own view is that whatever minor league information can be got, it is best to organize the information by city (Pulaski, Auburn, Charleston, Dunedin, Manchester, Syracuse), in the same way that the year end farm reports were.
Leigh - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 07:15 PM EST (#15134) #
I'd like to nominate the game thread from Halladay's 10 inning shutout of the Tigers.
_A - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 07:39 PM EST (#15135) #
Crystal Ball Thread should definately be up there...I don't want to have to search through oodles of strings to stamp out someone's thoroughly thought out prediction for '04 ;-)
_Jonny German - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 07:39 PM EST (#15136) #
The article that springs to mind immediately that should be featured is Coach's insight on compulsive gambling and Pete Rose - For Pete's Sake.

It's a comment rather than an article, but Gitz's take on Jason Giambi's departure from Oakland is another Box highlight that stands out to me - click here. I've felt like linking to it various times when I've heard people refer to Giambi as a reference point for the future of Delgado in Toronto. It may or may not be analogous, but I think a lot of us had (or still have) misconceptions about Giambi leaving Oakland.

I'm not sure what percentage of the Box will strongly disagree with me, but if we get to the point of having individual threads devoted to every minor league game in the Toronto organization I'm very much against having them posted in the main thread listing. For me, they'd basically be a lot of clutter. Don't get me wrong: I love hearing Jordan and John Neary and Gerry and Pistol expound on the minors, I think they do fabulous work. I'm a big Jays fan and very interested in who's on the rise in the farm system. But it's the prospects I'm interested in, I don't particularly care about the minor league teams as whole teams. From that viewpoint, anything more frequent than a monthly update tells me nothing because the sample size is so small. (The one obvious exception being a negative - serious injury.) So what I'd like to see is monthly updates in the main thread listing, and a separate area for those who want to track the minor leaguers day to day. Is that a win-win, or am I a minority of one?
_Gwyn - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 08:08 PM EST (#15137) #
Craig taking the umpires to task after the horrendous blown call against St Louis.
Coach - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 08:08 PM EST (#15138) #
Mike, you're absolutely right about Robert's work, which will have its own index when we reorganize. I also neglected to mention that there will be an Awards page, for the Andujar, our Players of the Year, the BBLVPAs and any others we may invent.

Gerry has done some great research on the organizational depth chart and other farm system features, which will be available soon. Daily minor league updates are also planned -- not individual threads for each team, more like a recap -- along with expanded coverage of the draft. Last year, we knew there was interest, but were flabbergasted when draft day set a record for traffic that wasn't broken until the J.P. interview got some media attention.

Leigh, I thought game threads were kind of disposable, but that was a good call. It began with Ryan's classic comment, "Based on the first inning, Halladay is on-pace for a 45-pitch complete game shutout."

Another interesting game thread was #61, when umpire Kerwin Danley reversed a triple play -- some excellent comments there, by some knowledgeable fans. Just a couple hours afterward, Craig posted Notes: Getting It Right, the best piece anywhere on that fiasco.

Jonny, thanks for the kind words. It's going to be Rose-mania in about a week, but my opinion will never change. He belongs in Cooperstown, absolutely, but not in a big-league dugout.
Coach - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 08:09 PM EST (#15139) #
Gwyn, that was incredible timing. :)
robertdudek - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 08:41 PM EST (#15140) #
In honour of Doc's superb season, perhaps we could take nominations for his 7 best starts of the year and have a special section for those 7 game threads. Apart from the Detroit game, I recall that Doc was awesome against the Yankees late in the year. During that game, a Yankee (I believe it was Giambi) said that Doc was unhittable that day.
_Donkit R.K. - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 08:47 PM EST (#15141) #
How about Game "159: Bitter Rivals" (Delgado's 4 bombs) and , possibly, the game Kielty made the catch at Fenway (that wasn't the only spectacular catch if I'm not mistaken, and V-Dub really had a great game). The comeback against KC and Kielty's first game as a Jay (as we all drooled over his success and laughed at Shannon's hardhsip) are the 4 game threads that come to mind.

Robert- Am I missing something? Why 7?
robertdudek - Friday, January 02 2004 @ 09:19 PM EST (#15142) #
Just a nice round number. It feels like the number of starts in which Doc was truly awesome.
_Anonymous - Sunday, January 04 2004 @ 05:01 AM EST (#15143) #
I've lurked here from Day #1

However, I didn't post anything (and gain a "founder" slot like Till, et al.)

I think it's important (at this point) to not have "Fan-Boy" links promoted too highly (i.e. "Docs best starts")

While the original Mission Statement was "Baseball from a Toronto perspective", it has already grown beyond that.

I would recommend that, while the bulk of content be BJ in nature, you link from the Home page the more Empirical stuff (i.e. interviews, global reviews of Major and Minor League systems, etc.)

Unfortunately, an alternative to Primer for "the thinking fan" is going to be required in the new year. This site has a chance at the position. (i.e. no Ackbar, Piazza, etc.)

Just an opinion...
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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.