"Hmmm. BCB is different today!"

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Early this morning, the SB Nation tech team rolled out some layout and font changes to BCB and the other SBN sites.

I'd like your feedback on how it looks, and I'll make sure the tech folks have a look at your comments.

Note: they are already aware of the spacing -- or, non-spacing -- issue between paragraphs in comments, and are working on a fix.

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Over the four and a half years that BCB has been in existence, many discussions and debates have taken place here over the value of statistical analysis in baseball.

Despite what you may think, I am not anti-statistics, nor anti-intellectual. I am fully aware of the value of modern advanced metrics, what they are, and how they can be used. However, I believe they are not an end in and of themselves; they need to be used in conjunction with scouting techniques and other forms of analysis of people.

With that said, I realize that many people here do enjoy discussion of advanced metrics and how they apply to baseball situations and in particular, the Cubs. Since I admit that statistical analysis is neither something I am that comfortable in doing myself, nor do I have the time to do detailed studies, I am pleased to announce that as of today, I am adding BCB reader shawndgoldman (whose name, as you likely could guess from his user name, is Shawn Goldman) to the staff to do stat-oriented pieces.

I've given Shawn free rein to write about any topic he chooses. He'll post on an occasional basis during the offseason and likely more often as the 2010 season comes closer and begins next April. Shawn does excellent analysis and, as you saw in his post comparing Milton Bradley to a salesman from a month or so ago, he also writes and explains his methodology well.

Please join me in welcoming Shawn to the BCB front-page staff and I know we'll all learn much from his posts.

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More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

This photo has nothing to do with this post. I just like the expression on Milton's face.

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And before you go on the attack, if you don't recognize the title of this post, it's a line from an old "Peanuts" cartoon.

A little more than a year ago, I made this post titled "Nature vs. Nurture", an attempt to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable differences between those who are intensely into statistical analysis of baseball and those who see other factors.

Yesterday, in this FanPost about Carlos Zambrano going to the DL, some heated discussion got going between several posters who cited some statistical studies they had done, and those who, um, disagreed with them.

The argument seemed to boil down to:

First of all, the namecalling on this site will stop. NOW. Have passion, back up your arguments with facts or other factors, but do not call other posters names. That devalues your argument and makes you look like you're on a middle school playground. This site isn't a middle school playground; it is, hopefully, a place where intelligent people can get together and discuss baseball and the Cubs.

About the particular argument in question, I'm not going to take sides. However, I will point out that there generally are two (or sometimes, more) sides to any baseball discussion. Statistics, whether basic or advanced, do tell a story about baseball players or managers, and there is no doubt that advanced metrics have changed the way baseball management has viewed players and their performance over the last 20 or so years. For example, the current MLB on-base percentage is .333. Twenty years ago, in 1989, the overall MLB OBA was .320. There is no question that proves that teams see the value of getting on base.

However, in my mind there is also no doubt that there are many other factors in analyzing baseball players, whether it's viewing someone whose emotions boil over on the playing field, or something that we as fans don't see -- perhaps a player has trouble in his personal life that is affecting the way he plays. You could say that players shouldn't bring that to the ballpark, but that's human nature -- think of your own work and how things in your own life might affect the way you perform your job.

That's why I titled the original post "nature vs. nurture". Both are factors that affect play on a baseball diamond. The game is played by human beings -- and that, I think, is the beauty of watching it.

All I ask here is that you present your arguments cogently and not attack others. Thanks, and now let's win this game tonight and end the road trip on a winning note. The game preview will post at 5:30 pm CDT.

More photos » by Paul Beaty - AP

Don't be like this here.

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In recent days, two people who post here who I have great respect for -- drewishdrewid and Shanghai Badger -- have made these two posts describing the nature of being a fan, how and why they became Cubs fans, and offered some of their thoughts on why the discussion here at BCB occasionally becomes contentious and tempers flare.

The latter is to some extent understandable. As was noted in those posts, "fan" is short for "fanatic". That's how most of us feel, I think, about the baseball team that brings us together on this website.

So I thought this morning I would post a few (OK, many) words on how I became a fan of the Chicago Cubs; many of you have been around here for a while and have a pretty good idea of who I am and the nature of my "fanaticism" about the Cubs. But if you are new here, this will give you a better idea of just who this guy is who runs Bleed Cubbie Blue.

I'm 52 years old. In sports blogging terms, that's ... well, let's just say that I'm the oldest blogger among the now more than 200 SB Nation sites. I like to think that being around all the twenty and thirty somethings who make up the bulk of the SBN bloggers helps keep me feeling young and plugged in to what's going on in the modern sports world. But I also believe that my age and the length of time I've been a fan helps give me some perspective on the Cubs and their long history... of failure, which will make the ultimate success, winning a World Series, that much sweeter when it happens.

I saw my first game at Wrigley Field on July 6, 1963; I was not quite seven years old. My dad took me, as do so many fathers with their young sons (and daughters, too). Perhaps preparing me for a lifetime of Cubs failure, they got shut out that day on two hits. But upon finding out that I could come home from school and watch the Cubs every afternoon on TV, I was hooked. WGN-TV created at least two generations of Cubs fans with daytime TV and Jack Brickhouse, and then another one with Harry Caray on national cable in the 1980's. And the Cubs were just beginning to become a good team after two decades of being awful. The late 60's baseball heroes my generation had -- Banks, Williams, Santo, Jenkins et. al. were supposed to be the ones to bring the Cubs back to victory. (Shameless plug: if you haven't purchased the 2009 Maple Street Cubs Annual, I've got a long article about the 1969 Cubs that will give you a good feeling of what it was like to be a fan that year, if you are too young to have experienced it yourself.)

The epic fail of 1969 only brought my friends and I who were Cubs fans closer together. In my college years, as happens to many, I set the Cubs in the background (good thing, too: the 1974-76 Cubs were awful) only to return in 1977 when that team raced out to a 47-22 start; that team finished at .500.

And so the story goes, familiar to all of you: tantalizing teases of potential triumphs in 1984, 1989, 1998, 2003, 2007 and 2008, all ending in disasters of varying types.

And yet we persevere. Why? Perhaps it is in part because of the years, decades, of losing -- it brings us together to support each other; we all know how every other Cubs fan feels, how generations have lived and died without knowing the taste of a title. My dad, now nearly 88, isn't as big a Cubs fan as I am, yet I know he reads this blog and follows the team so we can discuss them from time to time; many of you have family connections with the Cubs going back two or three generations. Wrigley Field connects families in that way, too; I know there are varying opinions on what should be done with Wrigley in the future (check out another article in the Maple Street annual for my take on it), but there is no doubt that the ballpark is part of the attachment to the team for many, myself included -- and for me, for the people I have met there and attend games with. They, too, are like family. When the Cubs do win, I'll get to celebrate in the bleachers with so many of my close friends.

Though I do understand statistical analysis and advanced metrics, I don't do a lot of such analysis, leaving that to others who know the numbers better. What I do believe is that there is more to winning baseball than numbers on a spreadsheet; it is played by human beings on a field, not on a computer, and that play can be only forecast by numbers. It can also be affected by a myriad of other factors, including personal troubles; we need only look at the recent revelation of the heartbreaking trouble that Ryan Dempster's young daughter has suffered to understand that such a thing could easily affect Dempster's on-field performance. In any work endeavor, each of us tries hard not to bring personal problems to the workplace. That's not always easy.

And that brings me to the discussion of "can't we all just get along". I have had numerous back-and-forths with statistically oriented posters who disagree with me on the effects of non-statistical factors in baseball. Most of those discussions are civil; some haven't been. All I ask of people on this site when you are disagreeing with someone else is to be nice -- stay clear of profanity and don't namecall. This shouldn't be that difficult. When you sign up for this site, you agree to the following (boldface added for emphasis):

I don't think it should be that difficult to do that. Though some may disagree, I think I have been extremely tolerant here of people who haven't always kept that rule. If you break it, expect to be asked to leave. If your purpose here is to disrupt the site, make it about me rather than the Cubs, or to troll, expect to not be allowed here. Otherwise, this site is open for discussion, though I have asked and will continue to ask that religion and politics be left out of it. Those are polarizing topics and there are plenty of places on the interwebs to talk about them. We can get polarized enough just about our baseball team; let's leave those even more contentious things out of it.

So let's go on and focus on our ideas and thoughts on improving the status of this Cubs team, which despite its injuries, bad construction and other foibles, is only 3.5 games out of first place. Perhaps out of all this turmoil will come the ultimate victory this fall. Go Cubs.

Since the SB Nation/Yahoo partnership was announced in February and BCB posts began to appear on the Cubs' Yahoo page, we have had quite a number of new members sign up for the site through that page.

I want all of the new people to feel welcome here; also, there are a few things I want to remind previous users about, so that this site, which is among the largest SB Nation sites, can have both active and meaningful discussion about the Cubs. That's why we're all here, right?

First, a reminder: BCB is not a message board. While you can post comments like a message board, that does not mean that every thought that pops into your head should suddenly become a new post in the FanPost section. FanPosts should require some thought, some organization, and some formatting on your part -- they're supposed to be a "blog within the blog". FanPosts have to be a minimum of 75 words. Really, that's not that much of a requirement; there are more than 75 words in this paragraph up to the end of this sentence. If your FanPost contains something like this:

75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words 75 Words

... as one recent FanPost did, then it's not really a FanPost -- it should be a FanShot. FanShots are for short little bites of Cubs baseball or related topics (if you do post off-topic things, please headline them with OT for off-topic). They can be written by you, or be links, photos or videos. What FanShots should not be are several posts in a row pimping your own site, no matter what it is. If your post is simply to say, "Hey, I'll be at Thursday's game!", maybe your post would be better off as a comment under the previous day's game thread or recap. And if you are looking for tickets or have extras, please post them in the appropriate post in the BCB Ticket Exchange section; you can find a link to the entire section on the left sidebar, and the latest posts in this section on the right sidebar. There's one post for the entire season and there will be separate ones for each homestand. Individual ticket request posts will be deleted without notice. Reminder, face value only for ticket sales on this site. Thanks.

The next thing I'd like to mention about both FanPosts and FanShots is that, since this site is so active, I'd like to reduce the amount of duplication in posts. If you think you're going to be the first one to post a major baseball or Cubs related news story (such as yesterday's passing of Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych), please check BOTH the FanPost and FanShot lists before you post. Or, search the site using the search function, which is located at the top of the right sidebar. Once you go into the search function, you can power search by phrases, words, user name, or date, or all of the above. If your topic has been covered in the last couple of days, your post might be better as a comment under the previous post. You can set the number of FanShots and FanPosts to show on the sidebar in your user settings.

Next, I'd like to address the various parody/satire posts that have appeared here in the last week. Parody or satire done well is funny. The first couple of these posts were funny. Parody or satire overdone or repetitive is annoying. I think the current run of such posts has run its course; let's back off for a while on these. And while this is true, I also don't need overdoing on the "fanpost police" posts. While I understand you are just trying to help, some people take offense at this. That's one reason I made this post this morning, to clarify a number of things that perhaps weren't clear. Thanks for understanding.

Finally, for old and new posters, checking out the following posts regarding formatting and content wouldn't hurt, either if you're new, or as a refresher course:

• A Few Words About FanPosts And FanShots (posted last November)
• BCB 101: An Overview Of Posting And Commenting (posted in February)

These posts and other useful information about this site can be found on the right sidebar under "BCB Specials And Site Info". One final note, which is from the BCB Community Guidelines and which each new member agrees to when he or she signs up for this site:

When posting at this blog, please follow this one simple rule: Before hitting "post" to post your remarks, ask yourself: "Would I be embarrassed to say this in front of strangers who were physically present in the room with me and could respond to my face?" If the answer is "yes," then don't post. BCB encourages and welcomes all opinions, no matter how strong; however, personal attacks, vulgarity, and other uncivilized forms of expression are not welcome. Also, to avoid trolling and spam posts, there is a 48-hour waiting period before you can make your first post after signing up. Thanks for understanding.

All of this is so that we can, old and new members, get along better and everyone's on the same page. If you're new, one suggestion: read posts and comments for a few days before diving in; you'll get a better idea of what this community is about if you do.

More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

7 months ago: Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Rich Harden delivers to the Kansas City Royals in the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game in Surprise, Ariz., Monday, March 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

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Last night I mentioned that the site would be down for a couple of hours for upgrades.

Here are some of them. We now have a new team page with links to stories, FanPosts and FanShots from here and other SBN sites about the Cubs. On the top of the page there are tabs linking to the schedule, roster and team stat pages (the stat page will be live after Opening Day, so I didn't link it here.

Each player also has his own individual stat page (this link goes to Geovany Soto's), with complete career stats (yes, I know it looks odd with those leading and trailing zeroes. I've asked about those).

SBN has also contracted with the AP and Getty Images to give us access to licensed game photos from every game. The one here is from yesterday's game vs. the Royals.

Hope you like these, and also, if you haven't checked it out on your wireless device, we also have a version formatted for those at mobile.bleedcubbieblue.com (the tech team is working on ways for you to post comments there).

It's been about two weeks since the SBN/Yahoo partnership was announced, and I know there have been some new users here who have signed up through the Yahoo portal.

To make new readers feel comfortable here and in the hope that many will join in the discussion, I thought I'd make this post this morning which has links to various features which will explain to people who are new here what BCB is all about.

Start with BCB's Community Guidelines. Please read them over carefully (even longtime readers might want to check them out, as I have made changes within the last few months), but particularly this paragraph, which everyone who signs up has to agree to when first creating a username:

When posting at this blog, please follow this one simple rule: Before hitting "post" to post your remarks, ask yourself: "Would I be embarrassed to say this in front of strangers who were physically present in the room with me and could respond to my face?" If the answer is "yes," then don't post. BCB encourages and welcomes all opinions, no matter how strong; however, personal attacks, vulgarity, and other uncivilized forms of expression are not welcome. Also, to avoid trolling and spam posts, there is a 48-hour waiting period before you can make your first post after signing up. Thanks for understanding.

Basically, just be nice to each other. We can have different opinions without being nasty. That's all I ask. As noted in the quote box above, there is a 48-hour waiting period before your first post or comment if you are a new reader -- that's to give you a chance to check out the site, see how things are done, etc. before you dive in.

Now, on to a bit of "how to". A couple of weeks ago -- just before the Yahoo deal was announced -- I posted this summary of how to post comments, FanPosts and FanShots. That's also worth a review even if you've been here a while.

Another thing about posting that I'd like to remind everyone about: it is a copyright violation to copy/paste the entire text of an article from another site here. You are, of course, welcome and encouraged to post links to relevant articles from other sites -- it's how we get information to discuss here. But please don't post more than a couple of the most important sentences or paragraphs from another site. You can do that by highlighting the text you want to copy and hitting the quote mark at the top of the posting box. Thanks.

Finally, for new people, there are some things sometimes expressed in shorthand or by acronyms here that you might not understand. Some BCB readers have helpfully created a "BCB Dictionary" -- you can find the two parts of that here and here. These can be found under "BCB Specials" on the right sidebar, along with "Why Are We Here?", a post where people tell their stories about how they became a Cubs fan; "What Do You Do For A Living", self-explanatory, and BCB Reader Guides to Arizona spring training and being a tourist in Chicago. I have reopened comments on all of these posts for 21 days -- so anyone who'd like to add their thoughts to any of them, feel free.

Anyway, welcome, whether you're new here or have been around for a while. Today's game preview/thread will be posted at 1 pm CDT -- remember, spring day game times are now 3 pm CDT.

Last November I put up this post about FanPosts and FanShots, to try to explain the difference between them, and give some hints about what makes for a good post of each type, and what they are for.

Recently, though, I've noticed a spate of duplicate posts (last night, we had the third post about Nomar Garciaparra in the last three weeks), and so I thought it was time for a longer post giving much more detail about this site, how to post here, what constitutes good formatting, etc., especially with the first spring training game tomorrow, which will once again ramp up participation here.

Thanks to my colleagues at South Side Sox, Lookout Landing and Red Reporter, from whose outstanding guides I have borrowed much of what you see here and adapted to our community and what have become the norms here.

Many of you have been around since BCB was created in February 2005 and went through The Great Migration to the new platform last March. For those of you who are new, or still not quite acclimated to the system, this post is meant to be a guide to new members and a refresher course for power users. First, for new BCB'ers, take a look at the basic SB*Nation Welcome Guide. After that, read below for a more in-depth guide and specific expectations for Bleed Cubbie Blue.

BCB is NOT a message board. It isn't a talk radio call-in show. The headline at the top of the page reads "A Chicago Cubs Fan Community Since February 9, 2005", and that's the most concise way I can describe this site. BCB itself is a blog, one which has built a community feel to it over the last 4 years. And unlike some blogs that talk at you, BCB offers FanPosts and FanShots where you can drive the conversation.

Follow me after the jump for an extended guide into FanPosts, FanShots and commenting.

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