Disqus Upgrade for TCR
First off, I got a new MacBook Air this weekend. I'm hoping this helps with keeping the blog up-to-date better as my old laptop was on its last legs and seriously annoying me so much that I didn't even want to surf the net much.
As for the site, Disqus has been a bit of a disappointment. Not quite what I thought was advertised. While there are features I like, my biggest disappointments so far are:
- lack of new comment notifications when re-visiting site
- lack of real-time updating
- odd thread structure when putting in new comments
I think the "Latest Comments" sidebar helps with the lack of new comment notifications. I just go there and see what I missed, but it doesn't seem to update too quickly and I feel like I'm missing comments. Granted, things are slow right now and interest is at pathetically low levels this time of year, but when the news starts coming again in the offseason, I think it will get even more annoying.
So, I'm going to try upgrading to what they call Disqus 2012. We'll see if it's any better. This requires nothing on any of your parts, but by tomorrow morning, the comments will look a little different. We'll see how we like that after a few weeks. If I/we are still unhappy with the comments, I'll see about getting the native Drupal comment system working again.
As for the Cubs, they need to go 6-11 down the stretch to avoid 100 losses. A rather meaningless milestone, but the Cubs players seem to care about it. They're up a run in the 6th at the moment after a Rizzo grand slam against the suddenly flailing Pirates.
Let's hear some examples. It's a bit of a reach to suggest that you know he's not doing his homework without providing specifics.
I haven't been able to watch many games (and there is some apathy involved, too), but he's been fine as far as I'm concerned.
Also seems to be a lot of dead air time -- he and Len don't tseem to be in sync yet.
Almora goes 4-7 in yesterday's 14-inning Kane County loss, dropping his average to .636.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-2013-cubs-bette...
FG article from yesterday about the overwhelming underperformance of the 2013 Cubs. If I understand their 'Clutch' stat correctly, then the Cubs this year are 40% less clutch than the 29th-most clutch team in baseball.
I still love TCR, please don't hate me.
---
Garbage song, I Hate Love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOcVhBu0YjE
scrubbies lose...18-28
as an aside...though jim d. hasn't been awful in the booth, it's a bit disappointing he didn't/doesn't do the amount of "homework" getting to know the team or critiquing things being done like bob did.
so far, when i hear jim d. calling a game it feels like he's a national "game of the week" generic type announcer that doesn't know the team well.
he's a full-on 100% replacement for "bad joke bob" type humor, though.
link is fine
MLB.com's error page
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2013/5/23/4359426/mlb-error-page-gifs
Now pitching for the Pirates --- Jose Contreras?!
welly gets his 2nd walk of the season in his 141st PA.
I imagine that things will pick up a bit with the draft, promotions, and trades. It seems that most of the remaining posters are on board with the rebuilding process so the discussions have been slim.
all kidding aside, this team really has been running on a single bright spot (the starting rotation) and rizzo pounding the ball hard when he's not slumping (and his extension)
welly's doing as expected (though a few more homers/doubles would be nice)...valbuena is helping people forget about i.stewart, though he's not doing anything extraordinary...kevin gregg has been a nice surprise as the new closer...castro is being castro, though a few more walks or hits would be nice since he's performing slightly below expectations...
It's definitely hard to get excited about this team. When they suck like this it feels like a huge part of my summer is just completely missing, so I want to come here and get a little bit of a Cubs fix, but lately it's 100% split squad games at Fitch Park. I can't stand any of the major newspapers' coverage, and I really don't like BCB or any of the other Cubs blogs. I guess I just miss the good old days with 200+ comment threads, even if 90% of it was just The Real Neal arguing with himself.
The people demand more free entertainment, Rob G!
broken link...probably cuz MLB protects their rights on the innerweb on a scale music + film industries should be jealous of.
click this... http://mlb.com/ajkls
refresh for different lulz.
official Cubs MLB squad post for april/may - everyone sucks except for the starting pitching (sans e.jackson) and when a.rizzo isn't on a no-hit, major-K streak
save to cut/paste for june-september
So I haven't commented much lately, and I don't want to be that guy, but is this site now exclusively dedicated to Extended Spring Training? I absolutely love everything AZ Phil brings to the table, but could we maybe get a few posts about the big league squad?
I still love TCR, please don't hate me.
Nice start for Almora -- 3-4 with a double for Kane County.