Site Update

Nick & Nick's Twins Blog is entering its third season covering the Minnesota Twins, and I'm pleased with the way it's taken shape. Writing about the Twins regularly has provided an entertaining hobby since we started back in March 2005, and I really feel like my work on this site has improved my understanding of the craft of writing as well as the game of baseball. I'm sure Mr. Mosvick feels the same way.

Contributing on this blog has provided me with many interesting opportunities, from appearing on Jeff Straub's Podcast to participating in one of Seth Stohs' many delightful Q&A sessions. Interacting with the well-informed writers and readers in the blogging community has really been an awesome experience.

Our readership has grown consistently since the site spawned, a trend I'm hoping will continue with the 2007 season. I always like seeing a new name pop up in the comments section, and I'm always happy to receive an e-mail from an inquiring reader. From my interactions with people who stop by the site, I know that we have a reader base that varies greatly in age and geographic location, which really creates an interesting dynamic.

Regular readers may have noticed some subtle changes to the site over the past month or so. We've added a labeling system to our blog that enables readers to filter posts by a particular subject. So now, if you want to read articles specifically relating to Joe Mauer or spring training or trade speculation, you're able to do that. Posts can now also be filtered by author, so if you happen to prefer one writer's style over the other or for some reason want to go back and look through a particular author's work, you can look through the previous work of Mr. Mosvick or myself individually. Links to each of our respective article histories are now featured on the sidebar.

Overall, I'm happy with the way the site looks. I hope it is relatively functional and easy on the eyes. The No. 34 graphic on the sidebar was initially planned as a temporary memorial to Kirby when we put it up last year, but I like the way it looks so I think we'll keep it there. I don't mind being reminded of Puck every time I click into the page. I really like the stellar collection of links on the sidebar, and I hope the ads are not overly intrusive.

The real point of this post was to open the door for some reader input. If there is anything that people would like changed about the look or format of the site that would make it more functional or enjoyable, please let me know via comment or e-mail. In addition, we are open to suggestions as to what direction to take the content for the rest of the spring and into the season. If there are topics you would like to see us write more or less often about, feel free to let us know.

As it stands, we do have some hopefully good stuff planned for the five weeks leading up to the start of the 2007 season. Aside from following all the developments of spring training, we'll be posting our annual "Position Analysis" series and we'll be making some (probably highly inaccurate) predictions for the 2007 season. Once the season starts, we'll get back to posting on weekends, for those of you who like to stop by somewhere other than work.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has read and commented. It's been a lot of fun and hopefully this can be another good year.

On a completely unrelated aside, congratulations to Martin Scorsese on his big wins at the Academy Awards last night. Scorsese finally won Best Director, which has been a long time coming, and the film he directed, The Departed, won Best Picture over four other solid nominees. I'm no movie expert, but I thought Departed was definitely the best movie I've seen over the past year.