In the very near future, AA will be going through some site upgrades to enhance functionality and usability of the posting/commenting here. Yay! The upgrades have already been guinea-pigged at Athletics Nation and a couple of our college blogs, and AA is at the top of the list of baseball blogs to receive the makeover.

Here are the biggest components of the upgrade:

• Ajax commenting: you will now be able to expand/collapse comments as you see fit. Basically, you can see what you want and hide what you don't.
• Comment auto-refresh: you won't have to press [F5] or refresh the page in order to see new comments on the page; this will be especially helpful during game chatters. The comments are refreshed dynamically and new comments will be indicated as such. This can be disabled on a per user basis if you decide you hate it.
• Ajax editor: the diary posting interface has been beefed up and will be much more impressive and intuitive. Posting will happen much more quickly without having to reload the site.
• Tags: AA authors will now be able to "tag" stories (right now we are limited to a single "Section"). This will allow more elaborate organizing and searching of posts at AA.

If you want to see the new features in action, you can click through to Athletics Nation. As soon as I know the exact date of the change I will let everyone know. The new features may take a few days to get used to, but they will make the site better in the long run.

In addition to the site changes I have added a new "Game Chatter Hitlist" table to the right sidebar. In essence, this table keeps track of user comments during game chatters so everyone knows who is contributing to the game threads. For instance, DocMets16 is pacing the circuit with 88 comments through the first two games. Right on!

Many apologies for the lack of new stuff here the last couple of days. I have been:

a) In Cambridge
b) Sick
c) Trying to get our house ready to sell
d) Looking for a new house
e) Positively overwhelmed
f) Hungry

We should be back to the normal quantity and quality of amazin' goodness starting on Monday.

There hasn't been a whole lot going on in Mets' camp, aside from the Duaner Sanchez incident. Sanchez was rightfully chastised for showing up for camp out of shape and with a blasé attitude. He has subsequently apologized for his behavior and has vowed to be ready for action as soon as possible. His timetable still pegs his return for after the start of the season, but Sanchez believes he should be ready to go shortly thereafter.

First off, I want to thank everyone who has discovered the site in the past couple of weeks for your patronage, and for those of you who have been loyal to the site from the beginning for your continued support (not to mention everyone in between!). Your feedback and comments and your contributions to the dialog here are what makes this all fun for me.

This is a super busy week for me; I'm up in Boston for work and have had very little free time to post things to the site. I am still going to try to get at least a couple of new things on here every day, but if you folks could all chip in and post some diaries while I'm here that would really help out. I try to post new things here as frequently as possible -- usually many times in a day -- and when I run into crazy weeks like this I don't want things to hit a lull, which is bad for the site and especially bad for you guys.

Anyway, if you ever wanted to post a diary but couldn't think of anything to write about, here are some ideas to get you started:

• A link and a bit of commentary on an interesting news story about the Mets
• Recap of a Mets spring training game -- who did well, who stunk up the joint. Maybe you went to a spring training game and have a scouting report or first hand account that would be helpful
• Pose an insightful question with or without a poll
• Talk about your favorite player (past or present) or why you are a Mets fan
• Anything else you can think of

Anything particularly interesting, analytical or newsworthy, especially if it is well-written, has a good chance of being moved to the main page if posted in the diaries, so put your fingers to the keyboard and let your voice be heard.

Thanks!

Apologies for the obtrusiveness of the new ads. You'll notice a banner ad at the top of the main page as well as a box ad in between the story content and the comments when you click on the "Entry Link" or "Comments". While the ads are likely here to stay in one form or another, the integration of the ads with the rest of the site will be improved.

I'm not sure exactly how or when that integration will work, but the powers that be have informed me that they are working on it as we speak. I have assurances that there will be no pop-up ads, and you'll know as soon as I do what the eventual fate of the existing ads will be.

Thanks for your patience as well as your continued patronage. I'll keep you posted as to the status of this obvious hot-button blogging issue!

I'd like to ask that you take two minutes and fill out this survey. We're trying to figure out who reads our SB Nation sites and would appreciate just five minutes of your time. Please help us out if you can; your answers will help us to secure revenue for the network which will keep sites like AA going through the Mets' dynasty. Thank you!

Back in August, FlakyLefty45 started a Mets Clinch Date Pool in the Diaries . Votes were cast and recorded, and now that the Mets have finally clinched the NL East, we have a winner.

hotspur, who said the Mets would clinch with a victory on 9/18 scoring 5 runs, was the closest (the Mets actually scored four runs). So congratulations hotspur! I don't know what you win, exactly, though I could probably send you a copy of "The Producers" (the new one) on DVD if you want. Let me know.

Amazin' Avenue Patrons,

I leave tomorrow for my wedding/honeymoon. Me and my soon-to-be wife Kim are getting married on Maui on August 14th, though we're stopping in L.A. on the way out there on account of me not wanting to spend eleven straight hours on a plane. The good news is we'll get to take in a Dodgers game and see my recently-geographically-displaced sister.

I am leaving the site (and the Mets!) in the capable hands of our AA comrades kingcritical, anonymous and Mr. Met. They'll take care of you while I'm gone (and in fact they have largely been keeping this ship afloat this past week as I've been tying up loose ends).

Thanks to everyone for your support, and don't forget about MetsGeek Night at Shea on August 8th. Bring your signs, as I'm Tivo'ing the game and expect to see some representation on SNY when I get back!

Aloha!

--Eric Simon

As the summer rolls on and we enter the midway point in Amazin' Avenue: Season 2, I wanted to give everyone a bit of the "State of AA", as well as an opportunity to voice your likes and dislikes, as well as suggestions on ways to improve the AA experience.

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who has stopped by here over the past sixteen months for their patronage and their contributions to the cause. I consider myself the host of this site, but what goes on here extends far beyond me and my numbers and my ramblings. This site is as much about you guys as anything else, and hopefully what separates AA from the countless other similar websites is the sense of community we have here. Whether it's via a diary entry, a poll or your comments, this site is home to many unique voices, most of which are actually worth listening to!

Secondly, as many of you know I am getting married in August, and will be off in Hawaii for destination wedding plus honeymoon. I'll be away from the 6th thru the 19th, though I have no intention of letting this place collect dust while I'm gone. I'm looking for one or two people to keep this site loaded with content, including posting open threads, polls, news, opinion, etc. I still have to work out all of the details, but I figured I should get this ball rolling before sooner becomes later. So, if you have been a regular contributor to the diaries and comments for some time and would like to help out, send me an e-mail or catch me on IM so I can gauge interest. Thanks!

Finally, the scope of this website has varied over its short lifetime, but I think we've settled upon a nice mix of stats, charts, opinion, news, etc. Still, I'm always curious to know what you guys think, since I consider this to be your playground, too. What, if anything, would you like to see more of (or any of), such as:

• Mets news
• Other baseball news
• Opinion/rants
• Stats/charts
• Collaborations with other websites/blogs
• Book/DVD reviews
• Contests/giveaways (the DVD set giveaway is coming!)
• Interviews

Thanks again to all of you, for you are the heroes.