Brock Beauchamp

Hey all, could you give this a look over and see if there are things that should be changed or added? We're way behind on this tool and the person I delegated to was struggling quite a bit to come up with the right placeholders and options. If you have any suggestions what to fix, please mention it here! https://northsidebaseball.com/payroll-blueprint

Oh yeah, no offense taken, I just wanted to be clear on our reasons. And to be frank, for personal reasons I'm less a fan of Twitter by the day for the very reasons many others are. And given that I started by disliking Twitter back in 2010, my personal opinions on the platform are rock-bottom.

Nailed it.

Agreed. From day one the platform was flawed and no one seems particularly interested in fixing its problems.

To be clear, we didn't move there for ideological purposes and we're still on Twitter. But boy, Twitter has become a real mess over the past few years, both from a tone/vibe standpoint and a technological one. To peek behind the curtain a little bit, Twitter was always a "meh, whatever" for us (and many others). On average a Twitter user click is worth 30-40% of the same Facebook user click. Twitter has always been crap at monetization and engagement for businesses and it has only gotten worse with time.

Thank you for your support!

I was blissfully ignorant of this way of reading it, now I doubt I'll ever unsee it.

The stadium is old and the weather is horsefeathers?

North Side Baseball is proud to announce the release of the Chicago Cubs Players Project! This project endeavors to collect as much information about past and present Cubs as possible, giving fans a repository of high-quality data about their favorite players. This isn't meant to replicate the great work done at more staid publications like Wikipedia or Sabr. This project is meant to be by Cubs fans for Cubs fans. Have fun with it! This is a public, community-driven project… which means everyone is encouraged to participate! Like any public project, there are some ground rules to follow to ensure the Players Project remains accurate with quality information. Let’s run through the basics: You must have a North Side Baseball account to participate in the Players Project. Before creating a new player, please hit our Players Project index page, search for the player in question, and ensure he doesn’t already exist in the database. Any duplicate entries will be automatically deleted. Sorry, this project is first come, first serve. To edit an existing player, to the right of the player's name on the player page there is a button "Edit Player". Click that it brings you to the edit screen. While we encourage everyone to add unique information to existing players, do not delete others’ work. Feel free to add to their work and move elements of the content around if you add information, but refrain from deleting previous work unless it is inaccurate. If you see something that violates our guidelines below, scroll below the player’s information and look for a small grey “Report Player” button. Click that and let our moderation team know about the issue, and we’ll take it from there. If you upload images, please limit yourself to only high-quality imagery. Any uploaded photo should be at least 600 pixels wide. When adding personal experiences, please keep them short. Write no more than one paragraph, and after the paragraph, hit return and add your name (real name or screen name, whatever you’re comfortable sharing). We are not averse to sharing negative information on a player but reserve the right to curate any inappropriate or unsubstantiated content. Please be as accurate as possible and cite references where possible. When adding to a bio, please use the hyperlink tool to insert your reference links into the biography. If you have questions about what to enter in a field, there is small grey text under each field explaining how to use each field and what to add to it. Unless you are a Players Project moderator, you do not have the option to upload the primary player image. If you create a new player, feel free to add any relevant information and a moderator will loop back and add the featured player image for you. Moderators: when uploading a featured player image, the format MUST be 1:1 (square) and a minimum of 800 by 800 pixels. Please choose the highest-quality image of the player you can find. That’s everything you need to know! If you have questions about the project, please private message me anytime! Players Project Moderators: if your account has access to moderating the Players Project, you can view all recent revisions created by users using the ModeratorCP, accessed by clicking your name at the top of every page. On the left, you will see Database Revisions, which brings you to the Players Project's recent revisions. Or click here.

I talked that over with our lead dev a few days ago and it's an easy fix that should be coming in the next week or so.

@northsidebaseball.bsky.social on Bluesky BSKY.APP Easily the least terrible faction of Cubs fans on the internet.

Huh. I guess not? This is a wiki-style offering so I guess however you get there is fine with me. I hadn't even thought of it before, to be honest. Obviously, we take a hard anti-AI stance on front page articles but I don't see a real reason to take that same approach here.

If any of you see this, can you scroll down to the ad that's wide and screenshot it? That might help narrow down the offenders.

Grrrrrah. Okay, will reach out to the ad provider again.

Welcome to NSBB! This is my fault, I meant to call that out in the edit but promptly forgot, juggling too many balls this weekend.

Because people seem to be transitioning away from X/Twitter, at least in some capacity, I was asked to expand the default embed options for other social media sites. The following sites will now embed natively on the site just as Twitter has since forever. 1. Instagram 2. Facebook 3. TikTok 4. BlueSky 5. Threads 6. Twitter/X

It's a new feature I'll be announcing in a few days. It's a resource for fans to find information and share player experiences for their favorite Cubs players of the past (and present, but mostly the past).

Now, that’s an unceremonious way to introduce Carlos Pena, he of 286 career home runs and two top-10 MVP finishes. He’s most certainly remembered more fondly for his tenure with the Tampa Bay [Devil] Rays, averaging 32 homers and 92 RBIs over five seasons. However, Peña would go on to sign a one-year, $10 million deal with the Cubs in free agency following the departure of long-time staple Derrek Lee (who will eventually get some love in his own addition to this series), with the Cubs hoping to provide Aramis Ramirez (ditto for him) some left-handed protection in the lineup. In retrospect, the Cubs have done well for themselves at first base over the last 15 or so years. Lee signed a successful five-year, $65 million deal that lasted until the 2010 deadline, and by the end of 2012, Anthony Rizzo was entrenched as the everyday man at the “cold corner.” In 2011, though, Peña held that role, giving the Cubs exactly what they wanted: 28 home runs, 80 RBIs, and an .819 OPS across 153 games. He was reliable and powerful and seamlessly helped the Cubs transition between franchise first basemen. His uppercut, lefty swing is somewhat reminiscent of an old Cubs heel, Brewers legend Prince Fielder, though Peña was always (ironically) a better fielder than Fielder. He won a Gold Glove with the Rays and was widely considered among the best defensive first basemen., Though the Cubs may have gotten him while he was aging out of his prime, Peña was a fun Cub to watch. The 2011 Cubs flamed out early and finished fifth in the division that year (out of sixth since the last-place Astros had yet to defect to the AL West). Theo Epstein would come in the next season and clean house, beginning his fabled “five-year plan” to build a World Series winner. Peña and the other veterans on the team were shown the door for the incoming youth movement, though their contributions to a fledgling team mired in a century-long curse were noteworthy. Of all the players throughout the storied history of the Cubs, Peña is an oddball choice to kick off a series like this. A one-year tenured player whose best days were with other franchises may not sound like a “legend” in the colloquial sense of the word, but Peña encapsulated so much of the “lovable losers” charm. Though fans nowadays will know him more for his occasional comments on Marquee, Peña was still a productive Cub. It also doesn’t hurt that he was one of the first players I remember considering a “favorite” as I was growing up a Cubs fan. And, hey, isn’t reminiscing on “our” guys the purpose of a series like this in the first place? If you have any Cubs players, executives, or coaches - historically noteworthy or otherwise - that you’d like to see get this treatment, please leave a comment below! View full player

This is a soft launch, thought I would put it out here so those of you interested can play around with it. The Players Project is open to all North Side Baseball users. If you want to add to a player or create a new player, please do so! Just hit the Players Project index page and check to make sure he doesn't exist using the search tool. We want to make this the first and foremost tool to find cool information about Cubs players. If you know of a link or an article that should be included, take 30 seconds and add it to the player link roll. Or if you're a baseball card fanatic, add a few for your favorite players. The sky here is the limit. This is meant to be for Cubs fans and by Cubs fans. The more esoteric and fun we make the project, the better it will be. The Players Project: https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-players-project/ A brief tutorial on the project: https://brewerfanatic.com/help/all-help/how-to-use-the-milwaukee-brewers-players-project-r12/ (Tutorial is currently on Brewer Fanatic, I will be porting a version to NSBB soon)

Roki Sasaki has nudged Juan Soto out of the limelight, at least for a day. The young Japanese phenom announced he will come to Major League Baseball in 2025. Sasaki, unlike last year's import Yoshinobu Yamamoto, will post under the minor league rules due to his age and experience in NPB. Remember when Shohei Ohtani came to America to play and all teams were in on him? Same thing here. There will be no $300 million contracts in play as with Yamamoto, meaning most teams should be courting the young right-hander this offseason. Sasaki has been simply phenomenal in Japan. He pitched all of the 2024 season as a 22-year-old and only turned 23 this week. In parts of three seasons in NPB, he has a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts in only 394 innings pitched. View full rumor

As a Twins fan, I can say that I'm hoping other teams drool over Duran and forget Jax exists. If I was an acquiring team, I'd choose Jax over Duran.

The ad provider thinks they've found the offending ad causing the viewport to blow up. Hopefully this problem is resolved.

I'm still in talks with our head developer about this. It's... confusing. It seemed straightforward until we really started talking about it, then we realized there are loads of caveats and templates we need to consider. It's definitely not off the table but it's a much bigger task than I originally envisioned.