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At the suggestion of a few trusted and esteemed members of this community, we admins have decided to open up a thread for people to share their opinions on the direction the site has taken since the end of the regular season. This was last done nearly two years ago so clearly we are a bit overdue. We are interested in hearing your thoughts on what has transpired as well as what you would like to see on this site in the coming season that you have not yet seen.

In case you've forgotten the guidelines of this site, all we ask is this:

1. No personal attacks.

2. No slurs.

3. Keep an open mind, and use logic in arguments.

4. Stay on topic.

5. Limit the use of profanity to the gameday threads.

6. No anime (h/t to the legends that helped this place grow)

Please use the comments section below to provide your feedback on the past, present, and future. Everything reasonable will be taken into consideration after being weighed against what we as a staff are attempting to do to grow the site even further in 2012.

Thank you in advance for your cordial participation and continued patronage.

Once more, here are the details for the DRaysBay / King David Shot spring training trip:

• General Admission ticket to watch the Rays take on the Pirates on Sunday, March 11th (w/o any parking charges)
• Round trip bus fare on one of Paradise's charter buses.
• BYOB & your own food on the bus - as long as you're not a slob
• 2 bay area pickups! One will likely be at the dog track on Gandy and the other will be in south Tampa
• All of this for $35 per person and we will be accepting payments via Paypal for this.

So if you're interested in attending, please sign up below and we'll contact you with information on how to pay via PayPal.

In The Extra 2%, Jonah Keri talks about how the Rays front office takes scrupulous notes on every decision they make, being sure to include all information available at the time. Then, five years later, they go back and evaluate their process, to see if they can improve.

Here at DRaysBay, we make very few decisions, but very many predictions. Some people take pride in their predictions, some find joy in pointing out where others were incorrect, but I think that we all can all agree that proper, impartial identification of good and bad, successful and unsuccessful predictions is an important part of "reasoned argument."

To this end, I'm starting up a monthly feature to track all of the predictions made by commenters and writers alike. If you see something that you'd like to be tracked, tag it in the comments with a #DRBPrediction label. If something you say gets tagged, either flesh your prediction out in the comments or write a fanpost clarifying exactly what it is you're trying to say, and what information you're basing the prediction on (if you don't, I'll do this myself, and I may not represent your argument as well as you would).

I'll then aggregate all predictions into a monthly article that will give everyone else the opportunity to add available information that I missed. Hopefully, within not too much time, we'll have a clear numerical representation of (a) who knows what they're talking about and (b) what type of thinking process yields the best forecasts.

On one hand, the offseason is a dark, lonely time. It's only a few months until baseball kicks off again, but those can feel like some of the longest months of the year. In the wise words of Rogers Hornsby, "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

But on the other hand, the offseason is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the hot stove, and the constant rumors and trade-talk over the offseason works well to fill that baseball-shaped hole in my life. It's also a time of the year when some of the best baseball writing and analysis happens, as there's much more time to work on stories and dig into the numbers than there is during the season.

So without further ado, I present the DRaysBay offseason posting schedule. We'll be starting off each weekday morning (8 AM) with a Rays Tank link post, and then following up with at least one feature piece per day (10 AM). We'll also be covering any rumors surrounding the Rays as they develop, and keep you abreast of all breaking news. And if you want to hear about the breaking news even quicker, follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

Here's what you can expect from our features:

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Monday: Hot Stove analysis by Steve Slow, Infographics by EminenceFront

Every Monday, I'll look into various topics related to the hot stove season: the Rays' payroll, areas of need, players to pursue, etc. In the afternoon, EmFront will be joining our staff and creating some nifty visuals about the Rays.

Tuesday: Prospect talk with Imperialism

Kevin will keep up with his weekly prospect columns, keeping us abreast of the AFL action and breaking down the Rays' minor league system.

Wednesday: Interviews and Deep Thoughts by Erik, Caption Contests.

Every offseason we solicit interviews from a wide range of people: fellow bloggers, Rays front-office personnel, players, media members (both local and otherwise), etc. We'll be keeping that going each Wednesday morning.

In the afternoons, we'll have a weekly Caption Contest. This will be more than just a weekly competition, though; we'll keep track of the total recs everyone gets and give out a prize to the top scorer at the end of the offseason. I'm thinking it'll be two tickets to the Rays' home opener, but I'm open to suggestions.

Thursday: Jason Collette
Friday: J.C. Mitchell
Saturday: Mr. Negative

Baseball analysis from Collette, Mitchell, and Mr. Neg. I know Mr. Neg is going to spend some time looking back at memorable moments from the 2011 season, and Collette wants to tackle some large issues surrounding the Rays (e.g. stadium financing). All these guys will be looking both forward and backward, providing us with player and hot stove analyses.

Alex Cobb gets a one-day trip to the major leagues today to put the starting rotation back on its regular schedule that was derailed by the weather issues on the recent road trip. All Cobb has to do is go out and face the hottest pitcher on the planet not named Shields in Jered Weaver who has traditionally given the Rays fits fellow rookie Tyler Chatwood as Jered Weaver has been scratched with an illness according to Angels broadcaster Victor Rojas. Chatwood has made four starts already going 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA but has permitted 35 baserunners and four home runs in just 23.1 innings of work. His last start came on Tuesday when he went 5.1 innings giving up three earned runs, one home run, and allowed nine baserunners. His pitch count has been 90, 93, 103, and 93 in his four starts this season and with his control issues, this is an immensely better match-up for a Rays offense that has been mostly neutered by Angels pitching thus far. The offense has not exactly been on fire in this series scoring just seven runs so far with three of them coming off home runs. Manufacturing runs has gone by the wayside as Sam Fuld has stopped getting base as he is not walking and is mired in a 0-17 slump. 

This week, both Kevin Gengler and R.J. Anderson wrote pieces on Cobb with Gengler's piece coming before any talk of Cobb's promotion began. Gengler had a rather extensive scouting report on hi that included animated gifs of Cobb's delivery. After watching those videos, you might notice how similar Cobb and Jeremy Helickson are in terms of their delivery (at least that's my observation). R.J. can hardly contain his excitement to see his favorite prospect right now in Cobb; it is a bromance worth reading.

Topkin reported yesterday that Cobb is going down after the game and another reliever will be recalled to replace him and Brandon Gomes was singled out as that guy. The Sean Rodriguez situation is still unclear except he says he is feeling better so he may not need to hit the disabled list. If he does not, another roster move must be made to get Evan Longoria back before the game on Tuesday and that move is going to come from Elliot Johnson, Dan Johnson, Felipe Lopez, or Casey Kotchman. Given how well Kotchman has played of late, particularly in the field, it would be surprising to see him as the casualty. 

Lineup (per @SPTimesRays):

Fuld - LF

Damon - DH

Upton - CF

Joyce - RF

Zobrist - 2B

Kotchman - 1B

Lopez - 3B

Jaso - C

Brignac - SS (his extra base hit dry-spell needs to end, and end now!)

via img297.imageshack.us

B.J. Upton returns to lineup, Dioner Navarro sits.