First and foremost, I can't thank Jeff enough for all the work he's done to get Brew Crew Ball to this point. It was Jeff that wrote the content that led me (and so many others) to start following this blog in the first place, and it was Jeff that invited me to become a contributor and bring the Frosty Mug (and later, other content) to a wider audience. I'm excited about the potential for the future, but before I get to that I'd be making a mistake if I didn't acknowledge Jeff's incredible efforts so far. Jeff, thanks for everything, and I look forward to continuing to have you around as much as you'd like to be.

With that said, to the casual observer, not a lot will change here. I'll be writing more, so you'll see a lot more unnecessary commas and typos I won't notice until hours later. But beyond that, I'm hoping to keep the same core of contributors, with perhaps a couple of additions. One of the advantages of reading over 250 baseball sites everyday is that I get to see a lot of great writers, and in the coming days i'm planning on inviting at least one, perhaps more, to join us here.

As for my philosophy, there's really only one thing that's immediately relevant. A lot of baseball blogs pick up steam during the season, then fall off during the offseason. My goal is to keep that from happening here. Two weeks ago, Paul DePodesta talked about the importance of the offseason, calling it the executives season, the biggest opportunity to watch and shape the future of a franchise.

The 2008 Brewers may be done, but in my mind 2009 is already underway. There are prospects to evaluate in half a dozen fall and winter leagues. There are free agents, arbitration eligibles, and dozens of other players to talk about that may or may not be a part of the future of this franchise, and of course there's the trade market.

So, in short, if you promise to keep reading, I promise to keep writing (and find and encourage others to do so as well), and we can continue the effort to make BCB the single greatest site on the web for intelligent Brewer conversation.

Deal?