Cube Notes

+ If you have any ideas for new baseball lists, please don't hesitate to send them my way.

+ The Devil Rays took Tim Beckham #1 overall for their 4th #1 pick since 1999. The years of futility are finally paying off Pittsburgh Penguins style as the Devil Rays find themselves battling for the AL East lead with the Red Sox.

TBC now has draft results and player pages for all 1504 drafted players.

+ So where have all the updates been? As always, big projects are happening behind the scenes and this time, I'm focusing on high school baseball. You should see some results from this section before September.

+ One of the features that sets us apart from other web sites is our inclusion of disabled list data. I have updated the database for players who were active in 2007 so we now have 2001-2007.

+ The database has been updated to include player deaths and debuts for major leaguers for the 2007 season. The new layout, up until today, did not include this information. Debut dates are linked to the game boxscore from the player page. Death information is for major leaguers only and displays the date of death. For minor leaguers and other players who have passed away, you can send along the date of death for inclusion. For non major leaguers, date of death may be absent as its more difficult to track.

+ I've also added 2008 salaries to the salary database. This is only for players who started the season on a major league roster or on the disabled list. I'll update the rest of the players at the end of the season.

+ Spring training statistics are no more. Not only do they take up space on a player's page, they take up database space and are fairly insignificant. I might try to replace them with more significant statistics like fall/winter Leagues or other International leagues. I've had requests for Mexican League data as well.

+ Disney World was a success for our family. 10 days of non-stop park hopping between the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM), Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Laggon and Downtown Disney. Our kids are 5 and 3 and they had a good time but they were more likely to enjoy the pool or the arcade at the hotel instead of Small World or Astro Blasters with Buzz Lightyear. I would recommend to any family that if you are planning to go to Disney only once, wait until your kids are all 48 inches or taller (so they can ride on most any ride) and are at least 6 or 7 years old. My favorite Disney rides:

• Test Track
• Aerosmith's Rock n' Roller Coaster
• Splash Mountain
• Primeval Whirl
• Expedition Everest
• Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters
• Tommorowland Speedway

+ Sorry for the lack of updates. Sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes you accidentally overwrite your "site build" program and have to rebuild it from scratch.

Current season statistics are now available on player pages. They were updated late last week, before the disappearance of my site building program. I'll try to update the stats at least twice a week so that each player's page gains more relevance. You might notice that for now, the team statistics pages for 2008 are not available. I'll be updating those next.

Oh, and the stats are for the majors and affiliated minor leagues.

+ You might have noticed an update to the layout of the site within the last couple of weeks and at the time of publication, I liked them but upon review, I have decided to redesign once again.

Today, you will notice that the player pages are updated and looking very different. The data is organized differently and the width of the page is compressed into 1024 pixels making design easier and hopefully overall, the site easier to read. Any feedback is appreciated.

+ Recently updated on The Hockey Cube. Includes player logs, player stats analysis, team logs, a calendar, a daily view with daily standings and leaders and finally, the boxscores. Faceoff data was not available for 2003-04 but I'll try to insert it retroactively when I find it.

2002-03 is already underway.