This upcoming season, I've decided to add a few new elements to AN.  

One will be called Monday Mornings in the Minors and it will feature Brian Durack, who wrote the outstanding A's Y'all and later AthleticsMinors.com.  Brian is one of the most intelligent baseball fans I've ever talked to and he's in the process of carving a career for himself in the sport.  He will be reporting on who is hot in the system and who is not.  He'll be letting you know which prospects are performing and who is underperforming.

ANtics will also be a regular feature on either Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon after an early morning game.  Louis Gray has been a remarkable addition to the site with his amazing ability to capture the humor in any hot topics surrounding our A's.

Another addition isn't a regular feature but a regular writer for the front page.  Christy Hofmann, otherwise known as baseballgirl, has proven herself to be an astute, intelligent and remarkably gifted baseball writer.  Her book report this past offseason on Eric Walker book was outstanding and blew me away.  At that moment, I decided that I wanted Christy to be featured as a prominent part of this site.  She will be handling the open game threads on Sundays and writing post game wraps on that day.  In addition, she'll be free to write about anything else A's-related on Sundays that she sees fit.

And finally, the masterfully hilarious Nico returns to his regular post on Fridays and Saturdays.  Nico gets a lot of acclaim for his sense of humor which is well-earned, but his baseball IQ is off the charts.

All-in-all, with Brian, Louis, Christy and Nico on board, I know AN is in remarkably talented hands.  I want to extend a huge AN welcome to Brian and Christy, a welcome back to Louis and a thanks for your wonderful consistency to Nico.

Here's to a World Series season in 2006 and a lot of fun here in AN along the way.  Let's just enjoy the ride and get the games going.  Thursday can't come fast enough.