Just wanted to give you all a heads up and explain what’s been going on with the site in case you’ve noticed some issues lately. An influx of traffic on Tuesday caused the site to go down quite a few teams, and the server was hovering in and out of commission throughout most of the morning and afternoon. We changed up hosting companies a few months ago, and now we’re in the process of upping the server so it will be able to withstand greater loads of traffic. So for the next day or so, if you try to access the site, sometimes it will be smooth and sometimes it will take longer to load, depending on which server you get connected to, the new one or old one. Either way, things should be much better from here on out.

Just in case you had trouble getting on or are noticing the site running slower than usual, it probably has to do with some switches we’re making. We’re in the process of switching website hosting companies from GoDaddy to Blue Host. Hopefully as soon as the switch goes through, LBS will load a lot faster and you won’t ever have problems accessing the site. And, most importantly, we won’t have any issues of getting bombed by Al Qaeda to the point where the site gets shut down for days. Thanks for being patient.

- The LBS Team (me)

Hopefully you’re checking in on the site to get this in time … at 12:30pm PT/2:30pm CT, I will be a guest with Jon Miller on KXNO in Des Moines. Go here to listen to the interview on the show as we talk all things MLB.

Ordinarily I can’t stand March Madness, as you all well know. It’s around this time that I write off around 20 bucks, spread over four or five losing brackets. My picks always suck, and I always finish last. Need I remind you once again why I hate March Madness? Anyway … I have set up the official LBS March Madness Pool on Yahoo! Sports. It’s simple to join: just follow this link to sign up for the league. You’ll need a Yahoo ID to enter your picks. The group ID is 133486, password: bobknightssweater.

And there’s one good thing about joining the LBS Pool over all the other pools: it’s free. Oh yeah, you’re also guaranteed NOT to finish last; that spot is already reserved for me (that picture above is so you know what you’re up against). So sign up to earn ultimate bragging rights!

For those of you who were trying to access the site anywhere between 8:30am PT Monday morning to about 3:50pm PT Tuesday afternoon, you may have noticed that the site was down. Well, your deepest suspicions have been confirmed: the terrorists attacked LBS. Actually, that’s not true. The truth is Bill Belichick’s video staff caught me … Kobe’s agent got sick of all my Mamba bashing and … Brady Quinn got pissed I was macking on his woman and … OK, the truth is … the gracious Jimmy Traina hooked me up on Hot Clicks over at SI Extra Mustard, which always packs a good punch, and sent over enough traffic to upset my web host. I’m on a shared server like many other sites, and was getting so much traffic I was using up too much of the CPU on the server. Within about a half hour of the link going live, my host suspended my account. And once my account got suspended, I felt like Pacman Jones pleading with Goodell for re-instatement. 32 hours later, I was off the most-wanted list, back in the mix, and left eager to attack a bunch of old stories I didn’t get the chance to hit up. Forgive me for rehashing old topics here.

P.S. I have learned a few things within the past 40 hours or so …

First, lots of people are amused by testicle injuries. I can’t imagine why that is the case.

Next, LBS may have outgrown its shared server training wheels, and it may be time to move up to a virtual dedicated server, or even a dedicated server. It is my hope that the masses of the eagerly awaiting universe will never have to go another hour without access to LBS at their fingertips.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience and understanding, and hopefully this will never happen again. That is all.

That’s right folks, for the first time since the launch of the site back in January, and really, the first time since Winter Break ’02, LB will be taking a little vacation. I am off on a mission to broaden the horizons of LBS and reach out to an international audience. Regularly scheduled posting should resume in a few weeks, but don’t be surprised if you see me drop in a few stories here and there. In the meantime, be sure to check out commenter Alan’s brand new blog — it’s full of tons of great baseball analysis. Additionally, if you’d like some more blog reading to keep you busy, check out a few of the recommended sites on the sidebar. As always, thanks for stopping by and see you in a few …