We had a lot of great entries last week after I asked for a new voice to do our daily links posts. (What daily links posts, you might be asking. That's why we needed one!) I was excited by several entries and showed a list to my deputy editors. (See, they actually do something for their job titles.) In the end, everyone picked the same sample for a clean sweep. Still, it was a really hard decision telling several folks I'd love to have on board that we wouldn't need their services.

That said, please welcome Melissa Heyboer on board! She was not a member of BYB before, but she was a frequent reader (and re-tweeter) of the site. She currently writes a Detroit Lions blog -- Barry Sanders Memorial. So you'll want to check that out, I'm sure. Like pretty much all of us (but BigAl), she lives outside of the Detroit area. Like, waaaay outside.

But i'll let her tell you that. I asked Melissa to introduce herself to you, too, so here's her intro.

Hey all! I'm a Detroit sports fan living in Jacksonville, Fla. I don't have any great "my time in Michigan" stories. I'm a Floridian -- born and raised. The good news is, I bleed Tiger blood (not the Charlie Sheen kind) just as much as you. My parents were born and raised in Michigan (Grand Rapids & Flint) and moved down to Florida to escape the winters just before I was born. But that doesn't mean I don't have Tigers memories or that I don't long for The Voice of Summer to say "That ball is long gone" one last time.

As a kid, we tried to make it back to Michigan at least once a year for games at Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park. I was born a few short months after the Tigers won the ‘84 World Series, but fortunately living in Florida has had its own perks. I was at Game 6 and 7 of the ‘97 World Series. I got to see Edgar Renteria's walk-off, game-winning hit. (Where was that magic in 2008, Edgar? ... I want Jair Jurrjens back!) My family attended the ‘05 All-Star game and we're frequenters of Spring Training in Lakeland.

I graduated from the University of Central Florida where I double-majored in Journalism and History. I was the sports editor of my college's newspaper and have covered my fair share of Division I athletics. I'm currently an associate editor for an alternative healthcare magazine, but I still find time to write about the teams I love. I'm the creator of Barry Sanders Memorial Blog, which is a site dedicated to the Detroit Lions, and I'm a diehard Michigan Wolverine fan (no Wal-Mart Wolverine jokes, please.)

I'm honored to be a part of BYB and excited for this great opportunity!

You can find Melissa on Twitter at @MelissaHeyboer. If we don't have any problems at BYB, hopefully you'll be reading her first post in the morning.

Hi. I'm back. You've probably noticed that. I did a couple of quick posts last week, but I really needed a solid 10 day break from baseball to recharge the batteries. It has nothing to do with wins or losses, either. It's just a long, long season, and we all worked harder than ever during the past offseason. We'll try to be even better during the next 12 months, but I know I certainly needed a break from thinking about baseball and writing. Alas, in the blogging world your audience is built in the offseason so it's time to get back on the horse.

So here's our game plan:

We will again grade every player who found routine playing time either as a starter or a role player during the 2011 season.  That will begin tomorrow with the position players.

We'll also be looking at decisions on non-tender candidates, 40-man roster decisions, arbitration eligibles, Tigers strengths, weaknesses and needs, what players might be targets, and all that other stuff. That will begin pretty early because of the accelerated offseason in baseball.  Meanwhile our minor league folks will be reviewing how the teams and players did in 2011 as well as pitching in with major league coverage when they want to.  

Keep an eye on the key dates (as seen here) and you can anticipate stories about those topics will generally make their appearances a few days before each of them. 

Finally, we'll be doing the DIBS awards as always. Voters will receive information about them around Nov. 1. 

So make sure you're checking BYB every weekday. It's been slow since the ALCS loss, but things are starting to get back up to speed. 

As the 2011 season comes to a close, it's easy to forget how much success we had this year. If you had polled BYB in April asking whether we would consider a division title and an ALCS berth as a successful season, the results would have been about as lopsided as a "Justin Verlander or Brad Penny?" question.

Now that we have no meaningful baseball to look forward to until March (we'll still have Arizona Fall League coverage!), it's fun to think back and remember the great moments of the 2011 season. From Justin Verlander's no-hitter to Carlos Guillen's swan song against Jered Weaver to winning the first division title since 1987, 2011 was truly a year to remember for the Tigers and their fans.

BYB, in particular, enjoyed a banner year in 2011. With his second full season under his belt, Kurt has taken the site to new and unimaginable heights. Al created an excellent podcast from scratch (don't let the rest of us fool you, it's all him) and Alli managed all the logistics of a second straight BYB meet-up in July. The rest of the staff has provided excellent coverage all season long, and we've even added a few new faces to the masthead (like this guy!). In short, we've got an incredible staff here, one that I'm extremely proud to associate myself with.

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