MWAH looks back on 2013

These are the posts I am never very good at. I'm much more comfortable nitpicking Raul Ibanez's contact rate or making snarky remarks about Joe Blanton. That's in my wheelhouse. Being all nice and self-reflective decidely is not, but I'm going to do it anyway.

With 2013 wrapping up, I thought I would take a little bit of time to look back on the year that was and send out some thanks.

Thanks to all of you readers. 2013 was a banner year for MWAH as it was easily the most successful year for the blog. The site set a record for monthly traffic not once, not twice but three times this year including the most trafficked single day in the history of the site (and I didn't have to get scolded by Rob Neyer and scores of Mariner fans to do it this time). Overall, year over year traffic nearly tripled, which is kind of amazing considering how bad this team was this year. Either MWAH is doing things right and attracting readers, or you are all self-loathing sadists who can't read enough about how bad the Halos were. That one could go either way.

Thanks to J.B. Shuck for giving me someone to focus all my misdirected rage towards. I look forward to another year of you being the bane of my existence.

Thanks to Scotty, Ryan, Jon, Brandon, Job, Jeremy and Nuvan for your contributions this year.  The growth of the blog couldn't have been achieved without you.

Thanks to Arte Moreno for being so indecisive about the future of Mike Scioscia and Jerry Dipoto. Speculating on the job security of the manager and GM provided plenty of content fodder in an otherwise dismal season.

Thanks to my wife and kids. It has been a crazy year for me personally what with buying a house, welcoming a second child into the family and ever-increasing responsibilities at my day job. Yet you all manage to still encourage and support me spending so much time on MWAH. You either love me very much or don't like me at all and just want me to leave you alone. I'm going to assume it is the former.

Thanks to Mike Trout for being the greatest player I've ever seen play. It is sickening to think about where this club would be without Trout.

Thanks to Bloguin for running this dang site and doing all the administrative BS that I don't have the time or patience for and also for dealing with my sometimes innane and self-serving questions about the future of the network. And thanks in advance for the forthcoming upgrade of the site. I look forward to dancing on the grave of the Joomla CMS.

Finally, I just want to say that I am very much looking forward to next year, partly because there is at least a chance that the Angels won't have all the suck, partly because MWAH is getting a mild facelift, partly because we are kicking off our annual prospect countdown next week and partly because I have a few interesting and different ideas for new content I want to try out in the new season. Heck, I might even re-start the podcast if my one-year old ever starts sleeping through the night (not holding my breath).

See you all in the new year.