We’re extremely sad at this time to announce that Josh Alper, who has been doing an excellent job for PFT since arriving earlier in the year, has had to resign due to circumstances beyond his control.  But the door is wide open for a return, and we hope Josh will be back at some point down the line.

Until then, and hopefully beyond, Tom Mantzouranis of AOL’s FanHouse will be joining the bullpen, which is capably manned primarily by Michael David Smith.  Mike Tunison also contributes from time to time.

Tom works in advertising (which is cool because we recently discovered Mad Men), and he’s working on a master’s degree from NYU.

He lives in New Jersey, but somehow has managed to develop an affinity for the New Orleans Saints.  (It must have been a result of all those dominant Saints teams of the . . . of the . . . oh, never mind.)

Anyway, we’ll greatly miss Josh, we wish him well, and we look forward to his return.  And we’ll welcome Tom aboard by opening the floor to PFT Planet for a few verbal bouquets (or, as the case may be, road apples).