Sunday, March 21, 2004
Well, here we are after our lovely draft weekend. Thanks to Jeff for coming up with an alternative technical solution to our glitches. I think Byrd impressed everyone with his first fantasy baseball draft. I think Randy made some kind of an impression. Let's get back to my $1.99 investment...
Season Highlights, 04/04/03, Sammy Slams 500th Home Run. Well, that's cool. Get a card of my favorite player in my one pack. The picture has Sammy following through and watching the ball. Sammy is the 3rd youngest player in history to reach 500 homers. Mays and Foxx are the others. This was at the Great American Ballpark in Cincy, off Scott Sullivan. I had the displeasure of going to a game at the GAB last year and let me tell you, that place is not worth the trip. It's quite ugly with these terrible murals and public art. The seats were uncomfortable. I couldn't find a pencil in the house to keep score with. They had veggie-dogs, though, which was a big plus. I wish they'd come up with that at PNC. The area around the park was pretty ugly too. At the Night of Fours I'll have to make a nod to the 1-year anniversary of Sammy's 500th. A season highlight of a season with a lot of lowlights for him. Onward...
Javy Lopez. Who saw that coming? Lopez, a late Spring pickup for me, almost single-handedly won my competitive Yahoo league. In the season that Jave had, .687 slugging, .328 average, the card guys chose a picture of him walking off the field in his catcher gear. There isn't a lot of room on the back with his 12 seasons with the Braves listed. But there is one line: "Javy had 11 HRs in 12 games, May 22 to June 11, 2003." That's simply incredible. I know people say, "contract year," when they are giving the reason for his season which was so far and away better than the rest of his career, which was decent. But come on! If a guy can "turn it on" like that, why wouldn't he do that all the time and go down in history as a Hall of Famer?? Simply awesome. A lot of analysts are calling for his numbers to drop towards the median, but I'm not so sure. Mike Lieberthal won the Kerfeld for Slave last year by staying healthy all year while his backup, Lopez, rotted on the Gas House Gang's bench. Would playing a 43-homer catcher all season have won Ken 2 more games, giving him the division championship? You'd think so. Well, hindsight is 20-20. Moving along...
Jimmy Rollins. The picture is of Rollins doing a Jeter-esque jump throw. Does that make the release quicker? Hard to believe you get more on a throw when your plant foot is a foot off the ground but I guess it looks cool. Jimmy Rollins is "one of baseball's more engaging personalities." He is also a data point for the argument of tying Larry Bowa's butt to the first rocketship out of Philadelphia. In Rollins' first year when he won the ROY he had 14 home runs and slugged .419. Ever since then, genius coach Bowa has been trying to get Rollins to stop trying to "hit the ball hard on a line drive" and instead play the game like Bowa himself did... badly. Larry Bowa retired with a 14-year career slugging percentage of .320 and on-base percentage of .300. His best year was 1975 where he batted .305, had a .334 obp, and slugged .377. Last year he got Rollins down to a .387 slugging percentage and .320 obp so it looks like Bowa's coaching is having its effect. "Slap it Jimmy, slap it! Keep it on the ground! Use your speed!" Rollins' SB totals over his career? 46, 31, 20. Stupid Bowa. Next!
Rodrigo Lopez. The O's #13 strides into a two-seam fastball while puffing out his cheeks. "Rodrigo wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps as a soccer player. he got drawn to baseball by (fellow Mexican) Fernando Valenzuela's fame." [btw I'm listening to the Cubs game on MLB.com radio right now and genius Dusty Baker just had Corey Patterson bunt with Grudzy on second and no one out in the middle innings. Patterson popped up the bunt. Nice!] So Lopez had a really good season in 2002 - 3.57 ERA and 15-9 for a bad team. In 2003 his ERA ballooned to 5.82 and his record dropped to 7-10 unsurprisingly. Well, what happened to be so inconsistent? Well, he isn't that he is too young. He'll be 29 this season. Maybe it's his lack of a big strikeout pitch. He's hittable so there will be a lot of variance in his performance. Also, according to the Scouting Notebook, he had a strained left oblique muscle that bothered him last year. Or maybe the league caught up to him. I'll wish him the best. Here's to you, Rodrigo Lopez!
John Lackey. WS Game 7 starter for the winning Angels in 2002. Season game 1 starter for the losing Angels in 2003. Lackey's bringing his big right arm from a low position, pitching from the stretch for his picture. Lackey was absolutely atrocious at the beginning of last season, but had a pretty decent year the rest of the way. Did you know he led the league in shutouts? With 2. That's right. 2 shutouts led the American League last year. All those great seasons by Pedro, Loaiza, Hudson, Halladay, Mussina... none of them tossed more than 2 shutouts. Lackey is a flyball pitcher and will probably hurt from the fact that the Angels best outfielder will be running around at 1B. Lackey pitched for Erie in 2000. I should check who is where, because the Angels have some great prospects coming up through their system and Erie is only a couple hours away and I have friends there. Road trip! And last, and least...
Craig Counsell. The picture of 13-year old Craig Counsell is him pointing at first base. Is he calling for an appeal play? Is he directing a bunt throw? Who knows? I like Counsell but he's not a great ballplayer. Counsell apparently lives in Milwaukee, which will work out great for the fact that he is now a Brewer - his 5th major league team. Counsell has played for all three recent NL expansion teams: Rockies, Marlins, and Diamondbacks. And the Brewers are new to the NL, moving during the last expansion. I suppose that is interesting on some level and maybe has some kind of meaning. Counsell will man SS for the Brew Crew until JJ Hardy Har Har comes up. Counsell's coming off his worst year in a long time. Maybe playing at home will give him a boost. He is one of Stacy's favorite players since I pointed out his goofy batting stance. Counsell's career highlights on the card says: Randy Johnson has said of Craig, "If my son's not going to be a left-handed pitcher, I'd want him to be Craig Counsell." Sorry, son. Actually looking at the two of them, Counsell could already be Johnson's son.
Well, that's it. My 2004 pack of baseball cards. I hope my sharing this with you has given you pleasure while saving you $1.99.
Season Highlights, 04/04/03, Sammy Slams 500th Home Run. Well, that's cool. Get a card of my favorite player in my one pack. The picture has Sammy following through and watching the ball. Sammy is the 3rd youngest player in history to reach 500 homers. Mays and Foxx are the others. This was at the Great American Ballpark in Cincy, off Scott Sullivan. I had the displeasure of going to a game at the GAB last year and let me tell you, that place is not worth the trip. It's quite ugly with these terrible murals and public art. The seats were uncomfortable. I couldn't find a pencil in the house to keep score with. They had veggie-dogs, though, which was a big plus. I wish they'd come up with that at PNC. The area around the park was pretty ugly too. At the Night of Fours I'll have to make a nod to the 1-year anniversary of Sammy's 500th. A season highlight of a season with a lot of lowlights for him. Onward...
Javy Lopez. Who saw that coming? Lopez, a late Spring pickup for me, almost single-handedly won my competitive Yahoo league. In the season that Jave had, .687 slugging, .328 average, the card guys chose a picture of him walking off the field in his catcher gear. There isn't a lot of room on the back with his 12 seasons with the Braves listed. But there is one line: "Javy had 11 HRs in 12 games, May 22 to June 11, 2003." That's simply incredible. I know people say, "contract year," when they are giving the reason for his season which was so far and away better than the rest of his career, which was decent. But come on! If a guy can "turn it on" like that, why wouldn't he do that all the time and go down in history as a Hall of Famer?? Simply awesome. A lot of analysts are calling for his numbers to drop towards the median, but I'm not so sure. Mike Lieberthal won the Kerfeld for Slave last year by staying healthy all year while his backup, Lopez, rotted on the Gas House Gang's bench. Would playing a 43-homer catcher all season have won Ken 2 more games, giving him the division championship? You'd think so. Well, hindsight is 20-20. Moving along...
Jimmy Rollins. The picture is of Rollins doing a Jeter-esque jump throw. Does that make the release quicker? Hard to believe you get more on a throw when your plant foot is a foot off the ground but I guess it looks cool. Jimmy Rollins is "one of baseball's more engaging personalities." He is also a data point for the argument of tying Larry Bowa's butt to the first rocketship out of Philadelphia. In Rollins' first year when he won the ROY he had 14 home runs and slugged .419. Ever since then, genius coach Bowa has been trying to get Rollins to stop trying to "hit the ball hard on a line drive" and instead play the game like Bowa himself did... badly. Larry Bowa retired with a 14-year career slugging percentage of .320 and on-base percentage of .300. His best year was 1975 where he batted .305, had a .334 obp, and slugged .377. Last year he got Rollins down to a .387 slugging percentage and .320 obp so it looks like Bowa's coaching is having its effect. "Slap it Jimmy, slap it! Keep it on the ground! Use your speed!" Rollins' SB totals over his career? 46, 31, 20. Stupid Bowa. Next!
Rodrigo Lopez. The O's #13 strides into a two-seam fastball while puffing out his cheeks. "Rodrigo wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps as a soccer player. he got drawn to baseball by (fellow Mexican) Fernando Valenzuela's fame." [btw I'm listening to the Cubs game on MLB.com radio right now and genius Dusty Baker just had Corey Patterson bunt with Grudzy on second and no one out in the middle innings. Patterson popped up the bunt. Nice!] So Lopez had a really good season in 2002 - 3.57 ERA and 15-9 for a bad team. In 2003 his ERA ballooned to 5.82 and his record dropped to 7-10 unsurprisingly. Well, what happened to be so inconsistent? Well, he isn't that he is too young. He'll be 29 this season. Maybe it's his lack of a big strikeout pitch. He's hittable so there will be a lot of variance in his performance. Also, according to the Scouting Notebook, he had a strained left oblique muscle that bothered him last year. Or maybe the league caught up to him. I'll wish him the best. Here's to you, Rodrigo Lopez!
John Lackey. WS Game 7 starter for the winning Angels in 2002. Season game 1 starter for the losing Angels in 2003. Lackey's bringing his big right arm from a low position, pitching from the stretch for his picture. Lackey was absolutely atrocious at the beginning of last season, but had a pretty decent year the rest of the way. Did you know he led the league in shutouts? With 2. That's right. 2 shutouts led the American League last year. All those great seasons by Pedro, Loaiza, Hudson, Halladay, Mussina... none of them tossed more than 2 shutouts. Lackey is a flyball pitcher and will probably hurt from the fact that the Angels best outfielder will be running around at 1B. Lackey pitched for Erie in 2000. I should check who is where, because the Angels have some great prospects coming up through their system and Erie is only a couple hours away and I have friends there. Road trip! And last, and least...
Craig Counsell. The picture of 13-year old Craig Counsell is him pointing at first base. Is he calling for an appeal play? Is he directing a bunt throw? Who knows? I like Counsell but he's not a great ballplayer. Counsell apparently lives in Milwaukee, which will work out great for the fact that he is now a Brewer - his 5th major league team. Counsell has played for all three recent NL expansion teams: Rockies, Marlins, and Diamondbacks. And the Brewers are new to the NL, moving during the last expansion. I suppose that is interesting on some level and maybe has some kind of meaning. Counsell will man SS for the Brew Crew until JJ Hardy Har Har comes up. Counsell's coming off his worst year in a long time. Maybe playing at home will give him a boost. He is one of Stacy's favorite players since I pointed out his goofy batting stance. Counsell's career highlights on the card says: Randy Johnson has said of Craig, "If my son's not going to be a left-handed pitcher, I'd want him to be Craig Counsell." Sorry, son. Actually looking at the two of them, Counsell could already be Johnson's son.
Well, that's it. My 2004 pack of baseball cards. I hope my sharing this with you has given you pleasure while saving you $1.99.
Comments:
Post a Comment
