Sunday, March 28, 2004
Now that Mark Ellis has ripped his arm off and half the blood in Brendan Donnelly's body has come out of his face, is it too late for me to draft a trainer?
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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.
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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.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
So, today I did one of my traditional March exercises. I had to go to Target to buy some blank CDs to burn songs from the four out-of-town bands that are playing Ho-Fest, my band's 4-night 3-CD release jamboree, for the press kits and to buy some shirts that my bandmate had seen that looked like Boy Scout shirts for our next costume. Anyway, I decided to splurge and buy my annual 1 pack of baseball cards.
Looking over the options, I realized that cards are made for someone different from me. Most were "packs" of 4 or 6 cards that offered special bonus platinum silver slugger edition cards or whatever. Others seemed to be "retro" and came with the gum in them. I never really liked the gum even as a kid. But I noticed the gum is now sugar-free, so good for Topps. The best bargain was the Topps Series 1 One 2004 MLB Cards with a plain generic red white and blue package. It was 12 cards for $1.99. With a Bonds-esque * saying "Packs with a relic card contain 10 cards." I didn't see why I should get less cards if one of them was Julio Franco, but oh well.
On the back of the package are all the odds for the different rare cards and there sure are a lot. The odds of getting a Sequentially Numbered Gold Parallel are 1:9 and for an Autograph from Group A are 1:15,610 and a Sequentially Numbered American Treasures Cut Signature is 1:213,120. There are perhaps a dozen other options. Like I said, cards are made for someone different from me. Let's open 'er up!!!
The first two cards are an ad for Topps and a card for the Topps of the Class "Students Work Hard, Get Cards." and... oh the deck is upside down. Flipping over, our first card is...
Lloyd McClendon. Boy, that's depressing. He has his arms spread out like a safe sign or like a fat albertross and his head is turned like he is watching himself on the scoreboard. Or maybe he is watching a replay. Lloyd is the lamest, by-the-book manager I've ever observed in frequency. It seems like every time the Pirates start a game with the lead-off man on, the next guy bunts. What a great thing for a pitcher struggling with control. 4-pitch walk? Hey let's give him an out. The back says, "Despite having no previous managerial experience beyond fall ball, Mac has guided the Pirates since 2001." That's the best they could come up with. Record 206-276. Apparently he is 10 for 16 in NLCS at-bats. Not mentioned here is how he hit 4 home runs in the Little League World Series which is the coolest thing he's ever done. Really, that would be the coolest thing for anyone. Next...
Rodney Choy Foo. Who the hell is this?? A second base prospect on the Indians. He's a Hawaiian guy who switch hits and plays all the skill infield positions. The stat card has OPS. But not OBP. Weird. It has SLG and BA and the counting stats. He walks a bit, has a very little pop, low batting average at A ball. Torey Lovullo is his manager. I thought that dude was still playing. Lovullo says, "you could pull out all his teeth, punch him in the face 10 times and still run him out there." A funny quote to take parts out of context. And on to...
Blake Hawksworth. Half-elf ranger, 5th level, Str 16 Int 12 Wis 14 Dex 16 Con 13 Cha 8. Actually, this is a prospect I've heard of. Cardinal pitcher, probably their best prospect, but they have a crap system so that's not a big accomplishment. He's from Vancouver though, so that's cool. Plus his name is cool. He K'd more than one guy an inning at Peoria last year with a 4:1 K:BB ratio and a 1.02 WHIP. They kept his innings down, it seems, 86.2. He is 21. We'll check back with him later. At the Laughing Dragon Inn. Next...
Clint Hurdle. Are you kidding me? Two stupid manager cards out of my first four?! At 141-161 he has bragging rights on Lloyd. Apparently he "helped make a 2003 Rockies team from which little was expected a respectable and dangerous unit." Hmm. Also, he "spent five-plus years as hitting coach for a Colorado team that consistently scored runs by the bushel." Nice job with that elevation, Coach! The rest of this pack better improve fast!
Future Stars! KC Royals Zack Greinke and Jimmy Gobble. OK that's cool. Wow, Greinke looks like he's 12. These guys are pretty comparable actually. Two first round draft pick teenage pitchers around 6'2.5" and 195. Gobble is two years older and throws portside though. They have similar K rates per 9. Gobble just has his AA stats there. I thought he made it up to the bigs last year. Yeah, I checked. 52.2 innings at KC. They chose not to include those stats for some reason. Greinke was both at A and AA last year. Gobble was born in Bristol, TN and now lives in Bristol, VA. Maybe they are on the border. Maybe he just wanted a town he could remember easily.
World Series Highlights: 1980 Mike Schmidt Wins World Series MVP Award. This is one of the first World Series I really remember. It is a metallic card and has a bunch of guys with big hair congratulating Schmidt maybe after a homer. Tug McGraw, Greg Luzinski, Del Unser... Ruben Amaro maybe? The back has the series stats. Schmidt hit .381 with 2 homers, 6 runs scored and 7 rbi. sHit King went 6 for 23 with 1 double, 1 rbi, 2 runs scored. Speaking of bad managers, BabBoone hit .412 with two doubles, Larry Bowa .375 with 1 double, and for the Royals Hurdle hit .417 and Hal McRae .375. The Phillies had 59 hits (.294 BA) but only 16 were for extra bases. Geez. That seems like a lot of singles. Still they outscored the Royals 26 to 22 in 6 games. Carlton won two games with a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings. Frank White killed the Royals... 2 singles in 25 at-bats. Willie Mays Aikens had 4 homers and a triple, batted .400 with 8 rbi! Quisenberry had three decisions, a win and two losses, no strikeouts in 10 innings and a 5.23 ERA. Ugh. Actually maybe I don't remember anything about this World Series.
Well that's the first six cards. I'll dive into the rest in a few days!
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Looking over the options, I realized that cards are made for someone different from me. Most were "packs" of 4 or 6 cards that offered special bonus platinum silver slugger edition cards or whatever. Others seemed to be "retro" and came with the gum in them. I never really liked the gum even as a kid. But I noticed the gum is now sugar-free, so good for Topps. The best bargain was the Topps Series 1 One 2004 MLB Cards with a plain generic red white and blue package. It was 12 cards for $1.99. With a Bonds-esque * saying "Packs with a relic card contain 10 cards." I didn't see why I should get less cards if one of them was Julio Franco, but oh well.
On the back of the package are all the odds for the different rare cards and there sure are a lot. The odds of getting a Sequentially Numbered Gold Parallel are 1:9 and for an Autograph from Group A are 1:15,610 and a Sequentially Numbered American Treasures Cut Signature is 1:213,120. There are perhaps a dozen other options. Like I said, cards are made for someone different from me. Let's open 'er up!!!
The first two cards are an ad for Topps and a card for the Topps of the Class "Students Work Hard, Get Cards." and... oh the deck is upside down. Flipping over, our first card is...
Lloyd McClendon. Boy, that's depressing. He has his arms spread out like a safe sign or like a fat albertross and his head is turned like he is watching himself on the scoreboard. Or maybe he is watching a replay. Lloyd is the lamest, by-the-book manager I've ever observed in frequency. It seems like every time the Pirates start a game with the lead-off man on, the next guy bunts. What a great thing for a pitcher struggling with control. 4-pitch walk? Hey let's give him an out. The back says, "Despite having no previous managerial experience beyond fall ball, Mac has guided the Pirates since 2001." That's the best they could come up with. Record 206-276. Apparently he is 10 for 16 in NLCS at-bats. Not mentioned here is how he hit 4 home runs in the Little League World Series which is the coolest thing he's ever done. Really, that would be the coolest thing for anyone. Next...
Rodney Choy Foo. Who the hell is this?? A second base prospect on the Indians. He's a Hawaiian guy who switch hits and plays all the skill infield positions. The stat card has OPS. But not OBP. Weird. It has SLG and BA and the counting stats. He walks a bit, has a very little pop, low batting average at A ball. Torey Lovullo is his manager. I thought that dude was still playing. Lovullo says, "you could pull out all his teeth, punch him in the face 10 times and still run him out there." A funny quote to take parts out of context. And on to...
Blake Hawksworth. Half-elf ranger, 5th level, Str 16 Int 12 Wis 14 Dex 16 Con 13 Cha 8. Actually, this is a prospect I've heard of. Cardinal pitcher, probably their best prospect, but they have a crap system so that's not a big accomplishment. He's from Vancouver though, so that's cool. Plus his name is cool. He K'd more than one guy an inning at Peoria last year with a 4:1 K:BB ratio and a 1.02 WHIP. They kept his innings down, it seems, 86.2. He is 21. We'll check back with him later. At the Laughing Dragon Inn. Next...
Clint Hurdle. Are you kidding me? Two stupid manager cards out of my first four?! At 141-161 he has bragging rights on Lloyd. Apparently he "helped make a 2003 Rockies team from which little was expected a respectable and dangerous unit." Hmm. Also, he "spent five-plus years as hitting coach for a Colorado team that consistently scored runs by the bushel." Nice job with that elevation, Coach! The rest of this pack better improve fast!
Future Stars! KC Royals Zack Greinke and Jimmy Gobble. OK that's cool. Wow, Greinke looks like he's 12. These guys are pretty comparable actually. Two first round draft pick teenage pitchers around 6'2.5" and 195. Gobble is two years older and throws portside though. They have similar K rates per 9. Gobble just has his AA stats there. I thought he made it up to the bigs last year. Yeah, I checked. 52.2 innings at KC. They chose not to include those stats for some reason. Greinke was both at A and AA last year. Gobble was born in Bristol, TN and now lives in Bristol, VA. Maybe they are on the border. Maybe he just wanted a town he could remember easily.
World Series Highlights: 1980 Mike Schmidt Wins World Series MVP Award. This is one of the first World Series I really remember. It is a metallic card and has a bunch of guys with big hair congratulating Schmidt maybe after a homer. Tug McGraw, Greg Luzinski, Del Unser... Ruben Amaro maybe? The back has the series stats. Schmidt hit .381 with 2 homers, 6 runs scored and 7 rbi. sHit King went 6 for 23 with 1 double, 1 rbi, 2 runs scored. Speaking of bad managers, BabBoone hit .412 with two doubles, Larry Bowa .375 with 1 double, and for the Royals Hurdle hit .417 and Hal McRae .375. The Phillies had 59 hits (.294 BA) but only 16 were for extra bases. Geez. That seems like a lot of singles. Still they outscored the Royals 26 to 22 in 6 games. Carlton won two games with a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings. Frank White killed the Royals... 2 singles in 25 at-bats. Willie Mays Aikens had 4 homers and a triple, batted .400 with 8 rbi! Quisenberry had three decisions, a win and two losses, no strikeouts in 10 innings and a 5.23 ERA. Ugh. Actually maybe I don't remember anything about this World Series.
Well that's the first six cards. I'll dive into the rest in a few days!
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
In the AL, I swapped Damaso Marte to Ken Smith for Gentle Ben Davis.
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Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Holds due Wed, March 10, 7pm EST
Please.
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Please.
