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30-YOC Top Ten Lists Top Ten Switch-Hitters Of
All-Time!!!
post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 08 January 2012 06:02:48 PM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard
?30-YOC Top Ten Lists? ? Top Ten Switch-Hitters Of All-Time!!! As the result of a recent Eddie Murray post that was published on this blog less than two weeks ago, and at the request of ’30-YOC’ loyal redear Matt, I … Continue reading →
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tters-of-all-time/
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post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 08 January 2012 03:21:13 PM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard
Bo Jackson 1991 Score Super Star Now this is a sweet looking baseball card!! I am a little surprised that Score did not get more credit for competing with Upper Deck and Stadium Cub and Ultra in the ‘best photography’ … Continue reading →
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volume 1
post from Purple Row on 08 January 2012 02:00:44 PM. © Purple Row
While I'm in favor of Larry Walker reaching the Hall of Fame and think he's deserving, I actually have few qualms with writers or fans who have limited their ballots to just two names: Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell. While I think the inclusion of players like Jim Rice makes the small hall vs big hall debate moot (it's a big hall already, get over it, whiners) I think limiting a ballot to the clear cut consensus HOF players and holding off on the others is a defensible stance given the established protocols. It's when writers extend their votes beyond those two and include others but not fairly consider Walker that I take issue.
Enter Troy Renck, who will not pass off field judgment on Bagwell over suspected PED use (which is right,) but feels okay diagnosing Walker with enough lack of passion to keep him out. Renck will vote in Jack Morris, who didn't accumulate the numbers of a prototypical Hall of Famer, but not Walker, who came a lot closer. Lee Smith "lacked a signature moment" played less than Renck acknowledges that he has "never covered a better player" than Walker, but for some reason can't vote for him. He should go back to that point and look closer. Walker is a Hall of Fame player, one of the most complete players of our generation, if not ever, as you'd be hard pressed to find a better balance of offense (power, average, baserunning) and defense. What's discouraging to me is that the HOF has become so myopic when it comes to focusing on certain micro-abilities that total package players like Walker tend to get lost.
If you've read the comments here or among other groups of Rockies fans, you know that Giambi's presence on the roster is a divisive issue. I think my pro-Giambi stance is well known, and this article would be more propaganda for that view. I doubt it will do much to convince the anti-Giambi crowd, however.
At any rate, on to why this post is taking so long today. I've been mildly disappointed that there seem to be many that just don't get what Dan O'Dowd's been trying to accomplish this off season with the Rockies. The "O'Dowd doesn't have a plan" meme is not a valid argument and it closes off the opportunity to actually dissect whether the plan that the Rockies have been carrying out to date is worthwhile or not. So, I thought it would be wise to take a step back and clearly define what the team has been up to, and then from there maybe we can actually get back to worthwhile discussion rather than merely repeating empty "Dan the man without a plan" group-think.
Facing O'Dowd over this past year were a couple of competing directions he could go:
Arguments against not trying to compete in 2012:
- The NL West division is weak and winnable for any team
- The Rockies need to maintain a relatively consistent attendance level to continue paying Tulo and Cargo et al... Going into a complete rebuild may compromise the ability to retain star players currently on the roster.
- Those two stars are already in their primes, there should be no season where a team built around them takes itself completely out of the running.
Arguments for a rebuild:
- While NL West competitive, the Rockies as constructed in 2010 and 2011 were not a truly viable WS contender, and there was not enough help coming from a weakened farm to transform them into one. They were falling behind divisional peers, mainly the Diamondbacks, in talent on hand.
- There was a perceived clubhouse psychology issue and lack of effort or accountability from certain players.
Faced with two conflicting team building options, O'Dowd has chosen to abandon going all in for the immediate short-term, but instead focus on surrounding Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez with players that could be ready to contribute in the next year (leaving a chance that the Rockies will do well enough to reach the playoffs in 2012) and entering their career peaks in the next three seasons. It's a plan that focuses on success in an intermediate period rather than a short or long term period, and I think this is what has confused pundits.
I'll break it down a little by season for 2012 and 2013 after the jump, but I've realized that this post needs to be broken up to fully look at the situation the Rockies are in. And I'm already really late, so we'll just have to leave this post here for right now.
2012:
Exorcise the demons. Clean the house. The players traded thus far this winter have been, whether fairly deemed this way or not, the red-headed stepchildren in the organization. Disappointing draft picks, malcontent former closers or Chris Iannetta.
Replace the above with an older veteran free agent player of more or less equivalent talent but also keep the farm standby for the future. Note how each free agent replacement for traded players that the Rockies have added or hope to add this season is signed to either a one or two year contract and has a prospect pair already in the system. Iannetta gets replaced with Ramon Hernandez with Wilin Rosario standing by to take over as soon as prudent, Street gets moved on for a Brad Lidge-type yet to be signed and eventually Rex Brothers. Ian Stewart shuffles off for Casey Blake and in the near future, Nolan Arenado. Finally, Seth Smith will likely get moved with Michael Cuddyer replacing him now, but then Tim Wheeler or maybe Charlie Blackmon or Kent Matthes on down the road.
Cuddyer's hefty three year contract breaks part of the above pattern as the purely temporary fix that Blake and Hernandez seem to be. It's clear that the Rockies have a longer term vision for him as a starting level player, but we'll get to that later in the post. That said, the pattern emerges of a team filling its 2012 roster with professional baton-passers. I actually don't think there's a problem with that, but I'm surprised that others find this plan difficult to see.
The free agent baton-relay model has freed the Rockies to be selective in the players acquired via trade, rather than having to trade for need. Trading for need reduces leverage and will usually pigeonhole a franchise to giving up more prospect value than it gets back in MLB player value. The net result for the Rockies plan this winter has been that more, or at least as much young talent has entered the club then departed it. The drawback that the critics of this method point out is that thus far the players acquired have lacked impact ability. In particular, Tyler Chatwood and Nick Schmidt get dinged as the value of Chris Iannetta and Huston Street has been perceived by fans to be higher than the returned pieces.
The selection process for the Rockies in player trades is also readily apparent, one can see it simply by looking at the highest level of the acquired prospects dating back to the Ubaldo Jimenez trade;
- Drew Pomeranz MLB
- Alex White MLB
- Joe Gardner AA
- Matt McBride AA
- Tyler Chatwood MLB
- Nick Schmidt A+ (but as a reliever close to MLB ready)
- D.J. LeMahieu MLB
- Tyler Colvin MLB
- Chad Tracy AAA
With waiver claims like Andrew Brown or Jamie Hoffman and minor league signings such as Brandon Wood, there's again a fairly obvious picture that emerges of players that require almost no additional investment in development time before they will be expected to contribute at a major league level. From there it's simply a matter of winnowing out the success stories from the disappointments and moving on. The 2012 Rockies team (and Sky Sox and Drillers teams) will be the window of opportunity for marginal MLB players to prove themselves otherwise, for many of the above it might be their last best chance of showing value at the highest level. The Rockies haven't been asking for younger lower level prospects at all, indicating that their focus remains revolving around the two superstars in the middle of their lineup.
Added to a solid veteran core of Tulo, Cargo, Helton, Cuddyer, and those more proven parts of the Rockies rotation and bullpen, it will take only a handful of the near-ready MLB young players (those above and prospects already in the system) proving themselves to push Colorado into contention. It's a situation similar to where the Giants were heading into 2010, and it should be unsurprising if the Rockies do compete in 2012 with only a couple of positive breaks.
2013
Trading away Iannetta and Street starts to make more sense in a two year vision. I think people who don't see a plan for the Rockies are either looking at 2012 only or 2014 and beyond only, and not realizing that it wouldn't take much for the Rockies to be back at the top of the division within a year. Iannetta's $5 million 2013 option is simply an extravagance compared to Ramon Hernandez's $3.2 million due next season if Wilin Rosario would be taking over more of the workload either way. Trading CDI at either midseason point would lose return value (with a voidable option, he'd have been a two month rental both seasons) and eliminate the possibility of getting a Hernandez level replacement/backup.
As for the return for Iannetta, people are focusing on the wrong statistic when questioning Chatwood's value. His walk rate is fine for a 21 year old rushed to the major leagues. Check out the first couple of seasons of pitchers like Clay Buchholz, Homer Bailey, Phil Hughes to name a . Command develops as pitchers age. The larger concern for me is the lack of a punch-out pitch. He needs to do two things, and I'm not sure if the Rockies will teach him either one. One, not be afraid to throw high heat on occasion, and two develop and utilize his change-up more frequently. If he does, he'll start racking up the K's and I'll be a lot more comfortable with the Roy Oswalt comparisons that sometimes get tossed around.
For Street, the Rockies paid a price for an ill-advised extension they signed the former closer to two years ago, once again displaying the symptoms of "playoff brain" that has led the front office to other bad decisions such as not trading Garrett Atkins after 2007 or extending manager Jim Tracy just after the 2009 playoffs. At any rate, trading him this off-season was the best remaining option (trading him last summer might have been better, but that was spilt milk.) Looking at the Francisco Rodriguez return (Danny Herrera and Adrian Rosario) from this past summer leaves me doubting that there will be a better market for Street in July of 2012. At any rate, Street's value to the club is easily replaceable by players such as Chatwood or Chad Bettis as short term bullpen commodities.
At any rate, 2013 is when the Rockies will really start to see returns from their recent moves as well as start to really benefit from internal prospects such as Rosario, Tim Wheeler and Nolan Arenado. By keeping these prospects now, and adding them to more mature acquired players such as Pomeranz, Chatwood and White, the Rockies should be in a strong position relative to the division in 2013. I'll go more into this and what the team has to look forward to in 2014 and beyond probably on Thursday, unless a Smith move takes place before then.
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http://www.purplerow.com/2012/1/8/2689349/sunday-rockpile-defining-the-rockies-pl
an-volume-1
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post from Baseball: Past and Present on 08 January 2012 12:47:32 PM. © Baseball: Past and Present
It seems lately many members of the Baseball Writers Association of America have been tormented and undecided as to which player should receive their Hall of Fame vote. This not only applies to this year?s ballot but especially in 2013 when the eligible list will be flooded with steroid-aided stars. Should these writers forgive and [...]
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http://baseballpastandpresent.com/2012/01/08/hall-fame-vote/
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Baseball Hall Of Fame
post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 08 January 2012 11:49:06 AM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard
1995 Headline: Mike Schmidt Voted Into National Baseball Hall Of Fame Mike Schmidt’s credentials are as impressive as any player to play the game in the last 50 years. If you were to look up the definition of a ‘power … Continue reading →
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post from Beyond the Box Score on 08 January 2012 11:02:45 AM. © Beyond the Box Score
It's Hall of Fame Season, that time of year when baseball folk are most apt to consider the career value of a player. Of course, it's not just the total value that matters in these discussions, but also how that value was accrued. In general, given two[...]
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http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2012/1/8/2690069/historys-greatest-compilers-sta
rting-pitchers
Add to del.icio.us Digg this Post to Furl Add to reddit Add to myYahoo!Marlins Starting Pitching Comparables
post from Fish Stripes on 08 January 2012 11:01:32 AM. © Fish Stripes
Here is a look at some of the top comparables to the Marlins top starting pitchers: Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez, Mark Buehrle, Ricky Nolasco and Carlos Zambrano as per the MLB Depth Charts website.
In this exercise I used 2010-2011 data, looking at the skilled stats of K/9, BB/9 and GB/FB, while coming up with a similarity score based on these three stats for each Marlins starting pitcher. The cutoff was having pitched at least 150 IP as a starter (exception for Matt Moore and Stephen Strasburg, Fans Projections FG) over the last two years. Here is the top 25 list for each Marlins starter. There is some bias when comparing NL pitchers with AL pitchers due to the slightly inflated strikeout rate for NL pitchers who don't have to pitch to a DH, so feel free to make a mental adjustment for those pitchers. If you wanted to take something like this to the next level, you could look at age, contract status, handedness etc... but I've chosen to look at these three stats which are highly controlled by a pitchers skill level.
First thing that stands out are the great numbers and comparables for both Johnson and Sanchez. Nolasco has some pretty decent numbers too, I really like the low walk rate. I did a double take when I saw Buehrle's peripherals. That is a pretty poor K rate, the low walk rate does help offset it a little bit and more importantly (not shown) is his consistency when it comes to eating innings. Zambrano struggles with the high BB rate, giving him a rather unimpressive list of comparables.
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http://www.fishstripes.com/2012/1/8/2691098/marlins-starting-pitching-comparables
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post from Talking Chop on 08 January 2012 11:01:32 AM. © Talking Chop
There was a time that it wasn’t hard to find a card show. I grew up in Columbus, GA, and even in a town our size, we had regular card shows. Most of the local shows were at Peachtree Mall, the most popular shopping destination in town. There were never more than a handful of dealers, but to the eyes of this young collector, there were so many wonderful cards to be had. I often found the shows overwhelming and wouldn’t know where to look first. Still, I would find something I wanted and would inevitably spend every dollar in my wallet.
It was a different time for sure. Even in a city the size of Columbus, there were several card shops throughout town. I’d go whenever I could persuade my Mom to take me. Sure, the owner had little interest in catering to a kid who wanted to look at everything. Still, even under the owner’s harsh stare, I could have spent hours flipping through every available card in the shop. My mother must have spent countless hours sitting in her car waiting for me to buy my cards so she could go home.
It was also a time where at any store with a magazine rack, you could find a magazine about baseball card collecting. The two I remember most are Baseball Cards and Sport’s Collector’s Digest, which is still in print today. Unlike the collecting magazines published today by Beckett, these weren’t glorified price guides where the editorial content was underwritten and often uninteresting. These magazines relished in telling stories of the history of baseball card collecting. They were an indispensable guide to the history of the hobby.
This was a time when baseball cards were everywhere. We didn’t need card shows, card shops or magazines for news about the latest sets. Topps, Fleer and Donruss released their sets at the beginning of the season. After the season was over, I could count on the Traded and Update sets appearing at the local card shop. Card collecting was easy. The most valuable service provided by the shows, and by the shops and by the magazines of the time was their window into vintage trading cards.
These were the cards that were displayed under glass at the card show. These were the cards that the owner of the card shop refused to let a kid like me touch. These were the cards that were featured in beautiful photography in the pages of the collecting magazines. These were the cards that every collector lusted over. These were the cards that were collected by our fathers when they were our age. The names on the cards are as familiar as the game itself. There was Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle. Sandy Koufax, Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson. Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. For anyone who loved baseball and loved the hobby, they were the stuff from which dreams were made.
They were also out of my reach. For a young boy living on an allowance, or even on his meager hourly wage from working in the kitchen of a pizza joint, the cards were simply unobtainable. It was obvious that this young Braves fan wouldn’t be able to afford a Hank Aaron or an Eddie Mathews or a Warren Spahn card any time soon. It was just as unlikely that I would be able to get my hands on a Joe Adcock or a Lew Burdette. Of course, that didn’t stop the lust.
There was one card in particular at my favorite of the local card shops with which I had fallen in love. The card was almost shaped like a square. The colors were exaggerated, but accurate. I had no idea whether this was an actual photo or some sort of weird painting and photo combination. The left-handed pitcher pictured on the card was shown with his leg held high in a kick as he prepared to deliver a pitch to the plate. From the vantage point, you could even see the spikes on his shoe. The card was a 1950 Bowman Warren Spahn and I was obsessed with the card. I still don’t own it.
The set would become one of my favorites. I began to notice other cards from the set at card shows. Jackie Robinson was shown taking a practice swing as he approached home plate. Ted Williams appeared to be watching a pop up sail into the seats. Richie Ashburn was staring straight ahead, as if to let the pitcher know that the ball would not be thrown past him. Just like the Spahn, I would never own one of these cards.
Still, all hope wasn’t lost if you were a kid who fell in love with a vintage set. There was a secret weapon that allowed you to get a card from that set you craved. That weapon was “the box”. Every shop had one. Seemingly, every dealer at a card show had one as well. It was a box filled with cards from older sets. They were never cards of the star players. Truth be told, even the above average players couldn’t be found in the box. The box never held cards in mint condition. There was usually a price written on the outside of the box. It might be a dime or a nickel or a quarter. The box would be filled with vintage baseball cards.
When I first discovered and approached the box, I had one goal. I wanted a card featuring a Braves player from 1950 Bowman. How simple is that? At the time, it wasn’t quite as simple. There’s no telling the collecting gold I passed over looking for a simple 1950 Bowman Braves card. I suppose since this was Georgia, everyone else was after the Braves as well. I was on the hunt. It would take months, but I would finally get my card.
I don’t remember if I found the card at a card show or at the local card shop. I only remember pulling it from the box. I must have thumbed through hundreds of cards in that box before I found the card I wanted. It was, and is, beautiful. The player is depicted making a leaping grab of a line drive. The Braves logo on his uniform is prominent and gorgeous. The player is Willard Marshall. It was my first vintage baseball card and remains one of the most treasured possessions in my collection.
It isn’t as easy to find a card show in 2012, but when you do, you can still find the box. Almost every dealer at every table has one. The price has gone up to a dollar or more on most of the boxes. Still, they are filled with collecting gold and are reason enough to attend any card show.
Willard Marshall may not be a household name, but he had a respectable career and was a genuine American hero. After a rookie season with the New York Giants in 1942 that led to his selection as a reserve for the National League All-Star team, Marshall enlisted into the Marines. He would spend three years in the military and would serve in the Pacific during World War 2. He returned to the Giants in 1946 and would enter the most productive stretch of his career. In 1947, he would slug 36 home runs and have his career season, receiving another All-Star game selection and finishing in the MVP voting. His last year with the Giants was in 1949, and he would appear in his final All-Star game, as a starter no less, and would again appear in the MVP voting.
The Boston Braves would send Al Dark and Eddie Stanky to the Giants for a package of players that included Marshall. Marshall would prove a solid addition to the Boston Braves lineup, but he would never again match the success he had with the Giants. His most notable accomplishment with the Braves was starting 123 games in right field in 1951 without making a single error. The Braves would sell Marshall to the Reds early in the 1952 season and would end his career a few years later as a bit player for the Chicago White Sox. He would be pictured in a Braves uniform in cards from 1950, 1951 and 1952.
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http://www.talkingchop.com/2012/1/8/2690999/collecting-willard-marshall
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post from Fish Stripes on 08 January 2012 10:01:28 AM. © Fish Stripes
Obviously most Marlin fans are expected to be living in South Florida, but there are sure to be plenty around the world.
A quick poll asks Fish fans: Where do you reside?
If you live outside of the area, tell us why you are a Marlin's fan.
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http://www.fishstripes.com/2012/1/8/2690589/where-do-fish-fans-reside
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post from Love My Team on 08 January 2012 07:46:02 AM. © Love My Team
Yesterday, I put up a short post about R.A. Dickey and his climb to the top of Kilamanjaro. Today,[...]
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http://blog.lovemyteam.com/2012/01/08/players-as-people/
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