If I Were Fredi

post from Atlanta Baseball Talk on 11 September 2011 11:36:16 PM. © Atlanta Baseball Talk

I hate rain. I am tired of going outside every morning, afternoon and evening to walk my dog and having to make our way through puddles that could qualify as small lakes. Even more than the rain, I am tired…[...]

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Show #164: The Braves Stumble on the Road

post from Atlanta Baseball Talk on 11 September 2011 11:32:57 PM. © Atlanta Baseball Talk

Looking at where it all went wrong this week. Plus Chipper batting second and the post season hope meter.[...]

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Royals Squeak by Mariners in Game No One Sees

post from Royals Review on 11 September 2011 10:00:58 PM. © Royals Review

SEATTLE - SEPTEMBER 11: Members of the Kansas City Royals, along with first responder personnel, stand at attention during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony prior to the game against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field on September 11, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. The Royals defeated the Mariners 2-1..(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The Royals vanquishing of those hated Seattle Mariners was a bit overshadowed today, with it being the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and the opening weekend for NFL football. For at least one day, we could put aside our differences with those awful Mariners, and remember the lessons from September 11 - we are all in this together, brothers-in-arms, making the world a better place..

Okay back to hating the Mariners. The Royals split the four game series with those dirty Pacific Northwesterners, and took the season series 5-3. Put that salmon in your pipe and smoke it.

The game was not on TV, subjecting us to Ryan Lefebvre's bad Italian accents on radio. Alex Gordon was all-or-nothing today, providing two RBI doubles - the only runs for the Royals - and striking out his other three at-bats. They were his 44th and 45th doubles of the year, tying him for the fifth most ever in a season in franchise history.

Everyone in the lineup had a hit except predictably Yamaico Navarro and Chris Getz. But I'm sure Getz did other things that helped the team that didn't show up in the box score, like chew his gum properly and pat his teammates on the rear.

The possibly-British, probably-not-British lefty Everett Teaford was outstanding in his start, giving up three hits in five shutout innings, earning his first Major League win. A hearty fish and chips for you chap.

Royals pitchers struck out twelve more Mariners today. The Mariners struck out 51 times in a four game series. They are really bad at hitting baseballs.

That was the last game of the year against a non-Central division foe. Hope you like seeing a lot of A.J. Pierzynski.

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MLB denies Mets Sept. 11 cap request (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 11 September 2011 08:37:30 PM. © MLB News Blog

Major League Baseball denied the New York Mets’ request to wear baseball caps Sunday night honoring New York City emergency service departments for their game against the Chicago Cubs on the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president for baseball operations, told The Associated Press the decision was made [...]

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Braves on the Box

post from Talking Chop on 11 September 2011 08:00:57 PM. © Talking Chop

I'm a sucker. It doesn't matter how little I like a set. It doesn't matter how ugly the set is. If you put a member of the Atlanta Braves on a box of cards, I'll buy a box. I may buy a second. I've been known to buy ten.

This is a personal sickness that started in 1988 when Donruss decided to put the great Dale Murphy on their box. Staring at me, in every store I walked in, was Murph with this big goofy grin and holding up his '88 Donruss card. This was an ugly card from an ugly set and unlike some sets that were so ugly they manage to hold a certain level of fascination, this set managed to also accomplish "the boring" in spades. Still, it was Dale Murphy. So I bought it. In large quantities no less. I can distinctly remember heading to the cash and carry in downtown Columbus, Georgia and purchasing several boxes with the proceeds of my Godfather's pizza job. The ultimate shame of it is that I still have the cards, so many of the blame cards, and I can't find the box. (They'll be no scans of cards from the set. I'm afraid they're so ugly that they will crack the glass on my scanner.)

I would, again, become the play thing of a major card manufacturer in 1993 when Fleer put Tom Glavine on the box of their Series One product. By this point, I was still collecting cards even though I was 23 years old and found myself more interested in drinking, punk rock, and getting rejected by strange women. Still, whenever I would walk into a convenience store, there would be a box of cards with my favorite Braves player of the time on it. Naturally, I'd carry the box to the register and buy every pack left in it. I'd do this again, and again, and again. The cards were almost irrelevant to me. They had freaking gray borders. It was yet another set I just couldn't get interested in, but if they were going to take the time to put a player form the Braves on the box, then I was going to buy the cards.

It wasn't long after this that I stopped collecting altogether. I maintained my love of the Atlanta Braves and baseball in general, but I would pack up my cards and they would sit in boxes for years and years. From 1994 through the end of the 2005 season, I would, on the rare occasion, buy a few packs of cards just to put them away almost immediately after opening them. In late 2005, I started going through my cards and decided almost immediately to get back into collecting. So I wouldn't spend a fortune, I resolved to only collect those sets that appealed the most to me, and to limit my player collections to Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. This worked well for me for some time, even if I found myself trying to complete more sets than was reasonable. Other than a late 2006 season flirtation with a box of Triple Threads, I stuck to the sets I liked. Nothing else.

That changed late in the 2010 season. I could blame Topps I suppose. I could blame that incredible opening day home run. The blame is my own though. Jason Heyward was the player picked to appear on the boxes of Bowman Platinum. What could I do?

I do not like Bowman Platinum. Yet, in 2010, I would purchase blaster after blaster of this awful product. Oh, it started innocently enough. I had decided after that home run against Zambrano to kick off the 2010 season that I would start a Jason Heyward collection. I bought that first blaster thinking that I just wanted the box for my collection. I opened the packs, set aside any Braves I found, and put the others away in boxes where I haven't seen them since. Unfortunately, it would become a compulsion for me. I would eventually purchase at least five blasters of the product. Yes, I spent a hundred dollars at Target on a product I had no interest in.

Never again, I swore. The joke's on me though. This year, Topps placed Freddie Freeman on the box. So there I stood at the card counter, holding a blaster, telling myself again that I just want the box. If I get any Braves in the packs, that would just be a bonus. A few weeks later, I'm three blasters in and I swear that I'm done with the product. Forever.

Well, unless Topps puts Julio Teheran on the box in 2012.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I do not like Bowman Platinum, but then again, I suppose that I am not the target consumer for this set. I'm not in the speculating game. I don't have thousands dollars to buy cases of cards at a time, and even if I did, I don't have the time to list all my finds on eBay and hope against hope to make my money back.

Platinum represents a lot of things I hate about a lot of modern sets. The cards are printed on shiny foil. The backgrounds are de-emphasized through fading and shading. Anyone who wanted to collect this set would have 200 identical cards in a row. Every base card just blends into the next card. I think I would go blind trying to pick one player out from the other if I were looking at the set as a whole.

On the other hand, I do see the appeal of this product for a player collector. That appeal is the rainbow. Topps prints all of their Bowman cards in any number of color variations. The colored cards are typically serial numbered and each color represents a different level of scarcity. It has become a major goal for many player collectors to get as much of the Bowman rainbow as possible of their favorite. If the cards from the base set look a bit too much alike, a row of cards of a single player with the different color variations pop in a binder and add some nice variety to a collection.

Still, a rainbow is hardly reason enough to waste money on buying boxes of this set. You'd practically have to land a Bryce Harper auto to even make money on it. If you want a rainbow, you would be better off just tracking down the cards through other means. I certainly wouldn't purchase a box of this product expecting a rainbow.

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Padres end Arizonas 15-game home streak (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 11 September 2011 07:51:25 PM. © MLB News Blog

Nick Hundley homered and the San Diego Padres held on for a 7-6 victory Sunday that snapped the Arizona Diamondbacks’ franchise-record home winning streak at 15 games. Hundley, Jesus Guzman and James Darnell had two RBIs apiece for the Padres, who ended a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in seven [...]

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Yankees beat Angels to snap 4-game skid (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 11 September 2011 07:23:28 PM. © MLB News Blog

Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson homered, New York scored two key runs when Peter Bourjos dropped a fly ball in the seventh inning, and the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-5 Sunday to snap a four-game skid. Derek Jeter had two hits and scored the go-ahead run for the Yankees, who moved 3 1/2 [...]

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Drew Pomeranz Throws Five Scoreless Innings to
Get Win in MLB Debut, 4-1

Colorado Rockies rookie starting pitcher Drew Pomeranz, in his Major League debut, throws to the plate against the Cincinnati Reds during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 11, 20011, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

This was a great day to be a Rockies fan -- the weather was beautiful, there was plenty of young talent to survey, and Drew Pomeranz was pretty darn good in a Rockies victory.

Pomeranz, making his big league debut, threw five scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and two walks, also striking out two in getting his first win (1-0). There were a couple of balls that died on the warning track, but I was very impressed by Pomeranz's poise out there. He threw 63 pitches, 36 of which went for strikes.

Jason Hammel picked up where Pomeranz left off, throwing four innings of one run ball in relief to get his first ever save. It was also the MLB debut of SS Thomas Field, who went 0-3 with a walk but also turned two double plays. Offensively, Colorado was led by Ty Wigginton, who was 2-4 and hit a solo shot in the 4th (15) to put the Rockies up 1-0, and Eric Young Jr, who went 2-4 with 3 steals.

Graph: That there is a beautiful graph

via www.fangraphs.com

We Salute: Pomeranz (.304 WPA), Hammel (.201), Wigginton (.120)

We Are Disappointed In: Kevin Kouzmanoff (-.067 WPA), Seth Smith (-.044)

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Jimenez effective as Indians top ChiSox (AP)

Luis Valbuena had a a big zero in the home-run column, and it was bothering him. He can rest easy now. Valbuena connected for a solo shot and Ubaldo Jimenez threw six effective innings, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 7-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Valbuena also singled twice and scored two runs [...]

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Rays sweep Red Sox, 3 1/2 from wild card (AP)

James Shields and the Tampa Bay Rays got the sweep they needed to charge back into the playoff race. Shields came within two outs of his 12th complete game this season, B.J. Upton hit his first grand slam and the Rays routed the fading Boston Red Sox 9-1 on Sunday. Tampa Bay moved within 3 [...]

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