Another To-Do List
There is more trady business I need to be doin’. This is The To-Do List, sponsored by Subway & Tristar (just kidding… someday I will get a consistent and large enough amount of hits per day to be sponsored by card companies & people who want stuff reviewed though).
• Send another SASE to Mario (never even got the first one sent, d’oh!) for three quite frankly (Get it, cuz Frank Gifford is one of ‘em? Laugh with me!) awesome football relics from a recent box break. This one goes on top because I’m on the clock here. I’m going to send some extra top loaders too. I think I’ve got somewhere around half a 60 ct. box of off-brand ones that I picked up at Toys ‘R Us when I was probably still in my teens that should work well for his shipping style.
• Get a replacement package together for JD’s Daddy. Someone jacked most of my first trade somewhere between here & there. Ya know, for my $7.62 (it was a pretty big package), you’d think I could rest easy knowing it’d make it in one piece with no trouble whatsoever. Whatever mail piratin’ f***head stole it, I hope they get paper cuts from the cards. I could’ve bought a pack of oh so misleadingly named Legendary Cuts for roughly the same price. At least when I got screwed over that way, I’ll be getting a few cards, not losing well over 100.
Oh well, I can get rid of my Max Scherzers now at least. 
• Working on something with Brian for my Texas Rangers hits.
• Wicked Ortega has some more Maybins & M. Cabreras & Manny bat card and probably a Greinke auto coming to him.
• I still owe Da Rook some ‘08 & ‘09 UDX and maybe some ‘06 topps, and of course there will be Braves.
• I have a Kershaw to send Night Owl.
• Still gotta send Dayf some cards.
• Shot Not Taken… I’ve got most of what I already had for you together. I can send out what I’ve got and wait do the TNA cards later if you want.
Marie, you are officially getting the Pujols Ticket Stub for the Ramirez & Sandberg jerseys. Also, did you ever get my email about the cards I have of the other guys you collect?
And for Sooz, I guess all that is left is for me to get around to finally coming to a final conclusion on which Ichiros I need from your list. At most, I only have a half dozen I think (it was four last time I checked, but I think I may have pulled one or two more since then).
• I still have some ‘09 A&G regular minis & mini SPs to send Nachos Grande for some clunkers & stuff. I think I will just see that they are sent out in short order and mess with sending him some Reds later.
If I have missed anybody, and I’m sure I have, please let me know. When I reach my 5000 hit anniversary, we’re gonna have my first real contest. 5000 hits is the uncirculated anniversary, you know. ;3
My unrelated notes for this post are as follows…
Did Braylon Edwards just have the ultimate falling up experience or what? Beating up LeBron’s little buddy got him shipped off from the sucktastic Cleveland Browns to the quite possibly legitimate contender Jets?!?! How is that punishment? Granted, it sounds like there is a small chance of him getting suspended for a few weeks, but dude, UP-FREAKIN’-GRADE.
Also, what is up with the Eagles backups? EVERY SINGLE TIME McNabb goes out with injury, his backups play like freakin’ superstars without exception. It’s hard to have sympathy for a rich & famous QB with ridiculous athletic ability & lots of endorsment deals, but sometimes it’s hard not to feel bad for him. Dude’s been nothing less than a great player and a class act, but fate seems to have been conspiring against him in Philly ever since he got drafted.
I’ve been stuck in that sick-but-not-quite-sick mode for the past couple of days. It’s almost somehow worse than being full blown sick. You don’t feel bad enough to be completely out of commission, but you don’t feel good enough to go about life like normal. It kinda sucks.
That’s all for this one. There is a sketch card project and sleep to catch up on.
Until our next…
The Least of the Best
Over at Wax Heaven, a question was posed: Which member of the 500 Home Run Club had the least impressive career?
Well, let’s find out… by looking at the statistics. They say the numbers never lie, so Baseball-Reference will be our guide.
Notes before we begin:
I’m not taking performance enhancers into consideration. We’re going purely by statistics. Deal with it.
Everyone with 600+ Home Runs are exempt from least impressive debate due to the sheer number they hit.
Triples and stolen bases are pretty irrelevant unless in abnormally high amounts, and even then only stolen bases are worth considering. Triples are too dependent on where most of a player’s games are played. In other words, it’s hard to hit triples at Wrigley.
We’ll start at the bottom, and work our way up.
~Eddie Murray~
Stats: 504 HR, 3255 Hits, 560 2B, 35 3B, 1917 RBI, 1627 Runs, 110 SB, 1333 BB, 1516 K, .287 AVG, .359 OBP, .476 SLG, .836 OPS, 129 OPS+
Awards: 1977 Rookie of the Year, 8-time All-Star, 3 Silver Sluggers, 3 Gold Gloves, Top-5 in MVP voting 6 times, 0 MVPs
+ 3255 hits, 1917 RBIs, and 560 doubles are all legitimately legendary numbers; Highly decorated, even defensively
- .287 batting average, .836 OPS, and 129 OPS+ aren’t quite elite
Notes: Overall, Murray’s numbers indicate longevity more than out & out greatness, but still an outstanding and highly decorated career with some numbers that are much too big to ignore. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with longevity.
He isn’t going to be the best of the bunch, but I highly doubt he’ll be the worst.
~Gary Sheffield (still active)~
Stats: 509 HR, 2683 Hits, 465 2B, 26 3B, 1674 RBI, 1634 Runs, 253 SB, 1471 BB, 1165 K, .292 AVG, .393 OBP, .514 SLG, .908 OPS, 140 OPS+
Awards: 9-time All-Star, 5 Silver Sluggers, Top-5 in MVP voting 3 times, 0 MVPs
+ Borderline-elite OBP, OPS, and OPS+; Considerably more walks than strikeouts; Highly decorated
- Hits are kinda low, but that’s due to missing a lot of time over the years
Notes: Sheff has actually played more seasons than Murray, but has more than 2000 less ABs. That’s FOUR seasons he’s missing out on, compared to Murray. Given the same number of at-bats, he’d likely be pushing 600 Home Runs with everything else at least being on par with Murray.
I have to put Gary Sheffield just below Eddie Murray, even if he does have a good excuse for his lesser numbers. What say you?
Okay, this is going to be way more time-consuming than I thought, and I’m getting really tired, so I will post continue it tomorrow evening. I WILL get this done though. There is just too much good debate to not do the whole thing.
Got Mah Mojo Back (My God Mojo is an Annoying Word)
Saturday my beloved Cubbies’ season ended. I’m not pleased… but, I am an eternal optimist. I always try to stay positive. It goes beyond being a Cubs fan. I just am. And sooner or later, we WILL win it all. Of that, I have no doubt.
Before the game I was out though and got my annual dose of deep fried oreos. Had a delicious but far too small steak kabob and some lil sugary donuts too. Canival type food rocks in October. All I needed was some apple cider. I don’t really like apple cider, but the cool weather and turning leaves and freshly fried dough just makes me want it for some reason. One thing i will miss when I leave here is the fall. It is amazing. That is a post for another time though.
InScribed was all base, as was 40-Man, though I still like it even though I’ve never gotten a damn thing out of it or it’s football counterpart, except some shinny Texans rookie that didn’t do that much. One pack of Fleer Ultra had a (slightly damaged) Zambrano insert in it, and nothing else of note. Allen Ginter had an SP mini Ginter Back which is something like 1:65 packs I think. Naturally, this was a Dodger. #337 Jason Schmidt… Oh well, it’s still a nice card. Any Dodgers fans out there want it?
The first and fourth packs, in the order they were opened, were Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects and the other Fleer Ultra pack, respectively. Both of them had jersey cards in them. First from BDPP, we have Seattle Mariners prospect Michael Saunders, who, judging by his progression and statistics, is actually fairly promising. He is only 22 and has made it to AAA already, and seeing as Seattle sucks pretty horribly, he may get a shot on the big club if he gets off to a hot start. And in Fleer Ultra, we have above average catcher Ramon Martinez, who has been around for quite awhile and been productive wherever he’s been. Not a hobby star obviously, but a solid player nonetheless. I’ve pulled plenty worse sadly.
Two hits, and a rather hard to get non-hit, in six packs. I think this qualifies as finally getting my “mojo” back. What a lame word, by the way. People that say it without irony in their video box breaks sound… foolish… yeah, just foolish. I’m feeling generous today, what can I say? At any rate, my mystical powers are working again. Or I’m being patient enough to let them work again. I dunno. Someday I’ll explain… just as soon as I figure it out myself. Right now we’ll just call it “hit sense”.
There ya have it, about $11 worth of packs completely destroyed Friday’s $24… if only I could go to Shopko more often. Since they don’t seem to be jacking up the single pack prices by 10% anymore, with all the clearance stuff they have, and factoring in the random hobby boxes, Shopko has a huge selection, and is THE place to get cards here. Once upon a time, I also found the PS2 game “The Red Star” there. What?
Mojo sad...
Until our next,
Me
What the Hell, Cubs Fans?
Chicago Cubs fans… are eternally optimistic. At least that’s what we claim to be. It’s supposedly written in our very DNA. We are unapologetically loud, boisterous, jovial, and sometimes drunk off our asses in our support. We’ll get ‘em every next year for the past hundred years. Well guess what, next year finally came this year. This is very likely the best team we’ve fielded in the past 100 years. So I wanna know Cub fans… Just where in the hell was all that optimism last night?!
We’re not the pre-2004 Red Sox, whose fate it seemed was to always fall just short. We’ve hardly even had a sniff of success since World War II. We’re playing with house money regardless of how great the talent that’s been assembled this year is. So just what in the Dodger blue hell gives us the right to get so deflated and lose faith after a grand slam goes against us only halfway through a game?!? I mean, good grief, we were only down 4-2! It was so quiet the second half of the game you would’ve thought Charlie Haas was wrestling.
We’re Chicago Cubs fans goddammit!! We’re eternal optimists! So if we fall behind early in game two, y’all at the game better start making some noise like never before. This is no time to clam up or give up. When it’s go time, it’s time to MAN UP!! We’re the wildest, loudest, rowdiest fans in all of baseball, and when it’s crucial to get loud and support our team, you fold up like you just got Suplex’d on your heads?! Oh hells no! That will simply not be tolerated. EVER!
Few things are more pathetic than last night’s display of hypocrisy. It is unacceptable for fans of any team, let alone THIS team, to tuck tail like that. Regardless of whether or not it makes a difference, whether or not we had a chance last night (which we did!), you HAVE to keep cheering to the bitter end if you are a real fan of the Chicago Cubs. There are no more next years. THIS IS OUR YEAR. So start acting like it.
Is Nick Swisher a Mini Adam Dunn?
Is Nick Swisher mini Adam Dunn? Lets take a look at the similarities shall we?
Swish’s career stats (5 seasons)- .244 BA, .354 OBP, .451 SLG, 104 HR, 324 RBI, 342 BB, 538 K, 112 OPS+
So Nick’s average season is .244-.354-.451-21-65 w/ 68 walks and 108 strikeouts… His OPS is .805
Dunn’s career stats (8 seasons)- .247 BA, .381 OBP, .518 SLG, 278 HR, 672 RBI, 796 BB, 1255 K, 130 OPS+
So Adam’s season average is .247-.381-.518-35-84 w/ 100 walks and 157 strikeouts… His OPS is .899
There you have it. Both strike out a lot and have pretty bad averages below .250, but draw a bunch of walks to have an inordinately high on base percentage. Nick doesn’t have Dunn-level power (which is easily over 9000), but is pretty respectable in his own right. Looking at the stats and their actual physical statures… It’s almost like a Pokemon evolution.
Nick Swisher evolved to… Adam Dunn!
I clearly have too much time on my hands, but I think it’s a fair comparison and justifiable to call Swishy “mini Adam Dunn”, though probably not to his face.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.
PS: What does OPS+ even mean?
Big Z No-Hitter Thoughts
So, yesterday I heard Skip Bayless say there should be an asterisk by Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter. I understand where he’s coming from, even being the huge Cub fan that I am. It really wasn’t fair to play the games in Milwaukee, and the away uniform protest by the Astros was… warranted. The problem is this though…
While deciding to play the two games at Miller Park in Milwaukee was pretty shady on Commisioner Selig’s part, the problem is that the Houston Astros were primed to be no-hit ANYWHERE outside the state of Texas. Their hearts were clearly not in the game, as I believe it was Hunter Pence suggested on Cold Pizza (which will NEVER be First Take to me). They could have played in Atlanta as Dayf mentioned being under consideration. They could have played in my idea of Kansas City, even if the Royals were at home at the time, which I don’t know for sure. KC is about as close to right in between Chi-Town and Hous-uhh… Town, as it gets. Hell, they could have played at Gerald Field from Hey Arnold!, but the Astros’ hearts would still be back home staring down the hurricane. Their one hit in game two proves that.
And pretty much no matter where they went outside of Texas, the Cubs fans would still be outnumbering the Astros fans at least 60/40. There are Cubs fans literally everywhere in this country, and I think the majority of them are legit, and not bandwagon jumpers, though I’m positive there are plenty of them too. Regardless, no matter where the Cubs go in recent years, the crowds seem to be made up of no less than 30% Cubs fans. No way a neutral site outside of Texas will produce a crowd with a Houston Astros bias, unless about 10,000-15,000 Astros fans are flown in for the games.
Even though the Commish (who is only an Interleague Play and World Baseball Classic above George W. on the competence scale of people in positions of power) couldn’t have chosen a worse place for the games to be played, I could still see the no-hitter happening just about anywhere. No matter where they played, the Astros hearts never left the state of Texas, and they weren’t going to get a pro-Houston crowd regardless of where they went in this country.
As they say, it is what it is, and what it is was a no win situation that the Astros were put in. Everything possible seemed to be working against them, including the league itself. The Cubs just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capatalize and did so spectacularly. It’s unfortunate, but if the Astros are strong enough mentally, they can use this whole situation as motivation for their wild card push.
All I Can Do is Smile…
October 13, 2009 at 18:09 (In This Life, Talkin' Baseball) (commentary, controversy, Eric Walker, logic, MLB, PEDs, performance enhancing drugs, steroids, validation)
For you see, someone out there has painstakingly taken all those little incomplete, fractured thoughts and misgivings that I can’t quite properly express or factually back up on my own, that gnaw at me when my mind comes to rest on the thought of performance enhancing drugs in baseball. I have mentioned before that I’m “over it” as far as steroid/PED drama was concerned, and (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this). Please check out the link I’m dropping at the end of this post (will also be permanently linked on the side of my blog), and maybe have your mind blown.
I will say that if your mind is so thoroughly made up against PEDs, rational thought may not be able to reach you. Disappointing, but it happens. Regardless of how deep your bias runs, I ask you this: Of all the anti-PED sentiment out there, what/who has actually backed up their rhetoric with anything more than hearsay and vague stories/claims/etc? Who has ever presented scientifically-tested data and the words of noted experts to back up their often vitriolic anti-PED stances?
This is one of the key problems I have always had with this subject. I just cannot seem to find more than, at best, anecdotal evidence to support the dangers of performance enhancers (in adults). And as far as the moral and ethical reasons I’ve heard for how PEDs damage the credibility of the game, I don’t really buy into them all that much. At the very least they are infinitely debatable, and it really ticks me off when writers and politicians and even common fans shout from their soapboxes like they have any kind moral highground here, when they can’t back it up with anything but a chorus of people saying the exact same thing, nobody providing a good reason for it. It’s just a vicious cycle of BS, and to me it all rings hollow. And that’s a real good way to turn me off of what your selling in a big way real fast.
So we find ourselves here today. I happened upon this great lil website that has taken it upon itself to look at all the reasons performance enhancing drugs are being taken to task, and thoughtfully break every last one of them down into the quivering mass of lies, misconception, ignorance, and logical fallacies that ultimately rest at the heart of each issue. And glory be, does it ever cite it’s sources, they really did their homework, quite ably discrediting the misconceptions and lies surrounding steroids and PEDs and their negative effect on baseball and a person’s physical wellbeing, not to mention giving some useful opinions from people who have the background to give said opinions real weight on the ethical quagmire that performance enhancers in sports create.
As an added bonus, it also nicely illustrates just how incredibly screwed up our society is.
So yeah, if you see me smiling a little more wryly than usual, I might be feeling a little validated right now.
With that all tediously (depending on where you fall on the issue and what you think of my writing) said, here’s the link: Steroids, Other “Drugs”, and Baseball
Note of caution, there is a TON of stuff to take in over there.
If you give it a fair shot (or even if you don’t), please let me know what you think. I most definitely want to hear what y’all have to say about this. Like I said, I was basically reading my own personal thoughts on the subject and getting the proof for my misgivings that I didn’t have within me to seek out on my own. Agree or disagree, let’s get some intelligent discourse going.
You’re not going crazy, chum. You’re going sane in a crazy world!
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