Help the Cause

     Starting this Sunday, I believe at 11:00 Central time, voting for the starting positions of the 2024 MLB All-Star game starts.

    Why do I care? I mean, I didn't even vote for the all-stars on the initial ballot (though I did fill one out). Well, you see, the starting second base role is going to be vied for by these two gentlemen:

                             vs.                   

    So I ask; will you please spare a vote to Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien? The All-Star Game is going to be held in Globe Life Field, home of the Rangers, so wouldn't it suck if an Astro started there instead of a Ranger? I'm very glad that Jared Sandler brought this to light yesterday as I listened to the game (Not glad about the actual game though, as we lost 11-2 😭).

    While Altuve has an offensive edge thus far (.303/.350/.462), Semien has been huge defensively. His bat has struggled as of late, but hey, slumps happen. And why would we want the starting second baseman of our rival team starting in our home park? Your guess is as good as mine. 

    The cheapest tickets available in the nosebleeds cost $230. Just saying. I would love to treat those Rangers fans who are going (not me, unfortunately) to their starting second baseman.

    And so I urge you, please cast your vote in favor of the Rangers second baseman. Unfortunately, Corey Seager had to compete with both Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr, so he won't be starting in the All-Star game. Please vote to start at least one Ranger (I think Semien's the only one in contention to start).

    In the first ballot, Altuve received more votes than Semien. Hopefully, as a fighting force, we can reverse the trends and get Marcus in there. 

    To vote (this Sunday), see mlb.com/vote or rangers.com/vote

    Well, this was actually kind of fun to write, even though it was very sloppy and fun wasn't necessarily the point of the post. But it will be fun to see Marcus. See you all next time and, as always, happy collecting.

Thinking out Loud....

    I'm going to be headed upstate on Friday to a sibling's baseball tournament with the rest of my family, so that's nice, but I'll have less access to the blog.

    Now then, where was I? Oh yes. I was thinking to myself earlier today. While this isn't a particularly peculiar thing for me to do, what I thought of I wanted to share in complex fashion today. Well, here we go. Buckle up, especially if you don't agree with me.

    

    Josh Sborz. He's a relief pitcher on the Rangers. He struck out Ketel Marte looking to end the World Series in 2023. Simple facts. However, a few things came to mind while reliving this moment in my head about four hours ago. While a few of them I would love to go over, I'll go over the more indirect one that came up rather than the fact that the closer didn't close out the win!

    Josh Sborz had a 5.50 ERA in 2023 in 52 1/3 innings pitched. This is not good. I have long considered seasons like this among relievers bad. And yes, on the outside, and quite too often on the inside, they are. When your pitcher is just mediocre running on bad all year. I know what it's like. Anyway, in the postseason that magical year, Sborz pitched to an 0.75 ERA in twelve innings. This, obviously, is really good.

    Yes, I do like Josh Sborz, though he's not my favorite relief pitcher. More of a Jacob Latz guy myself. Wow, those two sentences sounded odd. I am currently working on filling out my favorite position players of 2024, but that's a post for a different day. 

    Anyway, Josh Sborz, like many relievers, gets really hot and looks like the best in the game, and then fizzles out and looks like the worst. Then he gets hot again, then he fails again. That'll happen sometimes. A bad outing really bloats the ERA of a reliever. A brilliant example of another reliever who suffers from this is another Josh, Hader.

What are you thinking? Maybe he just hit his all-time rival? I don't know.

    Although maybe not to the same degree.

    

    Anyway, if you take a look at every game Sborz pitched in 2023 (not that hard, only 44), you'd find that he was actually really good for most of the season, this meaning most of his appearanced. He had a few too many really bad outings across the whole of the 2023 season, especially on September fourth against the Astros, when he allowed 6 runs (5 earned) in two-thirds of an inning. What's the point I'm trying to make here again?

    It is this: ERA doesn't always define the season of a reliever. For the most part, Sborz was clutch in 2023. Even though Josh Hader was miserably bad in 2022, his postseason performance was really good. It's easier to see this when you work with the pitcher (well, I would think, I mean I've never coached a major league pitcher) because you see what he has and how he feels. It just goes to show that maybe not all the stats on paper suggest how good or bad somebody is. I use the example of Josh Sborz because the radio only gets Rangers games so I listened to him a lot. He also closed out the clinching World Series game, so that helped too. There are better pitchers out there to show this. I'm not sure this was the best way to get the point across, but at the time I thought it about Sborz; about how most of the time he was good, sometimes even untouchable, but then the bad outings came back to bite his ERA. Again, probably not the best example or explanation, but y'all get what I'm saying.

    So, there you go. Please tell me in the comments what you think of my point of view.

    And as for you, Josh Sborz can thank me next time I catch a Rangers game and he pitches. Over and out. 

    Oh, by the way, a friend asked me where the best place to get cards graded is. I don't grade cards (although there's this one patch card that looks really valuable......) so I don't know which companies are the best. If any of you have a favorite, please let me know. Thanks, and as always, happy collecting!

Captain's Log

    This is useless, frustrating, tiring and boring. My computer seems to be broken and won't let me access my files, so cards isn't happening. I feel so helpless!!!! 

    I just love how as soon as I take up card-blogging, the computer won't let it happen. Isn't it just so funny?! Well, it may be time to get a new one soon anyway. The poor thing seems to be on its last legs. Maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully I'm wrong. But I doubt it. 

    While I would love to go into a big fat rant, Don Cardwell is not the place to do so. I usually do that on Talkin' Baseball, so it'll be a bit out of character. I'm sorry. Computer issues have been happening so often so early in my blogging career that it probably seems like I'm faking it. It's frustrating.

    Well, I guess I'll wrap it up. Just wanted to get something out there since I've been itching to post for so long (thinking back to six days ago, it hasn't been that long since my last post). Hope the computer gets working again soon, but if not......................I don't know. We'll figure something out.

    I've been really busy these last few days, so I suppose it's not the worst time for the computer to quit on me. I was only planning on posting once a week now until I finish my responsibilities. 

    Also, a big thanks to Kerry and Matt for all the cards! They are much appreciated.

    Thanks for reading, have a great rest of your week, and Happy Collecting! 

Let's Go Rangers!!!

    What can I say? This post was titled Captain's Log so of course the Rangers Captain had to make an appearance.

Revised Post (Flagship Collection Box)

     This was the first real post I made on the blog. Looking back about five months later I noticed some mistakes that I made that, if corrected, would've made the post better. But what can I say, it was the first post I made using cards.

    If you'd like to read the post, go ahead. If you don't, you probably want to skip all of the italicized portion of the post (which makes up most of it). Alright, without further adieu, here is my first post (besides the intro):

     For Christmas, my uncle gave me the 2023 Flagship Collection Box of Topps baseball cards. It is a hefty set, with 10 regular card packs, 3 flagship collection packs, and an oversized base card. Here's some of the cards that I liked from it.

The oversize card I got was Riley Greene; that was pretty cool because I really like him.

The Blue Foil Freddy Furmin is probably my favorite card I got.

It's cool to see Paul Goldschmidt surviving an explosion.

Those old-school looking cards are neat too.

Yes, the one on the right is Felix Bautista, not Adley Rutschman.

They call Nolan Arenado the favorite son. I feel bad for his brothers. 

And now for all 15 of my flagship cards:

Out of all of these, the Jacob deGrom is easily my favorite.

Well, that about wraps it up. Thanks for reading my first post, and I hoped you liked it. If you'd like to read more baseball stuff (not card related), check out talkinprobaseball.blogspot.com or thebaseballpessimist.blogspot.com (you may need to copy and paste the links.)

Thanks for reading!

    So, what was wrong with the post? You see the blue foil Freddy Furmin card, the one I said was my favorite? Well, it's a purple foil, not blue. I also neglected to say (and didn't even notice this until about twenty or thirty minutes ago) that it is in fact numbered 648/799. That blue Eugenio Suarez foil is also numbered, 276/999.

    The numbering of both cards makes them more special to me; especially the Freddy Furmin, as I have grown to really like him. There are a few other mistakes when it came to the cards (mostly not clarifying what indeed they are, like the Corbin Carroll card being Topps Black Gold, and so on and so forth), and I'm not even gonna go into the writing style. The lighting was also bad as well as the cropping, but hey, we learn from our mistakes.

    This may have been a waste of time, but I felt like I needed to clear this up, even though it wouldn't make a big difference and y'all probably wouldn't even have noticed had I not made a big deal out of it. Well, maybe getting the colors wrong would be noticeable...

    So there we go. I have cleared up the error of my younger self's ways. Now I can sleep at night. Have a great weekend y'all!

And Just Like That The Cardinals Winn The Game

     Man, I love Masyn Winn. He was popular among my family when he came up last year, but didn't perform to standards, batting .172/.230/.238 in 137 PAs. Coming into 2024, Baseball America had him ranked as the #39 overall prospect. 

    Winn played three seasons and 322 games in the minors, and slashed .272/.351/.437 with 35 homers. He scored 266 runs in that time, his most impressive stat, and also stole 92 bases. In the All-Star futures game of 2022, Winn threw a ball from shortstop to first at an astounding 100.5 MPH! This crushed the MLB record for an infield throw of 97.8 set by Oneil Cruz. Unfortunately, Winn wasn't yet in the majors to officially break the record.

    In his big-league debut on August 18th of last season, Winn went 1-for-4. Kind of boring, really. Unlike Vaughn Grissom, who went 2-for-4 with a bomb and a steal. Doesn't really matter though, because Winn is doing way better than Grissom right now. A whole .158 better.

    He also has one of the more, how do I put it.... interesting nicknames around. Winn has somehow gained the nickname of Energizer Bunny. I have no idea where this originates, for I could find nothing on the internet about it. It's funny though, whether I get it or not.

    And finally, Winn has impressed so far this season as St. Louis' primary shortstop, slashing .306/.355/.435 with 8 steals in 58 games. He's been doing a lot of leading off for the struggling club, and is quickly emerging as one of the Stars of MLB (hopefully not LMB).

    

    Unfortunately, I don't own any of Masyn Winn's cards. However, if there is ever one out there in the blogosphere to trade for, I'll make sure to get in on a deal. Have an amazing week and Happy Collecting!

Let's Keep This Brief

     Well shoot. I kinda forgot about the Friday post until just now. Oh well, let's keep this brief.

    Today marks the last post for the 2021 binder. Next I shall move on to 2022, then 2023, and so on and so forth. Enough talk; let's get right down to it.

    Note: For the sake of keeping this brief I will not show off my '65 Bryce Harper redux.

    Just kidding.

    Chrome cards are always nice. Coming into 2021, Eloy Jimenez was a pretty big deal. He finished fourth in ROY voting in 2019, then won the Silver Slugger in 2020. He fell off a bit in 2021, slashing .249/.303/.437 in only 55 games. Except for a half season in 2022, Jimenez hasn't been super effective since. But seeing as how he's young, maybe he'll have a turnaround.

    Gonna be completely honest here; these 'Platinum Players Die Cut' cards seriously look like they were given to a four year old with safety scissors. Oh well, the back of the card is cool.

    And now, the final part of the 2021 binder is nigh......

    The giant heaping collection of 2021 Topps Big League cards! I own a whole seven of them! Not great pictures, though.

    In my unprofessional opinion, the best card in the lot is Daniel Bard. He's just such a cool player. Can't go wrong with the snazzy Lindor or the Justin Verlander though. I actually really like the design for these cards. 2023 was better, but I think it offers a cool and unique look.

    That'll finish out the 2021 binder. Chances are I'll take a break from binder posting until my drafts are all finished. I'm also going to abolish my post schedule (which I've done already) of Mondays and Fridays. A lot of thoughts for posts come into my head, so I think I'll just send them off once they're ready, pretty much no matter when that is. I've also got a few actually semi-valuable cards that I'd like to post but haven't yet. 

    As always thanks for reading, watch out for more posts, and Happy Collecting! Have a great weekend everybody!

Just......this

    I found this earlier today. Not sure what to make of it.

Snow on the Field and a Childish Third Baseman

    Sometimes when you're bored and tired, and just can't sleep, you go and look at your baseball cards. It was on one such day when I came across some cards that made the wheels in my head turn (hence the stupid name for the post). After all, I don't typically post with valuable cards or anything, so I've gotta make it interesting somehow, or you lose business. That's just how it works these days.

    Anyway, some of these cards indeed were interesting, and worth (at least I hope) showing on the blog. Maybe it's just because I was tired and so my brain wasn't working correctly. After all, it was a long day. I had just finished coaching the championship game of my little brother's team (GGs boys!), and boy, that game was 'lit,' so to speak. In the end, we won 6-5. After this, we went out to eat. Then I tried in vain to crash, so here we are.

    Shall we start with Trevor Story? This 2017 Topps gold card is numbered 1530/2017. Not gonna lie, even without the numbering, I still love this card. The action shot is perfect. In Story's rookie campaign, he smashed 27 home runs in only 97 games, one shy of Colorado's record. Again, where did it all go???

    While looking at this card, two things to mind; what is he pointing at? And, it's slightly eerie that the fielder's arm goes through the boundary of the card. I thought that the border was there to mark the end of the photo, but whatever. Anyway, nice photo for a nice card.

    If I didn't have multiple cards of Realmuto on the Marlins, I would probably forget that he ever played with them. It's amazing to think that at the same time the Marlins had Realmuto (who they traded to the Phillies after a stellar age 27 season), Christian Yelich (who was traded in 2018 after two solid seasons) and Giancarlo Stanton (who they gave away right after he hit 59 homers). I wonder what they would've been had they kept them all.

    I'll always appreciate some good old Topps Holiday cards. Evan Longoria appears to be throwing right into the midst of a blizzard. Hope everything turns out alright for the Gold Glover. Longoria retired after the 2023 season, and probably for the better. He had been fighting off injuries and bad seasons for a while. I wonder how he'll fare on the HOF ballot. What do y'all think?

    I could've sworn I saw Dansby Swanson before on this post. I'm not really sure why know why, but as soon as I laid eyes on this card, I had to have it. That'll happen with me sometimes. I probably acquired it in a trade with fellow blogger GTT one of those days not too far into the past. 
    It appears that Swanson is staring into the depths of the soul of his baseball bat. Bet it wasn't doing so good for him that day. I went ahead and did my research on this, and Dansby didn't have a good day on 2018 Opening Day, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

    At the all-star break in 2016, Paul Goldschmidt was batting .297/.417/.513 with 15 homers. In the actual all-star game he went 0-for-3 as a PH/1B as the NL fell (like usual) 4-2 to the AL.

    Straight from his days as a Dodger, Kenley Jansen pitched to a 2.76 ERA in 2014, collecting 44 saves for the team at age 26. He is currently second in active MLB players in saves with 429 across his 15 years of service time. Craig Kimbrel, who has also been around for 15 seasons, has the lead with 430.

    I'm not sure if it's the batter or the first baseman that David Wright has the beef with, but he should be more mature than to stick his tongue out at him. I mean, come on.

    This 2010 Bowman card is one of my favorites, not because it's valuable, but because it's a great-looking card from a great-looking set. David Wright is one of my favorite players, and according to the back of the card, he was one of three players to hit .300 with 500 RBIs since 2005. The other two were Albert Pujols and Chase Utley.

    I've got nothing to say about this card other than that it's nice to see a young Jean Segura. In 2016 Segura had a stellar season in which he hit .319 and led the league in hits with 203. He had 20 homers, 102 runs, 41 doubles and 33 steals, finishing 13th in MVP voting. 

    2012 Topps Archives is a sharp-looking set. Buster was just coming off the season in which his leg was devastated by Scott Cousins. He would come back in 2012 to win both the batting title and the MVP award (not to mention Comeback Player of the Year) en route to a Hall-of-Fame worthy career.

    That'll about do it for this post. I hope you enjoyed reading my analysis of every card posted today. Man, I need to get more sleep. Anyway, have a great Monday, and Happy Collecting!