Week 12

Hey All,

Summer is officially here.  The All-Star break and the dog days of summer will be upon us before we now it.  Here's the haps in the Longball League.

Roster Moves
6/16/2013
The Tatooine Womp Rats dropped Ryan Braun (MIL) and picked up Prince Fielder (DET)
The Sierra Vista Coachwhips and the Thunder Mountain Lightning dropped Ryan Braun (MIL) and picked up  Edwin Encarnacion (TOR).

All moves were injury moves.

Who's Hot/Who's Not This Week

Hitters
Hot: Jay Brice hit seven HRs for the Reds this week.

Not: Josh Hamilton. It seems it's always Josh Hamilton this season.

Pitchers
Hot: Steve Cishek of the Marlins picked up four saves with an ERA of 0.00 in 3.1 IP.

Not: Jonathan Papelbon picked up three blown saves for the Phightin' Phillies.

This Week's Three Trivial Things...

1. He hit the ball through the wall.  Well, he almost did.  Pittsburgh's Tony Sanchez ended up with a ground rule double v. the Angels on Sunday when launched a line drive into the right field wall at the Big A.  Not off the wall, into the wall.  The ball hit the wall and stuck like a dart in the out of town scoreboard. Take a look, it's the white dot above the V in MOVING.

2. Josh Hamilton's bad night is now the stuff of legend.  In a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Mariners last Tuesday, Hamilton went 0 for 5.  He hit into three double plays in his first three at bats, and then struck out his last two times up.  Hamilton stranded seven runners on base which is two shy of the team's total for the night.  Hamilton's bad night achieved legendary status when it was discovered he's only the second player since 1916 to hit into three double plays and strike out twice in the same game.

3. I've found a new stat to play with.  Well, at least new to me.  It's called WPA, which stands for Win Probability Added.  It measures the percentage by which a player improves or worsens his team's chance to win a game.  So, add up all the percentages in a starting lineup and it should give you an idea of how a game will go.  I mention this stat because Josh Hamilton's WPA is -.477.  That means the rest of the squad needs to overcome his futility.  By just being in the lineup, Hamilton diminishes the Halo's chance to win by 47.7 per cent!

Not So Cool Baseball Cards of the Week: 1987 Topps #321 Mike Laga, and 1987 Donruss #293.

Topps has an awful reputation for airbrushing photos and turning them into horrible cards.  Mike Laga's  1987 Topps card is one of the worst ones they ever did.

Why Topps couldn't just get a picture of Laga in a Cardinals uniform is baffling. Donruss got it right.

Oh well, laziness on the part of Topps equals a card that gets an unusual amount of attention. That pink jersey is just goofy.

Two Cool Reads

Pam and Liza have sent me a couple of great articles over the last two weeks.  The first one deals from the Washington Post deals with the ritual of batting practice.  The second one deals with how Vin Scully almost ended up being the voice of the Yankees.

A daily ritual

Vin's free agency

Until next week folks, remember that a team can't scoreboard watch until they start winning.
-The Commissioner

Week 11

Hey All,

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers in the league.  I was especially happy to receive a cake in the shape of catcher's mitt with a cupcake shaped like a baseball in the pocket.  I am a very lucky uncle indeed.  Here's a look at the league this week.

Roster Moves
None

Who's Hot/Who's Not

Hitters
Hot: Washington's Ian Desmond had a home run and nine RBIs while hitting a red-hot .500 this week.

Not: While trying to fend off the Biogenesis Clinic scandal, Ryan Braun then gets hurt and goes on the 15-Day DL.

Pitchers
Hot: Edwin Jackson won a pair of games and struck out 15 batters for the Cubs this week.

Not: Tampa Bay's Matt Moore gave up 13 earned runs in 10 1/3 IP in two losses this week.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. It was a big brawl that featured some big stats. When Dodger skipper Don Mattingly and Hitting Coach Mark McGwire were going toe-to-toe with Diamondback Manager Kirk Gibson and Bench Coach Alan Trammell I did some quick stat math.  That part of the brawl represented 7,210 hits, 4,601 RBIs, and 1,438 home runs. Wow.

2. This is from the weird stat department, The Angels beat the Orioles on Wednesday, 9-5.  Mike Trout did not have good day going 0 for 5.  It was the fifth time in his very young career that he has gone 0 for 5 in a game.  The Angels have won all five of those games in which wore the 0 for 5 collar.

3. Well, that's what I call togetherness.  The A's and Mariners had to share the Raiders locker room after Sunday's game at the Oakland Coliseum.  Oakland won the game, 10-2, but proponents of a new stadium were the real winners as sewage and other unknown pools of water flooded both baseball locker rooms.  It showed once again that the Oakland Coliseum still holds the title as worst ballpark in the majors.

Cool Baseball Cards of the Week: 1987 Donruss Opening Day #163a  Barry Bonds (Johnny Ray),
163b barry Bonds (Corrected)

26 years ago, Donruss had a pretty cool idea.  They produced an Opening Day set.  The set consisted of a card for each member of the starting lineup of each MLB team on Opening Day 1987. Here's what the factory packaged set looks like...

After the set had been released, one of the biggest error cards of the last 30 years was discovered.  Here's card #163a Barry Bonds...

Ummmm, that's not Barry Bonds.  That's Johnny Ray.  Johnny Ray actually played second base that day for the Pirates and has his own card.  It's #162.  That's right folks, on the printing sheet it sits right next to the error card and nobody caught that the same face was on two consecutive cards.   Here's the corrected version #163b...

The ironic thing about these two cards is that corrected version of the card can be had for around 10 bucks.  Meanwhile, the error card can go for as high as 2,000 dollars graded in NM-MINT condition.  That means Barry's most expensive rookie card doesn't even feature Barry. Kind of like a career that was marked with artificially enhanced achievements.

Until next week folks, remember that stealing third base is harder to do than second.

-The Commissioner

Week 10

Hey All,
School is out all over the nation and summer calls to us in the form of sunny days, barbecues, and baseball.  Here's whats going in the Longball League.

Roster Moves
6/3/2013
The A Team dropped Bryce Harper WAS and picked up Miguel Cabrera DET
The Tax Dodgers dropped Jose Bautista TOR and picked up C. Davis BAL
The T.M. Lightning dropped Bryce Harper WAS and picked up Miguel Cabrera DET

6/4/2013
The A Team dropped Matt Kemp LAD and picked up Yasiel Puig LAD
The Hot Shots dropped Matt Kemp LAD and picked up Yasiel Puig LAD

Who's Hot/ Who's Not

Hitters
Hot: Yasiel Puig had a pretty good debut this week hitting 4 HR with 10 RBI and a .464 batting average for the Dodgers.

Not: All other Dodger outfielders.  Someone is gonna find a lot of bench time in his future.

Picthers
Hot: Chris Tillman won a pair of games and K'd 13 hitters this week for Baltimore.

Not: Matt Moore lost a pair of games while giving up 14 earned runs in seven innings pitched for Tampa Bay.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. I have never come close to catching a foul ball, much less a home run ball at a major league game. I'm incredibly envious of the guy in deep center field at Fenway Park who caught two home runs on Sunday as the Red Sox smacked the Angels, 10-5.

2. It usually occurs less often than triple plays or no-hitters each season, but a case of catcher's interference popped up in game one of the Angels-Red Sox double header on Saturday.  In the eighth inning, Halo catcher Chris Ianetta got his glove in the way of  Red Sox batter Jacoby Ellsbury's swing and made contact with Ellsbury's bat. Ellsbury was awarded first base.  If you're scoring at home it, goes down as an error on the catcher.  I usually mark it as an E2CI.  One of the reasons I take note of catcher's interference each season is that I actually reached base that way in little league once.  With the way I hit, every time reaching base was treasured.

3. There were lots of zeroes in Seattle and New York this week.  The White Sox downed the Mariners in 16 innings, 7-5.  The game was scoreless for the first 14 innings.  Then on Saturday, the Marlins downed the Mets, 2-1 in 20 innings. That game was scoreless for a 14 1/2 inning stretch from the bottom of the fourth through the the 19th.  I'm a big baseball fan, but games like that drive me nuts.

Cool Baseball Card Set of the Week: 1963 Fleer

The 1963 Fleer set consists of 67 cards that matter more for what they represent than what they really are. The set features an attractive simple design with good photos.  Card #42, Sandy Koufax shows how great these cards are.

However, the legal battle behind the set is what makes it a classic.  Topps sued Fleer over the set, claiming that they had exclusive rights to make baseball cards due to the individual contracts that they had signed players to since 1951.  They also relied on the age old argument that there can only be one card manufacturer because there is not enough of a market multiple sellers.  Isn't that an interesting argument for a capitalistic society? In one of the dumbest decisions ever, the court ruled in Topps' favor and handed them a legal monopoly.  The monopoly would last from 1963-81. So, Fleer had to stop production and the set stands at 67 cards. For those of you interested, the most valuable card in the set is the 67th and last card in the set.  

Yup, the checklist is more valuable than Koufax, Willie Mays, or Bob Gibson. It was added in the final print runs of the series.  It took the place of the Joe Adcock card on the sheet so both are pretty scarce, but the checklist holds the best value with near mint ones going for around $500.

Until next week folks remember that you just can't buy a pennant.
-The Commisioner

Week 9

Hey All,

Wow, it's already June!  Let's take a look at the Longball League as the MLB season starts month #3.

Roster Moves
The Taylor Run Red Foxes made three injury moves on 6/1/2013

They Dropped:
B. Harper WAS
S. Strasburg WAS
M. Morse SEA

They Added:
P. Goldschmidt ARI
C. Davis BAL
J. Zimmerman WAS

Who's Hot/Who's Not

Hitters
Hot: Ryan Doumit turned in a 2 HR 10 RBI week for the Twins

Not: BJ Upton.  No numbers to put up here.  When management tells you it might be a good idea to work on your problems down at Triple-A, you're not so hot.

Pitchers
Hot: St. Louis closer Edward Mujica recorded 4 saves this past week.

Not: Colorado's John Garland gave up 10 earned runs in 10 innings pitched this week.

This Week's Three Trivial Things

1. Cubs pitcher Travis Wood helped his own cause in a big way v. the White Sox last Tuesday when he hit a Grand Slam off Jake Peavy.  The Cubs went on to win the game, 8-3.  It was the first Grand Slam by a Cubs pitcher since Burt "Happy" Hooton hit one off Tom Seaver on September 16, 1972. Yes, the Cubs did win the game, 18-5.

2. Houston is 0 for the O.  The Astros haven't beaten the A's this season.  They are 0-6 v. their new AL West rival.

3. Eric Wedge may be out as manager soon in Seattle. He may not get another job for awhile. His Mariner squads consistently rank as the worst teams in Seattle history as far as runs scored per game, batting average, and on-base percentage are concerned. Wow, that's going some knowing how bad Seattle has been throughout the years.

Cool Baseball Card of the Week: 1958 Topps #418- World Series Batting Foes

From time to time Topps enjoyed putting multi-player or "combo" cards in their sets.  These cards usually featured top players on a single team or opposing players on a card to spice up the set.  Well, pictured below here is one of the best combo cards of all time. The Hammer and The Mick squared off in consecutive World Series with Braves winning in seven games in 1957 and the Yankees returning the favor in 1958. Not a bad card, huh?

Halo Woes

With as bad as the Angels are playing, I sometimes wonder if Who really is on first, What is playing second and I Don't Know is on third.

Until next week folks, remember that high expectations and bad contracts can ruin a ball club.

-The Commissioner