Blog Bat Around: My All Autograph Team

Listed below is my all-autograph team for cards that are non-Phillies cards.  My autograph has grown exponentially over the past two years, but they have all been of the Phillies (or cut signature) variety.  (Someday, I will post them all....it may take 20 years at this rate, but it's possible)

I think this team would win the World Series.....if there were a time warp where everyone arrived from their best year and joined the field.  Some liberties were made in the selection of the team for the positions; the left side of the infield was shifted around a bit.

A couple of these are among the more memorable autos I've ever pulled. 

C: Gary Carter 2011 Topps 60, Acquired from ebay.

1B: Eddie Murray 2012 Panini Cooperstown, Acquired from box break

2B: Red Schoendienst 2012 Leaf Memories, Acquired from ebay

SS: Derek Jeter 1997 Bowman,  Acquired from box break

3B: Cal Ripken, Jr. 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes, Acquired from group break

RF: Al Kaline 2012 Leaf Memories, Acquired from ebay

CF: Duke Snider 1994 Nabisco, Acquired from ebay

LF: Frank Robinson 2012 Leaf Legends of Sport, Acquired from ebay

PH/DH: Buster Posey 2013 Topps Mini, Acquired from box break

SP: Roy Halladay 2007 Goudey, acquired from ebay

CL: Dennis Eckersley 2012 Leaf Memories, acquired from ebay

RP1: Bruce Sutter 2010 Panini Century Collection, acquired from box break

RP2: Rollie Fingers, acquired from ebay

Roy Halladay: The (2012 National Treasures) Book is Unwritten

.....the 2012 National Treasures card only has a pinstripe swatch and very few words (see what I did there?)

There's nothing more frustrating to see a player who was dominant fall off a proverbial performance cliff whether because of injury, age, or both.  Roy Halladay's starts were an experience that I signed up for and put aside time for when he first joined the Phillies in 2010.

And now, as he walked off the mound for the last time during the 2013 season after barely gutting out 15 pitches, it is uncertain about both where he stands as a pitcher and as a future member of the Phillies.

The images of Halladay look the same on the surface, but the performance differences are stark, when comparing his stats from his time of greatness to the present day.

Regardless, this card is great, and it would make a nice storytime book.

No one knows what the future holds because the back page is blank.

The Topps Online Giveaways of 2012: Result!

With the newest online event right around the corner in the form of the Million Dollar Chase, I figured it would be a good idea to get the cards that I unlocked from the 2012 Topps online code programs.  I ended up with 2 cards from my codes, and then someone offered me a 2 for 1 trade, which I obviously took.

Therefore, behold the die-cut moments of Phillies wonders.  Also, these cards are immense.  They wouldn't even slide under a door. They are also refractory in the best way possible

Roy Halladay: He's the ace of the present.  The hopes and dreams of a 2nd wild card (does that sound pessimistic?) rest on the recovery of his various maladies from dos mil doce.   I think he's already joined the pantheon of Phillies pitchers, though he made it to the team too late in his career to really move up the this imaginary ladder I'm thinking about.  Golden Moment: He pitched 6 or more innings in 63 straight road starts, the longest streak since Walter Johnson.

Steve Carlton: This guy is at the top of the list I was thinking of.  He's also one of the few Phillies pitchers to pitch with them for more than 10 years.  The awards, accolades, and strikeouts speak for themselves though.  If I had to pick one player to become a supercollector of, it would probably be Steve Carlton, but I think I have to up my obsessive quotient by a few more hundredfold.  Golden Moment:  He was the all-time MLB strikeout leader at the end of the 1983 season.

Chase Utley  When healthy, he's still a top 5 second basemen in the game, but there's the question that's still around.  Golden Moment:  Had a streak of 20 consecutive stolen bases entering 2012, his career high was 27 in a row from 2008-2010.

Tony Romo:  He's not a Phillie....at least I got a card from the football card site.....for trade.

I won the Phillies, but I'm not counting on a million dollars....let's examine the reasons why later.

2011 Playoff Prime Cut Phillies or The Hats Are On a Search

There's a bevy of MLB-unlicensed products out there with Panini and Leaf leading the way. We don't have Ames or Woolworth's releasing cards anymore. These are companies that just can't seem to get in the logo game at this point and time.

 Both have seen to gone the high-end route with multiple autos and patches of pros, prospects, and legends dotting their product release landscape. With these products come inherent risk for the collector. Why would one bother with a product that's not officially recognized? Do we care about logos that much? If there was a card without a photo or name, but just a signature or jersey piece, would it be worthwhile? (That last question has already been answered by 2010 Famous Fabrics and 2012 SP Signature Series...so not as rhetorical as the first two)

 I recently acquired a couple Phillies reps from the 2011 Panini Prime Cuts brand; this was originally released as a $250/box product. With the chance for some great pulls including the only place for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson cards; it seems like there should be enough quality to go around.  Unfortunately, there were not enough legend cards to offset the unknown prospect auto cards with the terrible design and broad checklist.

Also, there seemed to be a lot of single grey or white swatch jersey cards for modern players with numbering around /199 per card.   I picked up two Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee to continually build towards that impossible mission: connecting enough Phillies cards to spell out Philadelphia around the circumference of the Earth.

The best part about these cards is actually the Detroit Tigers-style font and sepia tone.  It actually feels like an old-time card displaced to the present day.  Unfortunately, the worst part of the card is the inherent part of being unlicensed, the player picture with the blank shirts and hats and the city name in lieu of the team name.

After looking at these cards awhile, I have visions of the hats conspiring together to steal other hats' logos, and then I feel like I have to wear all my hats at once to protect them from the rampaging imposters.  The end result is that I have a stack of hats on my head all murmuring to each other about how ridiculous they feel about not being the primary hat and having to share the head spotlight.

So, I guess the message is unlicensed cards make other hats become paranoid.  Paranoid hats only breed paranoid people. In other words, unlicensed cards cause unnecessary paranoia due to attacking logoless hats.  Remember that when you're thinking about buying this year's Prime Cuts release.

The Phillies are Feeling Blue...

...because their playoff chances are down to 0.2 (or practically nil).  With the two losses to the Braves this weekend and the Cardinals two wins and the continued success of the Brewers, I will now resign myself to the fact that I most probably likely not going to be rooting for a Phillies postseason run for the first time since 2006.  It was quite a run, but it's still sobering as a fan and for the players involved.

Roy Halladay-feeling blue because he allowed 7 runs in 1.2 innings in his final start, pickmeup suggestion-go fishing in the Caribbean

Cliff Lee-feeling blue because of the small run support he got for most of the year.  pickmeup suggestion-become a dart throwing champion in the offseason

Ryan Howard-feeling blue because of his career low .SLG. pickmeup suggestion-go back to his hometown of St. Louis and have some Ted Drewes.

Vance Worley-feeling blue because surgery on the elbow is never good. pickmeup suggestion-invest in a fashion or costume line that will use his goggles.

Jimmy Rollins-feeling blue because his OBP has dropped to its lowest mark since 2002 and because he keeps on getting reamed once or twice a year for not running out every pop-up.  pickmeup suggestion: three words: radio show host.

So as you can see, they don't seem to be feeling too well.  Amazingly, they stayed in contention until the penultimate week of the season.  Hopefully, they can finish the season with a winning record.......

But of course, if they win all their games and the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Brewers all falter all bets are off.  Is that completely irrational?  I meant it to be.

Happiness is a Shiny Phillies Card on a Friday Night

Happy weekend and spring training everyone!

How Sweet It Is: 4th Straight NL East Title

I am very psyched and for the first time since Opening Day, I actually wasn't riveted to the play by play for the Phillies game for the past two days. With all the seeds wrapped up for the playoffs, there are few things to play for:

1. get the starters their innings without getting too tired(Oswalt went 5 innings and less than 70 pitches today),
2. get the bench players some reps at the plate (I was surprised to hear last night that Sweeney had made only two plate appearances since September 11, and it would be nice to see a healed Domonic Brown provide spark, power, and speed off the bench)
3. rest Ryan Madson (seriously, let Bastardo, Worley, and Romero pitch a few innings)
4. get Jimmy Rollins ready to play
5. also, it wouldn't hurt to deny the Braves a chance at the postseason

It was only appropriate that Roy Halladay pitched this game, doing what he leads the league in, completing games. His starts bookended the competitive part of the season, both getting wins, and both being in Washington.

There is a feeling that all that can be accomplished has not been accomplished yet. The celebration was quite subdued. Howard methodically was taking the tops off the champagne bottles and the goggles were ready to go.

The winning of this division title was satisfying in of itself for the team. From where they were at one point in late July (hovering 2 games over .500 at one point) to this culmination was a hard-fought, well-played turnaround. The winning was spurred by a betterment in performance of key individuals (Lidge, Blanton, Ibanez), a return from injury (Utley, Howard, Madson), a sustained success (Werth, Victorino), or just being one of the three starting pitchers who essentially carried the load (Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt).

The historical accomplishment is deep as well; this is the first Phillies team to make 4 straight postseason appearances and the first NL team since those Braves of 1991-2005. They are now attempting to reach 3 straight World Series for the first time since the 98-00 Yankees (ML) and the 42-44 Cardinals (NL). In short, they are vying for two objectives now, make their mark upon the city and their careers and more broadly, upon baseball history itself.

When the playoff schedule opens, the second season begins and will be a combination of good playing, luck, and powerful moments that will propel the Phillies to each successive round. As with anything in baseball, "you never know", but one can sure hope.

All Aboard the Trade Route

The deals have been finalized by MLB, the contracts have been attended to, and the dust has cleared. What hath the machinations of the wayward GM society wrought?
Summary
Phillies
Received: Roy Halladay (32), Phillippe Aumont(21), Tyson Gillies (20), JC Ramirez (21), $6 million
Relinquished: Cliff Lee (31), Kyle Drabek (22), Travis D'Arnaud (20), Michael Taylor (23)

Blue Jays
Received: Kyle Drabek (22), Travis D'Arnaud (20), Brett Wallace (23)
Relinquished: Roy Halladay (32), $6 million

Mariners
Received: Cliff Lee
relinquished: Phillippe Aumont(21), Tyson Gillies (20), JC Ramirez (21)

Athletics
Received: Michael Taylor (23)
Relinquished: Brett Wallace (23)

Breakdown

There were three driving factors to this parallel series of deals: Roy Halladay's wish for playing on a contender, Ruben Amaro's obsession with getting him dating from last summer, and cold, hard cash.

Let's start with the Blue Jays since the intent of the deal broke down simply for them. They needed to move Roy Halladay for something. He's approaching the last year of his contract in 2010 at $15.75 million. This is too much payroll for a team presumably in a "rebuilding/not expected to contend in 2010" phase. Halladay only would waive his no-trade clause (10/5 MLBer) for a contender. They were searching for a couple top tier prospects outside their division, and the Phillies were a suitable match.

Drabek fits because they lacked any elite RHP prospects, D'Arnaud fits because their only catching prospect is in AAA and they only have stopgaps on the major league roster, and Wallace (received from Oakland for Taylor) fits because he becomes the heir apparent to Lyle Overbay at 1B if his glove does not improve at 3B. Though it will be interesting to see if Toronto made the right decision by choosing Wallace over Taylor. In other words, which is more valuable: pure hitting ability or all-around skills? The Athletics made the move because they were already heavy in 1B/DH types of players on their roster and needed a potential-laden corner outfielder.

Essentially, Toronto decided to recieve prospects rather than receive draft picks in compensation when Halladay left as a free agent, a calculated move they really had no choice in making at this juncture.

Now, we reach the linchpin of these proceedings, the Phillies. They wanted to improve their pitching rotation badly and jumped at the chance to not only get an ace, but also to secure him through the 2013 season with a 3 year- $60 million extension with a vesting option for a 4th year. Toronto also threw in $6 million of his $15.75 million salary for 2010, meaning the Phillies are paying $9.75 million for Halladay's services in 2010. They also traded three highly regarded prospects to Toronto to receive him. Sounds normal so far.

Then, financial reality struck for 2010. Amaro seemed to have received a directive from ownership not to exceed a (substantial) $140 M payroll for the 2010 season. Halladay put them over the mark. The most expensive players (Howard, Utley, Rollins, Ibanez, Lidge) are all not going anywhere, and all have more than one year remaining on their contract. The most expensive players on the last years of their contract were Cliff Lee, Jaime Moyer, and (I believe) Joe Blanton. Of course, all are starters and moving one would definitely cut into the rotational depth at the least.

Moyer has no trade value, a coming off of injury 47 year old making $6.5 million in 2010. Blanton has some but is expensive in today's market compared to what he should make in 2010 (the estimate is approximately $7 M). Lee is a bargain at $9 M for 2010, but he will probably want to test the open market after the season.

The Phillies decide to trade Lee....somehow. They would rather gain back something now then draft picks later. I'm not sure myself of the complete rationalization. Seattle jumps on the train and offers three prospects for Lee (contingent upon Halladay signing the aforementioned extension). The Phillies accept, lose Lee's skills and place in the rotation along with ancillary loss of his salary and gain a supposed replenishment of their farm system.

For Seattle, they decided to force open their contender window as the Angels seem to be transitioning. They enhance their fielding and leadoff position with Chone Figgins and now add a legitimate ace to the fold to pair with Felix Hernandez. They then hope that they can sign Lee in the offseason.


Unanswered Questions
Did the Phillies give up too much for Halladay alone? These were 3 of the top 5 prospects in the system.
Why trade Lee now? This is the most baffling decision. Spring training hasn't happened yet. Things happen between now and July.
Was this the best offer for Lee out there? You would think the Phillies would pursue some more major-ready prospects than the 3 they received who have never played past class A.
If the major objective was to shed salary, why not trade Blanton for nothing (similar to that Abreu trade in 2006)?
Did Toronto do right by trading Taylor?
How ecstatic are Seattle fans today?

There are always questions about deals like this. I wish I could predict the future.

For analysis of the prospects, check out Phuture Phillies.

Trades and Rumors, 6 months later...Halladay edition

There's the rumblings of a deal in the works in which the Phillies end up with Roy Halladay for 3-4 years under contract as the end result. (Source: Jon Heyman on SI.com). The other principle involved in this probable 3 team deal seems to be 2009 playoff ace Cliff Lee, who is rumored to be headed to the Seattle Mariners.

I am in shock.

Stay tuned for analysis and implications for each team involved once the deal is finalized.

I am in shock.

The Day the Blue Jays Fall Further Behind?

For what seems like weeks, rumors of the demise of Roy Toronto career has been flying around the media. I definitely read every single one because the Phillies were prominently involved until yesterday.

There are rumors of the involvement of the Red Sox ("no formal offer" says Buster Olney), Angels, Dodgers, Rangers. But the Phillies were the number one pursuer, so the leverage for GM JP Ricciardi has decreased to the point where he won't get 3 A-level prospects anymore unless another team really steps up.

This reminds me too much of the Schilling and Rolen trades that the Phillies made in 2000 and 2002, respectively. A team going on a treadmill who wants to cut costs with cheaper assets. Though the Blue Jays are hamstrung by Vernon Well's 7 year 126 million contract (4 years left) and other salary obligations for players no longer playing for them (Frank Thomas, BJ Ryan, etc).

What would you give up for a durable pitcher with brilliant flashes who can possibly save a bullpen?