Easter baseball cards

Posted on April 2, 2018April 2, 2018 by Paul

I hope everyone had a good Easter (or Passover… or just a nice weekend.) It sure feels like yesterday’s 60 degree spring-like weather was the April Fool’s Day joke, because we woke up to snow (again) this morning.

The Yankees’ home opener has already been postponed, and who knows if the Mets can clear the snow from Citi Field’s seats in time to play tonight’s game.

You are looking live… pic.twitter.com/mhuqWsJCXE

— Evan Roberts (@EvanRobertsWFAN) April 2, 2018

So today’s a good day to look at the Topps Opening Day baseball cards I got for Easter. While Opening Day is overlooked by most collectors, I enjoy it because it’s about the closest I can get to reliving the experience of opening baseball cards when I was a kid.

Opening Day packs are cheap, usually a dollar. They have a decent number of cards in them (by 21st Century standards, anyway.) And given the unlikelihood of pulling any autographs or memorabilia cards, if you’re opening Opening Day, you’ve got to actually want the base cards or the fun “regular” insert sets.

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There are two reasons that Opening Day isn’t perfect. Number one: except for a few Series 2 previews and PhotoShop uniform swaps, Opening Day cards are rehash of the Topps Series 1 cards that came out in February.

Number two: Opening Day has a limited checklist – just 200 cards. The positive to that point is that you’re much more likely to have at least one star player in every pack.

Opening Day’s March release spot does give Topps a little more time to do things like add our first rookie card for Angels’ pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (who impressed in his Major League pitching debut on Sunday.)

I’m kinda happy Topps used a press conference photo for this card – I love getting to see them on cardboard because they represent that time of optimism where your team’s new star player can do no wrong. There will be plenty of time for game action photos later. (I can’t wait to see what the card designers at Topps and Panini decide to do about including hitting and pitching stats on Ohtani’s cards next year.)

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While Ohtani’s rookie card is the draw for Opening Day this year, usually the inserts are the big thing. Card collectors who like mascots have to go for Opening Day. This year’s set also includes Team Traditions & Celebrations inserts, as well as an Opening Day subset and a Before Opening Day insert set.

I love the mascots and I think the Team Traditions & Celebrations set is a fun new idea. The other two leave me a bit flat.

The Opening Day cards have cool photos, but the backs are focused on how the teams did on Opening Day 2017…and that leaves them feeling a bit dated. If I were writing the copy for the card backs, I’d go with a more general focus. Maybe a particular team is unusually successful on Opening Day, or they have an active Opening Day winning streak. Maybe there’s a star player who does particularly well on Opening Day. Something…

The Before Opening Day insert set is worse, because the photos aren’t even that interesting. I’m pretty sure I don’t care which players had good springs in 2018. I know I don’t care about 2017 spring training performances. Hopefully this insert theme gets retired.

Other odds & ends:

The Mets split the final two games of their Opening Weekend series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Yoenis Cespedes and Jacob deGrom led the Mets to victory on Saturday, while Steven Matz brought his spring training struggles into the regular season on Sunday as the Cardinals won their first game of 2018.
Anthony Swarzak is the first Met to fall to injury during the regular season. He left Sunday’s game with a strained left oblique and is due to be reexamined today…. with the Mets being the Mets, he could be fine and barely miss any time, or he could be headed to the disabled list and never seen again.
In better injury news, Jason Vargas is making progress and Michael Conforto could be back on Thursday.
The Mets are wearing a commemorative patch to honor the late Rusty Staub, but Uni-Watch’s Paul Lukas points out that the design doesn’t really work very well.
The Yankees signed former Met Oliver Perez to a minor league contract on Saturday. I thought Perez was done when the Mets released him in 2011, but he’s had a nice second career as a lefty bullpen specialist. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the Bronx sometime this season.
Gabe Kapler has been a hot mess in his first weekend as the Philadelphia Phillies manager. The “highlight” was when he brought in a reliever who wasn’t even warming up on Saturday. Under the new pace of play rules, Phillie reliever Hoby Milner wasn’t entitled to the full warmup time he was given by umpire Jerry Layne. Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker was upset and ultimately ejected, but Kapler didn’t receive any consequences beyond a formal warning letter from Major League Baseball. (Rob Manfred might want to think about giving his pace of play rules teeth or scrapping them.) We’ll get to see if Kapler is done with Unlimited Bullpen Works or not, since the Phillies are due to open a three game series with the Mets tonight.

Baseball, Baseball Cards, New York Mets

Baseball’s broken economic system & other thoughts

Posted on February 8, 2018February 8, 2018 by Paul

In less than a week, pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to spring training…and there are still around 100 free agents who are looking for a team. Eric Hosmer, Yu Darvish, J.D. Martinez, Jake Arrieta and Mike Moustakas — some of the biggest names to hit the market this winter — are among the players still unsigned. The union is actually going to run a spring training camp for all of the players who are still looking for jobs.

It got to the point where some players are openly talking about the possibility of going on strike and others reportedly considered waiting until Feb. 24th’s mandatory reporting date to show up in spring training camps in a show of solidarity with the unsigned players.

While this off-season’s free agent market has worked out pretty well for the Mets, it’s clear that the the current system is broken. It’s pretty clear that no one is going to give J.D. Martinez the seven-year, $210 million contract he was reportedly looking for back in November. But it’s equally ridiculous that Martinez has only received two offers this winter, and that one of them was for a one-year deal to come back and try again on the free agent market next off-season.

I don’t think we’re looking at collusion, but we are looking at 30 front offices who are tired of getting burned by free agent contracts that make them look bad. Thirty front offices that are increasingly obsessed with young, controllable players to the point where they manipulate player service time to delay free agency and arbitration eligibility. A select group of owners who do not care about winning, at least in the short term.

And that means that even though MLB enjoyed record revenue last year, it’s not translating into more money for the players that we are paying to watch.

Now Martinez should not expect to earn $30 million when he is 37, but Jacob deGrom should be able to expect more than the $7.4 million he will earn this year. And even though he’s one of the most marketable players in baseball, the Yankees could get away with paying Aaron Judge the major league minimum salary.

Brandon Moss is right that players gave away too much in recent bargaining sessions with owners. Here’s hoping that the MLBPA and MLB owners figure out a way to get more of the game’s profits to the game’s younger players without totally turning off fans in the process. Because the current system is broken and is not good for players, fans or even owners in the long run.

Todd Frazier signs with the Mets

The New York Mets continued their bargain shopping this week, signing third baseman Todd Frazier to a two-year, $17 million contract. I think that Frazier strikes out too much and doesn’t get on base enough, but he’s a definite upgrade over Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes at the plate and a much better defender. So it’s definitely a win – this hasn’t been a bad offseason for Sandy Alderson’s crew at all.

If they could find a way to add a starting pitcher, I’d feel pretty good about the Mets’ chances to compete for a Wild Card spot. And if they could somehow land Yu Darvish, I’d start dreaming about them challenging the Washington Nationals for a division title.

Bartolo Colon is still playing

The Texas Rangers signed 44-year-old Bartolo Colon to a minor league contract this week. I’d been hoping for a reunion with the Mets, but as long as gets a major league shot sometime this season I’ve got another year before I have to deal with a reality where all the players are younger than me.

So thank you, Bartolo… I will be rooting for you.

First 2018 Baseball Cards

I bought my first pack of 2018 Topps Series 1 baseball cards this week. Fittingly, a member of the World Series Champion Houston Astros was the top card in the pack. Michael Conforto was my first Met (yay!) while Aaron Judge was my first Yankee (boo!)

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I like this year’s design, but I think I will try to avoid buying more packs and just pick up a Mets team set from eBay.

Minor League Promo of the Week

On June 21, the Grizzlies will play as… THE ZAMUNDA LIONS! (And McDowell's Big Micks will be served!!) 🦁🍔 #ComingToFresno presented by @PlayFresno pic.twitter.com/Y4btoXoAx6

— Fresno Grizzlies (@FresnoGrizzlies) February 8, 2018

Thirty years ago this June, my favorite Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America made its theatrical debut. The Fresno Grizzlies will celebrate its anniversary by playing as the Zamunda Lions for one night.

Autographs, Baseball, New York Mets

Some recent additions to my Mets autograph collection

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Paul

Last weekend, I went to MAB Celebrity Service’s Pinstripe Parade autograph show with my friend Bart. It was kind of overwhelming, really.

People bought around 300 tickets at $60 a piece for New York Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres’ autograph. Alex Rodriguez, in his first area autograph signing in more than a decade, might have been even more popular even though his autograph tickets started at $149 and went up depending on what you were getting signed. New Hall of Fame member Chipper Jones was doing his first signing since the election announcement, and he was also very in demand.

It didn’t feel like there was enough space for all of the people who were waiting for autographs, and I was thankful that I wasn’t getting any so I could steer clear of the densest crowds.

But I did come home with a selection of 15 bargain-priced signed Mets photos for a total cost of around what my friend spent to get one baseball card signed by Gleyber Torres.

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Yesterday, I got a signed baseball card back in the mail from Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo, from a request I mailed to Mets spring training camp last February. Unlike the photo he signed for me at the Queens Baseball Convention last month, Nimmo personalized the card for me. Very cool.

Other odds & ends

Mets GM Sandy Alderson told fans and media that the Mets probably won’t be signing free agent 3B Mike Moustakas, who would require draft pick compensation. Is anyone surprised? (To be fair, I think the Mets would be better off re-signing Neil Walker or picking up Eduardo Nunez and ignoring Asdrubal Cabrera’s desire to play second base, but that’s just me.)
The Mets acquired minor league LHP Daniel Zamora from the Pittsburgh Pirates for LHP Josh Smoker on Wednesday. Smoker was designated for assignment to open a roster spot for Jose Reyes, and seems to have a legitimate chance to crack the Pirates’ bullpen. Zamora is a 24-year-old reliever who’s put up good minor league numbers but has only pitched three innings above the Single-A level.
The Mets Police has a look at the 2018 Topps Mets baseball cards. They chose some really cool photos this year, and the design makes me think of old Fleer Ultra and Topps Stadium Club products (mostly a good thing.) Not sure I can get used to the swoosh that partially covers the first letter of the player’s first name, though.
I need to order mine
All 30 MLB teams will have expanded protective netting in place by Opening Day. Pretty sure there will be a lot of complaints in April/May, and it will be a non-issue for most people by Memorial Day. While there’s a low chance a fan will be injured by a foul ball or broken bat during a game, it just makes sense to reduce that chance to as close to zero as you can. So good job, MLB, for taking this step.
Mark Appel, the number one overall pick in the 2013 MLB draft, is stepping away from baseball to pursue a business degree and a more normal career. Appel will be the third number one pick in the history of the MLB draft not to reach the majors if he leaves the game for good.

Autographs, Baseball Cards, New York Mets

Some baseball cards on a snowy day

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Paul

It’s snowing again as I write this morning, but we’re less than a month away from the start of spring training. (Yoenis Cespedes, Amed Rosario, Wilmer Flores, and Juan Lagares are already in Florida.)

So I thought I’d share some recent baseball card purchases, my first of 2018. I’m particularly happy with the T.J. Rivera and Josh Smoker cards since they’ve been Mets long enough to appreciate them.

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Baseball Reference tells me that Jamie Callahan and Tomas Nido played for the Mets last year, but I don’t remember them at all. Luis Guillorme made an amazing catch in the dugout last spring, but he’s still waiting for his shot in the big leagues. The A.J. Ramos card is a placeholder until I can get one that shows him as a Met. I think I already had a Matt Reynolds autograph, but he’s sporting the snazzy Mr. Met spring training cap and it was only a dollar… so why not?

Odds & ends:

Uni-Watch has some info about the nifty attire sported by the Shea Stadium staff in 1964. Tell me you wouldn’t rather see a revival of those snazzy threads than the green and maroon look that will undoubtedly be back at Citi Field in 2018. (What, you’d rather have new players? 😆)
Former Met Todd Pratt showed us a scoreboard tribute for the late Anthony Young at Mets Fantasy Camp

In memory of my friend Anthony Young. Class act to do this. pic.twitter.com/F2b2tDYsKc

— Todd Pratt (@ToddPratt07) January 16, 2018

Johnny Monell, who briefly played for the 2015 Mets, has joined the Tampa Bay Rays organization

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeB6FaYFTD7/?taken-by=jmoe220

Autographs, Baseball, New York Mets

2017 Mets Autograph: Neil Walker

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Paul

Neil Walker didn’t finish the 2017 season with the Mets, but he was the team’s primary second baseman until an August trade sent him to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Walker posted a solid .339 / .442 / .780 slash line with ten home runs through 73 games with the Mets, though those numbers were down slightly from his 2016 performance. He’s currently a free agent, and the Mets still have an opening for a secondbaseman, but I don’t particularly see a reunion in the cards.

I wrote to Walker care of the Mets spring training camp in February and asked him to sign this card from the 2016 Topps Update series, the only one I had at the time that pictured Walker with the Mets. I got it back last week, postmarked from Pittsburgh – it’s a nice early Christmas present.