Happy Opening Day!

Happy Opening Day to everyone, and congrats to the Reds and Pads for the comebacks.

I celebrated with another white pizza (with Pepperoni baseball stitches).

I followed it up with some store bought Strawberry-Rhubarb pie that I topped with homemade whipped cream and cherry stitches.

I also opened a jumbo pack of 2011 Topps Opening Day and ended up with these two top Opening Day Performers:

Stubbs hit one of six homeruns in the Reds - Brewers game that ended on a thrilling three run homer by the Reds' catcher.

The Swinging Friar was on hand for the Pads big comeback against the Cards.

Lets Go Mets! Get a win tomorrow!

2011 Mets Topps Heritage

So, I went to a cardshow this past weekend.  It was kind of disappointing, though, with little selection and high prices.

The one good thing was that one table had 2011 Topps Heritage commons and I was able to pick up most of the Mets team set.  Including these two:

My second Lucas Duda.

My second RA Dickey.

If anyone out there has any of the following that I still need let me know and I'd be happy to work out a trade for them.

Need
#7 - Carlos Beltran
#85 - Ike Davis
#256 - Ruben Tejada
#421 - Francisco Rodriguez

SPs
#436 - Jose Reyes
#464 - Johan Santana
#478 - David Wright

New Banner and Imprinted Cards

So, I changed my banner at the top of the page.  Any comments would be much appreciated.

I also scored these two cards in a recent trade with Isaac from Ike's Cards.

I know that before Topps got exclusive rights a lot of people were down on upper deck, but I liked what Upper Deck did with Ovation.  The 2006 incarnation, from which this Reyes card below originates, might have even been the best.

The entire card has a textured feel to it from the play image being raised above the pock marked baseball with impressions of the stitching.

And speaking of impressing of a baseball's stitching, this 2008 Sweet Spot card has them too.  I'm not sure about other people but I like them.

Interestingly enough, the highlight of this trade with Isaac was a game-used for game-used swap.  I sent him a nice Scott Rolen in Cards uni for this Geo Soto card:

Now, you might be asking why I, a noted Met fan, want a Geo Soto game-used card.  Well, I decided that I will be collecting 2011 Mets AND Cubs cards since I'm living out in Cubs territory again this year and my wife and her family are Cubs fans.

So thanks again for the trade Ike!

Gypsy Queen Two Box Group Break

Hey, if you are like me you think Gypsy Queen is the most interesting Topps MLB product coming out in 2011.  If that is the case check out the group break going on over at Nacho Grande: http://fanofreds.blogspot.com/2011/03/gypsy-queen-2-box-group-break-sign-up.html

Some nice teams are still available, which means you could end up with this card:

Sign up soon!

Glavine Dual Relic - Pitchers and Game Used Bats?

So as I was browsing through my local card shop I found this nice looking card: a 2004 Diamond Kings Tom Glavine Dual Relic numbered 12/100.  Between the low numbering, the awesome design, and dual relics I decided to pick it up.

Now, I have always found game used bat cards of pitchers to be a bit odd, but Glavine did have a reputation for being a better than average hitter for a pitcher.  His career OPS was .454, he hit one homerun in his career, and had 90 RBIs.  However, it is hard to tell from those numbers how good he was compared to other pitchers.

This is where those new statistics become a bit more useful.  I am going to use oWAR: Offensive Wins Above Replacement.  This statistic is supposed to measure the number of wins above or below average this player contributed to his team offensively. Glavine totaled 5 over his 22 year career (all in the NL).  Compare that a terrible hitter like Al Lieter who compiled -2.4 over 10 years in the NL.  For a more modern example look at Cole Hamels who has .2 in his five year career which would extend to .88 if he played seventeen more years.

The moral is, that Glavine was a decent hitter for a pitcher, but he was no Babe Ruth or Carlos Zambrano (the later of which already has 4.6 in 10 years).

Frustrating Fantasy Players - Nice Looking Cards

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am gearing up for the 2011 Baseball Fantasy Season.  I play in an NL only six team rotisserie league with friends.

This cool card I got from Justin's World (check his blog here) reminded me how frustrating guys like Aroldis Chapman can be from a draft perspective.

Guys like Chapman are great players but may not get enough playing time to be worth a high draft pick.  It is especially frustrating when the players ahead of these guys on the team's depth chart are fantasy duds or may loose their jobs.  In cases like this I don't want to waste a pick on either Francisco Cordero (the Red's current closer) or Chapman (the guy who should be the Red's closer).  I mean if Cordero just barely holds onto his job his numbers will hurt my team AND prevent them from using the superior fantasy player.

Another example from the same division would be Tyler Colvin.  It seems to me that he did enough last year to earn a starting job, but instead he will likely split time with the likes of Fukodome, Pena, and Soriano.  If those three guys are healthy all year, the at bats they take away from Colvin make an otherwise intriguing player so much less appealing in the draft.

Anyway, maybe this is just me venting.  Thanks anyway for the card Justin!  I like it regardless of whether Chapman ends up on my fantasy team this year!