The Grand Scheme It's A Name That You Love To Touch.

But You Mustn't Touch! Good God am I glad that baseball is back. Like, actually back. Like dirt on the pants, crack of the bat back, for real. Sure, I haven't been able to see anything on TV, and there are a bunch of bugs that need to be worked out in the spring training game trackers and I haven't seen or heard a single minute of actual baseball other than a quick highlight of Curtis Granderson grounding the the right side of the infield in his debut yesterday, but do I really need any of that, when I can just follow the Open Thread on Bless You Boys?

they are obsessed with calling max a power arm
Director of the 2010 Free Casper Wells campaign
No Run Support
by allikazoo on Mar 4, 2010 10:35 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

they are, but its true lol by tigers22 on Mar 4, 2010 10:36 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

In fairness, the average Tigers fan has never seen Max Scherzer throw a pitch in their life. They have no way of knowing what kind of pitcher he is. by Trysdor on Mar 4, 2010 10:37 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Max Power! It’s a name you love to touch. But you mustn’t touch….. by ChrisDTX on Mar 4, 2010 10:40 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Simpsons quotes always win.

This is what happens, Larry Geez. A heavy day of work followed up by spending Three f*ing hours trying to catch a f*ing rat(!) in my house last night instead of just watching the Wire on DVD and browsing the internet, plus an early morning-site visit that kept me off of the internet until about noon this afternoon means that I was blissfully unaware of a certain bit of huge hobby altering news. You know the bit. Here's the non-collectors take courtesy of official law talkin' guy Craig Calcaterra:

Major League Baseball sued the Upper Deck baseball card company about a month ago for releasing baseball cards with team logos and stuff without having a license to do so. The case settled yesterday. All that's missing from the settlement terms is a provision which requires Upper Deck's CEO to be Bud Selig's butler for the next ten years:

--snip--

Upper Deck must receive approval from MLB for the use of baseball jerseys, pants, jackets, caps, helmets or catcher's equipment in future products featuring players. This too is harsh. So much so that I get the feeling MLB just put this one in the demand letter to see if Upper Deck would agree to it. They're probably laughing now. If I was Upper Deck, however, I'd use this term to my advantage. Next year: baseball's first all-nude card set. Now that Antonio Alfonseca is retired it's probably safe enough to dip a toe into those waters.

Of course, there are copious amounts of commentary from the card blogging world here, or here or here, here, here and here, here, and here. Full MSM participation too!

So you're saying that I'm a little late to the party. As such, I'll restrain from extensive commentary other than making a few notes. As to this point in the settlement:

Upper Deck agreed it will not make any new baseball card sets which feature MLB logos, uniforms, trade dress, and/or color combinations which are suggestive of MLB ball clubs.

AND

Upper Deck will not airbrush, alter, block, or otherwise manipulate MLB logos or uniforms in any of their future baseball card products.

That's like, way harsh. Totally. You're so banned from using logos and MLB marks that you're banned from NOT using logos and MLB marks. If you even think about not using an team logo, we'll sue you again!

Seriously, I can't even believe that that is a real provision of this agreement. How this doesn't completely shut down Upper Deck in baseball, I don't know.

For it's part, Upper Deck put out a press release that did say something promising:

"Great cards of great players have always been the cornerstone of Upper Deck products,” added Upper Deck Founder and CEO Richard McWilliam. “We’ll just have to see how innovative and creative we can become now.”

You think? I'm not really sure how they'll be able to pull it off, but if they do it will be epic.

Of course, the thing on everybody's mind is, what is going to happen to Goudey? Maybe that's just my mind. Old-timey generic uniforms anyone?

I'd buy that.

Dave Dombrowski is the Best GM in baseball Hear me out. First, it is worth noting that Tim Marchman on SI.com, who just ranked all 30 MLB GM's pegs DD at #13. And that might be a little high, considering that the ranking appears to be pretty laurels-heavy:

Dombrowski hasn't had the best run lately between a string of dubious trades involving players like Jair Jurrjens and Curtis Granderson and the equally dubious contracts given players like Gary Sheffield and Dontrelle Willis. That said, you have to respect his incredible resume. He built the outstanding Montreal Expos clubs of the early 1990s, won a world championship in Miami and a pennant with a Tigers team that just three years before was arguably the worst team of all time, and he probably has still more success ahead of him.

But even Marchman doesn't listen to the irrefutable mountain of data. For all those front-office geeks like me:

This comes from a stupendous study that dissects the factors that go in to creating a successful baseball team, as measured by how many people come out to your games. (H/T Bless You Boys)

Dissecting his summary, something jumped out as me clear as day. An attendance maximizing team will take 3-year breaks in between playoff trips. Look at the graph! You benefit from making the playoffs in one year, get significant residual effects the first two years after the playoffs and then head back down to the mean. Make the playoffs again and the cycle repeats.

So, as much as we can criticize the Tigers for "choking" down the stretch the last two years, it is possible that Dombrowski was just playing the role of shrewd, revenue-maximizing business man. Seriously, read the article because it is really fun if you're a business of baseball wonk like me.

Also, there is a full three-season gap between the Tigers' last playoff bid in 2006 and 2010. Just sayin'.

In other news I have a ton of cards that came in, and a few galleries that are near completion. With my heavy work and rat-chasing days behind me (oh please be behind me), look for some catching up in the next few days. The cards, they are pretty so stick with me.

Misc. Bad Wax asks if Alex Gordon will ever be a star, I really, really hope so. Curtis Granderson is fitting in fine on whatever that team is that he's on now. This deserves a longer post but won't get one: Talking to African-American Tigers pioneers Willie Horton and Jake Wood, photo gallery complete with a 1961 Topps! How appropriate. I prefer my compliments to be backhanded, like the title of this article: Brent Dlugach shows Tigers something new: He can hit. A grain of good news? Don't call it a comeback. Seriously, too soon.