Zach Putnam One Step Closer: Promoted to AAA Columbus

Is it ironic that I take pleasure today in a bit of Indians-related news less than 24 hours after the parent franchise walked all over my beloved Tigers?

From the hard news stalwart Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, I learned this morning that, indeed, Zach Putnam has been called up to AAA.

Right-handers Zach Putnam and Rob Bryson moved one step closer to the big leagues Sunday.

Putnam, a fifth-round draft choice in 2008, was promoted to Columbus after going 4-1 with a 3.86 ERA and three saves in 20 games (seven starts) for Akron.

This comes only two days after my barber back in Ann Arbor told me that Putnam had been promoted (despite the fact that I couldn't corroborate the story anywhere), and has led me to believe one of two things: Either my barber is prone to hyperbole, talking up the status of his own clientele or is prescient. I'll believe the latter, thank you very much. I guess there's a third option too, that the call up happened, but not officially given the formalities of roster moves, and that a Michigan barber in a rival state picked up the news before local Ohio papers. You know, seeing as how he probably cuts Putnam's dad's hair too that might actually be the case. Hmm.

Anyway, this is great news for Zach Putnam, who has had a pretty good season between the starting rotation and the bullpen (in the closer's role) and is clearly the beneficiary of a Cleveland Indians franchise that is looking to give its young talent all the chances in the world--especially the pitchers. If he can perform at AAA, a promotion to the show may be possible this season--something that seemed remote as little as a month ago.

It is worth noting that in his last five appearances, Zach has a 0.00 ERA and has allowed only 2 hits and 1 walk along with 12 strikeouts in 6 innings (all as a reliever). He has earned a win and a save during that time.

Zach Putnam is now an Akron Aero

Despite the fact that I have no cards of him, I am a passive collector of Zach Putnam, formerly of the University of Michigan and current Cleveland Indians farmhand. I'd like to congratulate him on making the jump from Single-A Kinston up to the AA Akron Aeros and for his 2-Inning, 0 Run, 2 Strikeout debut this weekend. If anybody busted some Razor or Donruss EEE last year and has some extra Putnam's that they don't care about, feel free to send them my way.

Putting the "M" in MLB: Classes of 2007-2009

I'm on the west coast today which means that I woke up at the crack of dawn and had some time to spare, but apparently not enough, as I can only get back to 2007 before my day had to start. Treat this as a "Part 1," then.

A long time ago, I started a feature on this blog that was going to trace the University of Michigan's baseball alumni as they made their way through the ranks of the minors and emerged in the Major Leagues. It was going to be a regular thing. It lasted one post. Oops.

Well, with the first day of the MLB draft over (and all of the Michigan players still on the board), I feel as though I've been given one more shot. To re-start this feature, I'm going to do a quick rundown of Michigan's major league players and hopefuls. This time though, I'll keep up it. I promise.

Chris Fetter, P

image from formerlyanonymous' stellar 2009 baseball season recap

Michigan's 2009 bright spot and lone 2009 draftee was pulled into the Padres system and had a very nice 2009, posting a 1.66 ERA between his stops with the Eugene Emeralds (A-) and the Fort Wayne Tin Caps (A). He posted a stellar .985 WHIP and 75 Strikeouts over 65 innings with only 14 walks. That was good enough to earn a promotion...

...which hasn't worked out so well so far. In only 4 games this season his K/BB ratio has plummeted from 5.36 to 1.56 for the Lake Elsinore Storm (A+) That probably explains the ERA of 6.00 and the WHIP of 1.714. Since this is still A-ball Fetter will have a chance to work things out over the season, but he's going to need to make a big impression in a hitter-happy league to continue his progression through the ranks.

As for the fantastic 2008 draft class:

Jason Christian, SS A fellow Cal leaguer, the 2008 draftee (5th round) is playing this season for the Stockton Ports (A+) in the Oakland A's system. The shortstop that never really had a prolific bat to begin with benefited from a stellar 2008 Michigan team that likely raised the profile of the whole group. He had a .261/.341/.385 slash line for the Kane County Cougars (A) last season, but has struggled so far at the next level, .162/.295/.162 so far in 2010. To his credit, Christian has a good eye and pretty good speed, which may keep him progressing through the minors if he can just sneak that batting average up a bit.

Zach Putnam, P

image via Boston Wolverine's flickr stream
Zach is the man. He was the rock of the 2007 and 2008 Michigan teams and is the player who's career I'm most interested in, by far. Heck, I've posted about him one way or another thrice and officially collect his cards, despite not actually owning any of his cards. Zach was a player that was projected (1st-2nd rd.)to be drafted much higher than he actually was (5th round), but was the first of the Michigan class to make the leap to AA after only 8 games at the lower levels. Still with the Akron Aeros (AA), he has been converted back into a starter (he started in College, was converted to reliever when he made the leap to AA and is now back in a starting role), and has a 4.02 ERA in 11 games so far this season.

It's hard to see exactly how Zach projects out right now. The hard-throwing righty with a very heavy sinker has seen his K/9 fall from roughly 9 to around 6 from this year to last, but that is something that is likely explained by a switch out of the bullpen. His K/BB ratio has been consistent and good at 3.86, although you'd like to see him get his WHIP (1.339) down a touch further if he's going to be able to take advantage of an Indians franchise that is in need of pitching, and badly.

Adam Abraham, 1B/3B The 13th Rounder (2008, Indians) was a heck of a hitter, but it hasn't translated so far. Currently battling for the Lake County Captains (A) he was .257/.334/.389 last season and .171/.224/.291 so far this year. An uncertain place in the field 1B/3B/DH makes me wonder whether his progress has stalled.

Nate Recknagel, 1B Boy the Indians love themselves some Wolverines. The 2008 Big Ten Player of the year was drafted in the 19th and is in his first full season with the Kinston Indians (A+) of the Carolina League after a late-season promotion last year. He's not mashing the ball the way you might hope (.746 OPS), but he's hanging in there.

Michael Powers, P Powers was picked in the 31st round of the 2008 draft by the Mets and is currently pitching pretty well for the Savannah Sand Gnats. Small sample sizes being what they are, his 2.59 ERA, 1.068 WHIP, 3.38 K/BB and 10.0(!) K/9 looks real nice on the season so far. And it may be the case that he can keep it up. Since 2008 his composite numbers show a 3.21 ERA, 1.173 WHIP, 3.17 K/BB and an 8.4 K/9 indicating that, if nothing else, Powers may have the stuff to make the leap to the next level of the minors.

That's it for the big 2008 draft class. Putnam is your closest to the show, but nobody is really on the fast track at this point. As for 2007...

Andrew Hess, P (2007, 19th, Detroit Tigers) Sitting down in Lakeland (A+) is not a place you want to be in your 3rd professional season and usually means the end of the road. Sure enough, Hess hasn't pitched in 2010 and apparently wrapped up his career with an 8-inning gem which isn't too bad of a way to go.

Doug Pickens, C/1B (2007, 50th, Cleveland Indians) Another Indian (A+, Kinston), Pickens looks to be little more than organizational depth at this point. Not a whole lot of progression and consistent struggles at the plate (.245/.325/.341 over his career) makes him an organizational soldier for one more season at least.

Tonight (or tomorrow morning), I'll wrap up the rest of Michigan's active draftees--including, yes, some that are actually in the Major Leagues--and hopefully be able to include some newbees from today's draft round, as well as highlight some of those "feel good" stories you might remember from the past.

Trading Philosophy

So it turns out that all this “blog” stuff can be useful for trading cards with other people. Who knew? In the interest of making life easier for prospective traders, I thought that I would post my Trading Philosophy and keep it available for easy reference.

I collect Detroit Tigers. I collect Curtis Granderson. If you have cards that fall into these categories, I will likely be interested. On occasion, I may also collect other cards. For example, Rookie Cards of Hall of Famers, 2007 and 2008 UD Masterpieces have also fallen under my collecting radar.

My philosophy is simple: I am willing to trade anything for cards that I need for my collections. I don’t care about the value of the cards. That said, I’m not going to make trades that are patently unfair, but I’m certainly not going to be splitting hairs.

My primary collections are this:

Topps Detroit Tigers—Base, Inserts, GU, Auto etc.
Curtis Granderson—All Brands/Cards

Secondary collections may include:
Upper Deck Detroit Tigers—Base Only
Hall of Fame RCs
Detroit Tigers in Topps Chrome, Heritage, Goudey, A&G, All Time Fan Favorites, Topps Retired
Zach Putnam—All Brands/Cards

Tertiary collections may include: Other Tigers Cards, other interesting cards

All of my Detroit Tigers wants are available (in checklist form) in the Wantlist in the sidebar. If you have a card that isn’t on the checklist, it means that I don’t know of its existence and likely need it. The wantlist is a spreadsheet. There are tabs on the bottom for different categories, and little arrows to make the tabs scroll. My Granderson wants are part of my Ultimate Checklist series, which is ongoing. If in doubt, ALL of my Granderson cards (except '08 M&M) can be seen in my Curtis Granderson Collection (also in the sidebar).

My tradelist is also in the sidebar. Every single card that I’ve acquired since 2007 is in that spreadsheet. Tabs across the bottom also help categorize things. Cards may be cross referenced into different categories. You can also organize these cards, the way you would a spreadsheet, by player, team, brand, card number etc. I constantly upgrade my Wantlist and my Tradelist to reflect the most accurate information available.

If you are interested in trading with me, just send me an email.

That’s it…Happy Trading!

The Grand Scheme Welcomes You To The Club

What is the Grand Scheme? Explanation Here

I Want This



Welcome To The Club
It has been some time since I added any blogs to my “Card Blogs Of Merit” section of the sidebar. In fact, it was last February when I welcomed Night Owl Cards to the list, and have since added about a billion RSS feeds to my Google Reader. In so doing, I find that there are some blogs that consistently produce great content that I find myself compelled to read every time they post. With that, welcome to the club:

Wrigley Wax
Beardy’s Baseball Blog

I’m not going to attempt to justify their inclusion on the list over anybody else, so don’t try me. I will say this though, every time they post, I find myself clicking over to read what they’ve written—seldom do their posts linger unread.

Yes, there are other blogs out there that I like a lot, and as more time passes and I find myself continuously drawn back to certain blogs, they too will invariably make the list. For now though, welcome to the club you two, may extra hits from my site rain upon you freely.

Curtis Wins 2009 Marvin Miller Man Of The Year Award…
Yeah, I wrote about this yesterday but Curtis Granderson officially won the award, as revealed on Mike & Mike In The Morning The news was picked up yesterday afternoon by the Detroit media, one who presented the underwhelming headline “Tigers’ Curtis Granderson Recognized For Volunteer Work,” which, um, understatement of the year, considering what he won? I hate to say it, but the Free Press article isn’t much better. Don’t hurt yourselves fellas.

...Sponsored by Upper Deck Baseball Cards
That’s right. This was the long precursor to the Granderson announcement that I’ve been hearing all week: All week here on Mike and Mike in the morning we are presenting the 2009 MLB Player’s Choice Awards presented by Upper Deck. “It’s Not Worth Collecting If It’s Not Upper Deck.” This was often preceded and followed by an Upper Deck radio ad on ESPN radio.

Woah. First of all, good for Upper Deck on this trying to increase the profile of baseball cards on a national level. I was surprised that these ads were airing and am on board 100%. Isn’t it weird though, that this is happening right as Upper Deck is about to lose their MLB license? Obviously, they are not conceding baseball cards, and seem to be strengthening their relationship with the MLBPA by sponsoring these awards. Yet to someone in the know (me), this seems like a defensive move to prevent the HUGE DROPOFF IN SALES that will accompany cards with no jersey logos or team names. To the average listener though—likely someone who hasn’t thought about baseball cards in quite some time—they may be compelled to buy a pack or two, which may draw people back into the hobby to some degree. If nothing else, it is reintroducing baseball cards into the public consciousness. I’ll be interested to see how this works out and if Topps pursues a similar type of mass media marketing at some point (like by sponsoring the actual end of the year MLB awards—that would be a real F U to Upper Deck, no?)

Is This Good Or Bad?
In the category of “this has a point but you need to stick with me,” Mark Teixeira has signed an exclusive memorabilia agreement with Steiner Sports. Why do I care?

This is why.

I posted that nary a month after I started this blog, so it is very, very likely that you have never read it. As it is close to my heart, it is recommended reading.

Skipping the story, eh? Here’s a picture:



Now go read.

Given all that, this begs the question, is this good or bad for me? On the one hand, my chances of getting my replacement ball signed have now gone up exponentially—he will probably have mail-in signings that I can take advantage of. However, the cost of getting my ball signed has also exploded, much to my chagrin. I’m thinking that ship sailed as soon as he joined the Yankees, but this drives it home. Also, this pretty much kills my chances of explaining the story to him in person at a signing, since I won’t really be able to make it up to New York much.

Thoughts?

Topps Series 4 Exclusives
Like that Kaline card up top? Yeah, me too. I find I'm often disappointed with a final team checklist because I always end up finding one or two players that should have had cards and others who really shouldn’t have. Imagine my pleasure then when I saw these:



Oh and there are more. DavidSB over at the Detroit Sports Collectors Forum put together a complete bonus set which, if manufactured, I would buy today.

Empty Cup Of Coffee
Once upon a time I did a parallel post of Tigers who were only Tigers for a tiny bit of their careers. This was intended to follow posts made at The Spot Starters. Unfortunately, he went way too fast on the next five installments, I got overwhelmed looking for cards of these guys that were damn near impossible to find, and it just stopped being worth it. Moral: something about biting and chewing. My apologies.

Misc. Zach Putnam has two starts in the Arizona Fall League and a 0.00 ERA. More team set addendums from Wrigley Wax--also Bobby Scales has a rookie refractor but not a regular base card in Topps U&H (!) I don’t care what you say, this card is awesome. Looks like another card belongs on my 2005 Topps Wantlist. You give a little, you get a little.

M in the MLB: 2010 Cardboard Round-Up

You may know that I happen to have a passionate love (a passionate unrequited love, recently) for the University of Michigan. In the past, this has led to sporadic posts about Michigan alums and their MLB goings on. One thing that I thought would be fun this year--this is a baseball card blog after all--is to keep track of any U-M baseball players as they make their appearance on baseball cards, in many cases for the first time. So here we go, (in gallery form)!

Major Leaguers Is it sad that the abridged Upper Deck set has more U-M alums than anything Topps put out for the rest of the year?

Jake Fox

2010 Upper Deck #124	2010 Upper Deck #159

Two cards for Jake, both from the illegal Upper Deck set. He's shown here as a cub, but actually started the 2010 season with the A's and finishing it with O's.

Rich Hill

2010 Upper Deck #90	2010 Allen & Ginter #AGA-RHI

Rich Hill has an autographed card in a marquee set that pictures him on a team he never played for.

Sadly, Rich's career appears to be over. He was signed as by the Cardinals last winter, released by June, signed by the Red Sox (for whom he pitched 4 innings), and was granted free-agency and re-signed by them this winter. Whether he actually pitches for them in 2011 is unknown.

JJ Putz

#2010 Topps Update #US-148

The former All-Star had a very strong season for the White Sox, posting in 2.83 ERA (a 153 ERA+!), a better than 4-1 K/BB ratio and 10.8 K/9. It's looking like his 2009 disaster with the Mets was an anomaly, and he's still got some life in that arm. Only one baseball card though--such is the life of a relief pitcher.

Clayton Richard

2010 Topps #456	2010 Upper Deck #417

Somewhat of a Rising Star among the alumni, the former Michigan Quarterback has the second most prolific checklist among active players--three (ok, 2 plus a team set card #SDP16 with the same picture as the regular Topps card) sets.

Bobby Scales

2010 Upper Deck #112

One 2010 card for the feel-good story of 2009.

Chris Getz

2010 Topps #508	2010 Topps Heritage #148	2010 Topps T-206 #151	2010 Topps #PPA-CGE
2010 Topps T-206 ACA-CG	2010 Triple Threads #153

Getz was the real winner this year, coming off of a successful rookie campaign in 2009, he got the full treatment, with autograph cards and all. Heck, he even made it into the high-end Triple Threads, something that I'm sure draws the ire of any collector that bought a $200 box of cards and ended up with a Chris Getz autograph. Getz, despite threads of displacement, seems like the type of player that could hang around the major leagues for a while, although he'll need to improve on the .237 avg. he ended last season with.

Down on the Farm
There are a slew of Michigan alumni in the Minors right now, only a handful of which seem to have a real shot at the show. As is the way with these things, cards are typically made of the best of the 2010 draftees, and everyone else who has been toiling away for years will just have to wait until they make it. Obviously, MiLB team sets and oddball sets aren't included here, just major releases.

Jason Christian

2010 Bowman #BP28	2010 Bowman #BCP28

This is a strange card choice. Christian was drafted in 2008 and despite having a good season in A-ball struggled after a promotion to Hi-A last year. These things take time, of course, but a Jason Christian baseball card seems a bit premature at this point.

Ryan LaMarre

2010 Bowman Draft #BDPP8	2010 Bowman Draft Chrome #BDPP8	2010 Donruss EEE #114
2010 Donruss EEE #7	2010 Donruss EEE #RL	2010 Donruss EEE #8

Not so with Ryan LaMarre. LaMarre is a beast who, by entering the draft, crushed the hopes and dreams of next year's Michigan team. The 2nd round pick struggled in a late season promotion to Hi-A, but sample size etc. Look for LaMarre to have a solid 2011, with AA being the likely destination by mid-season if he can have a good spring.

His Donruss Elite Extra Edition cards are shown here in their autographed versions, but non-auto, and a slew of parallel, versions also exist.

Matt Miller

2010 Donruss EEE #174

Not much to say about the 6'6 righty. He was a good pitcher at Michigan, was drafted in the 5th round and was ok in the Rookie League. He also joins LaMarre on one of the EEE cards. Look for Miller in Low-A to start the season, and hope for a slow, steady progression through the ranks.

--
And that's it for 2010! It goes without saying that each of these cards comes with a slew of parallel versions, which I obviously didn't highlight here. 2011 does not project to be as strong for U-M alums, but Clayton Richard may solidify his position has a legitimate starting pitcher.

Personally, I'm looking for Zach Putnam to make the leap to the bigs, something that he is certainly capable of doing after dominating AAA at the end of last season.