There are six cards in the Tigers team set. Guess how many relics there are? Yeah*
*Ok, so maybe there are only 5. You see, there are two Austin Jackson cards--one with a jersey and one with a bat--but they are actually the same card. Same card number, same picture, same everything except for the little swatch. To me this is only one card, with your choice of how you want your one square inch of memorabilia, but I could see how some people would want both.
It's not often anymore that I can find a really great deal on eBay. Sometimes good prices are obscured by ridiculous shipping rates. Sometimes an apparent steal gets jacked up at the last second. But not this time.
Two cards, one cent each, from a very nice redemption-only set (ed: much less bendy than the regular Topps Chrome this year!) . Merry Christmas to me!
Austin Jackson's snubbing in the AL Rookie of the Year voting didn't keep him from winning the most coveted award of all: the Topps Rookie Cup. For those not familiar, you might remember the rookie cup from iconic cards of iconic players such as this:
Or, um, this:
While there are risks inherent in creating an All Star Team of Rookies, as Topps does every year--namely that the majority of said rookies will end up as middling major leaguers--you can't argue that you need to have been a pretty darn good rookie to earn the award.
Although I have to believe there was a better pitcher than a 28-year old Mark Leiter that took the world by storm, going 9-7 with a 4.21 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.
Hold On To Your Loonies First, let me proclaim this: ATTENTION ALL TEAM COLLECTORS, the veritable Tunguska is hosting a 2010 Allen & Ginter CASE BREAK on his blog and as of right now, most teams are still available. I jumped on board as soon as I found out last night, and if you've got the cash to spare, I highly recommend that you do so as well. It's a case, for goodness sake. Think of the minis!
Also, Tunguska is a Canadian, and is charging just $45 Canadian per slot, which means that you can take advantage of our northern brother's favorable exchang...wait, WHAT?!?!
The Canadian dollar is currently worth more than it's American counterpart. $.97 to the Looney. It was as low as $.92 in May. In fact, monthly averages haven't shown a favorable exchange rate since February 2008 (when $1.00146 would buy us a Canadian buck). I knew things were bad in the US, but geez. This really puts things in perspective.
Even so, I recommend that you sign up for the group break if you're still looking for a way to get your A&G fix.
I think in Philly, you're considered a bad parent if you don't let your kids drink beer
Sweet mother of God, Philadelphia. You embarrass us all.
Big Potato Day Yesterday was the anniversary of Dan Quayle infamously telling a spelling bee contender that his Potato was "missing a little something on the end" (it was the E). To celebrate this, I was going to show a fancy new baseball card of the Tigers' own Big Potato, Jose Valverde. So, I went to my Series 2 pile to pull him out only to find...no Potato. Here's a pitcher who currently has an ERA under 0.70 for the Tigers and is as dominant a closer as exists in the AL and I don't have a Series 2 card of him? Considering that he was in Series 1 (as an Astro), I guess I can't complain too much, but if you're going to give me Phil Coke, why not go the extra mile with the Tigers' big free agent signing?
Still not an All-Star The latest All Star ballot results came out Monday and Miguel Cabrera is still in 3rd place among AL first basemen. This is the player that is leading the league in Home Runs. And RBIs. and has a .330 batting average. And a 1.062 OPS!
The silver light is that Justin Morneau (who, I begrudgingly admit, is also extremely deserving of All Star status) has overtaken Mark Teixeira. The worry was that the undeserving Teixeira would win the fans' vote, with Morneau selected by the players and Cabrera out in the cold...again. This is essentially what happened last year, but would be far more criminal in this season, aka "the best individual season by a Tigers player in history."
But don't take my word for it:
"You have to be careful when you talk about personal things, but like I said, if Miguel Cabrera's not on the All-Star team, then you might as well not have an All-Star team."
That's Jim Leyland, who is actually notoriously stingy with praise for his own players. But he also doesn't pull punches and he's saying what we're all thinking. If Miguel Cabrera isn't an All Star, they might as well not even play the game.
"He's in a class by himself. I haven't got to see (Albert) Pujols play too often, but what he's doing, especially in this ballpark ... this ballpark could be the only thing that keeps him from winning the Triple Crown. He's that good. The thing is, he still has a chance to be that Triple Crown candidate."
This is his direct response to a question about how Cabrera compares to ARod and David Ortiz. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty good praise.
Also, Cabrera is 26. You may now pick your jaws up off the floor.
[Cabrera] is going to win an MVP before he's done. Magglio is on his contract year."
Cabrera's eyes widened as he looked over attentively. Damon smiled back.
"That's right, MVP, baby," Damon said. "And then you take me to dinner."
And he's right. Cabrera is having an MVP-caliber season, and Magglio Ordonez has performed like Magglio Ordonez always has save for the first half of last year. There's something to say for track records, I suppose. Although he's not actually in a contract year as much as he's in an "I better play well enough for the Tigers not to bench me so that I am automatically re-upped to another elephant-caravan load of money" year. Still, no complaints from this end.
Cooling down Austin Jackson was benched last night with some back troubles, which comes in the midst of a dramatic cool-down, in which he is batting a weak .220/.235/.280 in June and is 4-41 since his 4-hit came on June 3. This is probably just a regular slump, albeit one that drags him down to the general levels he should have been in all along (.300 hitter, good XBH power), and isn't too much to be worried about. He's no Bashó after all...
I will say this about Jackson, which I may have said at other points so far this season. I am really impressed with what he has done, especially defensively. I think that he is going to be an excellent player for the Tigers for years to come and may become the career Tiger fan-favorite fans lost when Granderson was traded.
The Tigers first baseman is having a season to end all seasons. He finally will make the All-Star Game as a Tiger. He will be invited to take part in the Home Run Derby. And he’ll take his rightful place in the conversation that starts with, “Who is the best player in the game not named Albert Pujols?”
What's that you say? That quote was all about Miguel Cabrera? Hmm...maybe because that's the basis of Samuelson's argument for The Banana Tree to win the ROY. Protection. He even calls himself out on it:
Sometimes, a little too much credit is given to “protection” in the lineup. Ultimately, it’s still Cabrera doing the damage. He’s the stud. Boesch is the supporting player. But the bottom of the Tigers' lineup is so offensively challenged that the rookie has been the key to keep it going.
Indeed, sometimes too much credit is given to protection, sometimes not enough. The fact is, Boesch has excelled in his role and has both provided protection for Cabrera and inflicted a bunch of damage on his own. At the same time, just as Jackson has hit a cool streak, it is only a matter of time before Boesch--a .250 hitter in the minors--comes down somewhat as well. Bashó has surprised and impressed all of us, and if, come the end of the season, he has outperformed Jackson, and the rest of the AL rookie class, then he deserves the award for sure. I'm just not sure that a month and a half of production is enough to make the distinction yet, although it's certainly enough to put him at the forefront of the conversation.
Rookie Redemptions Which brings me back to something that I brought up yesterday: Are we going to get a Jackson or Boesch rookie redemption card of some sort? I certainly hope so and here's why:
This is the Tigers' lone rookie redemption card from the last few years--a Rick Porcello refractor (#/199) from 2009 Finest. It is a fabulous card which is an excellent addition to the team set. I would absolutely love to see Jackson or Boesch have a similar offering in 2010 Finest. It is worth noting, by the way, that though Porcello was the top of the class in 2009, he was the 9th (of 10) redemption, announced towards the end of the year. I guess there's no arguing with the hype machine, especially in this day and age.
As I write this, the Indians' Carlos Santana was announced as Topps Red Hot Rookie #1, meaning that everyone with redemptions 2 and above just saw the value of their cards increase incrementally.
Misc. I don't have much to say about other things at the moment, so I'll relegate them to here. Ooh! Except this: The custom-designed Infinite Baseball Card set, which I regrettably missed out on before it was pulled for legal reasons, has an update set available with new players! This should avoid the legal messiness that he faced before. These cards are really nice looking and I think I'm going to pick them up, although the OCD in me now wants to seek out the other 10 cards that he discontinued. Topps Attax has a follow-up set called "Battle of the Ages" in which Verlander and Cobb both have cards. They will be added to the Topps Attax gallery. Speaking of Galleries: I'm waiting on a few more cards to trickle in, but a Topps S2 gallery is in the offing. Following up on my Michigan draft posts, the Michigan Daily has a good rundown of the five 2010 draftees. Also, an excellent story on the best home-field advantage in sports. More Michigan stuff? How about the fact that realignment is what made Michigan a Big-10 power in the first place. Fingers crossed that the new realignment does the same thing. Tigers go for the sweep tonight with Verlander on the mound in a series in which they didn't have to face Stephen Strasburg, which is probably a bad thing given the ticket sales it could have brought.
2010 Bowman is live and everybody seems to be fawning over things like $1000 Stephen Strasburg cards with no picture. Which is all well and good, I guess, but I'm just happy to have my wishes granted so quickly. Tigers rookies Austin Jackson and Scott Sizemore have, for the first time, official major league rookie cards and, as importantly, official autographed major league rookie cards. And they're shiny!
As you very well may know, I choose to show refractors whenever I can, because refractors are just the coolest thing and they tend to scan better, which makes available pictures of refractor cards much nicer.
Now that the Bowman cards are out in the wild, I will put together a gallery, to go with the Pro Debut and Chicle galleries that I owe you (but which are pretty much done, I swear!). In the meantime, please continue salivating over shiny on-card autograph cards of the next great Tigers. Or, if you've got an extra $20,000 to spare, there's always more Strasburgs to go around.
Side note: How nice is Scott Sizemore's signature? He may have one of the nicest autographs going right now. Kind of puts Jackson to shame. It certainly embarrasses these guys.
Sure, he's got an insert in 2010 Topps Pro Debut, and he has some older Bowman stuff, but let's get on with the show. A real, live, major-league uniform wearing baseball card of Austin Jackson.
Ok, it's eTopps. But still, this is Jackson's first Major League card, his first "official" rookie card and his first card in a Tigers uniform of any variety (even though it is a spring training photo.) eTopps or no eTopps, those are all good things.
The card is having it's "public offering" right now with an IPO price of $6.00 and a print run limited to 999 copies. So if you, like everybody else these days, are speeding away on the Ajax bandwagon, here's your chance.
On a related note, who wants to place bets that he is announced as Topps Finest Rookie Redemption #3 within the next 10 days? That's where my money is.
It's May 3rd and it has already reached this point.
The Tigers and Yankees have each played just over 20 games, but I can't wait any longer to look at the evidence of who got the better of their off-season trade.
The principle pieces in the trade were Curtis Granderson going to New York and rookie Austin Jackson coming to The D. So far, it looks like a complete steal for the Tigers.
--snip--
The trade almost feels lopsided at this point.
Now don't get me wrong. I have been very, very impressed with Austin Jackson so far this season. He has hit well, fielded well, run the basepaths well--he seems primed to have a long and fruitful major league career and a handful of accompanying accolades.
Meanwhile, Curtis Granderson who, I would like to say, started off even better than Jackson just wrapped up an epic 4 for 37 slump with a Grade 2 groin strain that will keep him out for four weeks, at a minimum.
Clearly, the Tigers made out like bandits in this trade. Austin Jackson is the second coming. Curtis Granderson is finished. Etc.
Lest we forget, Austin Jackson started the season with EPIC numbers by having a historically high batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and striking out at an incredible rate. These things are known.
Yet something has changed. For one, Austin Jackson, all of a sudden, stopped striking out. On April 27th the Detroit Free Press printed an article that included this story about Jackson.
Jackson has taken a step to reduce the strikeouts; he did so after he saw a highlight last week of a swing by Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria. "He wasn't trying to crush the ball -- he wasn't using a lot of effort, but he was taking his hands right to the ball, and he hits the ball farther than anybody," Jackson said. "I looked at some of my tapes, and I was trying to generate power with my body. I was pulling off a lot of outside pitches. So now I'm trying to use my hands more instead of getting my swing started with my body."
Prior to that quote, Jackson had struck out in every game he had played in his major league career, racking up an incredible 32 in his first 19 games. Starting on the 27th he didn't strike out for four straight games, and has only struck out twice in his last 26 at bats. That is good news indeed.
Still, it is hard to wrap your head around the rookie who is leading the major leagues in hits, but continues to terrorize opposing teams thanks to a BABIP that appears aided by a half dozen rabbits' feet and pockets full of four leaf clovers that he picks from Comerica's center field grass.
How unlucky was Bruce? Would you believe that last year he was dead last in BABIP in the entire National League? It's true.
Even if we assume that Bruce's approach last year was flawed - and we happen to believe it was (he swung at bad pitches, tried to jerk the outside pitch over the fence, and did not wait for his pitch) - he was still unlucky.
By the way, the early sample size from this season indicates he's improving in all those categories.
I've seen estimates that Bruce's BABIP with normal luck would have been anywhere from .270 to .294. That would have meant anywhere from 12 to 18 more hits during the year - or 35 to 50 points in batting average.
Thirty-five to fifty points!
Even if those 12 to 15 hits are all singles, that's 60 to 100 points more of the beloved on-base average plus slugging.
And what do you think Bruce's BABIP is this year? Would you believe that a week ago it was .205? He was hitting in worse luck than he did last year, when he was dead last in the league. But through Thursday's games, he was up to .250, indicating that his luck might be improving.
And he's been hitting the ball on the line 20 percent of the time. The estimators say his BABIP should be somewhere between .290 and .310.
He has made an early impression with the Reds, and it's not just about his .432 batting average, .533 on-base percentage or .757 slugging percentage. Right from the start, he showed he fit in with an unusual ability to laugh at himself.
--snip--
No surprise, Bruce is getting the last laugh. Heading into this season, in many circles he was considered baseball's best positional prospect. Yet, a start that included 16 hits in 30 at-bats is an attention grabber, no matter what the expectation.
Asked to explain his Red-hot start, Bruce said simply "Sample size."
The best part of that entire article?
Volquez: Another Pedro?
Um, no.
So here we are, one month into the season. One month? Jay Bruce's torrid start in 2008 is just a memory faded by a poor approach and unbelievably bad luck. I'm pretty sure the Jeff Franceour Hall of Fame plaque was melted down after he was unceremoniously shipped out of Atlanta. Jason Heyward...well, he's just awesome. What can I say?
As for Austin Jackson, I think Kurt at Bless You Boys says it best:
Just be sure to keep a spoonful of perspective when thinking about it. I get the feeling some people out there would have been happy to swap the players one-on-one knowing what they do today. But asking "Granderson Who?" before 20 percent of the season has even been completed is a bit too much for me.
If you flipped Granderson's completely bad luck on balls in play (.267) with Jackson's unsustainable good luck (.500+), would you like this trade nearly as much?
Of course, many still would, and we heard from them throughout the offseason.
But give a little time for the hots and colds to even out before making too definitive of a statement. The season doesn't end the first weekend in May; a lot can change.
Indeed, the future is bright for Jackson--something I think few will dispute--but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that he will continue on this path. I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm just saying that it has never been done before in the history of baseball and to continue in this way would make him the best hitter of all time. But yeah, he could totally do it.
The point is this: Austin Jackson has made the impression that we all needed him to make. He is our anesthetic for the trade that shook up the town. He is the future. He has been a key reason that the Tigers have been able to win night after night--even after their starting pitchers imploded one by one. And while I advise caution, please, as we all set our expectations for the rest of the season, we can shoot for any number of things instead of say, shooting for the moon.
How about Rookie of the Year, to start? Or even better, just be good enough to keep the Tigers in a playoff hunt. There's no reason to believe that either of those are out of reach.
