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Tuesday, 31 July 2012
©1978
Daily Book Graphics #1141
Penulis : Unknown on Monday, 30 July 2012 | 14:12
Monday, 30 July 2012
©1962 / Design: Graham Bishop
Daily Book Graphics #1140
Penulis : Unknown on Sunday, 29 July 2012 | 14:08
Sunday, 29 July 2012
©1964
Daily Book Graphics #1139
Penulis : Unknown on Saturday, 28 July 2012 | 20:06
Saturday, 28 July 2012
©1970 / Design: R. Scudellari / Cover woodcut, Women with Shimada Hair Style, Walking on the Bridge from the Tokaido Series by Shiko Munakata
Photo de la semaine
Penulis : Unknown on Friday, 27 July 2012 | 22:08
Friday, 27 July 2012
Pour AMARTIA
Amies depuis le berceau ...
C'est le temps de l'insouciance, des confidences, des rires et des photos ... c'est l'été
...
AMITIES
Daily Book Graphics #1137
Penulis : Unknown on Thursday, 26 July 2012 | 08:13
Thursday, 26 July 2012
©1964 / Design: Guy Fleming
Daily Book Graphics #1136
Penulis : Unknown on Wednesday, 25 July 2012 | 08:14
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
©1961 / ©1966 / ©1970 / Design: John+Mary Condon / As always, check out my unpopular (I am the only contributor) John+Mary Condon group on Flickr
Daily Book Graphics #1133
Penulis : Unknown on Sunday, 22 July 2012 | 16:20
Sunday, 22 July 2012
©1958 / Design: Robert Sullivan
Daily Book Graphics #1132
Penulis : Unknown on Saturday, 21 July 2012 | 16:13
Saturday, 21 July 2012
©1970 / Design: John Wallington
Rating the Rookie Cups - 1986
This week I am going to show off the last (to date) Rookie All Star Team that did not feature any Rookie Cups on the card. The set in the spotlight this week is 1986 Topps. Some of you may have read about my personal feelings for this set in my Best Topps Set Countdown. Obviously this set means a lot to me. However, the set is definitely not known for a great, hobby-friendly, rookie class. But there were some decent players to begin their careers in 1985. This team is also notable for two reasons. First, for having no second baseman and two shortstops on the team. Second, for having a tie vote for the right-handed pitcher, the first time since 1978 with more than 10 players on the team.
Let's take a look at some of the best rookies from 1985.
Once again ratings will be on a 1-10 scale for both rookie year and career.
Glenn Davis - Houston - 1B - (Rookie) 7 (Career) 5
Chris Brown - San Francisco - 3B - (Rookie) 7 (Career) 2
Earnie Riles - Milwaukee - SS - (Rookie) 5 (Career) 3
Oddibe McDowell - Texas - OF - (Rookie) 7 (Career) 3
Larry Sheets - Baltimore - OF - (Rookie) 3 (Career) 2
Roger McDowell - New York (NL) - RHP - (Rookie) 4 (Career) 5
Tom Browning - Cincinnati - LHP - (Rookie) 9 (Career) 6
Strongest Team Members (in 1985) - Tom Browning, Vince Coleman, Oddibe McDowell
Strongest Team Members (Career) - Vince Coleman, Ozzie Guillen, Tom Browning
Weakest Team Members (in 1985) - Larry Sheets, Roger McDowell, Earnie Riles
Weakest Team Members (Career) - Larry Sheets, Mark Salas, Brian Fisher
Rockies on the team (Present and future) - 0
Overall Team Rating (1-10 compared to other RAST teams) 3
In 1985 this was a very strong team, but most of these guys peaked in their rookie years. There are no hobby superstars or anyone that even sniffed the Hall of Fame, but there are a few solid careers amongst the mostly disappointing ones.
WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA
Here are the players I feel should have been on this Rookie All Star Team. This is based on rookie year data only.
Catcher - Mark Salas - Minnesota
Although his career never took off, Salas was the best rookie catcher in 1985 over the likes of Mickey Tettleton and Tom Nieto.
First Baseman - Glenn Davis - Houston
This was probably the easiest choice of any. Davis had an outstanding rookie year and there wasn't competition other than a half season of Sid Bream.
Second Baseman - Jim Pankovits - Houston
I made this change not because Pankovits was better than Riles or Guillen (he wasn't), but because neither Riles nor Guillen played a single game at second base in 1985. There were only two rookies that played second even a little in 1985 and Pankovits was better than Paul Zuvella.
Third Baseman - Chris Brown - San Francisco
Once again, this was a relatively easy choice. Brown had a very strong rookie year and his competition of Tim Hulett and Steve Buechele just didn't measure up.
Shortstop - Ozzie Guillen - Chicago White Sox
This was the position with the toughest battle in 1985. It was neck and neck between Guillen and Earnie Riles. In the end, I chose AL Rookie of the Year Guillen because he was much better defensively at a premium defensive position. Others considered were Mariano Duncan, Jose Uribe, and Shawon Dunston.
Outfield - Vince Coleman - St. Louis, Oddibe McDowell - Texas, Larry Sheets - Baltimore
Topps got this one right. Coleman, the NL Rookie of the Year, and McDowell were easy choices, but I looked really hard to find a better choice than Sheets. It just wasn't there with Ivan Calderon of the Mariners and Steve Lyons of Boston among others.
RHP - Rick Aguilera - NY Mets
Topps went the route of using both Big Apple rookie closers as the RHP. I think a third New Yorker should have been the pick. Best known later as the Twins closer, Aguilera had a very good rookie year as a starter and gets the nod over Fisher, McDowell, and Kirk McCaskill.
LHP - Tom Browning - Cincinnati
Usually the LHP category is the weakest, but in 1985 it was arguably the strongest. Browning won 20 games, so he was an easy selection. In just about any other year, Teddy Higuera or Joe Hesketh would have been easy choices.
LAST WEEK'S TRIVIA ANSWER
Last Week's Question - What are the four franchises that have had the fewest total members of the Topps All Star Rookie Team?
Answer
San Diego Padres - 10 (most recent - 2005 Khalil Greene)
Tampa Bay Rays - 8 (most recent - 2012 Jeremy Hellickson, Desmond Jennings)
Colorado Rockies - 6 (most recent - 2008 Troy Tulowitzki)
Arizona Diamondbacks - 3 (most recent - 2008 Chris Young)
Unsurprisingly, three of the four were 90s expansion teams. The fourth team from the 90s, the Marlins, came in with 12, which makes sense considering the amount of fire sales and starting over that has happened in Florida. The Padres surprised me quite a bit. I just figured since they never really had that many good teams, there would probably be a bunch of rookies. At least three of these teams have a good shot at adding to their total next year, so all is not lost.
ROOKIE CUP TRIVIA QUESTION
As of 2012, which franchise has gone the longest without a single player appearing on the Topps Rookie All Star Team? (Hint: The player is still active)
NEXT WEEK'S PREVIEW
The 1992 team appearing on 1993 Topps.
Thanx for reading.
Todd and the Todd-lers Thursdays #4
Penulis : Unknown on Thursday, 19 July 2012 | 13:21
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Last week I skipped Todd and the Todd-lers Thursday in order to take a look back at my pre-season predictions. When the Rockies had their starting rotation set at the beginning of the season, the names involved were Guthrie, Moyer, Chacin, Nicasio, and Pomeranz. That was a LOOOONG four months ago. Now the Rockies have a widely ridiculed 4 man 75 pitch limit rotation. Only Guthrie and Pomeranz remain and each of them went through a demotion to the bullpen and the minors respectively. My favorite player collection, Christian Friedrich takes up the 3rd slot in the new rotation. The 4th and final slot in the rotation is this week's Todd-ler of the Week, Jeff Francis, who began the year with the Reds in AAA.
Let's take a look at one of only 3 remaining members (along with Helton and Tulo) of the Rockies 2007 World Series team.
TODD-LER OF THE WEEK
Jeff Francis
Total Cards Owned = 82
Jeff Francis was drafted by the Rockies in the 1st round (9th overall) of the 2002 Draft out of the University of British Columbia. Francis breezed through the minors and made his major league debut on August 25, 2004. Following Larry Walker, Francis became the 2nd Canadian to play for the Rockies. Ironically, Walker was traded to the Cardinals three weeks prior to Francis's promotion.
This card is Jeff's rookie from 2003 Topps. I am not a huge fan of Draft Pick cards. While it is kind of cool if the player turns into a major leaguer, more often than not you end with a player who couldn't get past AA.
Card grade - B
To no one's surprise, Francis won a spot in the 2005 rotation out of Spring Training. What did surprise some was that, due to injury and ineffectiveness, Francis turned out to be the most reliable Rockies starter in 2005. He ended the season with a 14-12 record with a 5.68 ERA in 33 starts and finished 6th in NL Rookie of the Year voting. That might not read impressively, but for the 67-95 2005 Rockies it definitely was a good sign for the future.
This card is from one of my least favorite Ultra sets. While it may appear that this is a Gold Medallion parallel, it is actually his "rookie" card. The rookies from the 2005 set had a bronze tint applied to the backgrounds and in my opinion they are hideous.
Card grade - F
Prior to the 2006 season, Francis pitched for his native Canada in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Francis started the 3rd game of the Classic for Canada and got lit up by Mexico to the tune of 6 runs in just over 1 inning in a 9-1 loss. The big deficit proved costly as Canada didn't move on to Round 2 due to run differential.
This card is a foil parallel akin to the blue borders in the current Opening Day set. It is a decent wind up shot and my only red foil parallel to date. It looks better in person than scanned.
Card grade - B+
By just about anyone's count, the 2007 season was a career year for Jeff Francis. He had come into his own as the ace of the Rockies and responded with a 17-9 record and a 4.22 ERA. He was a huge part of the September winning streak that led to the Rockies first playoff berth in 12 years. He became only the second Rockies pitcher to ever receive votes in the NL Cy Young voting following Marvin Freeman in 1994. He finished 9th with 1 point.
I have made my feelings known about Allen and Ginter ever since I started this blog, but I do like chocolate. Anyway, I do like this card somewhat, except for the green gas cloud behind him.
Card grade - C
During the 2007 playoffs, Francis etched his name into the baseball history books not once, but twice. He became the first Canadian-born starting pitcher to win a postseason game with a 4-2 Game 1 victory over the Phillies in the NLDS. He also won game 1 of the NLCS versus the Diamondbacks. His second record was being the first Canadian-born starting pitcher in a World Series game. That game wasn't nearly as successful with the Rockies losing 13-1 to Boston.
This card is from the underrated 2008 Finest set. I like the hexagonal photo. It is a very underused shape on cards.
Card grade - B
The 2008 season seemed like a bad dream for both Jeff Francis and Rockies fans. The follow up season to the World Series run was not a success by any means. Francis started only 22 games due to shoulder soreness and had a record of 4-10 with a 5.01 ERA. The shoulder soreness led to Francis missing the entire 2009 season because of arthroscopic surgery.
Although I am a Rockies fan and one would think that the purple chrome refractors are my favorite, I actually prefer the blue ones. They seem to pop just a little bit more.
Card grade - B+
Francis finally made it back to the big leagues in May of 2010. He was no longer counted on as the ace due to the emergence of Ubaldo Jimenez, but he was still needed. His comeback season looked an awful lot like his 2008 season. He ended up 4-6 with a 5.00 ERA in 20 games. Following the season, Francis joined the Royals as a free agent.
I thought for the longest time that this would be one of the last Jeff Francis cards I would own (even though he should have had a 2011 Topps card). That would have been a shame, because no one should have their last card in the awful 2010 Topps set. It is nice to see the purple jersey on a card again though.
Card grade - D
So far so good with Francis this year as he has a 2-2 record with a 4.76 ERA. Not bad, but for the 2012 Rockies he looks like Pedro Martinez in his prime. I am hopeful that he will get more Rockies cards in the future because thus far Francis has yet to have a great card. He has a few good cards, but doesn't yet have that standout card that I am waiting to see. If he keeps it up, there might be several more years of Rockies cards in his future.
Thanx for reading.
Wednesday Bombers #5
Penulis : Unknown on Wednesday, 18 July 2012 | 09:24
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
I'm back on track after a one day absence with the next installment of Wednesday Bombers. As you may recall, I have been delving into the Rockies deadline deals from the 20th century and checking out the results of said deals. First, I looked at the Bret Saberhagen deal from 1995 and last week I wrote about the Bruce Hurst deal from the expansion 1993 team. Both of those deals were designed to improve the Rockies pitching staff which has been an ongoing project since the Rockies were born.
Today's deal will be involving offense and a big contributor to their short history at the time. Much like the Hurst deal with the Padres, this trade was also completed intradivisionally with the Giants.
Let's take a look and see if this deal was a tad more successful than that one.
July 31, 1998
Rockies receive Giants receive
OF - Darryl Hamilton OF - Ellis Burks
RP - Jim Stoops
SP - Jason Brester (as PTBNL August 18, 1998)
ROCKIES HAUL
Darryl Hamilton was the key major league piece of this trade for the Rockies. He immediately took Burks' spot as the starting center fielder upon arrival from San Francisco. Hamilton wasn't bad for the Rockies. He hit .335 for the remainder of the 1998 season, but he did not have the power or speed of Burks. He was mainly a singles hitter, which is useful for a team. Hamilton would spend exactly one year on the Rockies roster, but I'll explore that more next week.
Jim Stoops was a high Class A relief pitcher in the Giants organization with an ERA under 1.00 at the time of the trade. The Rockies immediately promoted him to AAA. He barely missed a step with a 1.23 ERA in Colorado Springs which earned him a September call up to the big leagues. He pitched in 3 games and got a victory over the Giants in 1998. Unfortunately, he would never see the big leagues again. He spent the next two seasons in the Rockies minor leagues before moving on to the Yankees.
Jason Brester was potentially the jewel of this trade. He was the Giants 2nd round pick in 1995 out of high school and had already moved up to AA. AA proved to be Brester's peak as a pro ball player though. He stayed with the Rockies until mid-1999 before being sent to the Phillies.
GIANTS HAUL
Ellis Burks had spent 4 1/2 seasons with the Rockies after being signed to a five year free agent contract in the 1993 offseason. The Rockies believed they were going to lose him at the end of the year, so they decided to trade him. The Giants were trying to track down the Padres in the NL West, so they bit. Burks played well for the Giants in 1998, but not as well as he did in Colorado and the Giants faded to a 2nd place finish. He did re-sign with the Giants and spent two more years there where he proved he was no Coors Field fluke.
THE JUDGMENT
On the surface, it appears that the Giants won this trade by a large margin. However, a deadline deal involving a star for prospects usually means a team is loading up for a playoff run that year. The Giants fell short in this case, losing the wild card by 1 game to the Cubs. If Burks had not re-signed, this trade would have been a push. Since he did re-sign, Hamilton didn't match Burks's stats in Colorado, and the pitchers proved to be not much more than minor league filler, I'd have to say the Giants win this one. But not by as much as it you first think.
This is also the last trade completed between the Giants and Rockies. It is the longest current trade drought for the Rockies with any team in the majors.
The Rockies lose this trade as well to bring their deadline deal record to 1-2. There was one other deadline deal in the 20th century which I will explore next week. Will it bring the Rockies up to .500 or will it just drag the record down even further? Tune in next week to see.
Thanx for reading.
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