From the Pedro Binder

2001 Fleer Genuine

Looks like this is the base version of the previously mentioned “@LG” set. This one is simply “genuine.” Genuine what? I have no idea. Since it was the name of the set, and not an insert or subset, it clearly applies to every player. So, it’s not like Pedro is a “genuine ace,” although he is. It’s something genuine that is universal. But, if it’s universal, do you need to specify genuine?

Weird name aside, I actually like this card. I have no earthly idea why. The team name is in that awful script, and tilted on its side. Pedro’s name is in that awful foil, and tilted on its side. Pedro’s position (which my scanner apparently decided wasn’t worth showing) is also, tilted on its side. Pedro’s missing his right leg. It’s everything I usually list off that I hate about the card.

But it still works.

Somehow.

I like how close the picture of Pedro is cropped. I like how the contract between him and the background image in enhanced. I like how there is, in fact, a background image. The shaded border gives a splash of color without being distracting. And, of course, I’m always a sucker for the image extending over the border. That’s especially nice in this case, since the words on the left are on top of Pedro. It gives the illusion that he is striding into an area between a floating frame. Like when people hold up wooden frames for a selfie.

So, I guess this shows that there is no checklist to appeal. If there were, this card would have missed all the marks. But it somehow works.

Genuinely.

It's My Fantasy

Today's the day I'm sure many of you have been waiting for. It's the day I pretend you care about my fantasy baseball team!

Now, why would you care, exactly? I'm not really sure. But, it's baseball talk while we're still more than a week from Opening Day. So, that has to be a good thing. Right?

Just to set you up, I'm in a ten team league. 5x5 with pretty big rosters. For the first time, this year, we have 2 keepers held over from last year. They replaced the draft pick in the round they were originally taken. I had the third overall pick in a wraparound draft. Got it? Ready to see the team? Think I got any Red Sox?

C  Yadier Molina
1B Mike Napoli
2B Dustin Pedroia
3B Pablo Sandoval
SS Hanley Ramirez
CI Ryan Zimmerman
MI Xander Bogaerts
OF Mike Trout
OF Ben Revere
OF Mark Trumbo
OF Leonys Martin
U David Ortiz
U Jean Segura
U Khris Davis

SP Stephen Strasburg
SP Adam Wainwright
SP Alex Wood
RP Santiago Casilla
RP Addison Reed
P  Jon Lester
P Rick Porcello
P Matt Shoemaker

B Christian Vazquez C
B Shane Victorino OF
B Joe Kelly P
B Wade Miley P
B Clay Buchholz P

So, there you have it. What do you think?

What do I think? I goofed a bit, but I think OK otherwise. After all,  I got twelve Red Sox! Mike Trout was one of my keepers, so I used my first round pick on him. Jon Lester was the other keeper, but I only had to use my thirteenth round pick on him. So, I thought that was a good use of the keeper. (It would have been even better if it meant he was my thirteenth Red Sox, but that's another story.) And, before we go any further, I know I have too much of the Red Sox rotation. Kelly, Miley, and Buchholz were literally my last three picks. I knew I was just picking bench guys, and knew I wanted pitchers. For some reason, I completely forgot about getting more relief pitchers. Nine starters are going to use up all my innings by the ASG, and not leave any for the top guys. So, I'll probably drop one or two of them and get a couple quality set-up guys who don't pitch as much, but have great numbers when they do.

Which ones should I drop?

Otherwise, I like the balance. I like the Sox players, obviously. I love that Hanley still counts as a SS. He should also be OF eligible in just a matter of time. I may start Vazquez over Molina, just for fun. Especially with the unpredictability in catcher's days off, I like starting a Red Sox catcher so I should know when they'll be.

Opinions?

Winning with Aces

There has been a lot of discussion this off-season about aces. Specifically, about the Red Sox lacking one. You need one if you’re going to compete, they say. Especially in the playoffs, you need that true ace to lead the way. Which, admittedly, is a valid point. It sure is handy if you have a true ace. If you can count those games as automatic wins, it makes it easier on your other starters. So, I wondered. How many Cy Young winners were also World Champions? How many pitchers added the award to their mantle the same year they added a ring to their finger? Well, the last time that happened was Randy Johnson with the Diamondbacks. In 2001. Before that? Greg Maddux with the 1995 Braves. Those are the only two that I could come up with since the strike. So, it’s never happened with an AL team since then.

Wow.

I then looked at World Series winners who even had a former Cy Young winner on the team. The problem with that is teams like the Giants and Red Sox the last three years who had pitchers like Peavy, Lincecum, and Zito on the team. They weren’t exactly pitching like an ace as they won their rings. Best I could tell, the last former Cy Young winner to lead his team to a ring was Sabathia with the 2009 Yankees. But, that might be up for debate.

What does that mean? Not a ton, obviously. After all, just because a player didn’t win the Cy Young Award, it doesn’t mean they weren’t a damn fine pitcher. Heck, Josh Beckett probably should have won the award in 2007 on his way to a ring. But, it does mean that in 18 of the last 20 years, the World Series Champion didn’t have the best pitcher in the league.

I’m also not suggesting that adding the Cy Young winner to any of the teams that won would have been a bad thing. All things being equal, replacing Jake Peavy with Clayton Kershaw last year would not have made the Giants any worse. (OK. Maybe Kershaw is a bad example.) But, I think it speaks to the balance that you need to have in a roster. After all, even with a true ace, you need 24 other guys as well. If you can’t get quality guys in those spots, it doesn’t matter how good the ace is. (See 1999-00 Pedro Martinez.)

Because, even with an ace, a couple things can happen. He can actually lose the games he pitches. Sometimes even an MVP like Kershaw gets lit up in a game, and the team loses. Then that win you were counting on goes away, and the rest of your scrubs have a much taller order. Or, the specifics of the playoffs come into play. Take Pedro in 1999. He won every game he pitched in the ALCS. But, because he needed to pitch game five of the ALDS, he only appeared in one ALCS game. The rest of the rotation couldn’t get him to a second start.

So, one way around that is to add more aces. After all, even Johnson had Schilling in 2001. And, the Braves #2 and #3 starters in 1995 weren’t exactly John Wasdin. Then you’re not relying on the single ace. You have multiple aces to fall back on.

But, then again, didn’t the Tigers just have a rotation with the three previous Cy Young winners in it? Didn’t they lose to an aceless Orioles team?

Or, you go the other way. I’ve laid it out here before. I always wondered if it was a better move to concede a game against Pedro in the playoffs. Throw a bullpen guy against him, and save your ace to win game two. Which is almost like what the Sox are looking at. Throw game one, but compete in all the others. Instead of winning the battle of the aces, win the battle of the #4.

That might just work as well as any other plan.

The Cy Young plan doesn’t work.

From the Pedro Binder

2002 SPx

Yeah. I know.

Somebody has to like these cards.

I feel like I have to apologize every time one of these come up. I know that card designs don’t need to appeal to 100% of the collecting world. If they did, they’d only need to make one set and we’d all gobble it up. But, that’s not possible. So companies have to throw out some variety. Some people will like some. Some will like others. Some may like them all.

I’m not one of those.

This is the kind of card that makes me wonder what collecting is all about. What am I collecting, exactly? Am I after anything that somebody slapped a picture of Pedro on that meets some approximate dimensions? If that’s the case, this seems to fit the bill.

There’s a picture of Pedro stuck on there. Although, the cropping (or is it shading?) eliminates any of the background. Honestly, I can’t even tell if the little background I can see is part of the actual picture, or not. But, I see the big SPX logo splashed in the back. I see it again in the corner. The design doesn’t seem especially imaginative, or interesting. It’s just sort of there. Again, I know there are limits to what you can do with a piece of cardboard design-wise. If the card companies know that, you wonder why they keep pumping out so many every year. You think they’d save some to have later.

But, here we are. A card with Pedro on it. It’s now in the binder.

Color me underwhelmed.

Kevin Youkilis Live

When I wished Kevin Youkilis a happy 36^th birthday a few days ago, I admitted that I was never a big fan of his. It’s not like I disliked him or anything. He just never really did anything for me. I don’t really know why. I was wondering if he didn’t perform very well when I was at Fenway. That might have been enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Looks like it’s time to dive into the scorecards again.

Looking them over, it appears that I saw Youk play in 30 games at Fenway. (Again, at least I scored 30 games Youk played in.) How did he do?

In 103 AB, Youk batted .437 with 7 HR and 30 RBI. Wow. Doesn’t look like he performed that poorly.

In fact, if you project those totals over a 660 AB season, he would have hit 45 HR, and driven in 179 runs. Damn. He walked a lot too. During those 30 games, his OBP was 0.521. Add that to his 0.748 SLG, and he had an OPS in games I attended of 1.268.

Yeah, those are MVP type numbers.

I saw Youk over a pretty good cross section too. From once in 2005, to twice in 2012. You’d expect that, after all, for a position player. I probably saw him most of the time I went to the park.

Clearly, it wasn’t his performance while I was there that didn’t draw me to Youkilis. I guess it’s still a mystery. After all, with that performance during games I attended, I should be idolizing the guy. Huh.

How did Youk do in games you attended?