The death of the 4 man rotation..or today's pitchers are wusses

Good Wednesday evening to you all, hope that your week is going smoothly so far.

As I was leafing through the cards I have so far towards my '77 Topps set, I noticed a couple of big name pitchers in the pile.

Wilbur Wood was one of them.  Wood's career spanned 17 seasons between 1961 & 1978.  His primary success was during his time with the Chicago White Sox.  Check out the back of his '77 card:

Focus on the seasons between 71-75.  The lowest total of innings thrown was 291!  Yes, I know that Wood was a knuckleballer, but to throw 377 innings in a season, you have to be doing something right on the mound.  With 24 wins and a 2.51 ERA, he sure was doing something right.  By the way, here's a little trivia for you.  Wilbur was the last pitcher to start both ends of a doubleheader. 

OK, so you want some more evidence because a guy who throws a flutterball doesn't count.  How about Steve Carlton?  Here's the back of his '77 card:

346 IP and 27 wins in 1972!  Carlton was no knuckleballer, he threw one of the nastiest sliders the game has ever seen. 

Nolan Ryan was another pitcher famous for throwing a ton of innings.  In '73 Nolan pitched 326 innings, followed by 332.2 innings in '74. 

These guys weren't just freaks of nature.  This was more the norm rather than the exception.

So what's changed?  Arms are still the same in humans now, correct?  During the past two years, there has been only one pitcher each year to throw 250 innings.  Contrast this to 1988 where Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds was 10th in MLB with 250.2 innings.

What is the phenomena that's causing the change?  Has the money that's involved in the game today necessitated this drastic decline in innings pitched?  Has the way that pitchers pitch today changed so much that their arms are more susceptible to injury?

I found a great article by Jerome Holtzman that showcases some of what I've been talking about here.  If you don't want to read the article, at least take this quote from the great Sandy Koufax....

"To me, a quality start," Koufax insists, "is when the starting pitcher is still on the mound when the game is over and his teammates rush out of the dugout to congratulate him on the victory."

I always think about this in September when announcers talk about 3 days of rest for pitchers when they are in the middle of a pennant race.  More often than not, it seems that pitchers on 3 days rest in today's game get blown up, likely because they don't know how to prepare. 

Roy Halladay....give me 275 innings and 23 wins this year, and I'll take my words back.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I can't say anything about these cards...

For me, the cards say it for themselves...

Thanks for looking, Robert

More fun with cards...1998 Upper Deck

All right gang, Tuesday evening is here and it's time to have a little bit more fun with some cards.

I dug around the older stuff, and blew the dust off of some 1998 Upper Deck cards.   Take a trip down memory lane with me...if you're old enough!

Speaking of old & having memories, do you remember these two guys together as Cardinals, because I sure don't!!

40 years of experience in these 2 pictures

Or do any of you remember this guy as a Cincinnati Red?

 

I may not be able to remember Pendleton as a Red, but this next guy will forever be a Red....congrats again Barry on the HOF election!!

HOF class of 2011

One more stretch of your brains, especially for the older folk.  Remember when you went to bed at night and the TV stations went off the air and showed a test pattern?  This next card reminded me of one of those old test patterns.

Thank you for watching, and good night

OK, here's one for those who have had one too many and may be seeing multiple images right now...

 

Or how about Heathcliff Slocumb trying to impress all the women at the game by showing his chest...

For those hot days when air conditioning  just isn't cutting it.

OK...now, here is my vote for ugliest uniform of the 90's...if you're nauseous right now you may wanna turn away.

Wonder how much these game used uniforms sold for...

I've been lucky finding play at the plate cards lately...so here's another one for Brian

looks like Powell is dead to rights

I think that there should be at least one card in each set each year of a player signing an autograph for a fan.  I have always enjoyed these cards...

We all now that Vlad the great has been a tremendous hitter over his career.   With the looks on the faces of these two pitchers, I'm pretty sure that they were the exact opposite.  Reynoso's porn stache is classic.

Julian, see the ball, bunt the ball

Sometimes, when you run out of topics to write about like I have....it's easier just to look at a bunch of cards and have some fun with them. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Blah.... I just don't feel like writing

Good Monday evening to you all, hope that you survived the worst day of the work week.

Honestly, I just don't feel like writing tonight.  The winter blahs have really got me down more than ever.  I've noticed more and more the past few years that when winter hits, I get moody.   I'm tired of the snow, and I wish the winter would go by faster than a fastball thrown by this guy:

I have to be careful though, when I start to wish that life goes by faster than it should, I remember how fast this guy's life ended, and think twice about it...

 

But on to more trivial matters than life and death....I took a look at the next card and wondered if this guys first name was Austin.

I wonder if he may have been super.

I also found a couple of cards that made me wonder a little about Topps.  First, I wonder if they knew Mr. Green here was going to be standing with his right hand on his hip.

 

Come on Topps, get this stuff right!   Blah...

Next, I wonder what Topps was thinking when they marketed a pole dancing card to kids, I mean...come on now!!  At least if you're going to produce this card...get me Kristi Yamaguchi or Hope Solo...

 

I saw this next card and remembered just how old I really feel lately:

 

This photo was taken at the old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.  See those seats in behind Fred McGriff there?  During the late 70's and early 80's, we could go to the Dominion grocery store and buy those seats for $2!!  They were also general admission, so you could sit anywhere that you wanted.  

You can't even buy a pencil for your scorecard for $2 now....

Hopefully you haven't found my sense of humor as warped as this card:

That appears to be Aaron Hill doing his best imitation of a fish jumping out of water.  

Not too bad for a guy who didn't want to write anything tonight....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Learning that Topps Chrome is no different than the flagship

Good Sunday evening to you all, what a weekend of football to watch!!  I believe that both of the championship games are going to be excellent to watch, and I am looking forward to them already.

As I mentioned yesterday, I picked up a couple of discounted blaster boxes of '11 Topps Chrome, as I am working towards putting together the set.

Topps Chrome, for me, is no different from the flagship in that there are several "unnecessary" parallels in which the collector is bombarded. 

It's kind of disappointing actually.  I like these cards, and this is the first time that I'm attempting to put a Topps Chrome set together.  Let's see, we have....Base refractor, X-fractor, "Vintage" Chrome parallel, Atomic parallel, Purple border, orange border, Heritage Chrome.  Count them folks....7!!  I do like the cards, but 7 variations of cards when you get only 32 in a blaster box, well it's kind of overkill. 

Anyhow, here's some pics to show you all what I managed to pull.  The cards will just not sit still on the scanner for me.

The Chipper Jones Vintage was the best of an OK lot in box 1...

 

Box 2 was the box of the horizontal cards, as I pulled 3 of them in various refractor forms.  Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson was the best pull out of here.

The purple and Heritage chrome variations were all cards that will go to the insanity set.   It was also interesting to note that the purples and heritages came out of the same pack in each of the boxes.  

I also pulled a redemption card for a Danny Espinosa auto rookie variation base.  I believe from the 2 boxes I pulled about 35 cards towards my set as well.   Still a ways to go with only 94 out of the 220 cards pulled for the set. 

I have some doubles to trade if anyone is so inclined...just drop a comment or send me an email at rmitchell6700 at yahoo dot com. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

I guess patience is my #2 virtue

Good Sunday morning to you all, hope that your weekend is going well so far.

If any of you read my post from yesterday, you saw a Brett Lawrie card.  That card was received in a package from a trade that I completed on the Bench website at the end of November!

I purchased some serial numbered cards off of a guy, and he also had a pretty good deal on a Brad Penny Diamond Kings jersey/bat/auto card (actually it was a great deal..$2, and serial numbered 11/50).  Well the original envelope that I received had the serial numbered cards, but no Penny.  After a few emails back and forth, this beauty showed up at my door yesterday ...

As I was only expecting that card, the other cards in the envelope were a real surprise.  The Brett Lawrie card was one, and the other is the reason for the title of this post.

 

2010 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor Brian Moran of the Mariners.   No biggie you say...well it was a biggie for me because of the back.

Serial #2!!  Absolutely sweet.  The first page of the insanity set is now almost complete.

Anyone out there have a serial #5 card in their possession?  That is all I am away from completing the first page, which I thought would be one of the most difficult ones to finish. 

If you have it, please send me an email at rmitchell6700 AT yahoo DOT com.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Week 25 begins with spring training dates

Good Saturday to you all, hope that your weekend is going well.  We just got another two inches of snow here in western PA overnight, and with that I actually bring some good news...

Spring training dates for the 30 major league teams.

Man I can't wait.  Spring training for me means spring is just around the corner, and hopefully with that the removal of unwanted snow. 

Want to find out when your team's reporting date is?   Click here for the details.  Pitchers and catchers report for the Blue Jays on the 22nd of Februrary, with the first full squad workout to occur on the 25th. 

Here's hoping that this guy can win the every day 3rd base job, and keep Jose Bautista in RF where he's more suited..

2011 Bowman Chrome BCP175

Brett Lawrie came up to the Jays and debuted on August 5th, and played 43 games the rest of the way with a .293 avg and 9 HRs.  Doesn't hurt that he's Canadian as well, because if he has a full season in '12 similar to the finish of 2011, he'll be the toast of Canada.  The Jays acquired Lawrie in a 2010 off-season deal with the Brewers for Shaun Marcum.  So far, it's looking as if both teams are going to make out well in the trade.

On the card front, I'll have posts today and tomorrow on the 2 discounted blaster boxes of Chrome that I picked up today.  Didn't fare too badly...

Thanks for reading, Robert