The Best of the Rest: 2024

There are two types of 'Best of the Rest' posts, the likes of which I make to celebrate the eliminated teams with superlatives upon the end of the regular season. There are the ones which I can handily prep a week before posting due to the settled-in quality of the playoff races, or there are the ones where I have to work in contingencies and backups due to the ongoing playoff matches til literally the final moments of the season.

This is...one of the latter.

It's not that I don't enjoy an exciting finish to the season, as I routinely do. But it makes a post like this so hard to prep because I have to prepare for teams that may at the last second make the leap to suddenly not be in this post. In this case, the NL Wild Card race left essentially three spots up in the air til today. I worked in enough alts to have superlatives if the D-Backs, Braves or somehow the Mets missed it, but it was a lot to prepare for.

Still, these are eighteen teams that fought hard [well...seventeen of them fought hard], and want to walk away with at least something, and I enjoy making these posts because I get to give them little superlatives and awards just for making an amusing, entertaining season for me.

So, let's get on with this year's Best of the Rest post, already in progress:

Most Likely to Succeed [According to the Sportswriters in January]: San Francisco Giants

Team That Peaked Too Early: St. Louis Cardinals

Team That Peaked Too Late: Oakland Athletics

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in 2023: Miami Marlins, no contest

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in June: Minnesota Twins

Best Squanderer of Any Hope That Has Ever Existed: Chicago White Sox

Best Pitching Staff for a Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: THE SEATTLE MARINERS.

Worst Pitching: Colorado Rockies

Most Willing to Settle: Los Angeles Angels

Worst Trade Deadline Luck: Pittsburgh Pirates

Most Depressing Team to Talk About Every Few Weeks: Tampa Bay Rays, somehow beating the White Sox by just boring the shit out of me. 

Biggest Anticlimax: Chicago Cubs

Most Likely to Kneecap Their Own Few Successes: Washington Nationals

Most Comically-Timed Injuries: TIE: Texas Rangers & Cincinnati Reds

Best Backfiring of 'Titanic' Will Never Sink Logic: Arizona Diamondbacks

Most Reluctant to Actually Hit: Seattle Mariners

Most Inopportune Time to Completely Run Out of Gas: Minnesota Twins

Most Fun Last Place Team: Miami Marlins

Most Unwilling to Recapture the Lighting in the Bottle: Toronto Blue Jays

Team That Has No Idea What It Wants: St. Louis Cardinals

Best Overall Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Boston Red Sox

Most Likely Not to End Up on This List in 2025: Chicago Cubs & Texas Rangers

So, that's everything. Eighteen seasons that didn't amount to anything but laying future groundwork. As for the other twelve? Tomorrow, we're gonna find out how much mileage they've got left this year.

The End Runs Through Atlanta

 

When Younghoe Hoo knocked a massive field goal to win a tight game for the Falcons against the Saints earlier today, it may have seemed, at the moment, like the biggest, most important move in Atlanta sports in a 24-hour period. But it might not be. Because tomorrow, there is going to be what is usually considering 'extra baseball', despite being the 161st and 162nd games of the Braves and Mets' season. With all three wild card teams at a standstill, everything will come down to two games in Atlanta, played between the Braves and Mets. The Diamondbacks will have to watch with baited breath, as their win over San Diego was all they could really do to save their season. 

And so...this is how it works. If the Braves win one game of the doubleheader, they're in. If they win both games, the Mets are out. If the Mets win both games, the Braves are out. And if the Braves and Mets split the doubleheader, they're both in and the D-Backs are out. Everything comes down to this.

For the Braves, everything coming down to two games in September is...not really what they had predicted at any point. Playing this season without Acuna and Strider, and with varying uses of Albies, Fried and Riley, was difficult. The magic that shone on this team when everyone was healthy last year wasn't here this year. You can argue that three of the most crucial pieces of this team, Chris Sale, Marcell Ozuna and Reynaldo Lopez, were flyer picks that could have succeeded or failed. Even today, Charlie Morton was given the opportunity to lock in a postseason spot and he couldn't. The trajectory for the Braves involved playing more divisional defense than usual, and for a team who routinely were considered the best in the last few years, it was a very rude awakening. The Phils took the division, the Mets lapped them for a month, the playoff spot didn't look like theirs for a bit. But then a lot came together in the last week and here they are.

None of this happens if the Braves don't go 7-1 since Sept. 17th. Harris and Albies are healthy and surging. Schwellenbach, Lopez, Sale and Fried have been unstoppable down the stretch. The bullpen's finishing more dignified than they've been since the championship run. Ozuna's inches from a 40-homer year. The momentum is with this team, and despite a big win over the Brewers, a team they could very well play this week, it's not with the Mets. 

If the Braves win, and oust the Mets, it'll be not only because of whatever deity thinks it's hysterical to keep causing Mets fans this misfortune, but because the Braves took an unwinnable season and still made a great run at it. Even if their season somehow ends here, you can't help but respect that.

September 2024 in Review [feat. Brayan Bello]

 

The last month of the 2024 season wrapped up with all the pomp and craziness you might expect. Records were broken, dreams were shattered, heroes were anointed, and, as we speak, one wild card race is still up in the air. But still, 98% of today's events are just running out the clock. One last go of things. For one team, it's a last game representing a city. For some, it could be the end of long, prosperous careers. But as we wrap up this season, we must also wrap up September, and cover the wild events that happened this month.

First, let's take a look back at the 5 Bold Predictions I made for September 2024:

1. Jacob deGrom finally appears and goes 'hey, what'd I miss?' Essentially. He's been pretty good in September starts, despite some conservative usage.

2. Even though it doesn't look like it right now, a wild card race comes with a great deal of last-second suspense. UM. YEAH. BOTH SIDES. The Twins being yoinked out with two days remaining were the ones who got out easy.

3. The A's farewell to Oakland is met with some avoidable controversy. To me, John Fisher posting, right before the final home series of the year, 'we tried our best', was this. You did not try your best. If you'd have tried your best the A's would be staying in Oakland. 

4. One last rookie preview of 2025 for the road. Between Rhett Lowder, Luisangel Acuna, Kumar Rocker, Kevin Alcantara, Caden Dana and Jackson Jobe, take your pick.

5. Judge beats his prior mark. Didn't happen. But he pretty much did in terms of the statistical categories that truly matter. Besides homers, I mean. I think on so many standpoints he topped his 2022 season. 

Now, let's go over 5 Things That Happened in September 2024 that No One Could Have Predicted

1. THE TIGERS COME OUT OF NOWHERE. I saw the Tigers getting good all of the sudden, and I just kinda figured they'd slow down. Like when you see a car in the passing lane in your rearview and think they'll cool off only to see them zoom past you on the way to a long park on the shoulder. The Tigers, at the end of August, gained some serious momentum, thanks to preexisting runs by stars Skubal and Greene, and now sharpening runs by Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows and Jace Jung. And now, because this team didn't let up at all in September, they've nabbed a playoff spot, and will likely be facing the Astros in a wild card series. And isn't that a David/Goliath matchup. The team that always wins vs. the team that hasn't won in over a decade. You know who I'll be rooting for.

2. Shohei Ohtani makes his own club. I think everybody kinda knew that Ohtani would do some cool things this season, but I don't think anybody guessed he'd steal 50+ bases while also hitting 50+ homers. I remember last year, we were all going nuts about Ronald Acuna's 40/70 season, and let's be clear, that's also extremely impressive and hard to do. But a career DH having his best base-stealing year while rehabbing from Tommy John is...unheard of. Remember, Jasson Dominguez recovered from Tommy John this year and he had a sort of slow return to glory. Ohtani, due to just his sheer ability, couldn't even let a Tommy John year stop him from being better than anybody. And that deserves respect.

3. The Orioles' undignified finish to the season. I kinda figured the Orioles would be the team holding onto the AL East at the end of the season, but they're thankful they still made the playoffs. Even with the momentum they had heading into the last two months, a combination of injuries, slumps, bad matchups and burnout has left the Orioles barely holding together as they ready to face the Royals. They at least have Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander in a good place, but Rutschman's gone cold, the majority of the pitching is either hurt or struggling, and recent series haven't gone very well. It could all be a hiccup before a legendary run, but it's extremely worrying. 

4. Emmanuel Clase stays virtually hitless. If the last two games continue this pace, Emmanuel Clase will finish the season with a 0.61 ERA, a 0.655 WHIP, a career high in saves and one of the best seasons by a reliever in recent memory. I know Skubal probably has the Cy Young, but that's the more conventional pick. Clase only has 10 runs, and 5 earned runs, in 73 innings of work. He's also the main reason it's been so difficult to score runs against the Guardians after the sixth inning. I think Clase was the most important pitcher in the AL this year, just for that. But y'know...Skubal was pretty good too I guess.

5. The Nationals end the season infuriating everyone. If the Abrams thing hadn't happen, this team would have seamlessly transitioned to a much better 2025. They have a fuller rotation [which won't include Patrick Corbin], a better outfield of prospects, some MLB-ready young stars, and some great stretch moments. But then C.J. Abrams stays out at a casino, doesn't bet on sports and just plays cards, and management decides he has to end the season in the minors. Just to teach him a lesson. This is the kind of stuff I don't like, and this is why the player/owner relationship is in such trouble, because these people think they can just stick to decorum shit and play by old rules, and the players wanna do what they want. I really hope this doesn't damage Abrams' career like Tony LaRussa ended Yermin Mercedes' for hitting a home run with a big lead. 

And on the other end of that, 5 Things That Happened in September 2024 That Lots of People Could Have Predicted:

1. The White Sox set the bar for awfulness. At this rate, with no stars, all too many scrubs, and this amount of complete patheticness, they were gonna outdo the '62 Mets. The '62 Mets at least had Casey Stengel, Duke Snider, Richie Ashburn and people who actually know a thing or two about baseball greatness. The White Sox this year had...a lot of people who really couldn't cut it. Over and over again. No bullpen, barely enough for a rotation, so many low averages and an interim manager who couldn't solve the problem. Next year will be better solely because I don't see how it can get any worse.

2. Skenes finishes the season with an exclamation point. Finishing your rookie season with a 1.96 ERA is one thing. Doing it with a final start against the Yankees, including Judge and Soto? That's superhuman. And that is what Paul Skenes felt like this season. Even if the Pirates weren't always there to bail him out, he was so hard to hit, and effortlessly elusive this season. Hopefully it's the start of a fantastic career. At the very least it's a message to Bob Nutting that he needs to actually build a team around this guy.

3. The Mariners can't finish the job. The 'we can't hit' narrative was either gonna lead to a triumphant comeback or an upsetting anticlimax, and we got the latter. Even with Arozarena and Turner surging, and the return of Julio Rodriguez's dominance, the Mariners wasted a season of one of the best rotations they've had since 2003. And judging by Miller and Castillo getting hurt at the end of it, they'll be lucky if they get all five to be that healthy all of next season. 

4. Even without a playoff ticket, the Red Sox still finish strong. I think the way you sum up the Sox this season is through Brayan Bello. All this promise for Brayan Bello this season, after what he did in 2023, and this year for the majority of it he's just kinda okay. 4/5 ERA for most of the season. And then you look at his stats at the end of the year and he wasn't all that bad. A 4.50 ERA, but a 14-8 record with 153 Ks. He stayed healthy the whole year, and with Crawford and Houck made for a very nice three piece at the head of the rotation. Not...pristine, but still a good year. The Sox are gonna finish around .500, but with the stuff that Tanner Houck, Triston Casas, Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers and Wilyer Abreu gave them this season, they should still be proud. 

5. The NL Central Scrum was a red herring.  All of this buildup over if the Cubs, Pirates, Reds or Cardinals were gonna squeeze into a wild card spot, and it ends up being none of them. The Cubs got really close, thanks to an excellent September run, but those midseason losses were enough to keep them from really capitalizing on it. The Cardinals also came close, but there were too many internal issues, especially with Marmol's management, that kept them from being great. And the Pirates and Reds full on collapsed to end the year. It made for some exciting baseball while it was happening, but it didn't really amount to much else.

Now, here are my picks for the 5 Most Valuable Players of September 2024:

1. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

3. Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers

4. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets

5. Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians

And finally, 5 Bold Predictions for the 2024 Postseason.

1. Lolmets.

2. The Dodgers and Astros learn the hard way that they just don't have the teams this year.

3. A long-running storyline is finally resolved in epic fashion.

4. Someone we didn't think about much at all during the regular season becomes a postseason hero.

5. At least won team who's never won it makes the World Series. 

So, that was September. All that remains is one more full day of games and judgment day in Atlanta tomorrow.

A Tight Fit

Much like the letters on the back of Simeon Woods Richardson's jersey, the AL Central race was going to come down to everything trying to fit on a limited space. The Twins, rather than hanging around the sides of the number, were dropped from the playoffs entirely.

Quite obviously it wasn't due to a lack of effort. All throughout this team you saw supporting players coming through in big roles. Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach, Bailey Ober, Griffin Jax, Willi Castro, Royce Lewis honestly. One of the biggest stories of the year was Jose Miranda going from a second or third stringer to a streaking everyday hitter. Then by the end you had Austin Martin, Kyle Farmer and Manuel Margot going. The reason why you pack a team with so many strong options is so that any of them can come through. And that was the joy of this Twins team during the brunt of this season. A uniformly solid team where it didn't have to be all on the designated heroes.

I look at the rotation, where it was inferred that Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez would have the most responsibilities this year. And those two did fine, even if Lopez's ERA was high for a lot of the year. But the real stars of the rotation were people like Bailey Ober, with a 12-8 record and a 3.94 ERA, and Simeon Woods Richardson, with 117 strikeouts. These were two depth options that hadn't done a TON in years past, and this year they did so much right. Woods Richardson was just waiting for his moment to land in a rotation spot, and despite some late struggles he did pretty well for himself, and might be asked back in 2025. David Festa and Zebby Matthews, though not perfect, do hold some promise for next year as well.

But...the main reason this team didn't make the playoffs is that, while so much was accomplished by the unsung guys and the depth guys, the real heroes of this team didn't always come through. Byron Buxton missed a nice chunk of the season, but that could have been predicted. Carlos Correa, in the midst of an incredible season, gets hurt and doesn't come back til late September. Max Kepler goes on a tear and then he gets hurt. Royce Lewis hits a ton of homers, gets hurt, comes back, hits more homers and...evens out. This was a season where Buxton, Correa, Kepler, Lewis, Joe Ryan and Alex Kirilloff missed substantial time. And...with no disrespect to the other guys, that is your team right there. It shouldn't be down to Bailey Ober making all of his starts, or Carlos Santana and Willi Castro leading the team in games played. You're on the marquee for a reason, you've got to lead the team, or else the foundation's gonna give way.

And that's what happened. This team figured it out in June, and then Correa and Buxton got hurt and they fell off again. And they'll be finishing the season in fourth, a season after a playoff victory, meaning that once again, Rocco Baldelli is incapable of instilling consistent success into these Twins. It's glory one year, tragedy the next. 

The Twins hopefully can use this to return to competition next year, and will do so hopefully with more consistency from their key players. But if this sort of late implosion happens again, I'm not sure Baldelli will keep his job.

Coming Tomorrow- One last opportunity to talk about how close the Red Sox came to greatness. 

Westward Holdup

 

The NL West always seems to have some pretty great last minute scuffles. 2018 had the Rockies and Diamondbacks going down to the wire. 2021 had the Dodgers and Padres quarreling under San Francisco. 2022 had the Padres and Dodgers fighting for first. And now, we have a year where the Dodgers are advancing easily and the Padres and Diamondbacks are at each other's throats for playoff spots. There is a chance that both teams advance, especially considering it also directly corresponds to another crucial division battle. But this one has been gestating all year. 

The D-Backs and Padres have gone back and forth in second practically all year, save for the brief midyear moment the Giants had it. Then, after the ASG break, the Padres came alive. This team is 41-19 since coming back from the break, with the majority of the losses coming during one August stretch, at the hands of mostly competitive teams like the Mets and Twins. Getting Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Fernando Tatis and Xander Bogaerts's bat back has helped this team become a true superpower. Musgrove is finally pitching like himself again after a year and a half of injuries, with a 3.88 ERA and 101 Ks in 19 starts. Martin Perez, Tanner Scott, Bryan Hoeing and Jason Adam have turned this pitching staff into one of the best in the league, with King and Cease leading with incredible seasons. Kinda sad that Matt Waldron fell apart midyear and will likely be watching this postseason from home, but hopefully he learns from it and comes back stronger next year.

As strong as the Padres team was in 2022, I don't know if they were this hot down the stretch. Machado, Tatis, Arraez, Merrill and Profar are all powering this team forward, and the amount of bench depth is honestly iconic. A bench consisting of David Peralta, Elias Diaz, Donovan Solano and Tyler Wade? That's four starter-grade backup guys. And Mr. Barrels has been taking a lot of reps as a replacement anyhow, and it's worked out. So many spots that hinder other teams are filled by excellent players on the Padres, and they look to finish what they started this October.

As for the Diamondbacks, a once-promising playoff campaign is in danger of slowing to a halt. They're 12-11 this month, evening the gap while their competitors got hot. They got all their injury guys back, but the momentum just isn't there this year. You can argue that this team brought on people that made this a fuller lineup than the WS one, like Eugenio Suarez, Kevin Newman, Randal Grichuk and Joc Pederson, but the pitching might be in a worse place, despite more money put into it. Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez both have ERAs around 5, honestly due to overtaxing themselves in 2023 probably. And while Gallen and Kelly didn't miss that much time, a lot was put on people like Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson, who, while fine, just aren't as good as they used to be. Pfaadt made all 31 of his starts, has 176 strikeouts and 10 wins, but his ERA's closer to 5. 

This team has the bones there, for sure. Gabriel Moreno, after missing some time, has crafted another very nice season, with 44 RBIs in 94 games. Corbin Carroll's second half more than made up for his first, finishing the season with 73 RBIs and 21 homers. Gerardo Perdomo also erased memories of the injury with a 3.3 WAR campaign thanks to excellent defense. And Ketel Marte is still the hero in this city, and has crafted quite the career for himself. Even if this team misses the playoffs, they have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to build on for next year.

This series could decide the fate of the Diamondbacks. If they have anything left, they'll let the Padres hear it. If not, it could be the death nell in a season that felt so exciting midyear.

Coming Tomorrow- An important case of a rough start and high ERA not completely ruining a season.

Waste Deep

 

The Seattle Mariners had a year where their top four starters made nearly all of their starts without letting their ERA rise over 4 or their WHIP rise over 1.2, and they still missed the playoffs. Bill Nye seems to think pitching wins championships, but the best rotation in baseball couldn't stop this team from failing, yet again, to make the playoffs. It's two years of this. Firing Servais didn't work. Bringing on actual hitters didn't work. 

It just feels like this team wasted amazing years from not only the rotation but Julio and Cal. Cal Raleigh had his best season to date, and at times felt like he was carrying the whole team. There's a small chance he squeaks out 100 RBIs before the year's up, but he at least walks away with 31 homers, which is great. Julio got so hot in the last third of the season, and finishes with a 20-20 season and 64 RBIs. Even J.P. Crawford is ending with a pretty solid year by-and-large, with continued defensive success boosting his appeal. And they somehow figured out how to revitalize Victor Robles, and make him a great contact guy again.

But...all for naught. So many people on this team were hired to hit and didn't. Mitch Garver and Mitch Haniger were both brought back to boost the team's power numbers, and neither did. Garver, a year after being a steady power DH for the Rangers, sunk under the pressure and hit .171 with 14 homers and 50 RBIs. Haniger, in his big homecoming to Seattle, managed to stay healthy for most of the year but only hit .209 with 12 homers and 44 RBIs. Others, like Jorge Polanco and Luke Raley, did well enough but took forever to really get going. And you ultimately just have a lot of guys who hit around .220 and played great defense without really making much of an impact in scoring. 

I really hope that the Mariners' pitching has a similar year next year, considering they're all pretty much in their prime, and hopefully being on all year didn't cause any wear and tear. But if they are able to recreate the rotation energy, even with a more durable bullpen, this team needs to figure out how to reverse its lineup issues. It cannot be just Cal and Julio doing everything, it needs to be a full team effort. If they do bring on new contracts or new hitters, they need to gel with the central momentum, and they need to get things going on a decent schedule. Because, like the Cubs, the fans aren't gonna be able to take a third year of this. The 2022 team is looking more and more like a distant memory, and this Mariners team needs to ensure a playoff success wasn't a fluke. 

Coming Tonight: He eventually recovered from an injury, just in time to be a key figure in a forthcoming playoff run.

Cub-terranean

 

2023 and 2024 have this in common: the Chicago Cubs made a serious run at the playoffs only to fall frustratingly short. Last year, the Cubs had to contend with the Reds making a lateral run in their own division, and strong stretch runs by the D-Backs and Marlins edging them out in September. With many of those elements altered, you'd think that the Cubs would find a way in this year. And yet...here they sit yet again.

At the very least, the Cubs can say they ended this season with a stronger, surer team than they ended 2023 with. Their starting lineup stayed practically the same all season, with only the addition of Isaac Paredes replacing Christopher Morel. And it was a working lineup, as Happ, Swanson, Suzuki, Hoerner and Bellinger all performed positively, and cemented their positions from the previous year. Dansby Swanson took a while to come alive, but by season's end he was at his best, coming off the field with 66 RBIs and a 3.8 WAR. Happ sprung out of nowhere to capture his second career 25-homer year, and led the team in WAR. And then new additions like Paredes, Miguel Amaya, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch filled in needed gaps. PCA is finally a really volatile MLB presence, Amaya's a solid defensive catcher, Busch was clearly a standout, and Paredes squeaked out 24 RBIs and 3 homers. There's also the prospect of Kevin Alcantara becoming a regular thing in 2025, though perhaps not right out of camp, and maybe the concept of Christian Bethancourt perhaps repeating whatever the hell he suddenly started doing in August. But if everything that came together this season recurs in terms of the hitting, the Cubs may have an advantage on a lot of their peers.

The trick for 2025 for this team is getting a rotation on the same page. Having Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks in the same rotation, in concept, is a pretty solid idea. But getting them all to not only be good at the same time but be healthy at the same time, that is gonna be the real trick. So many MLB clubs had issues this year with keeping a group of 5 starting pitchers healthy, and even with Steele and Wicks missing months and the relievers conking out this was still one of the better cases. At least Steele came back and did damage. The Reds would have 'oh he pitched 3 solid starts then was out for the season'. The Cubs thankfully avoided that, and hopefully can avoid it again next year. Steele, given a full season, could chase his 2023 numbers...or he could get hurt again. It's his choice.

Still, whatever the Cubs try in 2025, they need to figure out how to do it without completely losing momentum. Because if they hadn't completely fallen apart in May and June, they'd almost certainly be a playoff team. If Counsell can circumvent that, and lead this team back to top the Brewers, he'll atone for a disappointing ending this year. But a third year of 'juuuust missed it' is not gonna help fans like him very much.

Coming Tomorrow- Another team that came within inches for the second year in a row, and their veteran shortstop.

A Bad Time for an Underdog Story

 

It's just funny the way it happens sometimes.

In the last 20 years of baseball, when I think about the epitome of an underdog story, I mean obviously you think of the 2019 Nationals, or the 2023 NLCS, or the David-Goliath battle of the 2011 NLDS, but...the team that has most regularly run the underdog status to glory has been the Kansas City Royals. And if you think about it, they've only really been *good* for like three or four of the last twenty years. From 2006 to 2013, they were routinely a punchline. Rebuilding, wasting away, trying to put something together, failing. You heard about their rookies, like Alex Gordon and Luke Hochevar and Billy Butler, and then nothing really happening to them. And then in 2014, they finally have the team to sneak into the postseason and upset literally everyone, including the Baltimore Orioles, who were looking like the favorite that year, to make a World Series. They did not win, but the legend was born, and in 2015 they were no longer the underdogs, and won easily. It was, of course, downhill from there, but it had been worth it. They built a team, rode the current, played the game and took it all. 

To this point, in 2024, it was looking like it was going to happen again.

I applauded the really smart moves the Royals made this year, from signing Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo to giving Michael Massey another chance to start. The team followed, with Bobby Witt having an MVP caliber year, Seth Lugo having his best season to date, Ragans and Singer delivering solid campaigns, Perez and Fermin becoming an excellent catching battery, and Kyle Isbel once again being an underrated, game-saving hero on many occasions. At their peak, the Royals chased 1st place, and nearly took it from Cleveland. And then around being staved off for 1st, the downturn happened, the schedule gave them some really tough teams, Vinnie Pasquantino got injured and the losses kept coming. There was a rebound in mid-September, but it was more of a race at this point. Against time, against inevitability...and against themselves.

The strangest part of this whole ordeal is that the Royals are in grave danger of being lapped for a playoff spot, and potentially forced to watch from the sidelines, by a completely different underdog team. The Detroit Tigers. Going back to 2014, the Tigers were not underdogs. They were the commanding leaders of the division, and they were ultimately the victims of the Royals' incredible come-up. The playoff drought caused by the shift in that division around 2014 and 2015 has lasted to this day, and up until very recently the assumption was that it would keep going. But midyear, the Tigers came alive, Parker Meadows caught fire, the bullpen solidified, the small-ball tactics worked, and the Detroit Tigers went from fourth to second.

As of right now, the Tigers, with more momentum than they've had in years, have sole possession of the second wild card spot. Meaning the Royals are in win or die territory. If they keep sliding, there's a very real possibility of the Twins, the team they've consistently staved off, or the Mariners, another wild underdog, taking their place in the 2024 playoff picture. They do technically have enough power to get out of this hole, but I worry about their lack of current momentum. As luck would have it, they do have the Nats this week, and they got Michael Lorenzen back last night.

As for the Tigers...if they manage to pull this off, and find genuine playoff success, it'll be one of the most inexplicable things I've ever seen. This team was dead on arrival months ago, and now they're genuinely exciting and have so many players on at the moment. 

It'll be wild to see how this shakes out. If the Royals miss the playoffs and the Tigers make it, that'll be the kind of ironic cosmic justice I wish I could write.

Coming Tonight: He may have missed the playoffs, but at the very least he's giving a decent preview of 2025.

Brother From Another Farm System

 

When the Rangers traded for Max Scherzer at last year's trade deadline, it was a move that, they felt, would ensure them an easier passage to the postseason, and give them an indefinite postseason starter. The person they dealt to New York in exchange for him was the kind of big piece that may not have had room in Texas, but wasn't as valuable to the Rangers as Scherzer. It is now a year later, and Scherzer has spent the majority of the season on the IL, as the Rangers have no shot of repeating as World Champions.

The guy they traded away, though...may still make the playoffs. And he may do it at the expense of his brother's team. Try explaining THAT to someone in April. Yes, an Acuña is gonna make the playoffs, but it's not RONALD Acuña...

The Mets, with less than a week to go in the regular season, have the thinnest of legs up on the Braves. Their current series with them has been postponed due to rain, and will be made up next Monday, so the season may literally come down to this doubleheader on what is now the very last day of the season, one day before the start of wild card series'. And it is between the Braves, who have lost their momentum, their best players, and much of their enthusiasm in general...and the New York Mets, who have been sent by Grimace the Magical Taste Bud to annihilate the rest of the MLB with their star third baseman, who literally no one ever thought would be a starting guy, and their infield bat who hadn't played in two years and has his own successful music career. Yeah, that's sensible. That's something you'd be able to predict. 

Oh yeah and Ronald Acuna's brother was the last piece to put the Mets over the edge. Of course he was.

Luisangel Acuña, in his first 10 games in the majors, is hitting .375 with 12 hits, 6 RBIs and 3 home runs. He nearly had another big hit last night, but it was robbed by an excellent Michael Harris II catch, followed by his older brother, from the sidelines, going, essentially, 'it's not my fault, you just tried hitting one to Money Mike'. Still, Acuña's early stuff has been proven fearsome, especially against the Philadelphia Phillies. It is bad enough sharing the division with one Acuña brother, but now there is suddenly another. Even better, Luisangel is succeeding as a New York Met, fulfilling his father's arc from 20 years ago, as a career minor leaguer stuck in double-A under the Mets umbrella. At last, an Acuña is working as a Met, and already seems to be a pretty nice addition to this roster. One must also think about the prospect of Acuña AND a healthy Ronny Mauricio boosting this lineup next year. 

The Mets have traded well, managed well, farmed well and planned well. Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo are walking away with excellent seasons, and people they sort of brought on without much thought, like Sean Manaea, Jose Iglesias, Luis Severino and Tyrone Taylor, have come through in major roles this year. And the momentum this team had midyear has returned in September, bringing them to this consequential moment. The Braves' doubleheader move has the potential to wreck everything, not only giving them two impromptu days off in the middle of a stretch run but cattycornering the last games to the immediate start of the playoffs. Even if the Mets win, the Braves want them to not have a single moment to enjoy it, which is a pretty villainous move, even if this is the Mets we're talking about. 

I think the Mets have the team to outrun inevitability, and keep themselves dignified for a while. But, of course, you can never tell with this team in October.

Coming Tomorrow- A versatile, defensively inclined outfielder hoping to fend off an attack from an errant underdog story.

Better Left Un-Ced

 

At one point this season, the Baltimore Orioles were a leading player in the AL, dominating the Yankees and looking at a stronger run than 2023. Then the injuries set in, the bottom fell out, and the Orioles are in full 'it's just an honor to be nominated' mode.

Yes, I know there is a chance that, seeing as Mountcastle, Westburg and Urias are all back now, the Orioles could get something done this year, but the joy is gone. Rutschman hit a cold spell months ago and hasn't left. Bradish and Means getting hurt means that a ton of alternate options have been pressed into crucial roles, and when those alternate options are Dean Kremer and Albert Suarez, it's not gonna be full throttle. Literally the only Orioles starter who's done absolutely everything asked of him this year has been Corbin Burnes, and he's probably gonna want to pitch somewhere else in 2025.The Craig Kimbrel experiment was a failure that cost them several close games. And with the exception of powerful seasons from Gunnar Henderson, Anthony Santander and Burnes, everything just seems to have slowed to a crawl.

And you hate to see it. The Orioles are a great team that doesn't know how to be this amazing for 7 months. They sort of mastered it last year, then October didn't work out. Then this year they had a better team but more people got injured. And it's hard to really sell this O's team as a better version of last year's when the pitching isn't as good. 

Cedric Mullins is one of the longest tenured people on this team, as he was around when Machado and friends left in 2018. Him having a fairly middle of the road season speaks less about him and more about the team now needing to rely less on him. It's very similar to Adam Jones when Machado came up, like the pressure wasn't on as much so he didn't NEED to be the MVP candidate, so he just did his thing. And Mullins has been fine this year, he's at least gotten 30 steals again and might squeak out 20 homers, but he's clearly had better seasons for this team. I think the team still values him, and seeing as 2025 might be his last year in Baltimore, he hopefully rewards them with a fuller, more-realized campaign.

The O's are stuck playing the Yankees this week. They match up well against the Yankees, but the Yankees do have the momentum right now, and are ultimately the better team. Having already been outlasted by the Tigers, potentially a wild card competitor of theirs, they just need to stay competent and stay dignified after the Yankees are finished with them, because whoever they get handed a playoff matchup with needs to underprepare. It's very likely it could be the Tigers again, or even the Royals, and both of those teams could be interesting. With the Royals it'd be a tougher, better matched series as both teams have lost a ton of momentum recently. But with the Tigers, they'd genuinely be fighting to keep from being lapped.

I really wish the Orioles had a sunnier path lined out for them this October, but they're gonna need to be the underdog for most of it. Hopefully that's something that doesn't worry them.

Coming Tonight- Months ago, there was a belief that there wouldn't be an Acuña in the playoffs this year. And now I think there's been some backtracking, just not in the way people might think.

Limping to the Finish

 
For the past 7 years, two of the constants of postseason baseball have been the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers. They've been there every year, in good form, roaring down the stretch. Some of them have even found a way in despite worse records, only to propel themselves further than better teams. This is the value of a great organization, and great managing- all you need to do is get close enough and inevitability will do the rest.

But as these 2024 iterations of these teams have all but secured firm spots in the playoffs, there's questions surrounding both of them, especially their durability. Both the Astros and Dodgers have serious injury concerns at the moment. 

The Astros were just dealt a very big loss, with an injury to Yordan Alvarez, as well as the reveal that Justin Verlander's poor performance was the result of being rushed back from his IL stint as well. And putting things further into perspective, you realize that this is the sort of thing they've been doing a lot. Earlier this year the Astros came under fire for downplaying Kyle Tucker's injury, which he's now back from but trying his best to make up for lost time from as well. They also probably didn't give the idea that all of Kendall Graveman, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers would be missing the whole season, in addition to, cumulatively, J.P. France and Cristian Javier. If this team had started the season saying 'these six guys are off the table, temper your expectations', then maybe some of the team's terrible April would have been more understandable. 

They're very lucky the organizational makeup is so strong, though. Being able to have all those guys hurt and still have Spencer Arrighetti, who had time to come up, struggle and then figure it out, is a luxury most clubs do not have. Even as a rare Houston starter with a negative W/L ratio, he still has 167 Ks, and a number of truly dominant starts, under his belt. This team could have truly struggled without their top starters, and they've still made the playoffs with Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, Arrighetti and Yusei Kikuchi all stepping up. The Alvarez thing, however big, could end similarly, with the DH role not being a sure black hole on the lineup and the offensive production still coming.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, have even worse rotation injury issues. It's looking like their postseason rotation will consist of Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Landon Knack. They're...SO LUCKY that those four weren't injured right now. Yamamoto just came off the IL and has been looking very good. Buehler...clearly this is not his best year, he's 1-6 with a 5.63 ERA in 15 starts. The injuries have leveled him a bit, and he's still honestly playing catch-up. And Knack is fine, but he's the untested option comparatively. So between those four guys, I'm not given the same kind of confidence that the 2010s rotations gave. Y'know, Kershaw was still in his prime, Ryu and Greinke were around, Buehler was just coming up. This just feels like 'well hopefully this works', and...I dunno if that's the best way for a 1st place, possibly 1st-seeded team to go about things.

The lineup has been the difference-maker, and between Ohtani, Freeman, Betts, Hernandez and Muncy there hasn't been a ton of issues there. You're now seeing Tommy Edman get a ton more playing time, he's hitting .265 now with 19 RBIs and 6 homers. Somebody like that as a utility bat is an upgrade from Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor, who are both having down years. And look, considering that Ohtani's never seen a playoff game before, and he's as hot as he is, there's definitely a possibility that this Dodgers team still overperforms. I just see the limits of the rotation, and the pitching in general, and I'm just not sure.

Both the Astros and the Dodgers could still go far into this playoff season, or they could let their injury issues stop them. Neither team wants this to be a particularly simple October, and they're gonna try and get as much out of this season as possible. It's just a matter of is there gonna be a team that is ready to exploit these flaws?

Coming Tomorrow- Star outfielder for a team that's seriously cooled down in the past two months.

Left to the Wolves Again

 

The Brewers have made the playoffs numerous times in the last few seasons, but one thing that has never happened is a first round bye. Since the premiere of the new expanded postseason, the Brewers have always had to play in the first round, and it's never been very easy for them. Pretty much every time, they get matched with a team that has more momentum than they do. It happened in 2021, despite a 95-win finish, with the Braves. And it happened in round 1 last year, courtesy of the red-hot Diamondbacks. 

The Brewers have consistently finished in 1st, have built a team that withstood some major departures this year, and have crafted an entirely new young core. And because of the Dodgers and Phillies having better records, that all could be for nothing again if the right team squares up with them.

I cannot help but feel bad for the Brewers, because they just seem to have the worst luck imaginable. They've been so close to glory, going back to 1982, or even as recent as 2018. And they always meet someone who's just better. And that's how the story ends every time. And this is a very good Brewers team, solely because the depth that has been building for years has given this team a new and improved sense of security. Even without Christian Yelich, this team's outfield, consisting of Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins, is undoubtedly the best defensive outfield in the majors. All of these guys have some pop at the plate, and they're all really trustworthy in the field. Garrett Mitchell right now is the best of both worlds, as he's an excellent outfielder AND he's got an .830 OPS. Between then and Brice Turang, that's a lot of truly exceptional defense going on, and that doesn't go ignored. This team was not always defensively sound, and not always on the same page, and now they are, barring some one-dimensional outliers [but hey, Rhys knows how to compete].

With a better team, it's honestly going to come down to the matchup. As it stands right now, there are two possible outcomes. If things stay as they are, the Brewers will play the Mets, which is something that the Brewers could honestly win, even if the Mets' momentum is intimidating. If the Mets do lap to second, that means the Brewers would play the Diamondbacks, which would be a repeat of last year. On paper, the Brewers are better than the D-Backs, but that also could have been said last year. The D-Backs have made a lot of human mistakes down the stretch, and could hold themselves to a shorter postseason run, but do the Brewers want to get comfortable again? And then the unlikely third option is that the Braves somehow work their way back in, and if that's the case the Brewers need to hope that momentum doesn't last all of October or else they'll be the first of many victims. 

Logic dictates that this could be the year the Brewers return to a division series and work their way back up. I'd like to think that happens this year, but I've also been wrong before. So all I can do is hope that this is the team that makes the change.

Coming Tonight: He struggled with his aim throughout, but he never struggled with strikeouts. 

The 'Pen, on Paper

 

I think it's very easy to underestimate the Guardians, especially with the playoffs a week away. They've routinely dominated this season, and have seen great campaigns from Jose Ramirez, Steven Kwan and Josh Naylor, but there have been holes in the team that competitors have easily exploited. The back half of their lineup, for instance, which, while improved upon with the presence of Daniel Schneemann and Kyle Manzardo now, was a black hole of mediocre white guys named Will or Tyler. The infield defense, hammered down by Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio, doesn't mean much when neither are especially sharp at the plate. And, as has been discussed, the starting pitching was more dilapidated than usual, with Tanner Bibee, Ben Lively and Gavin Williams being the only real anchors. 

And yet they still won 90 games, and the AL Central. And it may, in fact, be because nobody has been able to score runs on them after the sixth inning.

Okay, so it's been established that Emmanuel Clase doesn't give up runs. Clase might squeeze his way into the Cy Young conversation just by refusing to be human this year, because a reliever ending a season with a 0.63 ERA and 46 saves does not happen often. The last time a reliever won a Cy Young was Eric Gagne, and Clase is more dominant now than Gagne was because at least Clase stopped using HGHs before his peak. So that's already a given, nobody scores runs in the ninth.

Then you factor in the rest of the bullpen. Hunter Gaddis is on his way to finishing the season with a 1.51 ERA in 72 innings. Cade Smith, who just K'd his 100th batter [MORE THAN CLASE], is looking like he'll finish the season with a 1.96 ERA. Tim Herrin may just keep his season ERA under 2 in the next week. Eli Morgan's only pitched in 30 games this season but he's got a 1.60 ERA. The cumulative ERA of the bullpen is 2.61. That is insanely good, especially when you factor in that the cumulative starting ERA of this team is 4.43. It doesn't matter if the starters are getting beat up, the bullpen will ensure that's all that happens, and this team can certainly hit themselves out of a pickle.

And that's gonna be one of the big factors as the Guardians head into October, with their heroes still looking good. Can the bullpen bail them out if Bibee, Lively and Williams aren't enough? And there's no certainty that this will be enough. Odds are the Guardians get a round 1 bye, and have to play a momentum-chaser in round 2. Will they still have the leverage, and can the bullpen alone propel them to an ALCS? I think there's a chance, but knowing how these postseasons have gone, the Guardians will need to really pull something together to keep plowing through.

Coming Tomorrow- Another talented young outfielder for a fellow 1st place team. 

Our Harbinger of Doom

 

Statistically, Nick Castellanos's season may not be that impressive. He's only got a 0.3 WAR. To put that into perspective, Johan Rojas, who every Philly fan yells at for not being a great hitter yet, has a 0.8 WAR. Castellanos's defensive skills still aren't great, save for the occasional great catch, and his offensive ability is spotty at best.

But the intriguing thing about Castellanos is that he chooses the wildest moments to turn on. If Nick Castellanos hits a home run, odds are a national calamity has occurred. Ever since impeding on Thom Brenneman's apology, Casty has picked the most inopportune moments to go yard. 9/11? Home run. The queen's died? Home run. Mass casualty? Home run. And the times there isn't a tragedy attached to a Casty homer, he adds one, like the time he walked off for Cincinnati, and then we find out that it was because a fan behind home plate yelled 'pretend it's Manfred's face'. 

[By the way, every time I watch that clip, I laugh at the pause Jim Day gives, and the immediate frantic pivot away from it. Hysterical.]

Nick Castellanos has embraced his position as the harbinger of doom when it comes to hitting for power, and I think he's embraced the Philly fans as well. Because he knows he's not gonna be as accurate as someone like Bryce Harper, or even Kyle Schwarber, but he's gonna get it done in a pinch and it's gonna hit hard. Both Casty and his son have been practically canonized by the fans, and even if he pisses us off sometimes he still comes through when we truly need him. What's very funny, though, is that Castellanos has only had two seasons with an average below .250, and this is one of them. The other was the 2020 season. But even in a diminished season, Castellanos still has 84 RBIs and 22 homers. That's not bad. He's not chasing 40 like Schwarber, but he can still be relied upon. 

The Phillies are looking pretty good heading into a probable bye scenario. They still have issues with that fifth starter position, and hope that Kolby Allard will do the trick for the last week or so of the season. Ultimately, though, Wheeler, Nola, Sanchez and Suarez will be fine to coast off of during the postseason. Harper's getting his momentum back, Schwarber's still hot, Bohm's going for a 100 RBI year, Clemens and Wilson are excellent bench pieces, and Estevez works in the ninth. As a division leader, there's a chance this could all fall apart, but this team feels better built than its predecessors, and it truly could get something done this year.

Coming Tonight: Another member of the best bullpen in baseball, without a doubt.

The Philly Show Fall 2024: Part Two- Tailor Made

The contents of the first post on my findings at the latest Philly Show, in the considerably adequate suburb of Oaks, enough of a hike outside Philadelphia that the traffic has to be taken into account yet not enough to make an entire day around it, may have came off as basic, or understandable. There were some cool cards in there, some stuff I don't find particularly often, but you can see a lot of that and go 'yeah, that'd probably be in a ten cent bin somewhere'. 

Today...the cards I'll be discussing are a little more unusual, at least for me. These are the kinds of dealers that I hope for, the kind that keep me on my toes and, moreover, keep me sifting through for ages. Despite the success I had at the other tables, these are the ones I'll be remembering. 

First, the higher priced cards of the day for me:

Dealer #1: 3 for 1s

I remember specifically this was my first purchase of the day, not just because of the price difference but because when I scouted out which tables I'd be going back to, this one was the first one where I could actually park myself in front of the bins and start searching. This was all slightly higher-end than most quarter bin fodder, hence the 33c price, and promised inserts and rookies and all sorts of stuff. Finding a 2002 Diamond Kings insert of Eddie Mathews was certainly a good start.

What was assuring was that when this guy said 'inserts', he didn't just mean modern stuff, though, rest assured, they'd be there. 2000s Heritage inserts, people. Ones I don't see at most shows, not for under a dollar. This was extremely promising.

This is something I'm not sure if the dealer spotted, and I certainly didn't. I threw this into my pile seeing that it was a 2019 1984 insert I didn't have, and a rookie of the ferocious Pablo Lopez. Then, as I went through my findings from this dealer I noticed the '150 years' insignia, turned the card over and found out it was numbered to 150. Those are the happiest accidents at shows. I've found short prints, parallels, all sorts of stuff by accident. So getting this for 33 cents was pretty cool.

Yes, there were modern Topps inserts. Of course there were modern Topps inserts. I think I've committed to collecting Clarke Schmidt now, seeing as we share a surname and all.

There were also shinier, early 2000s Topps inserts as well. The dufex in that Bowman Walker insert is fantastic.

A decent amount of parallels from all across the last 20 years. I always like finding gold parallels of players I collect, and all of these apply. Phillips is from back when Topps numbered their Heritage Chrome cards to 1959 instead of 959. 

Continuing with my set-finding tear, these three were all 2010s Archives short print needs. McBride was from the 2012 set, Welch and Lynn from 2013. Together they were a buck, as opposed to finding them separately for a buck each regularly.

Requisite XRCs. I forget if I had Gray's already but Castellanos's was new to me, and a needed addition.

I threw this one in because I get a terrific vibe about Nick Yorke, and I still don't think the Sox should have given him up so easily.

Dealer #5: A Mirage of a Sportscar Sitting in the Mojave

One of the great things about the Philly Show, as I have been attending it sporadically for fifteen years now, is that sometimes you find a dealer, or a ten cent bin, or anything, that feels like they set up specifically for you. I've discussed these at many Philly Shows. People who have bins of 2000s-era stuff, star cards to specifically fit my player collections, wild uniform finds, all of those. And this, folks, was one of those.

Here is how incredible these 10 cent bins were. I was about to leave. I'd marked off all the places I'd remembered on my initial scouting trip around the convention center. I was gonna just...hop in my car, get home, brave the traffic. And then, around the corner from the last bin I'd been at, there was a table I hadn't seen yet, sort of tucked away around a cross-section. They were selling lots of stuff, a lot of bobbleheads and Philly wear, lots of higher priced cards as well. And it was a family affair, it was a guy running the booth but his daughters coming back from the fudge line, sort of helping out. 

And so I go up, and there's 10 cent bins, and I'm like 'well, shit, now I have to look.' And to give you an idea, after a good 20 or so minutes of me thumbing through boxes, another person asked to swap one from under me, and as he put the one he was just working through in its place, said 'there's some REALLY good stuff in this one. This while I'd already discovered that the contents of these boxes were, not just rare, off-the-beaten-path 90s and 00s stuff, but stuff I never see at card shows.

Me starting this section out with a Vladimir Guerrero insert from a Sports Illustrated set, marked by a wonderful photo I'd never seen before, should whet your appetites. Folks,...

PACIFIC PRODUCTS...WERE IN THIS BOX. A great deal of them. Pacific Private Stock, a set I didn't even know existed til a couple years ago. A bunch of that.

RANDOM TOPPS FINEST BASE CARDS...WERE IN THIS BOX. Of actual star players. Like that's the thing, these were star cards. Hall of Famers. Guys I collect. TONS of Vladimir Guerreros and Jim Thomas, a dime apiece. I was wowed.

TOPPS GOLD LABEL AS WELL. And from there, these boxes just kept topping themselves.

Random Donruss Preferred inserts. That Molitor one is a subtly cool one.

Some DK base cards I still needed, all Hall of Famers.

A mess of early 2000s Fleer Tradition. They had a bunch of the 2001 set as well.

A surprising amount of 2000 Upper Deck, a set I only see periodically. I adore that Randy Johnson shot.

Hey, how about this- a set I had never even heard of. 2000 Upper Deck Hitter's Club. I assumed these were both UD inserts, turns out this is a whole-ass set. Why 3K is an insert set from it, which is pretty cool, and the base is...essentially proto Pros & Prospects.

Oh, and a surprising amount of Fleer Ultra as well, reminding me how much I adore the early 2000s Fleer Ultra sets. 

The 2002 set is underrated. I'd never seen that Damon before.

Okay, I HAD seen that Hoffman before but it was wonderful to finally own it. 

This guy had a lot of 2000s-era Fleer Greats sets, and I threw in a Fall Classic card to complete the page. I love finding modern cards of some bums-era Dodgers. 

Late-career Braves aces, courtesy of Upper Deck. I wish we'd have gotten more cards of Smoltz actually pitching as a Red Sock, as they're all just publicity photos pretty much.

I did a lot of damage on player collecting here. There were a mess of CCs. Somehow that 2011 Heritage one was new to me, I love that one.

A TON of Mussinas. This is just the highlights. 

A bunch of Posadas, including a Bowman Heritage I rarely see in the wild, and a rare 2008 SC one.

And, knowing me this was bound to happen, a metric ton of Bernie Williamses, all needs. They also had the Pacific image variation, which was pretty cool.

And one more late-era Rickey for the road, from 2001 Leaf Rookies and Stars.

After going through the majority of his 10 cent bins, I'd accrued 150 cards, the most of any table that day. The guy behind the counter, seeing how much I'd gone through, and how exhaustive I'd been, gave 'em to me for 10 even. Not only does he have killer dime bins, but he gives a great deal as well. Gotta love somebody like that at a card show.

Now, clearly I spent a good portion of this Philly Show playing catch-up on my sort of lost year in the hobby, getting a lot of cards I could have found in packs had I bought more of them this year. But after that, when it was just about seeing how deep the well of this show ran, and seeing how many really cool, rare, fun stuff people were selling, it became a really enjoyable, substantial card show. And I'm glad I went.

I can't say if I'll be there in December, or how frequently I'll be posting about cards in the coming months, but know that this card show was exactly what I needed.