Strife of Riley

 

How bad must Tres Barrera feel right now? Going into the season thinking he'd get some time as a backup once Avila got hurt, and now the Nats are playing Avila, Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams instead of him. Poor guy. He probably thought he'd be the Nats' 2022 catcher. 

I kinda had a feeling that Riley Adams was gonna be good for somebody while he was in Toronto. He was not only stuck behind Danny Jansen and Reese McGuire, the STILL-quarreling catcher platoon, but he was stuck behind Alejandro Kirk, who seemed like an heir apparent at backstop already, AND the heir apparent to Rowdy Tellez at DH. And he was doing decently in his brief time in the majors. So I figured something would happen and he'd get time somewhere. Something did happen, he was traded for Brad Hand, a guy who isn't even with the Blue Jays anymore. 

So...essentially, the Blue Jays gave Riley Adams to the Nats for free. Which makes his sudden rise all the more painful for the Jays, especially if they miss the postseason.

Adams has been a strong starting catcher in Washington, boosting a depleted lineup with a .292 average and 10 RBIs in 29 games. Things have calmed down after his first 2 weeks with the team, but he's become a strong starting catcher, and is a shoo-in for a piece of the 2022 team. While I'm guessing a lot of this team's late-season success may not carry over to next year [Alcides Escobar, Yadiel Hernandez, Jordy Mercer coming out of nowhere], I do think some of the younger guys like Adams, Lane Thomas, Josiah Gray and even Keibert Ruiz will have a definite place in the Nats. I do question whether or not Ruiz is gonna stay at catcher, but...I do think the Nats have some use for him. 

In terms of the other sort of tentpoles, like Patrick Corbin, Ryan Zimmerman and even Carter Kieboom......I dunno, man. Zim'll maybe be a one-year deal again, but do the Nats wanna keep relying on people like Corbin and Kieboom, who haven't delivered at all this year? How much longer are the Nats gonna wait for Kieboom to give them the big seasons he's been promising? It's a little frustrating. Soto and Bell I can see sticking around comfortably, cause they've actually put in the work this season. But it's gonna be hard to mix them with the new guard of Nats youngsters, even if Soto is still 22. 

I actually have a lot of belief in the Nats' minors and youth movements. I don't know how far away they are from competing again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was sooner than you'd think.

Coming Tonight: Former Angels jack-of-all-trades...now 11 years into his career. What now?

The First [Two] to 100 Losses

 

The Orioles and the Diamondbacks lost their 100th game on the same day, being yesterday. So neither of them really beat the other to the marker, even if the Orioles technically finished their game first. But...I think it's very fitting that these two tie for the 100 loss milestone. They're not even good enough to lose separately. 

The Diamondbacks's plight may have been the most surprising. People expected them to be bad, but not THIS bad. From May 15th to the All Star break, they won 8 games in total. May 2nd was their last moment over .500, and the entire downhill slide afterwards was painful, taking great pitchers like Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly and resorting them to 10-loss seasons with even the highlights looking kinda thin. It's unclear who had it worse, the team heroes who were able to get out, like Asdrubal Cabrera and Eduardo Escobar, or the players who looked like they were getting out but couldn't, like David Peralta and Kole Calhoun. 

Maybe with a better team, the younger stars would have made more of a statement. Josh Rojas, Taylor Widener, Daulton Varsho and Pavin Smith got a lot of much needed playing time this year, but none of them especially had league-wide great seasons. They were all great for Phoenix. Rojas hit .270, yes, but right now he has one more strikeout than he does hits, which is a very slippery slope for a contact guy to walk. And yes, Bumgarner, Kelly and Gallen are still great pitchers with stuff left in the tank this year, but without a good lineup and bullpen, it doesn't mean anything.

The Orioles, though, do have a league-wide standout on their team- two of them, in fact. They have Cedric Mullins and John Means. Mullins is one of the best outfielders in baseball right now, is batting .300, and is finally delivering on the promises made when he was called up to help recover from Machado's trade. Means was injured for a bit but has still crafted another solid season, with a 3.41 ERA and 118 Ks in 23 starts. These two are great pieces, and they could either be the centerpiece of a future competitive Orioles squad, or they could be pawned for prospects in 2 years. But they're both valuable pieces, especially if they keep up the excellent work. 

The rest of the team is basically nothing. You have young players like Ryan Mountcastle, Luis Urias and Austin Hays that are providing decent stats, but they're all kinda one-dimensional. Jorge Mateo, who is yet another player who got injured right after I made the bleeding custom, provided some nice infield depth, and some good contact numbers, but still hasn't found his niche after failing in both the Yankees, A's and Padres organizations. Trey Mancini is a great power bat but his second half is nowhere near as strong as his first half. And the starting pitching is practically nonexistent right now, with barely anyone that feels like a confident carry-over for 2021 other than Means and maybe Chris Ellis. 

Of the two, I expect Arizona to be the more improved team next year, solely because they're putting some pieces in place, including Seth Beer, that could yield a better run in 2022. I could be very wrong, and 2022 could be the Rutschman saves the day year for Baltimore, but from right now, I see the D-Backs getting to 100 later.

Coming Tomorrow- A former fourth-string catcher for Toronto, now starting in Washington.

Average Joe

 

A lot like Patrick Wisdom, Connor Joe has had a very strange journey to where he is now.

Joe was a first round pick with the Pirates in 2014, which seems...innocent enough. You know, Pirates need prospects, the big guns are going places. In 2017, he's traded to the Braves for Sean Rodriguez. A month later, he's traded to the Dodgers for international bonus slot money, kinda cruelly I might add. The Reds claim him in the Rule 5 draft, then trade him to the Giants for a minor leaguer and suddenly he's an opening day starter for the Giants in 2019, starting the first 8 games...and getting a single hit in 16 at-bats. So, he's immediately returned to the Dodgers, gestates in their minor league system for another year, doesn't play at all in 2020 due to the suspension of the minors, and is released at the end of 2020.

Which is a lot, already. However...the Colorado Rockies took a chance on Connor Joe. And unlike the other teams, Connor Joe proved his worth with them, resulting in a promotion to the majors, a starting outfield spot, and and a .285 average with 35 RBIs and 8 homers in 63 games. Out of nowhere, Joe has become a sturdy bench bat, a reliable lineup presence, and a decent outfielder. He's also become one of the Rockies best performers, alongside C.J. Cron, German Marquez and Ryan McMahon.

Honestly, I'm glad that a success story can happen in Denver. It's happened all over this year, with people reviving their careers in Chicago due to a surplus of roster spots on the north side, and it's happened to a lesser extent with people like Darin Ruf and Alcides Escobar, people we thought were done having great seasons. Connor Joe seemed destined for the trivia books, but he's working on a nice reclamation project in Denver, and I hope he keeps it up. I have no idea what the Rockies are going to look like next year with a few less contracts and more of an emphasis on homegrown youth, but hopefully Joe factors into it somehow.

Coming Tonight: Former Yankee prospect, current Baltimore starter. That pipeline keeps delivering. 

Chasing Pavements

 

Tonight, the Angels have made several statements in their lineup for the game against Oakland.

First of all, they're starting a rookie pitcher, Jhonathan Diaz, who will make his debut tonight. Rookie starter. Okay. Brandon Marsh, another rookie, is the leadoff hitter, in the position fellow rookie Jo Adell used to be essentially. And even if Jared Walsh is the best power hitter on the team, the cleanup bat tonight is Phil Gosselin, former DH for the Phillies. And the rest of their lineup is littered with people like Jack Mayfield, Juan Lagares and Luis Rengifo.

The Angels. We actually thought they were going to compete this year.

Look...I've talked about how unlucky this team is, but they were especially unlucky in 2021. Not only did they lose Mike Trout to an injury, but they lost Anthony Rendon, Alex Cobb, Patrick Sandoval, Griffin Canning, Dexter Fowler AND NOW JO ADELL to injuries. And almost all of them, especially the big ones like Rendon, Trout and Adell, have been met with a 'oh they'll be back in 2021' from Joe Maddon, and NONE OF THEM EVER ARE. I thought Nick Anderson was out for the season, he's back now. I thought Chris Sale would miss all of this year, he's back and thriving. I'd thought Tatis would be out for the season three separate times this year, he's still in it, though...granted maybe he should have sat.

The sad part is that Adell was beginning to branch out, with 32 hits and 26 RBIs in 25 games, not bad at all for someone who felt so awkward in the majors last year. But the fact that Adell, a replacement, can't even stay healthy...that's just cruel at this point. Now the Angels are pretty much running on replacement energy, forcing to start Packy Naughton and people like that. The good news is that one recent callup, Janson Junk, has been pretty decent in two starts so far, with a 2.25 ERA, despite a lack of true earth-shaking stats. And maybe this Diaz guy will be decent. But this is not the team the Angels thought they'd be running with this season, and even with the MVP, it's not a great year for Angels fans.

Maybe it'll be 2022 where everything comes together. You have to think it eventually will, right?

Coming Tomorrow- A former Pirates prospect who finally found a home in Denver.

Cubs vs. Phillies 9/16/21: 3s and 7s

 

Last night was my second of two in-person games at the local ballpark in Philadelphia. The first one, as you'll recall, didn't go too well for my hometown boys in red. But this one, I thought, could be different. For one thing, the game was against the struggling, depleted Chicago Cubs, and in the midst of a pretty strong stretch for the team.

On the other hand, as was confirmed before the game, the Phillies had designated tonight a bullpen game, meaning we wouldn't be getting Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Kyle Gibson or Ranger Suarez. We would be getting Cam Bedrosian, and eventually, Matt Moore. While it was a step up from Vince Velasquez, who is apparently not even good enough for the Padres, it was still...an unsettling decision. I was worried we'd blow this one as well, and I was not expecting much. Besides, I got the tickets to go with a friend of mine, the goal was to have a good time and maybe, potentially, get a decent game in. I didn't care too much about the outcome, especially knowing this team.

So we watched as the Phillies spent a few innings being their usual pathetic selves. The initial coolness of the Phils wearing throwback blues and starting a Bedrosian, which is very cool, immediately wore off when after Bedrosian left, Matt Moore did his usual thing and HPD's a run in, followed by another score on a bloop single. From there, the infield joined in on the fun, with a blooper by Brad Miller costing another few runs, and a homer by Matt Duffy, off of otherwise-great-this-year J.D. Hammer, making the game 7-0 in the third.

Seven runs in an inning, against the Phillies bullpen. Sounds about right. 

Around this time, as I was heading to the restroom, I overheard a conversation between an all-too-thrilled Cubs fan and a stadium attendant on break. The attendant was outraged and confused by the Cubs' big inning, and directed that sentiment, playfully, towards the fan. The Cubs fan replied "And we're terrible, too. I guess a blind squirrel finds a nut every so often."

Well...said harvest wasn't about to last especially long. Because it was the Phillies' turn to have a 7-run inning.

The first strike was a double that nearly made it over the fence, but stuck onto the landing and back onto the field, robbing Bryce Harper of a home run. But we would take a double. As would Andrew McCutchen, the guy I'd come here to see, who started the party with an RBI double. Then a series of small-ball moves, including singles, fielder's choices, walks and excellent base running, kept raining down on Kyle Hendricks, and tied the game in the fourth. 

After that, it was only a matter of whose bullpen was worse. The Phillies, whose bullpen routinely falls apart despite all effort not to, or the Cubs, who lost everyone except for Rex Brothers and had several relievers with ERAs over 5. 

If you answered the Cubs, congratulations.

First Harper had an RBI double, then Manuel Rodriguez gave up an RBI single to Didi Gregorius, whose bat definitely seemed to be back tonight. After Harper's massive hit, there were a few MVP chants in the ground. They would only grow throughout the night. 

A Willson Contreras home run would cut the score to 10-8, so it was still possible for the Cubs to reach us if the bullpen screwed it up enough. We needed security. 

Against Tommy Nance, we got some. First Odubel Herrera knocked another RBI double in, scoring 2 more runs. But Bryce Harper got up, and at the moment that my friend Marc came back with soft serve, LAUNCHED a homer into centerfield, scoring 3 more runs, making the stadium go absolutely wild, and giving us the celebration we deserved after his homer was taken away earlier. The chants of 'M-V-3' went even louder, and even longer. Harper was now hitting .315, with his OPS back over 1, and any thought of another player winning MVP was obliterated. This was Bryce Harper's season, and this was Bryce Harper's game. The moment he had been looking for since joining this team had arrived, and the entire stadium was behind him. It was beautiful. 

We only needed one more run from Mean Jean Segura, but the Phillies bullpen actually held things together otherwise. Bailey Falter and Adonis Medina were pretty excellent that night, giving us something unheard of by a Phillies bullpen- 3 scoreless innings. The ninth was a wash, the game was a 17-8 blowout, and we were outta there. 

For a game that I wasn't expecting to be a competition at all, or even more than 5 runs, to be a 17-8 triumph for my Phillies, that was everything I'd wanted. It was a hell of a night, a hell of a game, and a hell of a wrap on my stadium adventures for the year. Even if the Phillies don't make the playoffs, which is very likely, this'll be a great Phils memory to go out on.

Coming Tonight: Some poor schmo who has to play on the Angels without Mike Trout. 

Mondi Back Guarantee

 

Adalberto Mondesi has played 21 games this season, thanks to injuries. Six of them were multi-hit games. Four of them were multi-RBI games.

However, in the last 10 games, he's batted a measly .118 with FOUR hits, compared to the 16 across his first eleven games. What happened? Well...he realized the team sucked and didn't wanna stand out too much.

And so sums up the Royals. When Mondesi got injured, the Royals were a 1st place team. When he came back, they were circling last, and all of the promise had gone away. Hell, when Mondesi got hurt, Kyle Isbel was still starting in the outfield. Remember Kyle Isbel? Remember how people thought him getting the job out of camp meant he'd be a mainstay in KC, then he fell off and got demoted for the rest of the year and people started comparing him to Frank Schwindel, then Schwindel became not-a-bust with the Cubs?

Hell of a year.

Like last year, one of the main takeaways for the Royals has to be the bullpen, and how it's pretty much stayed together. Scott Barlow, Jake Brentz, Josh Staumont, Domingo Tapia and somehow Ervin Santana, have been very strong in relief. It's been less of a return to form for Greg Holland and Wade Davis, but the unit that had come to prominence last year is still working, and is still pounding out great innings, while also having to mop up the messes after starts from Daniel Lynch, Brad Keller and Jackson Kowar. 

Also...wait, shit, KYLE ISBEL'S BACK? Did they call him back up in the time I started writing this post? When the hell did that happen? And now he's hitting .300? He had a 3-hit 2-RBI night the other night, now he's actually doing kinda well again? Shit, maybe he's not a bust after all! Maybe comparing him to Bubba Starling and Ryan McBroom is unfair. But again...this is only one season.

The biggest summation of this team is that the highlights were worthy, like Salvador Perez's mega home run season, Michael Taylor and Carlos Santana's impressive debut years, and Whit Merrifield and Nicky Lopez's strong years in the infield. But everything else sort of sunk into the normalcy of Royals baseball post-2016. Too many injuries, not enough good starting pitching, not enough depth and too many young options that clearly aren't ready.

Will 2022 be a competitive year? Maybe. But I won't think twice if they come strong out of camp again next year.

Coming Tomorrow- One of the last Opening Day starters remaining from a team I am seeing play my Phillies tonight. Recap forthcoming. 

Triumph of the Grande Box: The Hits

 There were some spoils for me at the bottom of the package from Chris from Nachos Grande, aside from all the much-needed base cards from products I was unfamiliar with. They ranged from practical to intriguing to just plain bizarre.

This card confused both of us. It's a printing snafu, a double-printed error of both Randy Johnson's card and Freddy Garcia's card from 2002 Fleer Triple Crown. No foil on it. The back is credited to Jose Cruz Jr. of the Blue Jays. Because it's technically a Randy Johnson card, it landed in the D-Backs stack. It's a very puzzling card. It's...technically a 1/1? I don't suppose any other cards misprinted this badly exist. So I guess I'll hold onto it.

Moving onto the numbered cards in my stack, this one came to me in the Indians portion of the box. Brad Snyder was a mid-2000s Indians prospect, and was showcased here in 2004 Topps Pristine. This card is numbered to 41. I'm not sure if I really have a need for this, but with its deckle-edge and great design, it is pretty cool.

As for stuff that applies to my teams, we first have this Spirit of the Game insert, numbered to 1250, of Roger Clemens, out of 2003 Studio. As discussed, I'm not really a Clemens collector, but this isn't a bad design, or subject.

These two, from Donruss products, were both numbered to 1000. The cooler one for me is the Legendary Lumberjacks of Rickey Henderson, from 2004 Donruss Classics. How often do you find Yankee Rickey cards these days? But from a design standpoint, the Masterstrokes insert of Jason Giambi from 2003 Studio is also really cool. Giambi has been phased out of my collection, but he does look awesome on this, as does the painted background that partially resembles what could be the Yankee Stadium background behind him.

Really, the sad thing about pulling this 2002 Fleer Changing Places subset of Robin Ventura as a Yankee, which would have gone into my regular binders, was that it was a parallel numbered to 200, and would therefore go into my parallel binder. So...now I have to find the regular version for my Ventura collection, which is one of my more niche players to find cards of, but hey.

A discovery I made thanks to these breaks was that Nick Johnson was ALL OVER 2003 PRODUCTS. They thought he'd be the big rookie piece that'd help the Yankees for the future eras, but of course he'd be traded for Javier Vazquez and become a charter member of the Nationals. Both of these cards are numbered to 100. 

This one is...very odd. This came from 2004 Leaf Second Edition, and it's a blue Exhibit insert of Randy Johnson, which is already really cool. All of these cards have multiple versions, owing to codes and subtitles on the cards. So this one is numbered to 66 copies. Which is very cool. But I had to go on baseballcardpedia to find that out. Chris had guessed it was numbered to 50, and as it's not serial numbered, I had to do the research to verify it. Decisions like these probably attributed to Leaf, and Donruss's, exit from the card business the following year. 

 

Of the numbered cards, this was the coolest one. It's a green foil parallel of one of those awesome High Voltage inserts from 2000 Pacific Vanguard, of Derek Jeter, numbered to 99 copies. Insanely cool, and a great player choice.

Now onto some actual hits...

This was the sole non-Yankee hit I got, and it's still a pretty nice one. This is a 2021 Stadium Club autograph of Franmil Reyes, chief masher for Cleveland. As far as SC auto subjects go, it's a pretty good one. Not completely indebted to it, but it's still a cool on-card auto.

As for Yankee autos, Chris's 2021 box breaks yielded not one but TWO autographed cards from future Yankee starter [I HOPE] Clarke Schmidt. Schmidt is a decent pitching prospect, he's had some decent starts this year in multiple factions of the minors, and he is a rare Yankee pitcher with my last name. We already have a Yankee starter with my FIRST name, so let's get Clarke up here so we can complete the duo. I prefer the 86T one from 2021 Topps to the sticker auto from Donruss, but both of these are welcome. Hopefully he pans out. Then again, I still have a Luis Severino auto from a Nachos group break from a few years ago, back when I was worried HE wouldn't pan out, and while we're still waiting for his return from the IL, he still gave us some gems. 

As for the relics, we'll start with this one from 2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition. Design wise, we are SO in business here, with this Blue Chips design, the rounded edges, and the cool feel of the card. Granted, this is another Nick Johnson, and he's not very high on my list of Yankees, but this is still a very cool card.

Then we have this...very strange one from 2002 Fleer Triple Crown. Three players are showcased, the last three MVPs. Only one of them gets a relic, and it's Jason Giambi, and it says on the back that this came from an Oakland Athletics game worn jersey. But since this is a 2002 product, and Giambi's trade was finalized in the offseason, this is a Yankee card. He is pictured as an Athletic, the Jersey is from an A's game...but this is a Yankee card, and it goes in my pile. While it would have been cooler to get a Yankee relic of one of the other two people pictured, this still works as a puzzling but worthy Yankee[/A's] game used card.

There was one that kind of impressed me, though:

What really got me to appreciate this one was imagining it came out of a pack in 2004. 

Not only is it a well-designed card, not only is it a bat card, and not only is it one of the better relics to come out of 2004 Pristine...but it's Alex Rodriguez in his first year as a Yankee. I would have been freaking out if I had pulled this a year or so after its release. For a while, A-Rod was really worth all the hype, and was a Yankee legend. I wish steroids and his general jerk demeanor didn't detract from some great seasons, but this still is a great pull that I will appreciate, even if I'm not really the biggest A-Rod fan anymore.

That puts a capper on the massive Nachos Grande box here. Tons of great stuff from several breaks here. Looking forward to what I might get to take home in the next Breaker's Club.