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Thursday, September 04, 2014

Remembering ElyMania - A New Ely Autographed Card for My Collection


I remember ElyMania like it was yesterday.  He was an unsung pitcher with some decent peripheral numbers in the White Sox system, so nobody could have predicted his amazing start. Quickly though, like a tornado or a flying sombrero, he captured the hearts and minds of Dodger fans everywhere.

Ely won three games in his first five starts, and in another three starts in his first eight games he gave up a run or less for no-decisions.  For awhile it seemed like we had found a diamond, or at the very least a solid back-of-the-rotation pitcher.  Unfortunately, that luster soon disappeared.  Ely started to get wild and lost command of the strike zone.  In his first eight games he walked just ten batters.  In his next ten starts he walked thirty. 

Today, Ely pitches for the Red Sox AAA team in Pawtucket.  He has since been converted into a reliever and has pitched well for them.  So well, in fact, he just might find longterm success in that capacity. I know if he does, I will continue to root for him.

Featured here is an autographed card of John Ely that I recently added to my collection.  It is a 2010 Topps Peek Performance autographed card that was found in packs of their update series.

* Please follow on twitter @ernestreyes *
* Dodgers Blue Heaven home page *

Blog Kiosk: 9/4/2014 - Dodger Links - A Disappointing Dodger Loss so Thank Goodness for a Day Off


I have no words.

The Dodgers should have won yesterday's game, but they didn't.  And frankly, I don't have the energy to recount how screwed up that is.  If you want a good rundown on the frustrating sequence of events that was yesterday's loss check out Mike Petriello post at Dodgers Digest, "Nationals 8, Dodgers 5: The Game That Broke Baseball."  He hit it out of the park - if only the Dodgers could do the same.

Thankfully, I was working throughout the afternoon, so I didn't have to sit through it all.  Instead, I received intermittent updates; which is probably just as bad as sitting through that mess.  I dunno...

A shining light in yesterdays loss was the performance of starting pitcher Carlos Frias.  He was effective in his six innings of play; having given up just three hits, walked only one, struck out four and allowed no runs.  Frias may prove to be an important piece down the stretch.  The photo above is of Frias, via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2014Go here to check out more pics from Jon.

The Dodgers maintain a 2.0 game lead over the Giants.  They have a day off today.  Now, below are some links to check out.
  • Happy Birthday, Mike Piazza!  He is 46 years old today.
  • Bill Chuck at the Daily Gammons writes, "Want to defeat the Dodgers? Let them load the bases."
  • Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Vin Scully to reduce schedule in 2015."  As he gets older he'll be more selective about what road games he calls. 
  • Carson Cistulli at FanGraphs writes, "The Fringe Five: Baseball’s Most Compelling Fringe Prospects" that includes Dodger farmhand Jharel Cotton.
The production has been excellent. Regard: over 25 appearances (20 starts) and 126.2 innings, Cotton has produced almost precisely the same strikeout-walk differential (about 20 percentage points, in each case) as considerably more celebrated Dodgers prospect (and Cotton’s High-A teammate) Julio Urias*. The point which separates the pair, besides Urias’s considerable youth, is that, while Urias features three plus pitches, Cotton’s fastball and breaking pitches are inferior to his changeup.
  • Topps newest direct sale product is a movie pin-up poster, measuring 18" x 24", featuring the 2014 Dodger playoff race.  See it on the right.  It is limited to 99 copies.  Check it out at Topps here.
  • Matt Eddy at Baseball America names Corey Seager and Joc Pederson to their 2014 Minor League All-Star Team.
  • Here's some news that is not at all surprising.  Via Michael Lananna at MLB.com, "Beckett likely done for the season." 
"He threw the other day, and it went OK," Mattingly said. "Still, I don't think that leaves us enough time to get him ready to pitch."
  • I won't take too much advantage of this funny moment at Dodger Stadium yesterday, but I will link to this SB Nation story about it.  Via Seth Rosenthal, "Here's how you can get an entire section to yourself at a baseball game."
  • BTW, they have started building the ice surface at Staple Center for the upcoming Kings season.  WooHoo!



    * Please follow on twitter @ernestreyes *
    * Dodgers Blue Heaven home page *