Blog Kiosk: 1/3/2015 - Dodger Links - Jackie Robinson, Dan Haren and Brett Anderson

Check out Jackie Robinson with just some of the trophies and awards he'd collected so far in his career.  It is an undated International News/The Sporting News press photograph that I ran into on eBay.  Go here to check out the auction.

Below are some links to check out:

• Awesome!  Via Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider, "Dribbling on behalf of Jackie Robinson."

I was in a Harlem Globetrotters rabbit hole last weekend when I stumbled upon this connection between famed Harlem Globetrotter Marques Haynes and famed Dodger Jackie Robinson.

• Via Harold Uhlman at Think Blue LA, "A look back at the 2014 Rancho Cucamonga Quakes."
• Via Carson Cistulli at FanGraphs, "The Other Uncertainty Regarding Brett Anderson."  Just something to think/worry about.

Another uncertainty regarding Anderson, however — perhaps related to his injuries and perhaps not — concerns his fastball velocity. For, simultaneous to recording the worst park-adjusted xFIP (96 xFIP-) of his career in 2014, Anderson also recorded his lowest ever average fastball velocity (89.8 mph). There’s a distinct relationship between velocity and success, nor does Anderson appear to be immune from it.

• Via Joe Frisaro at the Fish Pond blog tells us that, "Haren not intending on joining Marlins."

If Miami cannot work out a trade, it is not clear yet if the 12-year big league veteran will retire.

• bpb47 at BaseballPinbackButtons has solved a vintage Jackie Robinson pin mystery in a piece entitled, "ONE MYSTERY SOLVED!"  This really is a big deal for Dodger/Jackie Robinson pin collectors.  Go here to check it out.  It relates to the pin on the right and the letter "J" above the name "Brooklyn Eagle".  We now know what the "J" is all about, and there could possible be pins with many different letters in the marketplace.  ("J" appears to be most common, but "R" and "N" are known to exist.)  On a side note, I was asked about this pin many months ago, but didn't have an answer then.  Now, I do.  Below is a pic of the ad discussed in the story:

• Via David Golebiewski at the Daily Gammons, "Kuroda Quietly Brilliant During MLB Tenure."

In 2015, Kuroda will re-join the Hiroshima Carp having proven to be durable, occasionally dominant, and still capable of vanquishing MLB hitters as he nears his 40th birthday. From 2008-14, Kuroda ranked 19th among starters in innings pitched (1,319) and Wins Above Replacement (21.7). Had he decided to pitch another year in the show — or make just one more stellar start, even — he would have passed Nomo (21.8 WAR) for the highest career WAR total among Japanese-born hurlers.

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Gabe Kapler is Ready to Help the Dodgers

Gabe Kapler, the recently hired Director of Player Development for the Dodgers (check out my past story welcoming him to the team, here), is just starting to make his mark on the team.  He'll be tasked with assisting our young farmhands as they rise up the ladder with an eye towards Los Angeles, and one of his goals will be to preach the gospel of healthy living and consistent work in the gym.

As evidenced through a twitter exchange on New Year eve, Kapler is clearly ready to get to work.  Check out the exchange between Joc Pederson and Gabe Kapler below.

(twitter)

You gotta love that Kapler is ready to lend a hand, and it's even better to see that Pederson is ready to listen. 

BTW, this entire exchange had my brain thinking about a certain meme.  Check out my creation below.

UPDATE:  I thought I'd add the following article written by Gabe Kapler on his website in early December.  Via Gabe Kapler on his personal website Kaplifestyle, "Working Smart: Speed and Power."  Gabe suggest that endurance training makes no sense for Baseball players.

While my mentor was correct that strengthening the heart muscle is good for us as human beings, he was off with his assessment that the training makes sense for baseball players. The longest distance we will ever run on a baseball field is 360 feet, perhaps a few more if we factor in angles on the rare inside the park home run. As an outfielder, if I’m manning center field and run from gap to gap, north or south or a combo of the two, my distance will never be longer than 100 feet in any direction. If I was a cross country runner training for a 5 mile race, would I train by sprinting 35 yard blasts? Of course not. So, as baseball players, why do we seek out training that’s actually breaking us down?

Endurance training has also been shown to decrease muscle fiber size, muscle strength, and muscle power, all of which are detrimental to a baseball athlete (4).

Instead, we should be optimizing for speed and power in short bursts.

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2014 Bowman Sterling Baseball - All the Dodger Cards

Here is Topps newest Baseball card set to hit the market.  It is called Bowman Sterling and it consist primarily of prospects, rookies and recent up-'n-comers.  Go here for a complete checklist and listing of parallels.  Check out all of the Dodger cards below.

There are three different Yasiel Puig autographed cards in the set, but they only come via a redemption card.  Also, the Dodgers #1 pick from the 2014 draft, Grant Holmes, has a redemption card for the Bowman Black card (an on-card autograph).  Below is a checklist of all redemption cards:

• Bowman Black Autographs (#/25): #BBC-GH Grant Holmes
• Dual Refractor Autographs: #BDA-SP Yasiel Puig & Jorge Soler
• Sterling Autograph Showcase (#/25): #SAS-YP Yasiel Puig
• Sterling Silver Autographs (#/1): #SS-YP Yasiel Puig

Base Rookies Set

#2 Alex Guerrero

#15 Erisbel Arruebarrena

Prospects Set

#BSP-26 Joc Pederson

#BSP-32 Julio Urias

Prospect Autographs

#BSPA-GH Grant Holmes

1989 Bowman is Back Silver Diamond Refractor

#89BIB-JP Joc Pederson

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Blog Kiosk: 1/2/2015 - Dodger Links - They are Confident in Anderson and Confident with the Current Rotation

It has been so cold.  So, when I saw the above photo on eBay the other day I certainly could sympathize.  It features four Brooklyn Dodgers huddled around a soon-to-be raging fire at their spring home in Daytona Beach.  The photo is dated 3/2/1946 and is from International News. Check out the auction here.  From the caption written on the reverse:

PITY POOR DODGERS IN BLEAK FLORIDA.  Daytona Beach, Fla.......It's all right for the fortunate people up North.  They can warm be shoveling snow.  But the poor Brooklyn Dodgers, who are spring training down in Daytona Beach have to light a fire to get the chill out of their bones.  Billy Herman is playing fireman here to get a blaze going for Vic Lombardi, Hal Gregg and Lew Riggs.  Cold weather caused postponement of practice called for yesterday."

Below are some links to check out:

• Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "With ultimate goal in reach, 10 questions for Dodgers."
• Via Mark Saxon at ESPNLosAngeles.com, "2014 highs and lows both involve Kershaw."
• Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Dodgers confident in Brett Anderson's health."

"He's a young guy. He was terrific when he pitched last year for Colorado. From a health standpoint, we feel very good about him being a regular guy from the start of the season on," Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi said on a conference call on Wednesday. "We're certainly hoping he stays healthy and takes the ball every fifth day."

• Via Bill Shaikin on twitter, Dodger GM Farhan Zaidi said they are not looking to add another frontline starting pitcher.

Zaidi: Bolsinger and Wieland are the extra pitchers to protect against injury to Anderson or others. No plans to pursue more.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 31, 2014

Zaidi: "Our focus on the SP side is going to be depth options." He won't say no Scherzer or Shields, but that's what he means.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 31, 2014

• Via Tim Brown at Yahoo Sports, "Dodgers exploring an intriguing gamble with Chin-hui Tsao."

A few days ago, the Los Angeles Times reported the Dodgers were “close” to signing Tsao to a minor-league deal and suggested the club had received clearance from MLB to do so. Both are true. The Dodgers contacted MLB prior to engaging with Tsao, a baseball source with knowledge of those conversations told Yahoo Sports. The league looked into the circumstances surrounding Tsao’s expulsion, found some “ambiguities” in the case, and cleared the way for the signing, the source said.

This much seems clear, ambiguities notwithstanding: A guy banned from playing baseball somewhere else (or, in this case, two somewhere elses) for at least entertaining the idea of throwing games probably should not be rewarded with a second chance here. Not with a major league club. Not on a minor-league deal. Not with MLB’s already very rigid stance on such activities, not with the flaming contradiction it would appear to be, not with the precedent it would set. (Rose, for one, might be inspired to launch another reality TV show, and nobody wants that.)

• Via Bernie Pleskoff at MLB.com, "Versatile infield prospect Sweeney impresses with speed."

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Happy New Year!

May you have a safe and fun New Year celebration!

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Another Grant Holmes Prospect Card for the Collection

I've never been much of a prospect collector.  It's too much like gambling and the risk/reward ratio for young stud coming through a Baseball systems just seems far too risky to spend a great amount of dollars on.  On the other hand, when we're talking about a top Dodger prospect I can be convinced to take a dive in.  (Besides, having missed out on inexpensive Corey Seager cards make me a bit ill.)

Case in point, check out this AFLAC High School All-American and Under Armour All-American Game Autograph card of Grant Holmes that was seeded into packs of 2014 Bowman Chrome Baseball in October.  It is Holmes first official card from a licensed product and his first card featuring his autograph. It is numbered to 225 signed copies.  BTW, an unsigned version of the card exist on the marketplace, and they were given away during a prep showcase ballgame at Wrigley Field in Chicago on August 24, 2013.  I do not know what the print run is for that card.

This is my second Holmes autograph card in my collection.  In November I added my first card - a 2014 Leaf Metal Draft card.  Check it out here.  As I wrote back then:

Just a couple of weeks after signing his first professional contract in mid-June, Holmes went to work on the mound in the Arizona League for the first time.  He pitched two scoreless innings against Seattle's club; striking out an impressive five batters in two innings of work.  Holmes eventually got into seven rookie level games for the Arizona Dodgers before advancing to the clubs Pioneer League team in Ogden.

Overall, he did well in Arizona. Holmes pitched 30 innings and struck a total of 33 batters.  Furthermore, batters were hitting just .187 against him, so he clearly had a good start.  Grant Holmes has a reputation for having a big mid to high 90's fastball, and early indications are that he was able to use the pitch to overwhelm batters. 

His short Pioneer League stint was not as rosy.  He got into only four games, but got hit hard on a couple of occasions.  Holmes pitched just 18.1 innings; giving up 10 earned runs and 19 hits over that span.  On the bright side, he continued to strike out batters at a healthy clip.  In those 18.1 innings he struck out 25 batters.

MLB Pipeline ranks him as the 4th best prospect in the Dodger system, and the 100th overall in Baseball. 

If you are curious, I paid just $11.00 (shipped) for this card.  I don't think that was too shabby of a deal.

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