Goodbye ElyMania

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that John Ely has been traded by the Dodgers to Houston for left-handed pitching prospect Rob Rasmussen.  

Oh, woe is me.  John Ely was quite the rage in 2010, and now he is gone.  

I shall always remember you, John Ely.  You were a shining light during a time of great tumult.  We all hated the situation the Dodgers where in, and immediately grasped at anything that could divert our attention- even for just a little bit.  For a short time, it was you.  You seemingly came out of nowhere to throw strikes and win some game, and I am forever thankful to have been a witness to it all.  

Good luck, my kind sir.  You deserve a shot at a starting pitching role, and I can't think of a better place to get your feet settled than in Houston.  They need the help, and I think you'll establish yourself there.


I thought it would be fun to reminisce a bit about those good-old-days, so I dug around a bit and found this great fantasy SI cover made by a twitter user named PA_Dodger (Now renamed @FLA_Dodger).  I never cease to get a laugh out of this one.

(pic link)

Of course, who could forget about the Ely jokes.  See some below.

• John Ely is so good, he struck out Chuck Norris. Twice. (@kjasalter)
• John Ely struck out Chuck Norris... with 2 pitches. (@Russaldo13)
• John Ely CAN tailgate at Dodger Stadium. (@IEEric)
•  John Ely can't walk and chew gum at the same time, because he doesn't walk anybody. (@ToddKaplan)  
• The only reason Andre Ethier's pinkie hasn't healed yet is because John Ely hasn't touched it. (@truebluela)

Via an email from the Dodgers:

Rasmussen, 23, is a native of Arcadia and played collegiately at UCLA after starring at Polytechnic High School in Pasadena. In 2007, the Dodgers selected him in the 27^th round of the amateur draft, but he decided to attend UCLA instead.

Rasmussen was selected by the Marlins in the second round of the 2010 amateur draft and then traded to the Houston organization on July 4, 2012 as part of the deal that sent Carlos Lee to Miami.

In three minor league seasons, Rasmussen is 20-21 with a 3.88 ERA in 60 games (53 starts), including 4-4 with a 4.80 ERA in 11 games (10 starts) at Double-A Corpus Christi in 2012.

Ely, 26, was acquired in a December 2009 trade with the White Sox and went 4-13 with a 5.70 ERA in 25 games (19 starts) over three seasons in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers now have 39 players on their 40-man roster. 

 Below are the career minor league stats for Rasmussen.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/19/2012

Sports Collectors Daily has some preview pics from Topps 2013 Archives set; including the Clayton Kershaw card on a 1985 Topps design, above.

• Steve Wulf at ESPN writes about the forgotten Steve Garvey.

The problem with Steve Garvey, though, is that he's not going to Cooperstown anytime soon, at least not as a member of baseball's most exclusive and maddeningly incomplete fraternity. "I don't think I was imagining it," said George Brett, who is in the club. "I know I read a lot of stories about 'future Hall of Famer' Steve Garvey."

• Howard Cole at Yahoo tries to throw some logic into the Andre Ethier trade rumors.

First and foremost, baseball agents have agendas, and if it helps to have a client's name attached to a particular trade rumor, that's reason enough to float the information. And second, a fair percentage of what you read about this player or that going to Team A or Team B is pure fiction. 

• Dustin Nosler at Feelin' Kinda Blue writes, "Dodgers Lack a Quality Bench, Which is Something that Needs to be Addressed."
• Via Jonah Keri at Grantland, "The Dodgers and The Curse of the Plenty". 

That, in a nutshell, is The Curse of Plenty. The Dodgers have more money to spend than anyone, without enough top players to go after. They've clogged their roster with merely decent talent at multiple positions because their general manager is impulsive and overeager to spend that money without properly gauging the market for the few elite talents out there. One great way to find those top players is to develop them yourself, but the Dodgers have shipped away several strong prospects to make reactionary trades, such as the Gonzalez deal.

• Matt Hunter at Beyond the Boxscore writes about "Some Factors that Might Affect Pitch Framing."
• The A's new shortstop tells the media during their press conference that Billy Beane is "sexy and cool," via Big League Stew.
• A survey by Level5 indicates an 'alarming' level of damage done to the NHL brand, via Roy MacGregor at Globe and Mail. Color me not surprised.  Even this hardcore/die hard Kings fan finds it hard to reconcile my love for the sport with my revulsion for this lockout.
• Here is a fun little recap video created by YouTube featuring 2012's greatest trending videos.

Video Link:

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One, Two, Three, Four, I Declare a Photoshop War

If you've read this blog over the past year, then you've undoubtedly run across several stories I posted about a huge Dodger fan named Christian.  See my first story here.

Well, Christian had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch before a game last season, and the moment was captured in the photo above.  If I recall correctly, this photo spread a bit on the web, but not at a level that would be considered viral.  Still, he was noticed.  Heck, it's hard not to notice a three-year old throw like that.  I have a 6-year old nephew who loves the game, but doesn't have the kind of form Christian already exhibits.

Anyway, the fine folks at the PhotoshopBattles on Reddit noticed the pic above and decided to let the Reddit masses have their fun.  Check out this thread to see their work.  Much of the stuff that was shared is incredible, so I suggest lurking around.  Below are some of my favorites.

(Reddit PhotoshopBattle: creuter)

As one poster wrote about the above photo, a "young Bruce Campbell."  

(Reddit PhotoshopBattle: dasmerten)

I love the one below.  And it's timely.

(Reddit PhotoshopBattle: lains-experiment)

I didn't know he could skate too!

(Reddit PhotoshopBattle: sevenshepard)

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Lelands Auctions: Don Newcombe's Awards For Sale

Before Justin Verlander completed the task in 2011, Don Newcombe was the only man in Baseball to have won the Rookie of the year, MVP and Cy Young Awards in a career.  Now, as I look through the Lelands newest auction catalog, I discover that those actual three awards won by Newcombe are now up for sale.  See them below.

According to Lelands, these were acquired directly from Newcombe, but no transfer date was shared.  I won't try to speculate about how these got into someone else' hands, but I will add that if the Dodgers new ownership are truly interested in creating a Dodgers museum then they must start by acquiring these three items.  Put them where they belong- into a place where it can be enjoyed by the Dodger faithful.

Below is the 1949 Rookie of the Year Award.  From the auction description:

After one year in the Negro Leagues, Don Newcombe made a big splash in the majors in 1949, winning 17 games, leading the league in shutouts, and pitching 32 consecutive scoreless innings over one stretch. He was also among the first four black players to be named to a All-Star team, along with teammates Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella and the Indians' Larry Doby. This was the first National League Rookie of the Year Award ever handed out, as there was only one given out covering both leagues the previous two seasons, with Robinson having won the first during his historic 1947 barrier-breaking campaign.

As of this writing it is already at $12,100.00.

(Auction Link)

Here is his 1956 National League MVP Award.  As you can see, the silver portion has a patina to it, but if the Dodgers were to acquire this I would suggest shining it up.  This award is, at the time of this writing, at $33,275.00.

(Auction Link)

Here is Don's 1956 CY Young Award.  From the auction description:

The Cy Young Award originated in 1956, and we proudly present that prestigious inaugural prize right here! It is the one and only Cy Young presented to Don Newcombe, who went 27–7 with a 3.06 ERA, five shutouts and 18 complete games that dominant season, leading the league in winning percentage for a second consecutive year. What's especially noteworthy about Newcombe's 1956 season is that it marked the first of 10 occasions in which a pitcher won both the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards in the same season (the last being Justin Verlander in 2011).

The value for this award is already up to $40,262.75.

(Auction Link)

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/18/2012

The above pic was tweeted by @Dodgers.

• The 1983 Fleer Project shares a recently received autographed card from former Dodgers pitcher Terry Forster.
• Night Owl Cards continues with his Best Dodgers Card Ever Made feature with #11 to 20.
• Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports notes that Andre Ethier's name has been discussed in recent trade talk.

The Dodgers have “zero intention” of trading Ethier, the official said, but will listen to offers. The discussions, to this point, have failed to progress.

• Patrick Rishe at Forbes notes that the Dodgers believe that asset acquisition will bolster value.

Guggenheim is going big in the hopes of landing a lucrative television home for the Dodgers as part of what may become the most impressive stable of sports and entertainment properties the sports industry has ever seen.

• Check out the drawing created by a son of Dale Murphy in support of his inclusion into the Hall of Fame.
• Panini released some preview pics from their 2012 National Treasures Baseball card set.  See them here.  Unfortunately, no Dodgers previews are provided, but there was this incredible look Gwynn autographed card below.

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2012 Leaf Memories Baseball - Dodgers Cards - Piazza, Lasorda, Valenzuela, Puig and Seager

Leaf has gone Baseball card crazy the past several weeks.  Since the end of the 2012 Baseball season they have released a Metal Baseball Draft set and Valiant Baseball Draft set.  Now, they release probably their best set this year.  Just out in stores is 2012 Leaf Memories Baseball.  See a complete checklist here.

This set takes a look back at a once loved and revered Baseball card set- 1990 Leaf.  It uses the exact same design while also including foil stamped buyback cards from the original 1990 set.  Heck, they even put together a 70 player checklist of autographed buyback cards that were inserted into packs.  BTW, this is a very limited product.  Only 155 (10-box) cases were produced.  The base cards to the new set are numbered to only 99, the autographed base cards are numbered to 25, and the buybacks are numbered to 20  (with a couple of limited parallels added on).

Check out the Dodgers base cards below.  Every base card has a companion autographed version available.  Click on any pic to embiggen.

#544 Corey Seager / #AU-CS1 Corey Seager

#552 Yasiel Puig / #AU-YP1 Yasiel Puig

#567 Mike Piazza / #AU-MP1 Mike Piazza

#575 Tommy Lasorda/ #AU-TL1 Tommy Lasorda

Fernando Valenzuela is the only Dodger in the autographed buyback checklist.  As you can see, it has been embossed with silver foil and is numbered to only 34 copies- this corresponds to his uniform number.

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