Blog Kiosk: 8/28/2014 - Dodger Links - Kershaw's League Leading Win and Ryu Ready to Pitch

What more can you say about Clayton Kershaw?  He's magnificent and virtually a lock for a win whenever he pitches - even on night's he said he had a bad start.  Last night he went eight innings versus the Diamondbacks; striking out 10, walking just two and allowing just one earned run (unearned).  His ERA falls to a minuscule 1.73, and he now leads the league with 16 wins on the season. 

As for the Dodgers offense for the evening, they did all of their damage in the third inning.  Matt Kemp played the hero again by driving in two wins on a double to right centerfield.  Scott Van Slyke added another run with a solo home run to left center.  BTW, Kenley Jansen recorded his 38th save of the season and 100th for his career.  To all those naysayers who doubted his role as the teams closer at the start of the season can now all just shut up - you are a bunch of reactionary know nothings.

The photo at the top is of Hello Kitty - who is not a cat.  Via Carolina A. Miranda at the LA Times,

"That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty."

Who knew?  Pic via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2014.

The Dodgers 3 to 1 victory allowed them to maintain their 5.0 game lead ahead of the Giants.  Now, below are some links to check out:

• Via Bill Plunkett at the OC Register, "Dodgers striking out at claiming players."

(Via Ned Colletti) “It’s a function of how many teams are in the playoff hunt and our place in the order. We’ve claimed – what’s a good word, droves? Many? Very many? … We’ve claimed a lot of players and they never get to us.”

• Children's Hospital Los Angeles was actively involved in ThinkCure! Weekend at Dodger Stadium and they just shared the story of a couple of their patients on their website.  Check that out here.  
• Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "Ryu free of pain after sim game; return near."

Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu said he felt no pain while throwing a two-inning simulated game on Wednesday and could return to the starting rotation on Sunday or Monday.

• Via Dustin Nosler at Dodgers Digest, "Stop it: Julio Urias isn’t making his MLB debut in 2014." 
• An FYI, Monday, September 8th will be LA Kings Night at Dodger Stadium.  Go here for information.  I am uncertain if any King players will be in attendance, but fans attending through a special ticket package to sit in the all-you-can-eat right-field pavilion will get a cool little t-shirt (as seen on right).
• Via Mike Oz at Big League Stew, "Dodgers fan gets hassled over T-shirt at D-backs game, but social media prevails."  Those fans (security & other staff members) in Arizona sure are a bunch of whiny little kids.  The only person there with any sort of rational understanding of things is Josh Rawitch - Diamondbacks VP of Communications.  Good job, Josh, on getting it figured out.
• GCRL shares some more Steve Garvey oddball baseball cards.  Awesome!

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Four Dodgers Set to Play in Arizona Fall League - Check Out some AFL Fantasy Baseball Cards

Winter Ball is fast approaching and so is the opportunity to check out each clubs best and brightest minor league prospects.  For a month and a half, starting in early October, the Arizona Fall League opens its doors, and for those luck enough to participate it usually means that "The Show" is not too far away. 

For the Dodgers four players are slated to go to Arizona and will play for the Glendale Desert Dogs.  They are infielders Corey Seager and Darnell Sweeney, outfielder Scott Schebler and left-handed pitcher Mike Thomas.  They will join a team that will include other top prospects like Devon Travis and Steven Moya of the Tigers, Time Anderson of the White Sox, Zach Davies of the Orioles and Tyrone Taylor of the Brewers. 

In celebration of these players next step in their maturation process I made several fantasy cards for them.  The photos I used are from either Dodgers photographer Jon SooHoo's photog website or photographs grabbed from the Dodger Insider blog.  I also used the vintage 1970 Topps Baseball card design.

The AFL website can be viewed here.

Below is a brief synopsis of each player:

Corey Seager, 20, was drafted by the Dodgers in the 1st Round in 2012 and is now regarded as a Top-20 prospect in all of Baseball.  He was recently named the 2014 California League MVP for his play with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.  He slashed 352/.411/.633with 18 home runs and 70 RBI's before being promoted to AA Chattanooga.  Below are his career statistics, via Baseball Reference:


Scott Schebler, 23, was drafted by the Dodgers in the 26th Round in 2010.  He has had two outstanding consecutive years for the Dodgers in the minor leagues.  In 2013 with the Quakes he slashed .296/.360/.581 with 27 home runs and 91 RBI's.  In 2014 with the AA Lookouts he slashed .281/.367/.558 with 27 home runs and 72 RBI's.  Below are his career statistics, via Baseball Reference:


Darnell Sweeney, 23, was drafted in 2012 in the 13th Round and is from the University of Central Florida.  With the Lookouts he slashed .285/.384/.461 with 14 home runs and 55 RBI's.  Below are his career statistics, via Baseball Reference:


Mike Thomas, 25, was a 35th Round pick in 2011 draft.  He has been Chattanooga's left-handed reliever out of the 'pen.  In 2014 he has gone 4-3 with a 2.75 ERA, with 3 saves and a strike out per nine innings ratio of 11.6.   Unfortunately, he tends to walk far too many batters.  He pitched for the Desert Dogs last year; pitching in 5 games.  Below are his career statistics, via Baseball Reference:

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Weekend Autograph Opportunities: Ladarius Green in San Diego

Here are this weekends autograph opportunities and events throughout the Southland. As always, be sure to check the Blue Heaven Calendar for other events (a link can always be found on the tab at the top of this page, just left of center), and always confirm with the establishment. Everything is subject to change.  Please email me with any tips about upcoming events in Southern California.  As the rest of the week progresses I'll update this post with other events (if there are any) as I become aware of them.  Also, I don't always list every event below, so be sure to check my Calendar.  I always try to favor free signing events over paying events.  Click on any pic to embiggen.

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Unfortunately, this is the only signing event I am aware of.  If you know of anything else please let me know.

San Diego tight end Ladarius Green will be signing autographs in San Diego for the Deluxe Signature Collection.  It will be held at the Fox Sports Grill.  It is $20.00 per autograph.    Go here for information. 

Fox Sports Grill
Deluxe Signature Collection
1 Park Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92101

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Blog Kiosk: 8/27/2014 - Dodger Links - Offense Came Alive and Puig's Lack of Power

Roberto Hernandez had another quality start for the Dodgers yesterday afternoon, despite having runners in scoring position in four of his six innings.  He struck out three, walked two, gave up six hits and allowed only three earned runs.  I wonder if the results of his work in Blue has made a potential trade for Bartolo Colon less likely.  Graphic above via @Dodgers on twitter.

Furthermore, the Dodgers offense exploded against the Diamondbacks.  They racked up nine runs on fourteen hits, and every starting player, except for Puig, recorded a hit.  Six different players drove in a run, and Matt Kemp hit his sixteenth homer of the season.  Overall, the Dodgers displayed a well-balanced attack.  They were even helped along by a couple of Instant replays that went our way during the six run fourth inning.  Ken Gurnick at MLB.com has a good rundown on what happened there, here.

The Dodgers victory allowed them to maintain their 5.0 game lead ahead of the Giants.  Now, below are some links to check out:

• Via Jim Callis at MLB.com, "Pipeline Perspectives: Urias worthy of callup."

Of course, the chances that the Dodgers will bring up Urias are roughly equivalent to the odds that the franchise will move back to Brooklyn. The reasons are many: he's barely 18, he's three levels away from the Majors, they don't want to add more stress on his arm, he doesn't have to be protected on the 40-man roster until after the 2016 season. If he did get the call, Urias would be the youngest player in the big leagues since Willie Montanez in 1966 and the youngest pitcher since Larry Dierker in '64.

• Via Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA, "Is Jose De Leon the next Clayton Kershaw?"  Likely not, since that's a tall order.  But he could be a fine pitcher for us someday.
• Via Daniel Brim at Dodgers Digest, "Tracking Yasiel Puig’s Power Outage."

Even with the scary corresponding timing between the hip injury and the power loss, we should be cautious about assigning the injury as the only cause for Puig’s struggles. There’s the whole “correlation does not mean causation” thing, and as Chad noted in the excerpt above, Puig’s mean fly ball distance almost matches last season. A few of the longer hits have been classified as line drives, too. This could just be regression to the mean, using arbitrary endpoints to describe a story. In other words, it could be a coincidence. Puig hasn’t been visually impacted by his hip in some time.

• The other day Chris Olds at Beckett unveiled some early preview picks from Topps 2014 Heritage Baseball card set slated to come out in Early March.  Go here to check those out.  To the right is a Kershaw insert card.
• Here's a scouting report fron FanGraphs.  Via Ron Shah at FanGgraphs, "Dodgers Righty Chris Anderson Flashes Big Stuff."
• This is a very interesting article that I think is worth reading and studying for modern day Baseball card collectors.  Check out what Jeff Hwang at Sports Collectors Daily says about, "The Upside of the Modern Baseball Card."

In The Modern Baseball Card Investor, we used the term multiple expansion to describe the widening spread in values between premium-grade (PSA or BGS Gem Mint+ in modern issues) and ungraded cards, and also the spread between premium limited print, serialized parallels and base cards in Chrome Era modern issues (1993/1996-present), generally as a function of some combination of increasing demand due to growing star power; the card removal effect; and/or grade scarcity. Multiple expansion is not hypothetical conjecture, but a very real concept, with the clearest evidence of its existence present in the values of vintage issues.

So premium graded modern scarcities can and have already experienced multiple expansion in values with the added caveat that beta (to borrow a financial term for risk) is significantly higher due to the players standing in the hobby.  In other words, as long as a player is deemed to be a legitimate Hall of Fame-caliber player the values for their scarce issues should continue to be strong.

A great example of this are the prices for scarce and high-graded Michael Jordan cards.  I am constantly amazed at the values certain low-numbered cards regularly receive.  So, ten to twenty years from now can you imagine the kind of values a Mike Trout scarce rookie card might achieve if he continues being a monster at the plate, or a Clayton Kershaw?  I'm not saying you should run out and become a card investor, I just think it's interesting to think about.

On a side note, if I had the discretionary funds to spend significant dollars on cards I would focus my attention on vintage (in particular pre-war cards).  As the article intimates, there is less risk involved with those issues.  Modern scarcities may represent a potential higher return, but they also represent the greatest risk.

• Following up on the above article, Tom Bartsch at Sports Collectors Digest notes that, "High Grades Lead to Skyrocketing Market Values for Modern Cards."  He notes that a PSA10 1971 Topps Steve Garvey rookie card recently sold for $25,393.  Wow!  I know that issue is extremely difficult in high grades, but that is amazing.  Another card to look at are the OPC Wayne Gretzky cards.  I've been told that they are absolutely on fire.

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Joc's Cabinet is Starting to Fill Up - Honored with All-PCL Team and ROY

It's got to be an exciting time for Joc Pederson.

A few days ago he joined the illustrious Pacific Coast League 30/30 Club, and in just a matter of days he should be heading out west to join the Dodgers for a "cup of coffee."  In the meantime, he is being showered with some awards that only place more shine on what looks to be an already polished product.

Yesterday, it was announced that Joc Pederson has been elected to the All-PCL Team by the league's field managers and media.  Today, we find out that he beat out a strong contingent of rising prospects to win the Pacific Coast Leagues Rookie of the Year Award.

Congrats, Joc!

In celebration of Joc's newest accomplishments I made the above two fantasy cards for him.  The photos are from the Albuquerque Isotopes and I used the vintage 1971 Topps Baseball card design (template provided by Alex Markle at Chavez Ravining).

If you can't tell I'm getting all-jazzed up about Joc's impending play in a Dodger uniform.  It denotes a time of hope and excitement.  There's nothing like seeing what a homegrown highly-touted kid can do for the club.

Below are his minor league statistics, via Baseball Reference:

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Blog Kiosk: 8/26/2014 Dodger Links - Time Warner Seeking $3.84 per Subscriber

So, what do you think?  Is that a good draft card?  AJ Ellis did some early congratulating on twitter when he saw Clayton Kershaw's NFL draft card that you can see above.  See his tweet here.

• Mark Saxon at ESPNLosAngeles.com writes, "Don Mattingly is managing his finest season," and I do not disagree.  Saxon makes some good points that include Don's ability to juggle so many egos and how the team seems to respond positively when he publicly expresses frustration at them.
• Via Ryan Romano at Beyond the Boxscore, "Your guide to Clayton Kershaw's insane 2014 season."
• I guess we now know the real number.  Via Joe Lucia at Awful Announcing, "SportsNet LA may help kill a potential Comcast-Time Warner merger."

We finally have a solid answer on the rate that Time Warner is asking from its customers for SportsNet LA – $3.84 per month per subscriber, which is a simply massive amount. Only five RSNs in the country ask for more money out of subscribers – Fox Sports North, CSN Mid-Atlantic, NESN, CSN Philadelphia, and TWC SportsNet. Of course, all but one of those RSNs has the rights to multiple big four teams, and the one that doesn’t is in the same market as SportsNet LA and is also owned by Time Warner. Gee, if only they were packaged together…

BTW, if a side benefit of this entire mess is that the merger doesn't happen, then we should all be happy with that.  Could you just imagine how horrible a combined Comcast-Time Warner company would be?  

• AM570 Fox Sports shares a bunch of photos of Ron Cey's autograph appearance this past weekend in Mission Hills.
• Panini America provides more preview pics from their 2014 Immaculate Baseball set coming out in September.  Go here to check those out.  Below are previews of a Kershaw and Puig card.

• Finally, some clarity on the "blocking home plate" thing.  Via Carrie Muskat at MLB.com, "Discussion with Torre clarifies Rule 7.13 for Cubs."

"What we were told," Baker said, "was that if our left foot is in fair territory, not touching the base line, then we're offering a lane for the player to slide. If the ball is thrown and we make a read on that ball, and that ball takes us into the base line, then we won't be found at fault for trying to block the plate."

So, it's all about where the catcher positions himself before the play at home that determines things.

• My favorite King of All-Time speaks with Katie Strang at ESPN.com, "(Marcel) Dionne likes Kings' confidence, character."

“It depends how hungry they are, because their time is so short,” Dionne said of the team’s truncated summer following a long postseason run. “To get back and recharge the batteries is very, very difficult, but they’ve been there [before]. To me, the character-building in their last Stanley Cup was absolutely incredible. They are confident. They are very, very confident.”

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