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Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Welcome to the Blue, Ian Thomas!


The Dodgers are playing a doubleheader today, so the team decided to call up recently acquired lefty-reliever Ian Thomas as their 26th man.  He'll come out of the bullpen should he be needed.  Per a Dodger press release:
The Los Angeles Dodgers today recalled left-hander Ian Thomas (#58) from Triple-A Oklahoma City to be the 26th man for today’s doubleheader at Colorado.

Thomas, 28, was acquired as part of a six-player trade with Atlanta last week and has gone 1-2 with a 3.94 ERA in 21 Major League appearances with the Braves in 2014-15, including allowing three runs (two earned) in five appearances this year (5.1 IP). He last pitched on Thursday (2.1 IP) and has combined to go 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA, a .200 opponents’ batting average and a 0.83 WHIP in 10 minor league appearances this year with Oklahoma City and the Braves’ Triple-A Gwinnett and Double-A Mississippi.
Thomas comes to the Majors via an unusual route.  He was discovered by the Braves while he was pitching for the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the Independent American Association in 2012, and has impressed ever since.  Via a report by gondeee at Chop Country in early 2014:
He’s a lefty, but not a hard thrower, topping out at around 90 mph. He creates a ton of deception with a similar motion on all his pitches, and his plus off-speed change and curve clock in around 20 mph less than his fastball, making it tough for batters to distinguish between his pitches. He was equally effective last year against lefties and righties, holding each to an identical .192 BAA.
In celebration of Thomas' arrival to the Dodgers I made the above fantasy card for him.  I used a photograph grabbed from the Braves.mlb page and the 1974 Topps Baseball card design.

Below are his career stats, via Baseball-Reference:


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A Brief Look at the 2015 LAPD Dodger Baseball Cards


As you've surely heard by now, the LAPD are handing out Dodger Baseball cards to all those who ask, and from what I can tell the first two players available are Adrian Gonzalez and AJ Ellis. 

The cards are made by Topps and it features a large LAPD badge.  It also borrows an design element reminiscent of Topps 2011 flagship Baseball set - a curved banner with the phrase "A Winning Team" emblazoned on it.  A nice touch are the full color backs. 

Check out a pic above, via a tweet by @NOEnzo11.  Below are a couple more pics, via @BKM13LA and @lapd2014 on twitter.  An example of the reverse of the card is on the bottom right.

The LAPD also released a little video about the promotion.

Video Link:

And since this is all about bringing the citizenry and police together here's a bunch of pics of the Baseball cards doing just that.





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Blog Kiosk: 6/2/2015 - Dodger Links - Some Odds and Ends


Long Live the Rally Banana!

It's nice that the Rockies can oblige.  Featured above is a bunch of banana's found in the Dodger clubhouse in Colorado this morning, as shared by Kike Hernandez on twitter.  As you know, they play a doubleheader today, so they'll need that extra burst of energy to get through the day.

Below are some links to check out:
"The last two, especially, I felt happy coming out of the game, so that's a new feeling for me," Kershaw said. "I'll try to build on that for sure."

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