Magic New Art Reprints: Air Elemental

Elementals are one of Magic's oldest creature types, making their debut in Limited Edition with two mirrored pairs (each split between red and blue) that reference the four classical elements. (The Green card Force of Nature was later errata'd to be an elemental, but in its original printing, it just said "Summon Force.") Elementals are also one of Magic's best-supported tribes, with at least 40 cards of that type in each color, as of my grand Creature Type Analysis of 2014. The color wheel distribution of elementals favors Red, the only color with more than 100 such creatures at the time, followed by Green, which probably crossed that barrier between when I did that research and now, then Blue, Black, and White, in that order. But the elemental that has been reprinted the most time with unique art - which is also the most new-art reprinted creature in general - is the Blue Air Elemental.

TOP: Limited, Fifth Edition, Portal Second Age, Seventh Edition
BOTTOM: Ninth Edition, Tenth Edition, Ixalan

The first thing to notice about these seven unique-art printings of Air Elemental is that all of them but the most recent are from the less-advanced Core Sets or beginner level sets, which highlights just how entrenched the concept of elementals (and blue flying creatures in general) are in the game of Magic. The fact that Air Elementals were a staple creature in Dungeons and Dragons 15 years before Magic was even a glint in Richard Garfield's eye only goes to solidify their position in the high fantasy world. While the illustration accompanying its entry in the Advanced DnD Monster Manual is basically a tornado with the barest hint of eyes and a mouth, Richard Thomas's art for the Limited Edition version goes a long way to humanize this creature, portraying it as a coy female figure wearing a dress made out of swirly clouds. The same is true of the descriptive flavor text, which carries over into its next new-art printing in Fifth Edition, and D. Alexander Gregory's art takes it a step further, giving the Air Elemental's female form a much more photo-real representation. And maybe that bird is also part of it for some reason? Who can really know what's going on...

In Portal Second Age, Air Elemental takes a turn for the abstract, as Doug Chaffee's art shows just the outline of a winged creature with the consistency of a wisp of cloud. This is also the art that would be featured in the card's Classic Sixth Edition reprint. While Seventh Edition returns to the anthropomorphic style of the first two printings, the depiction of the elemental itself in the art by Wayne England goes in the completely opposite direction. Where once there was a playful, precocious personality, now there's a frightening monster that looks like the top half of Blanca from Street Fighter strapped to a tornado. This art would reappear in Eighth Edition, although the pun-tastic flavor text (psycho/cyclone) was replaced with a more disturbing quote, which implies that an air elemental could seek residence in an unsuspecting person's lungs. This quote would return in the Ninth Edition version, which gets new art by Nick Percival, whose rendition is the most similar to the classic DnD illustration of a storm with a face, only with a color palette and shapes reminiscent of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

By Tenth Edition, artist Kev Walker had found a balance of making Air Elemental look dangerous and imposing, but not cartoonishly so - and the quote from great writer Joseph Conrad only adds to the legitimacy. The vaguely skeletal figure with the glowing eyes would reappear in the next Core Set, Magic 2010 - where Wizards dispensed with numbered editions and started naming them after the calendar years - followed by the Jace vs. Chandra Duel Deck, and then the 2017 Welcome Deck. Tomasz Jedruszek's art for the Ixalan version of Air Elemental - its only expert level printing - features a similar visual motif, but with flavor text referencing a strategy of the River Heralds. The Blue/Green Merfolk tribe makes use of elementals housed in jade totems, similar to how Djinni are housed in lamps.


So now you have the answer to the trivia question, Which Magic creature has been reprinted the most times with new art? Of course, if you've been following this feature closely, you will be able to answer the same question, substituting creature with sorcery, instant (a tie), and nonbasic land. The list to the left will help you fill in the blanks for enchantments (a four-way tie between Pacifism and the White, Black, and Red Circles of Protection) and artifacts (another tie between Rod of Ruin and Ornithopter). Going by color, I've already written about the most new-art reprinted Red, Blue/Green (another tie), and colorless cards; completing the color wheel, we have Disenchant and Dark Ritual for White and Black, respectively.

So as Magic's 25th anniversary continues to roll along, maybe I'll continue this feature, or maybe I'll move on to other Magic-related topics; in addition to new-art reprints, I also have databases covering art on basic lands, the history of Planeswalkers (the card type, not the fictional characters), and even foreign language printings of some key phrases. Or perhaps I'll pivot back to the titular topics of this blog, Baseball and Batman. Or I could take another multi-month break from posting. Who can know!? Whatever happens on this blog, I promise that you, the readers, will be the first to find out!

Magic New Art Reprints: Evolving Wilds

If only Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls had paid more attention to the Magic community, she might not have been so disheartened about her efforts to make "fetch" happen. Despite Regina George's attempt at shaming the phrase, fetch lands have been some of Magic's most powerful and versatile cards since the early days. These lands allow players to sacrifice them in order to search their libraries for a land that produces a specific color of mana, greatly improving a deck's flexibility. Most fetch lands are limited to searching for two or three types of land, but the most new-art reprinted card that can find any type of basic land is Evolving Wilds:

TOP: Rise of the Eldrazi, Dark Ascension, Friday Night Magic Promo, Dragons of Tarkir
BOTTOM: Tarkir Dragonfury Promo, Battle for Zendikar, Amonkhet, Rivals of Ixalan

Despite the nine pieces of unique art associated with this card, Evolving Wilds is not the first time we've seen a card with this exact same effect. By the time this card burst onto the scene in Rise of the Eldrazi (with a very cool, if abstract piece of art by Steven Belledin), Time Spiral's Terramorphic Expanse had already been around for four years, making Evolving Wilds the most new-art reprinted functional reprint (i.e. it has the same exact effects and types and colors, just with a different name) in Magic history. And it's not like Terramorphic Expanse is an unpopular card - as of this writing, it's been reprinted 20 times in various Core Sets, Duel Decks, and Casual Supplements (compared to 26 total reprints for Evolving Wilds). But every single one of those reprints features the card's original Time Spiral art by Dan Scott. My guess as to why Evolving Wilds gets such a radically different artistic treatment is that "Terramorphic Expanse" is just more difficult to say... but who knows what goes on in the heads of Wizards of the Coast development executives.

The first time Evolving Wilds was reprinted with new art was in Dark Ascension, the second set of the gothic horror-themed Innistrad block. While the art by Cliff Childs features a nondescript hinterland chapel, the flavor text quote is from Thalia, one of the main protagonists of that block's story and a foremost warrior for the good guys (i.e. not undead). The next new-art reprint wasn't from an expansion set, but rather a promotional giveaway for players who participated in Friday Night Magic events in October of 2012. In addition to the cool alternate foil card frame and the bright, colorful art by Sam Burley, this printing includes the flavor text that appears on the majority of Evolving Wilds reprints, the majority of which feature Steven Belledin's original art.

If you look closely at the next two new art reprints, you'll notice that they both have the same expansion symbol... and the same flavor text. That's because one (with art by Andreas Rocha depicting a waterfall of lava dumping into a mountain stream) is from the actual expansion set Dragons of Tarkir, while the other (with art by Noah Bradley depicting a river of lava winding towards an oasis) is one of the possible prizes from the Dragonfury Promo, a dexterity-based dice throwing game available at select Dragons of Tarkir prerelease events.

It makes sense that Evolving Wilds would show up in Battle for Zendikar, as this block is the sequel to the block where the card first made its appearance - recognize the reference to the Eldrazi in the flavor text? It also makes sense that the piece of land in the art by Izzy would feature the recognizable blight that follows the Eldrazi titan Ulamog wherever he goes. Amonkhet is Magic's ancient Egyptian-themed expansion, which explains why Christine Choi's art for this version shows a desert sandstorm. The flavor text on this one is the second time that Evolving Wilds gets a quote from a prominent (female) character: Samut starts out Amonkhet as a dissentful initiate (read: warrior), but by Hour of Devastation, the second set in the block, she has activated her planeswalker spark.

Like Naturalize before it, the most recent printing of Evolving Wilds is less than a month old, as it took place in Magic's most recent set, Rivals of Ixalan. The art by Jonas De Ro shows ordered steppes lining a hillside, and the flavor text references the Sun Empire, one of four factions in the Ixalan block, inspired by the Aztec/Mayan empire (but with dinosaurs). The Sun Empire has the same colors as the Naya shard on Alara (White/Red/Green), so fetching a basic land would be very useful for them - more so than the Merfolk (Blue/Green) or Vampire (Black/White) factions, but just as useful as for the Pirates (Red/Blue/Black), however since Pirates spend their time on the sea rather than land, it doesn't make sense for this card to refer to them. The very observant among you will notice that I referenced nine new-art printings for Evolving Wilds above, but there are only eight in the picture. That wasn't a typo - the ninth version (pictured right, with art by Daniel Ljunggren) is a special giveaway for participants in the new easy-entry Magic league system, which has been around for just the last three blocks (Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan), and whose promos do not appear in magiccards.info's proxy printing database... yet!


So that's the (non-basic) land that has the most new-art reprintings in Magic's history! There are three other cards with nine total versions of the artwork (Dark Ritual, Disenchant, and Shatter, all originating in Limited), and one with eight (Cancel from Time Spiral, a strictly worse version of Counterspell). But for next time I'm going to skip over these and write about the creature with the  most new-art reprints: the classic Blue flier Air Elemental.

Magic New Art Reprints: Naturalize

Magic: The Gathering has five major card types: Creature, Enchantment, Instant, Sorcery, and Artifact... and Land, of course. Six major card types. Well, seven if you count Planeswalker, but there's six types that have the potential to NOT be busted and overpowered and disruptively transformative to the way the game is played. The first two cards I've profiled in this feature were a Sorcery (Stone Rain) and an Instant (Counterspell, formerly Interrupt), and while today's card is also an Instant, it deals with two of the other types. There are between 4,127 and 4,152 Enchantments and Artifacts combined in Magic's database (depending on whether you search maggiccards.info or the official gatherer.wizards.com), and for the low, low price of two mana, Naturalize can deal with... most of them.

TOP: Onslaught, Eighth Edition, Ninth Edition, Shards of Alara, Rise of the Eldrazi
BOTTOM: Innistrad, Gatecrash, Khans of Tarkir, Dragons of Tarkir, Rivals of Ixalan

While the card text on Naturalize is pretty explicit, there are some artifacts and enchantment out there (probably numbering in the 50's) that are protected from it by abilities such as Indestructible (can't be destroyed), Hexproof, or Shroud (can't be targeted), so while it's not a perfect spell, it is the very picture of efficiency. Interestingly enough, Naturalize wasn't the first card to have this exact same effect: it's actually a color-shifted version of the White card Disenchant, from the Limited set, which itself has nine unique-art versions, but we'll go over that in more detail next time. Naturalize didn't show up until the Onslaught expansion in 2002, nearly 10 years after Magic's debut, but Artifact/Enchantment removal has since become just as much of a hallmark of Green's strategy as White's.

Onslaught actually has a very compelling story justification for why one color of mana would gain access to an effect usually produced by another, which is reflected in the original art for Naturalize. The illustration by Ron Spears features a character called Kamahl, who originally appeared as a Red Barbarian in Odyssey, the previous block. But by the time Onslaught rolled around, events in the plot had caused him to change his color to Green and his class to Druid. (In fact, I think the destruction of his big-ass sword, as depicted in the artwork, was one of the reasons for the change.) I guess the message being that if circumstances can cause a person can alter their own color identity, the same can be true of effects on specific cards.

Naturalize's next two new-art reprints came in the next two consecutive core sets, Eighth and Ninth Editions, which were incidentally the last core sets to be printed with a white border. In fact, Naturalize would appear in NINE consecutive core sets, with seven of those printings featuring Tim Hildebrandt's art from Eighth Edition, while Jeff Miracola's more abstract Ninth Edition art would appear only once. The same is true for the Eighth Edition flavor text - a line by real world poet and playwright William Shakespeare, whose quotations have appeared on 25 cards throughout Magic's history. The Ninth Edition flavor text - a quote from Arcum Dagsson (remember him from the Ice Age printing of Stone Rain?) - would reappear in Tenth Edition, while all but one of the subsequent printings would feature quotes from the original Green planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker.

Like Stone Rain before it, all of Naturalize's unique-art printings would come in actual expansion sets, rather than promotional giveaways or supplemental products. Its second expert level printing came in Shards of Alara, the first set of a block built around three-color combinations made up of one color and its two allied colors (read: adjacent) on the color wheel. I'm not sure exactly what kind of idol is getting ripped apart in Trevor Hairsine's art, nor is it clear what is causing those grasping vines to appear. The opposite is true in the art for Rise of Eldrazi, the third set in the Zendikar block, which introduced the titular extra-dimensional world-destroying beings that returned three years ago in Battle for Zendikar. Howard Lyon's art is the only version of Naturalize to show the mage who's actually casting the spell - in this case it's some dude with a ponytail throwing up the "Westside" gang sign to evaporate a Hedron.

It's appropriate that the Innistrad version of Naturalize features an overgrown coffin, since this set had a top-down design based on gothic horror (think vampires, werewolves, and zombies). Incidentally, Scott Chou's eerie art was repeated for the second Core Set printing of Naturalize to not feature Tim Hildebrandt's art, but the tomb inscription flavor text was replaced by the Garruk's quote from the previous version. Gatecrash was the second set in the Return to Ravnica block, the second Magic block to focus on the two-color Guilds. The version of Naturalize in this set doesn't depict any key story point, nor does the flavor text refer directly to any specific guild, but the use of Green mana means that Iveta must belong to either Gruul (Green/Red) or Simic (Green/Blue). The art by Daniel Ljunggren does however hearken back to the original Onslaught printing, in that we see a sword transforming into a harmless plant.

The next two new-art reprints of Naturalize are unique because they come from two different sets in the same block. Khans of Tarkir takes place on a plane where dragons used to exist in abundance, but the "sky tyrants" (as they're referred to in the flavor text) have gone extinct long ago. In the second set, Fate Reforged, planeswalker Sarkhan Vol somehow goes back in time and prevents the cataclysmic extinction event that destroyed all the dragons (also setting in motion the events of the aforementioned Battle for Zendikar). Then the third set, Dragons of Tarkir, returns to an alternate "present" where the dragons have flourished and unseated the humanoid khans as leaders of the plane. That's why James Paick's art from Khans features a decomposing dragon skull, while the same artist's illustration for Dragons shows a broken... device of some kind, representing the collapse of the non-dragon civilization.

The most recent new-art reprint of Naturalize comes from Magic's most recent set, Rivals of Ixalan, which was released just last month. This version's art by Simon Dominic has perhaps the funniest depiction of an artifact (equipment) getting destroyed: being smashed under the foot of a giant dinosaur. As a side note, every artwork to adorn a printing of Naturalize features a physical item, which are usually associated with artifacts, even though the card technically has more targets of the enchantment variety. But I will also concede that it's a lot harder to artistically render the destruction of an incorporeal magical effect...


According to my research, Stone Rain, Counterspell, and Naturalize are the only three cards in Magic's history with at least 10 unique pieces of art. There are four cards with nine unique-art printings each, but since three of them originate in the Limited set - which we've talked about in some detail now - next time I'm going to skip ahead to the first Land card to be profiled in this feature: Evolving Wilds.

Magic New Art Reprints: Counterspell

If you're familiar with Blue mana, you might be familiar with the term "Permission." As used, for example, in this rather typical exchange between a regular, decent Magic player on one side, and a Blue mage on the other.

"May I have permission to cast this spell?"

"No, you may not: it's countered instead."

A counterspell is a way to interrupt an opponent's spell while they're in the act of casting it. A reaction, as it's phrased in the more socially well-adjusted game Dungeons and Dragons. Actually, in previous editions of DnD, countering a spell wasn't a spell itself, but rather a very complicated process involving taking a readied action, and waiting for your opponent to cast a spell. The MTG version of countermagic has elements of both, as there is a specific card (i.e. spell) that you need to have in your hand (i.e. prepared), but you also need to leave mana open to cast it (i.e. ready your action). While I said "a card" above, there are actually many dozens of cards featuring countermagic, but none so simple and elegant as the original set's Counterspell:

TOP: Limited, Ice Age, Fifth Edition, Tempest, Judge Gift Program
BOTTOM: Mercadian Masques, Seventh Edition, Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra, Eternal Masters, Amonkhet Invocations

Ahh, the Limited Edition Counterspell art by Mark Poole never fails to put a smile on my face. By contrast, the look on the face of that smug-looking Shakespearean-dressed fella (probably a Bard) is the perfect embodiment of magical impotence. And honestly, that's how it feels as a player to get countered a lot of the time. And I'm personally so against that type of play, that even though I use blue mana in many of my decks, I will usually only include one counterspell effect in each one. And it's only the actual card !Counterspell. And they all have unique art on them. I have Poole's art in my RUG Intet commander deck. #VorthosForever

As is the case with Stone Rain, my last card reviewed, the next time Counterspell was reprinted with new art was in Ice Age, and it too got some story related flavor text. This one introduces the nation of Kjeldor and its traitorous enemy Zur the Enchanter, all through a quote from Gustha Ebbasdotter. This particular royal mage has quotes on eight other cards, and I can only assume hers is the beautiful (and surprisingly scantily-clad considering it's an ice age) figure in the Ice Age art by L.A. Williams who's casting Counterspell. This more active portrayal mirrors the change in rules text from Limited (Counter target spell vs. Counters target spell). I play with this art in my UB Phenax Dimir mill commander deck.

In the Fifth Edition art by Hannibal King, we're back to seeing a goofy-looking Wizard look embarrassed when his spell fails. The Tempest art by Stephen Daniele follows the same format, even down to the positioning of the hands, except in Tempest, the foiled Wizard's wearing red instead of blue, you get a more clearly defined background of a brick wall, and we get a quote from one of the multiverse's most famous (and tragic) Wizards, Ertai the Adept himself. I use both of these arts in my one deck that runs multiple Counterspells - a UW extra turns deck starring Medomai and Magosi.

The next chronological printing of Counterspell - done by a mysterious artist known only as Dom! - didn't appear in any expansion set, but was included as part of a promotional program to provide gifts to Magic judges, who work at tournaments answering rules questions and resolving disputes. The art on this version, which is the first time Counterspell was printed with the errata'd card type Instant instead of the older Interrupt, shows what appears to be a woman blocking a spell that's coming her way,  I think the opposite is happening in Gao Yan's art for the Mercadian Masques Counterspell, because why would you have a quote about a countered spell being pretty, and not show what it would look like? But I don't know WHAT is going on in Mark Romanoski's art for the Seventh Edition version. It looks like it would fit better on a card like Meditate (which, coincidentally, shows a visual representation of Ertai).

The art from the next edition of Counterspell was the only version printed on the new post-Eight Edition card frame, and it only appeared (in printed form) in the Duel Decks series (and later in the online-only Vintage Masters... and Duel Decks Anthology, but that's by definition the same). Seeing as this card was from the Duel Deck where Jace faced off against Chandra (just the second Duel Deck printed, out of the 20 now in existence), it makes sense that Jason Chan's art features the original Blue Planeswalker... and also a line of flavor text about him. The next version, for another entry in the Masters series, this one Eternal, with art by Zack Stella (and so far the only Counterspell to be printed with the new post-Magic 2015 card frame), shows a mage with eyes glowing blue that COULD be Jace, but there's no flavor text and very little context in which to tell.

The very most recent Counterspell also is by far the most visually unique of all. That's because the new art by Chase Stone is surrounded by the card frame for Amonkhet Invocations, a special group of extremely rare premium foil cards randomly inserted into booster packs of the Egyptian-inspired Amonkhet block. This specific run of the Masterpiece series received criticism for not being as well-defined as the two before it - Zendikar expeditions (lands) and Kaladesh inventions (artifacts) - but Counterspell is enough of an iconic card that I don't doubt it belongs in SOME sort of special best-of list.


That's it for the card that best embodies the nearly-uniquely Blue strategy. Join me next time for a look at a one of Green's favorite tricks in a card that appeared in Magic's most recent set, Naturalize.

Magic New Art Reprints: Stone Rain

As you probably know if you follow the collectible trading card game market, this year is the 25th anniversary of Magic: The Gathering. And as you probably know if you follow this blog, I am somewhat of an amateur Magic historian/analyst, as well as an occasional player. So this special milestone is as good a time as any to explore a somewhat trivial topic that's of especial interest to me: cards that were reprinted with new artwork. Because whether a card appears in a new new expert level expansion, a special promotional version, or even an online-only compilation set, who doesn't like to celebrate the different artists who helped bring that card to life?

According to the extremely unscientific database I've been keeping on the subject, the cards of Magic's very first set have been reprinted* the most of any set since, perhaps unsurprisingly so. Of the 302 cards in Limited Edition's Beta print run (when they fixed a couple of errors from Alpha), 185 of them have been reprinted, for a total of 580 unique pieces of art (originals included). The next set with the most cards reprinted is the famously overpowered Urza's Saga (73 cards reprinted, 166 unique arts), followed closely by Ice Age (70 and 169), which was also coincidentally the first set to feature reprinted cards with new art.

* For the purpose of this post, I'm using the term "reprinted" as shorthand for "reprinted with new artwork," since it would be far too tedious (and not nearly as visually rewarding) to chronicle the many thousands of cards whose art carried over from an older set.

Given Limited's status as the set with the most new-art reprints, it makes sense that Magic's card with the most arts associated with it is also from Magic's original set. Anyone want to take a guess at what that card is? Too late, it's in the title of this post: it's the classic red land destruction special Stone Rain! Below are all 11 new-art printings, arranged chronologically, courtesy of proxy-printing website extraordinaire magiccards.info

TOP ROW: Limited, Ice Age, Mirage, 5th Edition, Portal, Tempest
BOTTOM ROW: Portal Second Age, Portal Three Kingdoms, Mercadian Masques, 7th Edition, Champions of Kamigawa

I always thought that Daniel Gelon's Limited Edition art for Stone Rain was a little bit off, thematically. The card mechanics have to do with destroying LAND, but here we see two PEOPLE getting messed up by the falling rocks. I will say this, though: Gelon's art accurately portrays how Magic players FEEL when they get their lands destroyed during a game. Stone Rain was so iconic that it was included in the next four consecutive sets to feature new art reprints: Ice Age, Mirage, Fifth Edition, and Portal. The most striking difference between its Limited and Ice Age printings -- aside from the new art by Kaja Foglio, which now shows an Orc-like creature getting hit by rocks instead of a human, but still not focusing on the land destruction aspect -- is the change in the rules text. As of Fourth Edition (which includes only reprints, but all with their original artwork), the text changes from telling you what the CARD does ("Destroys any one land") to prompting the PLAYER to do something ("Destroy target land").

The fact that Ice Age was a very story-heavy set is reflected in Stone Rain's flavor text, which includes no fewer than three search terms: the island of Argoth, the country of Soldev, and the legendary machinist Arcum Dagsson, who would get his own card in the Coldsnap set a decade later. The Mirage version added another quote from a legendary character -- Asmira from the Jamuraan state Femeref -- but the rather abstract art by Tony Roberts this time focuses on the actual stones that are raining. It wasn't until Fifth Edition when the art matched up with the rules text, as another piece by Roberts depicts a building getting blasted with very similar red-orange pieces of stone. The white-bordered set with no expansion symbol was the first Core Set to feature new art reprints, and they really went crazy, with 197 cards receiving new art. But if you think that's a lot, the Seventh Edition new art explosion made 5e look like child's play, with a whopping 329 cards reprinted with new art, including Tony Szczudlo's very tense new version of Stone Rain.

John Matson's art for the Portal version of Stone Rain sticks with the building-destruction motif, only this time the fiery doom approaches from the right instead of the left. This art would return for Stone Rain's reprints in Classic Sixth Edition, Starter 1999, Eighth Edition, and Ninth Edition. But speaking of Portal, it was Magic's first of three Beginner level expansions (along with its sequel Portal Second Age and Chinese history-themed Portal Three Kingdoms), which can be identified by the bold faced rules text and the line above the flavor text. Fun Fact: Stone Rain is the ONLY card to appear in all three Portal sets, with a unique piece of art each time. (The other two were illustrated by Doug Chaffee and Mitsuaki Sagiri, respectively.)

In between Portal 1 and Portal 2, Stone Rain appeared in Tempest, another story-heavy expert level expansion, this time with art by Magic veteran Christopher Rush and a quote from the Rathi prophet Oracle en-Vec. Then after Portal 3, Ben Thompson created a piece of art for the Mercadian Masques expansion, accompanied by flavor text referencing the dragon engine Ramos. Then the last piece of new art for Stone Rain came from Greg Staples for the Japanese-inspired Champions of Kamigawa set, meaning that Stone Rain is the only card to feature unique art in both of Magic's most Asian-themed expansions.


So there you have an extensive look at the Magic card with the most pieces of unique art associated with it! What I find so interesting about Stone Rain's numerous artworks is that they all came in honest-to-goodness expansion sets, rather than promotional giveaways or player rewards. This is not the case for Magic's second-most new-art-reprinted card, which I will profile in the next entry of this series: Counterspell!

All-Acquired 2018 Pitchers - Christmas Update

Well, the gifts have been exchanged, the traditional Christmas hams / lasagnas / Chinese takeouts have been consumed, and the Scrooge-like world of business is preparing to start up again.  So what better time to continue my dive into baseball's All-Acquired landscape and examine the top pitchers who have landed with new teams so far this offseason.

* STARTING PITCHER #1

- AL: Shohei Ohtani (Angels, posted from Japan, minor league deal)
The market for starting pitchers has been notably slow this year, due in no small part to the time it took for the Shohei Ohtani situation to develop.  The particularities of the rules governing both how players from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball can transition to the Major Leagues and the signing of international amateurs ensured that pretty much all 30 MLB clubs were on fairly equal financial footing when it came to signing this two way superstar.  After narrowing the field down to seven (mostly west coast) teams, Ohtani ultimately decided to sign with the Angels, because of Anaheim's relative proximity to his home country and for the chance to play on the same team as (arguably) the best player in the world, Mike Trout.

All the hype surrounding Ohtani doesn't mean that he's without question marks.  An ankle injury limited him to just five starts on the mound and just over 200 at bats in NPB last year, although he played well in limited duty, posting a 3.20 ERA and a .942 OPS (which translates to 55.4 fantasy points per game as a pitcher and 10.6 PPG as a batter).  It was also revealed (i.e. leaked) that the 23-year-old (24 in July) has a sprained UCL in his pitching elbow, but apparently this information was known to teams during the negotiating process and hasn't impacted his value.  It'll be interesting to see if Ohtani gets the opening day start for the Angels over a more established option such as Garret Richards, or if they instead choose to utilize him as the DH in his first MLB appearance.

- NL: Jhoulys Chacin (Brewers, 2-year deal)
Earlier in the offseason, MLB Trade Rumors published a piece suggesting that the Brewers were in a good position to make a play for some of the top pitching talent on the free agent market, but to this point, the biggest action they've been involved in was this relatively modest mid-rotation pickup.  After bouncing around the league over the last three seasons, Chacin rebuilt his value in the pitcher's haven of San Diego last year, earning himself a deal worth twice the length and nearly nine times the dollar amount than the one he signed with the Padres last year.  Even though Chacin pitched notably worse outside pitcher friendly PetCo Park in 2017, let's not forget that he had good success in the first half of his career pitching for the Rockies.


* STARTING PITCHER #2

- AL: Mike Minor (Rangers, 3-year deal)
Mike Minor broke into the big leagues as a starting pitcher with the Braves, and had a couple of really solid years, culminating in a Divisional All-Star appearance in 2013.  But then shoulder problems derailed his career, until he resurfaced in 2017 with the Royals as a shutdown reliever, even taking over as the team's closer late in the year.  Given the fact that the market for relief pitching has been robust this offseason, Minor might have been able to maximize his earnings had he chosen to sign in that role, but he apparently preferred the opportunity to compete for a rotation spot.

- NL: Tyler Chatwood (Cubs, 3-year deal)
With the addition of Chatwood, it appears that the Cubs now have a full rotation (if you count swingman Mike Montgomery, who also reportedly prefers to start), but I wouldn't say that has necessarily taken them out of the running for the winter's top free agent starters.  Quite the contrary, in fact, since Chatwood also spent some time pitching out of the bullpen in 2017 and could return to that role next year in a worst case scenario situation.


* STARTING PITCHER #3

- AL: Mike Fiers (Tigers, 1-year deal)
Fiers struggled through the worst full season of his career in 2017 pitching for the World Champion Houston Astros, and then was not tendered an arbitration contract after being left off the playoff roster.  The rebuilding Tigers took a shot at the hard thrower, undoubtedly with the hope that he'll improve his performance enough that he'll draw the attention of a contender and fetch back some useful prospects at the trade deadline.

- NL: Brandon McCarthy (Braves, trade with Dodgers)
McCarthy represented the main return for the Braves when they shipped Matt Kemp to the Dodgers in a piece of luxury tax payroll manipulation.  The lanky mid-rotation arm with a silver tongue on Twitter is also controllable through the 2019 season via on option on the deal he signed with Los Angeles back in 2015.




* STARTING PITCHER #4

- AL: Matt Moore (Rangers, trade with Giants)
In acquiring Moore, Texas was able to buy low on a promising rotation option while also helping San Francisco clear some payroll from their books for more acquisitions of their own.  The lefty's disappointing 2017 season was still enough for the Giants to exercise their $9mm club option over Moore, and if he performs well, he will be controllable through 2019 through yet another club option left over from the 2012 extension he signed with his original team the Rays.

- NL: Yovani Gallardo (Brewers, 1-year deal)
Based on the incentives built into Gallardo's contract, it's not clear whether Milwaukee will use him as a starter or as a reliever next year.  (For what it's worth, Roster Resource has the homegrown Brewer in the fourth spot of their projected 2018 rotation as of this writing.)  It's all but certain that Gallardo won't approach the heights he reached during his first stint with the Brewers, but the club is in need of rotation depth, as they'll be without staff ace Jimmy Nelson for the early part of next season due to injury.


* STARTING PITCHER #5

- AL: Doug Fister (Rangers, 1-year deal w/club option)
In yet another move by the Texas Rangers, Fister was the first notable free agent to be signed during the 2017-18 offseason, inking his deal two days before the close of November.  Fister hasn't put up good numbers since a brilliant 2014 campaign with the Nationals and his velocity has been steadily declining for years, but you could definitely do worse as a flier on a low-risk, back of the rotation option.
Honorable Mention: Asher Wojciechowski (Orioles, minor league deal)

- NL: Albert Suarez (Diamondbacks, Rule 5 Draft from Giants)
Suarez served as an unremarkable rookie swingman for San Francisco in 2016, starting 12 of 22 games and racking up 84 innings.  But after posting an ERA over 5.00 in 18 relief appearances last year, the Giants non-tendered him and re-signed him to a minor league deal, only to see him get plucked by Arizona in the Rule 5 Draft.  It's far more likely that the Diamondbacks will use Suarez out of the bullpen than as a starter, but like I said, the market for starting pitching has been extremely thin this year.
Honorable Mention: Jacob Turner (Marlins, unspecified deal, unconfirmed)


* CLOSER

- AL: Fernando Rodney (Twins, 1-year deal w/club option)
The arrow-shooting veteran reliever surprised many when he emerged as a solid ninth inning option for the playoff bound Diamondbacks last year, but even at the age of 40, Rodney shows no signs of slowing down.  The three-time representative for the Dominic Rebublic in the World Baseball Classic will now head to another 2017 Wild Card team in hopes of anchoring the bullpen of a Minnesota team that has aspirations on becoming a perennial contender.

- NL: Yoshihisa Hirano (Diamondbacks, 2-year deal)
I don't know if Hirano will begin his MLB career by closing games for Arizona, but the 33-year-old has occupied that role for the NPB's Orix Buffaloes for the last six years.  While he's a distant second in the hype department as far as players coming over from Japan this offseason, Hirano actually had a superior season to Shohei Ohtani in 2017, posting a 2.67 ERA over 57.1 relief innings and racking up 29 saves in the process.


* RELIEF PITCHER #1

- AL: Yusmeiro Petit (Athletics, 2-year deal w/ club option)
Even as multi-inning bullpen weapons are becoming more popular than ever, Petit garnered precious little attention while leading all relief pitchers with 90.1 innings over just 60 appearances in 2017 (which includes one start).  The Venezuelan long man was one of the first relievers to come off the board, signing just one day after Fister, and one can't help but wonder if he could have earned a larger payday by waiting until the veritable run on relief pitchers that took place during the Winter Meetings in December.

- NL: Anthony Swarzak (Mets, 2-year deal)
After signing what could only be described as one of last offseason's most successful minor league deals (for team AND player), former Twins swingman Anthony Swarzak not only netted the White Sox a decent prospect from Milwaukee at the 2017 trade deadline, but he also earned himself a pretty good free agent contract in the process.  Mets ownership has taken some flak recently for not communicating a clear offseason plan to their front office, but bringing Swarzy into the fold seems like a pretty strong way to start this offseason.


* RELIEF PITCHER #2

- AL: Jim Johnson (Angels, trade with Braves)
Given his history as a closer, the sinkerballing Johnson won't come close to filling the multi-inning hole left in Anaheim by Yusmeiro Petit's departure, but he should definitely... throw some innings for the Angels in 2018.  Interestingly enough, it was also Johnson's part time role as Atlanta's ninth inning man last year that placed him so high on this list, since I've arranged it by 2017 fantasy points, and we all know how much saves tend to pad point totals.

- NL: Pat Neshek (Phillies, 2-year deal w/ club option)
This offseason marks the second consecutive year that Neshek has been acquired by Philadelphia, only last year it was via a trade with the Astros.  He qualifies for the All-Acquired team once again because the sidearmer was traded to Colorado at the 2017 deadline, where he pitched excellently and appeared in the NL Wild Card game before hitting the open market.  With a couple of other win-now acquisitions to Philly's name so far this offseason, it's distinctly possible that Neshek could be a part of Philadelphia's next contending roster.

* RELIEF PITCHER #3

- AL: Juan Nicasio (Mariners, 2-year deal)
Juan Nicasio has the rare distinction of signing a contract worth fewer years than the number of teams he played for in his platform year.  In his first successful season as a full time reliever, Nicasio was curiously shipped from the Pirates to the Phillies, since Pittsburgh ownership reportedly didn't want to see him help a fellow NL Central playoff contender, but he nevertheless was flipped to the Cardinals, despite the fact that it was too late for him to be eligible for the playoffs.  Nicasio likely won't challenge the electric Edwin Diaz for Seattle's closer position, but his live arm definitely makes for a plus bullpen piece.

- NL: Brandon Morrow (Cubs, 2-year deal w/ vesting option)
After the way Morrow was abused in the 2017 playoffs by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, I'm surprised any team was willing to offer him anything longer than a one-year, make-good, let's-see-if-your-arm-doesn't-fall-off contract.  But the former reliever turned swingman turned starter turned back to reliever will have another chance to pitch near the top of a playoff contender's bullen in 2018 on the north side of Chicago.


* RELIEF PITCHER #4

- AL: Joe Smith (Astros, 2-year deal)
After performing very well for both the Blue Jays and the Indians in 2017 - completing a two-year stretch where he pitched for four different teams - the sidearming Smith has latched on with the defending champs to help bolster a bullpen that lost such supporting pieces as Luke Gregerson, Tyler Clippard, and Francisco Liriano.

- NL: Bryan Shaw (Rockies, 3-year deal w/ vesting option)
Shaw is one of those pitchers whose great stuff for some reason doesn't translate well to fantasy points.  From 2014 thru '16, he averaged 1.4 rWAR per season (Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference), yet he averaged just 8.8 fantasy points per year during that span.  Either way, his real world talents were recognized by the Rockies, and rewarded by the longest contract bestowed upon a relief pitcher so far during this offseason.


* RELIEF PITCHER HONORABLE MENTIONS

- AL
Hector Rondon (Astros, 2-year deal)
Emilio Pagan (Athletics, trade with Mariners)

Zack Duke (Twins, 1-year deal)
Jhan Marinez (Orioles, minor league deal)
Josh Edgin (Orioles, minor league deal)


- NL
Tommy Hunter (Phillies, 2-year deal, unconfirmed)
Steve Cishek (Cubs, 2-year deal)
Chase Whitley (Braves, waiver claim from Rays)
Luke Gregerson (Cardinals, 2-year deal w/ vesting option)

Jared Hughes (Reds, 2-year deal w/ option)
Brad Boxberger (Diamondbacks, trade with Rays)

All-Acquired 2018 Batters - Christmas Update

For many people, the holiday season is an opportunity to enjoy some time off from work, reconnect with rarely-seen relatives, and indulge in a little shameless capitalism.  But for the baseball fan in the midst of a tedious offseason, it's the perfect time to fire up the Hot Stove and take stock of which players have changed teams so far.  So as Santa Claus hitches up his reindeer to deliver gifts to Baby Jesus, or something, here's the first preliminary version of the All-Acquired Rosters for 2018.

* CATCHER

- AL: Welington Castillo (White Sox, 2-year deal w/ club option)
The man known as "Beef" played well enough with the Orioles in 2017 to opt against exercising his player option to stick around with the club for a second year.  Castillo's next trip to the open market netted him a two year deal with an option from the rebuilding White Sox, which could possibly provide a glimpse into their projected window of contention.
Honorable Mention: Derek Norris (Tigers, minors deal, suspended)



- NL: Chris Iannetta (Rockies, 2-year deal w/ vesting/club option)
When the Rockies brought back a catcher who played the first half of his career in Colorado, they quite possibly took themselves out of the running for a reunion with the offseason's top free agent backstop Jonathan Lucroy.  Iannetta should welcome his insertion into a rather unsettled situation behind the plate at Coors Field after being a member of a three-part timeshare in Arizona.
Honorable Mention: Jose Lobaton (Mets, minors deal)


* FIRST BASE

- AL: Yonder Alonso (Indians, 2-year deal w/ vesting/club option)
After watching their longtime first baseman sign with the Phillies (see below), the Indians struck a deal with the breakout former top prospect who embraced the fly ball revolution and more than tripled his career high home run total in 2017, even while playing at a pair of spacious home parks.  Alonso's production did tail off significantly during the second half (right after he made his first All-Star team), and he does have a significant platoon split, but Cleveland is in the unique position of having an All-World DH who can play first against left handed starters.
Honorable Mention: Ryon Healy (Mariners, trade with Athletics, see below)

Image from NBC Sports

- NL: Carlos Santana (Phillies, 3-year deal w/ club option)
The Phillies, like the White Sox, are another club in the midst of a rebuild who nevertheless embarked on a fairly sizeable free agent outlay.  Santana got one more year on his contract than Castillo got in Chicago, but he's also a much more significant force in the lineup, given his power bat, excellent plate discipline, and prized defense, and should serve as a clear sign that Philadelphia has plans to be relevant again in the near future.  "Slamtana's" acquisition is also a clear sign that 2017 rookie phenom Rhys Hoskins's future is as an outfielder rather than a first baseman.
Honorable Mention: Matt Adams (Nationals, 1-year deal)


* SECOND BASE

- AL: Ian Kinsler (Angels, trade with Tigers)
Here we have the first All-Acquried player to change teams via trade rather than free agent signing.  The acquisition of Kinsler fills a gaping hole in Anaheim's keystone position, and was one of four big ticket moves the Angels made to try and put themselves in a position to chase down the Astros in the AL West, three of which we'll cover here. (The first move, chronologically speaking, was to re-sign oufielder Justin Upton, who was acquired during the 2017 season.)
Honorable Mention: Andrew Romine (Mariners, waiver claim, also from Tigers)


- NL: Starlin Castro (Marlins, trade with Yankees)
While Castro went to Miami largely as a way to offset some of the salary changing hands in the massive Giancarlo Stanton blockbuster (see below), he also fills a need for the Marlins after they shipped out their incumbent second baseman Dee Gordon in a separate trade (see a different section below).  It's unclear whether the powerful Castro will ever suit up for Miami or if he'll be flipped to try and shed more payroll, but unless he goes to an AL club, it's likely that he'll maintain his position on this list.
Honorable Mention: Alen Hanson (Giants, minors deal, unconfirmed, see a third section below)


* THIRD BASE

- AL: Ryon Healy (Mariners, trade from Athletics)
When Seattle acquired the power hitting Healy from the A's in what proved to be the offseason's first major transaction, they brought him in to play first base, despite the fact that he spent almost as much time at the hot corner (34 games) as he did at first (39 games) in 2017.  Of course, he's not a great defender in either spot, as evidenced by his 78 games at DH in 2017, but for this All-Acquired thought experiment, it simply makes the most sense to put him here, iron glove be damned.

Honorable Mention 1: Ryan Schimpf (Rays, trade with Padres)
Honorable Mention 2: Christian Arroyo (Rays, trade with Giants, the main return for...)

Image from MLB Trade Rumors

- NL: Evan Longoria (Giants, trade with Rays)
One of the big storylines heading into the 2017-18 offseason was whether the Rays would try to add to their roster and push for contention or sell off some of their highly desirable controllable players and embark on a rebuild.  I'd say that trading the longtime face of their franchise Evan Longoria (who remains under contract until at least 2022) is a pretty clear sign of their intentions.  Whether this leads to trades of coveted starters Chris Archer and/or Jake Odorizzi, we can only guess, but for now, it's safe to say that San Francisco has a better option at the hot corner than hoping for a career resurgence from Pablo Sandoval...

Rather than bury him in an "Honorable Mention" tag, I'd like to point out that Chase Headley would be first in line to serve as the NL All-Acquired team's DH, in the event that the Senior Circuit ever decides to adopt the 20th century way of playing baseball.  I was a little surprised when the Yankees shipped Headley back to the Padres, his original team, since it created yet another hole in New York's infield, but it also saves Brian Cashman's team roughly $13mm in their all important quest to stay under the luxury tax threshold.


* SHORTSTOP

- AL: Zack Cozart (Angels, 3-year deal)
It was often speculated that Cozart, the brilliant defensive shortstop who also broke out with the bat last year, would have to consider a position change in order to maximize his earnings in free agency.  And that's exactly what happened, since there's no way that the Angels will even consider moving Andrelton Simmons, who is arguably the game's best defender.  Instead, Cozart will slot in at third base, where, even if his offense regresses, he should still provide surplus value with his glove.  However, given the players acquired by the AL so far, it makes sense to keep him at his natural position for our purposes.
Honorable Mention: Aledmys Diaz (Blue Jays, trade with Cardinals)

- NL: Freddy Galvis (Padres, trade with Phillies)
It's no secret that Galvis is meant solely as a placeholder to keep the shortstop position warm in San Diego until highly touted 18-year-old prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. is ready to step in full time.  And considering Philadelphia has its own MLB-ready shortstop prospect (J.P. Crawford) waiting in the wings, this trade made tremendous sense for everyone involved.  It's unlikely that Galvis will approach the power numbers he put up over the last two years now that he's moving to spacious PetCo Park, but he should at least provide passable defense at a fairly reasonable salary.
Honorable Mention: Charlie Culberson (Braves, trade with Dodgers)


* OUTFIELD (CORNER)

Image from CBS New York

- AL1: Giancarlo Stanton (Yankees, trade with Marlins)
- AL2: Denard Span (Rays, trade with Giants)

Without a doubt, the biggest move of this offseason so far has been the trade of NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, and his record-setting contract, in a blatant cost-cutting move by the new Marlins ownership, continuing a tried and true tradition of fan-enraging fire sales in South Florida.  Seriously, if you have any doubts about how fans in Miami feel about how their team has been run, you need to listen to this interview (hat tip Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors).  But back to the baseball side of things, this trade puts two of the top three fantasy point scorers in the same lineup for 2018: #1 overall batter Charlie Blackmon (2,859) barely beat out Stanton (2,833), who finished just above his new teammate (and AL Rookie of the Year) Aaron Judge (2,765).  It's no question the Yankees are going to be a force to be reckoned with next year.

In a similar situation to Starlin Castro in Miami, Denard Span went to Tampa Bay mainly as a means of offsetting some of Evan Longoria's salary.  But if the Rays continue to sell, Span could be a useful roster piece, despite the fact that he really shouldn't play center field anymore, or Tampa could try to flip him to try to get some of his salary off the books.  Looking ahead to my Honorable Mentions, Stephen Piscotty had a pretty disappointing season with St. Louis last year, but if you're looking for more of a long term building block than a declining veteran, he could be a good corner option.
Honorable Mention 1: Stephen Piscotty (Athletics, trade with Cardinals)
Honorable Mention 2: Jabari Blash (Yankees, trade with Padres)

- NL1: Marcell Ozuna (Cardinals, trade with Marlins)
- NL2: Matt Kemp (Dodgers, trade with Braves)

Given their "everything must go" attitude, it's no surprise that the Marlins have provided each league with their top-scoring All-Acquired player so far.  Marcell Ozuna fulfills the Cardinal's search for an impact bat, while also allowing them to deal away some of their outfield surplus for prospects (see above).  It's unclear whether "The Big Bear" will be able to maintain his 150-point increase in OPS from last year, but he's got two more years of control through arbitration, which should help put St. Louis right back into the fight for the NL Central.

Matt Kemp is yet another player whose acquisition was strictly financially based, as the extremely complicated five-player swap between Los Angeles and Atlanta was engineered purely to help get the Dodgers under the luxury tax threshold.  But until LA is able to flip Kemp elsewhere (which should include a pretty big "if"), he places here in a weak all-acquired outfield market.
Honorable Mention: Shane Peterson (Padres, minors deal, unconfirmed)


* CENTER FIELD

- AL: Dee Gordon (Mariners, trade with Marlins)
While Gordon has spent his entire career to date as a middle infielder, he wasn't about to bump superstar Robinson Cano off the keystone position upon his acquisition by Seattle, so a position change was going to be in the cards.  I'm not personally a fan of the inconsistency in terms of established/projected new positions in this All-Acquired list (given that I've placed Zack Cozart at shortstop rather than third base), but sometimes you need to do some clever maneuvering in order to maximize potential production.

Honorable Mention 1: Leonys Martin (Tigers, 1-year deal)
Honorable Mention 2: Jaycob Brugman (Orioles, trade with Athletics)

- NL: Magneuris Sierra (Marlins, trade with Cardinals)
The center field market in the NL has been virtually nonexistent - Sierra patrolled center for just seven games of his 22-game cup of coffee in 2017 (which was also his MLB debut), but has spent the majority of his minor league career there.  The next best option is former Yankees farmhand Mason Williams, who reportedly joined the Reds on a minor league deal, but he has just 25 MLB games on his resume, spread out over the last three years.  Another interesting option is to move slugger Marcell Ozuna back to center, where he has spent the majority of his MLB games, and was a regular as recently as 2016, which would open up the second corner outfield spot to utility option Alen Hanson, who played a just-enough-to-qualify 20 games in right field, split between the PIrates and the White Sox.  Hanson's deal with the Giants has not technically been confirmed (I'm not counting the post on his instagram), but I find that MLB TR is rarely wrong about these things.


* DESIGNATED HITTER

- AL: Shohei Ohtani (Angels, posted from Japan, minors deal)
Outside of the Giancarlo Stanton trade saga (or maybe even said trade saga included), the pursuit of Japanese two-way star Shohei Ohtani was the biggest story of this offseason.  The implications of whether he'll be allowed to develop as both a hitter and a pitcher are fascinating, but what's perhaps even more so is Ohtani's willingness to sacrifice a possibly historic payday by choosing to make the jump to MLB now, rather than waiting a few short years to qualify for international free agency.  While he has the chance to log some significant playing time at DH for the Angels in addition to serving as their ace pitcher (which would throw my baseball database into complete disarray), I'll cover his story more completely in my next post, dealing with All-Acquired pitchers.

World Series Rosters 2017

It's finally time... Time for me to come out of my nearly three-month exile from the blogosphere to bring you some roster analysis for the teams in the 2017 World Series!  The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros are the first 100-win teams to face each other in the Fall Classic since 1970 (when the Orioles defeated the Reds), and both of these rosters are absolutely stacked. Here's how they measure up against each other, starting with the home team:

First, a few words about the columns and color-coding, since there have been some subtle changes since the time I posted an excerpt from one of my patented Baseball Databases.  The "Pos 1" (or Primary Position) column is shaded green for rookies, as it has been in the past, but now players making their major league debuts have their positions in italics. For the Dodgers, this includes Rookie of the Year frontrunner (and #12 overall prospect heading into 2017) Cody Bellinger and technically-a-catcher Kyle Farmer, although he's been limited to five pinch-hit appearances so far in the playoffs.  For player names, a Yellow highlight denotes a player acquired during the preceding offseason -- just second platoon baseman Logan Forsythe (via a trade with Tampa Bay) and setup man extraordinaire Brandon Morrow (on a minor league deal). Players with Blue (technically Cyan) highlights were acquired during the season... which was actually the subject of my most recent post on this blog.  Neither outfielder Curtis Granderson nor situational lefty Tony Cingrani show up in that post, because the former was acquired after the non-waiver trade deadline, and the latter hadn't racked up enough points to merit inclusion.

Speaking of points, I use fantasy points to measure player value because it's a nice, easy, one-number system that everyone can understand (the more the better).  If you're thinking that the same can be used to describe WAR, you're right... but EVERYONE talks about WAR and I've always had that urge to stand out from the crowd and be unique, you know?  Speaking of standing out from the crowd and being unique, the next column after PPG (Points Per Game) shows what Astrological sign each player belongs to, with the bold-italic cells representing players on their sign's active Fantasy-Astrology roster.  The concept behind Dev (Developed) Team is not quite as unique, but it's definitely more grounded in reality, as it tracks which organizations shepherded each player through their minor league development phases.  But more on that later, when we look at the Astros.

Speaking of the Astros, the only member of their roster to make their debut in 2017 is technically-an-outfielder Derek Fisher, who clocked in at #83 on MLB.com's preseason prospect list, but has only appeared as a pinch hitter/runner so far in the playoffs.  He joins Yuli(eski) Gurriel as the only rookies on the team, although the 33-year-old infielder is a rookie in name only, as he has 15 years of experience in his native Cuban Serie Nacional.  Veterans of foreign leagues like Gurriel (and Kenta Maeda on the opposing side) present a problem for not only the rookie eligibility system, but also for the developed player system, since they weren't technically "developed" by any team, but rather "imported," so to speak.   But since it wouldn't be right to exclude them from the developed teams project, they get awarded to their first major league organizations.

As far as acquired players, Houston had more than twice as much offseason turnover as Los Angeles.  They traded for catcher Brian McCann from the Yankees, then signed right fielder Josh Reddick, DH Carlos Beltran, and starting pitcher Charlie Morton to free agent deals, plus added backup catcher Juan Centeno (who has one playoff appearance so far) on a minor league pact.  As far as their midseason acquisitions, two out of three of them were brought on board after July 31st: outfielder Cameron Maybin was claimed off waivers from the division rival Angels, and longtime Tigers ace Justin Verlander was acquired with mere seconds left before Trade Deadline 2.0, as it were, and might go down in history as one of the most monumental August acquisitions of all time.

Now for the Developed Teams column.  You may notice that some players have more than one team in this column.  These players spent time with multiple organizations before making their major league debuts, with the team in CAPS representing their true developed team (i.e. the one they spent the most time with), regardless of the team with which they saw their first major league action (the team listed without an asterisk).  In previous versions of this database, I listed each player's developed teams chronologically, with a forward slash (/) between any multiple teams.  This time, I put each player's true developed team in front, just to make the database easier to sort, and differentiated the timeline with a backward slash (\).  So for example, utility man Marwin Gonzalez was originally signed by the Cubs, where he spent his entire minor league career, before being acquired by the Astros as part of some Rule 5 Draft maneuvering and sent straight to the majors (CHC*/hou).  Conversely, relief ace Chris Devenski was drafted by the White Sox, but was traded to the Astros early enough in his career that he spent the majority of his development in Houston's system (HOU\chw*).

===

So there you have both World Series contending rosters.  Now, how do they compare side by side?  When you add up the aggregate fantasy points of each 25-Man Roster (including players who spent time with multiple teams in 2017), the Astros have a rather slim 789 point advantage over the Dodgers (31,947 to 31,158).  Houston also has the top scoring player (AL MVP candidate Jose Altuve), but the Dodgers follow with numbers two and three (All-World ace Clayton Kershaw and All-World closer Kenley Jansen).  As far as homegrown players (developed players still with their original organizations) the Astros have the edge 11 to 9, although only Houston has players who were acquired before they completed their development (swingman Joe Musgrove joins Devenski in that category).  Looking to the stars, the best-represented Astrological sign combined among both teams is Pisces with 7 players, followed by Virgo and Leo each with 6.  No individual team has more than 4 players of any given sign on the roster -- LAD has 4 each of Leo and Sagittarius, while HOU has 4 of Pisces, Virgo, and Scorpio.  For what it's worth, Aries defeated Libra in this year's Fantasy Astrology championship match, making it just the second time in six years that the "Scales" have failed to walk away with the crown -- and each team has two "Rams": Kenta Maeda and Andre Ethier for the Dodgers, Alex Bregman and Cameron Maybin for the Astros.

Who knows if any of these trivialities have any bearings on who has a better chance of taking the series, but if you do manage to find any correlations, remember that you heard it here first!

The World Series will be broadcast on your local Fox station, starting tonight at 8:00pm ET from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

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UPDATE: I've just learned that the Dodgers have made two changes to their World Series roster from the NLCS, which are outlined below:

First the technicalities: infielder Charlie Culberson was actually already on the NLCS roster, taking the spot of the injured Corey Seager, so technically the NEW additions are Seager and Brandon McCarthy.  But since the 2016 Rookie of the Year shortstop was already slated to return, I went ahead and made that assumption.  In adding McCarthy, who pitched mainly as a starter in 2017, to the bullpen, Los Angeles is taking a page out of Houston's book, as the Astros have four pitchers who made at least 10 starts who have been used mostly in relief during the playoffs (the lone exception being Brad Peacock's Game 3 start in the ALDS, where he actually pitched fewer innings than long reliever Lance McCullers Jr.).

Now for who's out: Kyle Farmer was an obvious choice, as Culberson could fill the role of right handed pinch hitter while also providing some depth around the infield.  Curtis Granderson, on the other hand, is a curious choice, since he's LA's third highest-scoring outfielder, and thus seemingly in line for a starting spot.  However, the decision makes more sense when you look at his postseason performance so far (1-for-15 with 8 K's in 6 games), combined with the presence of two other lefty hitting outfielders on the roster: Joc Pederson and Andre Ethier, who haven't hit much better (a combined 3-for-13, but with 2 extra base hits), but who come with the morale bonus of both being homegrown players.  Plus it's not as though Enrique "Kíke" Hernandez is going to ride the bench too much after slugging not one but three (3!) home runs in the NLCS-clenching Game 5 at Chicago...