Liveblogging: Athletics @ Royals, 7/6/13

Middle of the 6th inning (12:50pm) - OAK 3, KCR 2

Every day of the baseball season, MLB.com releases one game for free viewing, for the benefit of us spendthrifts who are too cheap to pay for either a cable package or a subscription to MLB.tv premium. Today's free game happens to feature the Oakland Athletics returning to their former haunting grounds of Kansas City to face the Royals. It's a fitting matchup, as the A's are currently embroiled in a legal battle with Major League Baseball for permission to make the franchise's third move in its 112-year history. I'll take this opportunity to examine each team's active roster, starting with the visitors:

1,000 fantasy points is an important milestone at the halfway point of the season, and the A's roster features three players who have reached it, one from each player category: starter, reliever, and position player. Bartolo Colon has turned into the improbable ace of this staff at age 40 and in the year after his 50-game suspension for PED use. Colon's been implicated in the Biogenesis scandal, so if that case is resolved before the end of the season, Oakland could be scrambling to find another starter on the waiver wire. Australian closer Grant Balfour has just tied Dennis Eckersley's franchise record for most consecutive saves, but he's long since broken the record for profanities uttered on the air. Josh Donaldson has been the biggest story of this offense, and while all three of these players have legitimate All-Star aspirations, the converted catcher might have the hardest road to New York, as he'll have to compete with such top hot cornermen as Miguel Cabrera, Evan Longoria, and Manny Machado.

For all Donaldson's brilliance, he trails speedy center fielder Coco Crisp by 1.0 PPG for the team lead in that column. Had Crisp not missed time with various injuries, his hot start would have definitely netted him an All-Star berth, if not a starting spot - we'll find out if he will be included in the festivities tonight at 6:30pm ET. Looking at the Pos 2 column, we can catch a glimpse of manager Bob Melvin's lineup construction strategy, as he uses the DH slot as a revolving door for his banged-up outfielders (and John Jaso, who may or may not be the player who unintentionally bared his unmentionables during a locker room interview with Josh Donaldson last month).

As Donaldson just gave the A's the lead with a solo home run in the top of the 6th inning, it's time to pause long enough for me to do some research into Kansas City's lineup. See you in a couple of innings!

Bottom of the 8th inning (1:30pm) - OAK 3, KCR 3

Turns out it took me about two innings to do the due diligence on the Royals, which is just as much time it took them to tie the game at 3. Here's how the third place team in the AL Central stacks up:

A quick glance at the all-important points column shows that KC has just two players past the 1,000 point barrier, and they're both pitchers: fellow surprising staff ace Ervin Santana and closer Greg Holland. Their big offseason acquisition James Shields and top offensive performer Alex Gordon are very close to the milestone with just under 20 and just under 50 points to go, respectively. Gordon just returned to action today after undergoing extensive concussion-related tests resulting from a crash into the outfield wall. Gordon actually started his career as a third baseman, but was shifted to the outfield after breaking his hand early in his career, and he's responded well to the positional shift.

Despite the impression that this team is constantly rebuilding, they are carrying only one rookie on their roster: outfielder David Lough (pronounced LOW) who takes the place of recently-DFA'd veteran Jeff Francoeur. I'm sure A's fans will be disappointed by his cut, as he has forged a relationship with Coliseum dwellers through his self-funded promotional day "Bacon Tuesday." In another roster shift, projected starting second baseman Chris Getz has been sent down in favor of youngster Johnny Giavotella, who tore it up in the Pacific Coast League last year (not necessarily a tough feat). However, neither he nor projected starting shortstop Alcides Escobar are in the lineup tonight, as they give way to former A Miguel Tejada and Elliot Johnson, respectively.

As Josh Donaldson fails to produce with a runner on base, we head to the bottom of the 8th inning with this game still tied.

End of the 9th (1:57pm) - OAK 3, KCR 4

So it goes: the Royals add to their league lead in come-from-behind victories, as a combination Yoenis Cespedes's failure to score from first on a two-out double early on and a costly Adam Rosales fielding error cost Ryan Cook and the A's the game. Rubber game tomorrow as this series is now tied at a game apiece, but I won't be able to watch it because MLB.tv's free game is the Reds hosting the Mariners in a historic "Ken Griffey-off". Now all we can do is watch the scoreboard and hope Erik Bedard and the Astros somehow keep Texas from pulling a half game ahead of the A's tonight.

Thursday Morning Quarterback: D-Backs @ Mets, 7/3/13

I've talked a lot about using the various nationally televised baseball games as a framework to narrow my focus on the sport, and with these last two posts I've been putting it into practice. Last night the Arizona Diamondbacks settled in for their third of four games against the New York Mets for ESPN's July 3rd edition of Wednesday Night Baseball. The D-Backs and the Metropolitans (to use the two teams' shortened and elongated nicknames, respectively) actually have rosters that look quite similar to one another on paper. Each team has one sophomore pitching superstar - Patrick Corbin has emerged as one of the best lefties in the game and is the anchor for my very own fantasy astrology Cancer Crabs, while an All-Star starting gig is not out of reach of last night's starter Matt Harvey. And each team has one franchise player who's under contract until the end of the decade and beyond, respectively - first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and third baseman David Wright both signed lucrative extensions that kick in next year. The only difference is that Arizona is in first place in their weak division while New York NL is languishing behind the Braves and Nationals in theirs.

I didn't get to watch yesterday's game, since I have a real job - all I know is that Arizona pulled out a narrow victory and now can only hope for a series split with a win today. But before going over the box score in detail, I'd like to very briefly go team-by-team through the rosters and how they've performed thus far.

Rotation: After Corbin, this rotation gets very sad, with fellow lefty Wade Miley and former 20-game winner Ian Kennedy (who was just recently suspended for throwing at all the Dodgers) have put up surprisingly middling numbers. Last night's starter Randall Delgado, one of the pieces that came over from the Braves in the Justin Upton deal, has been hurt most of the season and hasn't even made the requisite 5 starts to qualify as a 1 SP (denoted by the --- in his Pos 2 column). Not pictured are injured starters Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy (both former A's), who have both averaged about 6 fewer PPG than Miley and Kennedy, and the organization's #1 prospect Tyler Skaggs (#12 overall, according to Baseball America), who has been recalled on a start-by-start basis, presumably to keep his major league service time down and prevent Super Two status, but if this pennant race drags on, I don't know if they can afford to keep him in the minors.

Bullpen: Projected closer J.J. Putz was just recently activated from the DL, but it remains to be seen whether he will immediately take back the 9th or if placeholder Heath Bell will keep the job a little longer. None of the new additions have panned out as well as their holdovers: another former Athletic Brad Ziegler and decidedly un-clutch setup man David Hernandez have put up close to respectable numbers for relievers, but the real story has been long man Josh Collmenter who has really adapted well in his first season without a game started.

Infield: In what's becoming a theme for this team, second baseman Aaron Hill, who sports the second highest team PPG to assured All-Star starter Goldschmidt, has just come off the DL. In his absence, second sack was manned primarily by Willie Bloomquist (now on the DL himself), Martin Prado (who shifted over from 3B, which was taken over by Eric Chavez on those days) and Cliff Pennington (who's been splitting time at SS with rookie Didi Gregorius, who went unranked by MLB.com to start the season).

Outfield: The centerpiece of this outfield was supposed to be rookie leadoff man Adam Eaton (not the retired pitcher of the same name), but he hasn't yet played a game in 2013 due to injury. Luckily another rookie, A.J. Pollock, has filled in adequately in CF while Gerardo Parra has blossomed into the second most productive member of the offense, behind Goldy. Maybe all it took was the impending threat of an arbitration hearing to get him feeling good about himself. Neither of their high-price veteran corner outfielders have done anything close to productive: Jason Kubel and Cody Ross are making a combined $13.5 million and have produced an average of 7.3 PPG this year.

Rotation: Again we're seeing a very top-heavy rotation here: after Harvey = sadness. Jeremy Hefner and Dillon Gee are this team's versions of Miley and Kennedy, and Shaun Marcum's performance on a 1yr flier is about on par with McCarthy/Cahill. Also like Arizona, an injury to opening day starter Jon Niese has forced New York to start the future of their pitching staff early: the organization's #2 prospect (#11 overall) Zack Wheeler has earned himself a spot on this staff for the foreseeable future.

Bullpen: Talk about a bullpen makeover: after surprisingly effective closer Bobby Parnell (who has already almost equalled his fantasy point total from last year), none of the regular contributors were on this team last year. Veteran LaTroy Hawkins and lefty Scott Rice made the team out of Spring Training, Brandon Lyon, brought in on a deal worth less than $1mm, was supposed to show setup man potential, and David Aardsma (not the Waste Management executive) finally found his way back to the majors after being cut by both the Yankees and the Marlins (ouch).

Infield: This team's offense after David Wright may be even more sad than the pitching after Matt Harvey. Don't get me wrong, Daniel Murphy is having a solid season up the middle and John Buck's stats are still being boosted by his absolutely torrid start. But starting shortstop Ruben Tejada is injured and 1B Ike Davis has been optioned to the minors (after being ranked in the top 200 to start the year), but replacements Omar Quintanilla and Josh Satin have actually been performing better than the originals.

Outfield: It's sad when your outfield points leader is non-roster invitee Marlon Byrd, but that's the beauty of bad teams: they give otherwise over-the-hill players a chance to shine. Rick Ankiel was another such player, but he was cut last month - if he hadn't been, he would be the second highest-scoring outfielder on the roster. As it stands, that honor goes to Lucas Duda, who is sadly currently on the DL. So for me, the best outfield I can make out of this ragtag bunch is Byrd in RF, firebrand Jordany Valdespin in CF, and the newest member of the Mets Eric Young, Jr. (recently acquired from the Rockies) in LF.

Last Night's Game: As it happened, Valdespin sat out of the lineup in favor of Santa Monica native Kirk Nieuwenhuis, the one who was called up in favor of Ankiel. The rest of the Mets lineup managed three home runs - from Wright, Murphy, and Satin - but as they were all solo shots, they couldn't overcome Cody Ross's three-run blasts in the 6th inning. Chavez added an RBI on a double while subbing for Goldschmidt at 1B, as did C Miguel Montero. Also subbing in for a regular starter was Tony Campana who was called up yesterday prior to the game.

On the pitching front, after Delgado's 7 strong innings, Arizona called on David Hernandez for his 10th hold and Heath Bell for his 15th save, keeping Putz's situation somewhat in limbo. I'd guess they want to warm him up with some lower leverage innings before thrusting him back into the spotlight. Harvey punched out 9 batters over his 6 innings of work before giving way to New York's hodgepodge of a bullpen, not that it mattered after the 5 runs that Harvey gave up.

The final game of the series starts presently, with Ian Kennedy taking on Dillon Gee. Let's see if the headhunter can lead his snakes to a split or whether "Soft G" can help his team take 3 of 4.

Liveblogging Yankees @ Orioles, 6/30/13

Middle of the 5th inning (6:37 pm) - BAL 3, NYY 1

Coming in halfway through the Orioles' game against the Yankees, it's been all birds up to this point, with Baltimore pulling off a hat trick of solo home runs. All three have come off New York's ace (at least statistically so far) Hiroki Kuroda. The only damage on the other side has been a bases loaded walk - a mistake that was more shameful than damaging - by the O's statistical ace Chris Tillman.

Coming in halfway through the Orioles game with the Yankees tonight makes a certain amount of sense, because we're also coming in halfway through the baseball season. That's a large enough sample size to establish a statistical base for 2013, but it's not until the All-Star Break, on July 16th, that I pause and take stock of current stats for all players on all teams.

However, I couldn't wait another two and a half weeks, so I did a trial run of my roster project/experiment with the participants in tonight's ESPN Sunday Night Baseball matchup. What follows are the raw (and quite sloppily captured) statistical data for the active rosters of each team.

Trying to work in the scientific method as much as possible, that's the "evidence" as clear as I could gather it. I'll be back in the later innings with the results section.


Bottom of the 7th inning (7:30 pm) - BAL 3, NYY 2

As my computer falls to 24% battery life, Yankees no. 24 Robinson Cano just hits a smooth home run putting New York within 1. He's NYY's top offensive scorer, and it'll make a pretty scary lineup with him hitting in front of Baltimore's offensive scoring leader Chris Davis in the All-Star Game in a couple weeks. Of course, the winners aren't announced until July 6, but those two are who I picked and I'm pretty confident I picked winners this year.

At least in terms of my All-Star ballot, if not my fantasy team. I also voted for Adam Jones in the OF and J.J. Hardy at short - although I didn't vote for Nick Markakis, since I would rather see Joey Bats in the lineup. I am a strong believer that at midseason, the 1,000 fantasy point threshhold is an important milestone to denote All-Stars in all possible cases. Manny Machado, the new leader of the division-leading Cancer Crabs in my Fantasy Astrology league, is having a tremendous season, but there's no way he loses to defending Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera for the starting 3B job.

In terms of starting pitching, I also picked both of tonight's starters in one of my leagues, but I've since streamed out Tillman for better weekly matchups. And now the Orioles have done the same, calling on one of their top relievers, sidearmer Darren O'Day. He's actually fallen to third on the RP depth chart behind closer Jim Johnson (the team's pitching points leader) and former starter Tommy Hunter (who came over from Texas in the same deal as megaslugger Davis). Mariano Rivera also leads the Yankees pitching staff in points, but tonight's starter Kuroda joins him in the thousand point club.

O'Day gets the second out in the 7th and will stay in to face the lefty Ichiro, just a shell of his former self. There are a lot of lefties at the top of the Yankees order, but I agree with Buck Showalter leaving in the righty and letting him finish the inning he started. And both our gut feelings paid off as Ichiro goes down with a shallow pop-up.

So that was all the elite players on either active roster. As Kuroda comes back for his half of the 7th, we'll see if I have one more post in me before the end of this game.

Top of the 9th inning ( pm) - BAL 4, NYY 2

Jim Johnson is coming in with a save situation, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather have closing games either for the Cancer Crabs or for the Baltimore Orioles. He's also been the third most dependable closer in the AL behind his opponent's 9th inning stopper and Joe Nathan of the Rangers. A lot of people looked at his relatively low strikeout rate and thought that all those saves were smoke and mirrors, but he's consistently shown that he knows how to get batters out in high-leverage situations.

Except apparently not veteran lefty 1B Lyle Overbay, their second stringer behind out-for-the-season Mark Teixeira, who just laced a double into the left center field gap. Now Johnson will face the tying run in Jayson Nix, who's filling in for Derek Jeter. But a good two-seam fastball sits him down, leading to the third second stringer in a row Chris Stewart, who gets drilled by the pitch bringing up the Yanks' only third stringer in the lineup, 3B David Adams. The rookie is behind both the injured Alex Rodriguez (Biogenesis scandal notwithstanding) and Kevin Youkilis, and showed his ineptitude with a big strikeout.

Now the Yankees' only chance to avoid a sweep by the Orioles rests on the shoulders of leadoff hitter and center fielder Brett Gardner. I was going to write something about how he took over the outfield captain's position from Curtis Granderson when he broke his forearm in Spring Training, but he aggressively swings at the first pitch and knocks a big, appropriately titled Baltimore Chop up the middle, which was niftily handled by Ryan Flaherty to end the game.

SportsCenter tells me that there is an NBA free agent frenzy, so I'll just go ahead and switch over to Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E! to watch Bruce deal with his hearing problem. Fun Fact: I once played soccer with Bruce Jenner in the parents/kids practice of my boyhood soccer team - which means I played soccer with Rob Kardashian by extension, a fact I'm less excited about, him not being an Olympic decathlete or anything. Not that I'm not superexcited to hear about how his sock line goes...

But regardless of how reality TV's first family fares in their new episode tonight at 9, this matchup is over, and with it this week's worth of baseball. Jim Johnson helped the O's hang on and add another game in their lead over the Yankees. Also, despite Chris Davis's monster week, his Pisces Fish could not prevail in their battle with the Cancer Crabs, led by Davis's teammates Machado and Johnson. So enjoy the charts until either my next roster project trial run or until the All-Star Break. Or until I decide to write about something other than baseball, like my Batman: The Animated Series Video Power Hour, which this week has eclipsed 2,000 views on the YouTubes. Only time will tell!

Astrology Baseball 2013: 1/3 of Way Through the Season Recap

Looking back at my recent output, it's clear that I've had an extremely unproductive Gemini. I wish I could say it was a conscious choice to go on hiatus for this particular astrological cycle, but the truth of the matter is that I just haven't been motivated to analyze my Topps 1992-inspired 40 man roster. As it happens, for the last couple of weeks I've been less interested in 20 year old baseball cards than I have been in 15 year old Magic: The Gathering cards, a whole tub of which my friend just recently uncovered. (It's very possible that you'll see a post about them in the near future, as I have tried my hand at blogging about Magic before.) And on the baseball front, I've been paying more attention to the current rather than the historical side of things, specifically how they relate to my Fantasy Astrology League. After all, with the Summer Solstice fast approaching, we could start seeing some big upheaval in the standings, and I want to talk a little bit about how things are going before that momentous event.

As you'll no doubt recall, this year I split the league into four divisions of three teams each - one for each of the classical elements (Fire, Earth, Air, and Water). Even though I'm pretty sure the ESPN fantasy client ignores these divisions and just picks the teams with the four best records to participate in the playoffs (I'm not a savvy enough commissioner to figure out how to change that), I'd like to go over how the current division leaders' teams stack up compared to their projected lineups.

Darvish's Leo uniform should really be orange, but you get the idea

The first team in any conversation about Fantasy Astrology 2013 (if indeed there are any aside from this one) has to be the surprisingly strong Leo Lions. After finishing 2012 in a three-way tie for 5th in the league with a .500 record, Leo is currently sitting on the most wins in the league (by only one win, but it's still an impressive jump). Their attack is fueled by three pitchers who are averaging at least 90 points per game: Topps 2012 All-Star Rookie Yu Darvish (90.1), still unbeaten Max Scherzer (94.5), and Clay Buchholz (99.0), sore neck notwithstanding. Most teams would kill to have Madison Bumgarner (averaging more than 60 PPG himself) as a fourth starter, but after those four (who are all owned in 100% of fantasy leagues), the pitching depth falls off considerably. The next most popular pitcher they have is Huston Street, who is owned in less than 3/4 of fantasy leagues, but a lot of that might have to do with the fact that he was just activated from the DL today. Injuries have also hit this staff particularly hard - before Street's activation, more than half of their top 15 ranked pitchers going into the season were on the DL (including Ryan Vogelsong, Brandon Morrow, and Chad Billingsley), so it's scary to think how good this crew could be if healthy.

The offense has also had some injury troubles, the highest profile case being Alex Rodriguez's recovery from surgery, which could end up being made moot by a Biogenesis-related suspension. The team has been able to roll with the more recent punches due to either depth (Mark Reynolds was able to vacate the DH slot when Pablo Sandoval went down) or surprise breakout rookie performances (Wilson Ramos's setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury doesn't hit nearly as hard considering they have Evan Gattis to step in). Carl Crawford's most recent trip to the DL would have been easier to swallow had Jason Heyward and B.J. Upton not been shitting the proverbial bed all season, leaving them to rely on Colby Rasmus or Zack Cozart for the DH slot. In addition to Heyward and Sandoval, this team has five batters who are owned in 100% of fantasy leagues: outfielders Mike Trout and Adam Jones (the only offenders with more than 1,000 points each), 2B Dustin Pedroia (who's apparently been playing through a torn thumb ligament, which could mean more playing time for backup Ryan Flaherty down the line), J.J. Hardy (who's leading the AL in All-Star votes at SS), and 1B Anthony Rizzo.

Imagine Miggy's Aries uniform as red...

Leo's runner-up in the Fire division is one of three teams tied for second place overall: last year's runner-up the Aries Rams. By far the scariest team on paper, this squad leads the pack with a whopping 19 players owned in 100% of all leagues, the best of which is reigning Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera (who also leads all of baseball in fantasy points). The three (count 'em, 3) 100% catchers are all neck and neck in points - Buster Posey (774), Joe Mauer (762), and Carlos Santana (725) - and although all three are eligible at 1B, the two runners up are currently taking a backseat to Michael Cuddyer (791) at that position and Adrian Beltre (898) at DH, which pushes the slumping Billy Butler and the recently activated Mark Teixeira to the bench. All three outfielders are also 100% owned, with Hunter Pence on pace for a 30-30 year, Dexter Fowler enjoying a breakout year, and Jay Bruce chugging right along. In fact, the only non-100-percenter in the starting lineup is A's SS Jed Lowrie, who is currently performing better than Starlin Castro of the Cubs. The only DL-eligible hitter is Aaron Hill, but thankfully they have Jason Kipnis and Daniel Murphy ready to step in.

Like Leo, Aries has three starters with more than 1,000 points - Hisashi Iwakuma (1,306), Matt Harvey (1,236), and Felix Hernandez (1,141) - but only Iwakuma is averaging more than 90 PPG (93.3). Their other two starters in the rotation (Chris Sale and Hyun-Jin Ryu) are also 100% owned, with their sixth starter, Justin Masterson, just one percentage point behind. If this team has one weakness, it's the bullpen, with John Axford recently having lost his closer's job, Jose Valverde pretty clearly on the way out, and only middle relievers behind them.

Oops, no logo visible on this one...
At least the coloring is somewhat correct.

The other participant in last year's finals, the Libra Scales, are right behind Aries with 18 100%-owned players. 11 of them are on the offensive side, although 3 of those 10 (Matt Kemp, Bryce Harper, and as of today Troy Tulowitzki) are on the 15-day DL, with Yoenis Cespedes possibly (although hopefully not) to join them soon. The other 7, including AL Home Run Derby captain Robinson Cano, team point leader Carlos Gonzalez (1,257), and Pirates outfield duo Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte, are holding down the fort just fine, as they are leading the Air division by a comfortable 3 games.

On the pitching side, the team has gotten a lot more production from their #'s 6-10 ranked starters than their 1-5's, tops among them Cardinals rookie sensation Shelby Miller. The return of Jered Weaver and the metal plate holding Zack Greinke's collar bone in place should help shore up a pitching staff that is relying on Alex Cobb and Derek Holland to compensate for Matt Cain's failure to live up to the expectations set by last year's perfect game (although his most recent outing against the Pirates might forecast a return to form). Libra's projected bullpen took a hit due to injury (Joel Hanrahan) or ineffectiveness (Carlos Marmol), but they've got two replacements who have actually been used to close games in Jose Veras (albeit for the Astros) and Canadian star Jim Henderson (who hasn't officially regained the role after coming off the DL last week).

Again, this Virgo uniform for Wainwright should be blue

The third team tied for the second best record in the league is Virgo of the Earth division; they have 14 100%-owned players, for sake of comparison. Even after losing Matt Kemp, the outfield has enjoyed solid performances from NL home run leader and May Player of the Monthy Domonic Brown (19), AL stolen base leader Jacoby Ellsbury (30), and April Player of the Month Justin Upton, who has since cooled off considerably. Their logjam at 1B - Paul Goldschmidt (1,130), Joey Votto (999), and Freddie Freeman (714) - is a good problem to have, and Brett Gardner (800) and Ian Desmond (737) round out the players who have broken the 700-point barrier. Adam Wainwright (who just recorded his 1,000th career strikeout) and Cliff Lee present one of the best righty-lefty combos in baseball, and the rotation will only get stronger with the returns of David Price, Matt Harrison, and Brandon Beachy. The bullpen sports two legit closers, but just barely, and if anything happens to either Casey Janssen or Bobby Parnell, there is not a whole lot of help waiting in the wings.

The Water division is locked up in a tie right now with both Cancer and Scorpio playing .500 ball thus far, so this seems like a good opportunity to do a position-by-position comparison (with the winning player's team listed next to hi name). Behind the plate, Mike Napoli (SCO) has outscored Yadier Molina, but remember that Napoli can only play there because of an eligibility loophole. Adam LaRoche has outplayed his intra-team competition at 1B (Eric Hosmer and Adam Dunn), but he hasn't measured up to Allen Craig (CAN), and he's even got OF eligibility. Marco Scutaro has been heating up lately at 2B for the Giants, but he's been outscored by both Brandon Phillips (CAN) and Howard "sometimes Howie" Kendrick, and when Ian Kinsler returns he'll also be a better option. Preseason rankings would have favored Martin Prado over Kyle Seager at 3B even though 2013 so far has had the opposite results, but neither of them would measure up to Orioles phenom Manny Machado (CAN). Scorpio had a similar rankings situation with shortstops - Asdrubal Cabrera (injury notwithstanding) hasn't measured up to NL steals leader Everth Cabrera (SCO) - but both of them have outplayed the black hole Cancer suffers from while they wait for Derek Jeter to return (Marlins rookie Derek Dietritch has recently emerged as an extremely deep replacement option).

In CF, Shin-Soo Choo (CAN) has the lead in points (887 to 867) even though Coco Crisp has played better (17.7 PPG to 13.6), but I have to give the lead to Choo here just due to Crisp's inability to stay on the field. Going by preseason rankings, the rest of Scorpio's outfield has the clear edge (Ryan Braun and Giancarlo Stanton over Nelson Cruz and Angel Pagan), and while we all know about Braun's slump/legal issues and Stanton's injury troubles, Pagan is also injured and Cruz (with the highest point total of the previous four) is also linked to the Biogenesis scandal. Looking at the fourth outfield situation, Nate McLouth's (SCO) resurgent season with the Orioles has trumped Torii Hunter's stability with the Tigers.

On the mound, no starter compares to Patrick Corbin (CAN 1,086) but no reliever compares to Jason Grilli (SCO 1,111). Even with Stephen Strasburg's (CAN) injury, the only other non-Corbin pitchers to surpass him in points are Cincinnati's Mike Leake and Pirates rookie sensation Jeff Locke (SCO), although CC Sabathia and Paul Maholm (CAN) are not far behind. On the Scorpio side, Francisco Liriano's return to form has almost made up for R.A. Dickey's regression and Ricky Romero's demotion, while Cancer has to rely on Tim Hudson and Phil Hughes to shore up the rotation until Jaime Garcia and Wei-Yin Chen return. In the bullpen, Jim Johnson and Ernesto Frieri haven't measured up to the combo of Grilli and Greg Holland (SCO), but Cancer also has injured All-Star closers Chris Perez and Jason Motte taking up space on the roster. Judging by my extremely unscientific evaluation method, it's a dead heat between these two teams who were separated by 8 spots in my extremely unscientific rankings prior to the season.

So there you have it: what was supposed to be an evaluation of the four division leaders turned into a profile of half the league. During the All-Star Break I will be completely occupied by updating my 40 man roster project, so I will likely revisit Astrology sometime in the dog days of August, likely right around the Virgo-Leo cusp.

Baseball Cards: Topps 2011

For those of you keeping tabs on my blog-worthy activities, I have finished the story mode of Injustice (but I haven't yet attempted climbing any challenge ladders), I have constructed a ballot for my next round of All-Star voting, as of the season's 1/4 mark (roughly 40 games), but have yet to actually cast the votes. And I've been happily reigniting my passion for baseball cards. The first set I presented was the most recent set. Last week's set was the oldest set I have. So continuing the pattern of starting at the extremes and working towards the middle from both ends, here's a roster made up of cards from the Topps 2011 set. This was the set that originally inspired me to revisit the simplicity of baseball cards, and I must admit I went a little overboard in terms of purchasing packs - I had more than 100 valid player cards to choose from when constructing this roster - but give me a break, they were the first baseball cards of any kind I had purchased in more than five years. Here's what the team looks like, arranged in their projected batting order from top lef to bottom right.

Derek Jeter might not honestly be the best choice to lead off and play SS - benchwarmer Alexei Ramirez was worth more WAR than his counterpart up the middle 5.5 to 1.8 (3.0 of which came with his glove, in a season in which he curiously won a Silver Slugger award). But because Cap'n Jetes outscored the "Cuban Missile" in fantasy points 1,883 to 1,694 (in a season in which he curiously won a Gold Glove) and because he has a team captain worthy personality and because we happen to share a birth sign, I've given him the honor. In addition to being the best second baseman on the market, Martin Prado also qualified at 3B (although don't expect Adrian Beltre and his 2,213 points to be unseated any time soon), and would move to LF the following season. Albert Pujols is a no-brainer here, as he led all fantasy offensive players in scoring in 2010 (only Jose Bautista and his 54 HR came close), led his league in two Triple Crown categories (his .312 average didn't make the top 10), and finished second in MVP voting.

With an all-time great like Pujols in there at 1B, I obviously envision Adam Dunn as DH - and he would go on to play that role with his new team, the Chicago White Sox, in whose uniform he is not pictured. While Beltre topped Dunn's overall point output, I constructed the order so as to have a nice R/L/R/L/R split starting with Pujols and going all the way to Choo and Young. The last two spots were battles up to the end: Yadier Molina was an All-Star and won the NL Gold Glove, but Ruiz scored almost 2.0 more PPG and notched exactly 1.0 more WAR than the Cardinals backstop. And there were three things going for Andres Torres over Hunter Pence (in his last full year with Houston) despite the 200+ point gap in Pence's favor: 1) their PPG were virtually identical, 2) Torres leads the WAR battle by nearly 2.0, and 3) Torres actually qualifies to play LF. Pence is still on the bench (along with Ichiro [no last name printed on the card]), so never fear, a platoon is possible.

Talk about a rotation topped by a couple flashes-in-the-pan. Ubaldo Jimenez scored the most fantasy points in his career by a huge margin in 2010, for which he earned the start in that year's All-Star Game (which I attended, and at which I saw Ubaldo launch one of his warmup tosses into the stands... a prelude of things to come?). Josh Johnson had a couple of good seasons back to back, but he would never come within half a win-above-replacement of his 7.2 in '10. After a decade of solid quiet dominance ending in 2010 (his split season between the Phillies and the Astros), Roy Oswalt would never again break 1,000 points. Tim Hudson has not only been solid for his entire career, he's also a frequent contributor to my baseball card teams: earlier this week, I indulged myself in one more 36-pack of Topps 2013's, out of which I drew Huddy (who, incidentally, replaces an injured Josh Beckett in my roster) and also Hunter Pence. Chris Carpenter, who had already overcame two lost seasons due to injury by 2010, is at this moment staring in the face of a third.

Rafael Soriano leads this relief corps, coming off the 2,146-point season that got him the job of Mariano Rivera's setup man (and eventual place-holder). There's Jonathan Papelbon, another member of my Topps 2013 squad, but this time he's in his original uniform. I was not sure which lefty to choose from as the long reliever: Jonathan Sanchez led by more than 100 points and helped pitch his team to a World Championship, but Gio Gonzalez led slightly in WAR and is still performing well today. In the end, it was purely an A's/Giants decision for me.

Sticking to this pattern I've established for myself, the next set I will cover will be Topps 1992. This set could be my favorite set of all time, mostly for sentimental reasons, but also because it's quite cool. You will find out in what ways next time!

Baseball Cards: Donruss 1990

The last time I posted a lineup based on baseball cards, it was made from the Topps 2013 set, the most up-to-date set I own (indeed, there is no other set that's more up to date). So it's only fitting that the next lineup I post is from the oldest, and thus most historical, set in which I own a significant amount of cards: Donruss 1990. All of these cards originate from a factory-sealed box I bought at a garage sale several years ago containing several unopened packs and a special edition puzzle of Carl Yastrzemski, who had retired six years before this set was published. At the time, Donruss was a brand owned by Leaf Inc., as I learned from reading the back of the cards in detail. Today, Donruss is now exclusively a football and basketball card producer, as I learned by digging deeper on Wikipedia. As they were made for the beginning of the 1990 season, the stats we are working with are from 1989, a year in which the Oakland Athletics won the World Series, as I learned from baseball-reference.com. Let's get right into a photographic version of the lineup.

I'd like to start with the rotation, just so that we can start the post by seeing how AL Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen's blue Royals uniform stands out against the delightfully retro red and black background (although the white cursive does make those names a chore to read, even on the actual cards themselves). But that's right, my rotation is anchored by the guy who led the major leagues with 9.7 WAR in 1989. He also led the majors in ERA, W, and WHIP, en route to his second Cy Young Award, all at the tender age of 25. Behind him is #8 on the WAR list (6.0) Bert Blyleven, heading out of his last great year: at age 38 he finished 4th in the Cy Young voting. His longevity truly was amazing; I think the only reason they kept him out of the Hall of Fame for so many years was because of how much Twins fans hate his play-by-play calling. Next is a member of the World Champion Oakland Athletics, Dave Stewart. Stewart's 21 wins led him to a better finish in the CYA voting than Blyleven ("Smoke" finished #2) even though he averaged about 10 fewer fantasy points per game (61.9 for Stewart, 71.8 for Blyleven - they both finished well behind Saberhagen, who clocked in at 89.6 [for a whopping 3,224 on the season!]).

Our first NL pitcher is Doug Drabek of the Pirates, who in 1989 was one year older than his son Kyle is in 2013, where he is currently struggling in the Blue Jays organization. But no matter how much success young Kyle has in the majors, he will never have a cooler moustache than his pops. The battle for #5 starter was neck and neck between a 23-year-old Greg Maddux and a 35-year-old Dennis Martinez. The choice is more than obvious if this were a keeper league, but looking at '89 alone they were pretty comparable by all measures: Maddux trails insignificantly in Points (2,070 to 2,081) but Martinez finishes slightly lower in WAR (4.7 to 5.0). I went with The Professor just because of youth and reverse nostalgia, but El Presidente still made the team as the all-important long reliever/swingman/sixth starter. At the back end of the bullpen is lefty John Franco in his last year on his original team (the Reds) before he was traded to his hometown Mets, for whom he would go on to play for 14 years and record 276 saves.

Now the batters:

I organized this by position rather than by batting order, because if your baseball knowledge starts in the late '90s (which mine does) you will be confused to see Craig Biggio, someone you're used to seeing as an infielder, instead playing behind the plate. 1989's Silver Slugger at C would go on to play two more seasons at that position before moving full time to 2B - he played there primarily for 14 of his the next 16 seasons, all as an Astro. Pedro Guerrero isn't a guy you hear about too often after his trade from the Dodgers to the Cardinals, but he had somewhat of a resurgence in '89, finishing 3rd in MVP voting. 2B Ryne Sandberg is someone I'm really sorry I didn't get to see play extensively - he retired after the 1997 season - but a quick glance at his numbers show that he was consistently one of the best in the game for a very long time. It's too bad he could not have taken the Cubs to the World Series one of those years. One player I did get a chance to see a little of is Wade Boggs, but mostly when he was with the Devil Rays, i.e. after his amazing stretch of 12 straight All-Star Game appearances. He actually trailed fellow 3B Bobby Bonilla in fantasy points (2,074 to 2,152), but Boggs's monumental WAR advantage (8.4 to 4.9) plus the fact that he is a Hall of Famer, a leadoff hitter, and one of the all-time greats solidifies his spot in the lineup. Also Bonilla still makes the team as the DH, so all's well.

On the subject of Hall of Famers and all-time greats, Cal Ripken mans the shortstop position at a time in history when there was no one better. In addition to his well-publicized "Iron Man" consecutive games streak, Ripken was also in the midst of 10 straight seasons in which he hit more than 20 HR and an unprecedented 19 straight seasons where he made an All-Star appearance. Our left fielder and cleanup hitter Kevin Mitchell, however, had pretty much the exact opposite career trajectory. Mitchell played for 13 seasons and amassed 29.0 WAR in that time, but nearly 38% of that total came over two seasons, the first of which being 1989, when he led the league in HR, RBI, and OPS en route to winning the NL MVP award and leading his Giants to the World Series (only to see them fall to the A's). In center field is Mitchell's MVP counterpart in the other league, Robin Yount, a full nine years before the Brewers switched leagues (it was the last awards recognition he would receive for the rest of his Hall of Fame career). Rounding out the outfield is the fifth Hall of Famer in this lineup, Tony Gwynn, who qualified at RF, but who I was surprised to see played the majority of his 1989 in CF, his only full season in which he did so. I was also surprised to see that he stole 40 bases that year, which would have been impractical in his later, heavier years when I first started watching him.

Among the honorable mentions are an entire lineup made up of Hall of Famers: C Carlton Fisk, 1B Eddie Murray, 1B George Brett (he had moved from 3B two years prior to the release of this set), 2B Roberto Alomar, 3B Paul Molitor, SS Barry Larkin (who won the Silver Slugger that year despite playing only 97 games and averaging 10.7 PPG), OF Dave Winfield (although he spent all of '89 on the DL), and RP Goose Gossage (at the tail end of a fine career). We also have AL Silver Slugging 2B Julio Franco, pre-steroids Barry Bonds, on-steroids Jose Canseco, and current Five Hour Energy spokesman Bo Jackson. A pair of all-time great Braves starters, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, join such other future greats as Curt Schilling, Larry Walker, and Bernie Williams (in all their Rookie Card glory). And we also have three current managers (Mike Scioscia, Robin Ventura, and Kirk Gibson) and four future TV announcers/pundits (Al Leither, John Kruk, Rick Sutcliffe, and Mark Grace).

2012 All-AAA Teams

Wil Myers, the 2012 Topps Minor League Player of the Year...
will not make an appearance on one of these teams.

Before I go back and play more Injustice: Gods Among Us, and before I dig deeper into my collection of baseball cards, and before I reevaluate the top MLB players for my second round of All-Star voting (I seem to have a lot of tabs open in my mental browser right now...) I'd like to revisit my ongoing 40-man rosters project. As I've mentioned many times before, only 25 members of the 40-man roster are on the active or MLB roster, which means the other 15 play in some level of the minor leagues. My objective for this post is to examine (in the form of a lineup, how else?) the best players who are currently on MLB 40-man rosters, but who spent a significant portion of their 2012 seasons in the minor leagues. My hypothesis is that this experiment will result in some awesome lineups!

So far I've only gone through players that spent most (or almost most) of their 2012 in Triple-A (AAA), the highest level of the minor leagues. The tricky part about dealing with players in AAA is that the minor leagues are essentially a feeder system for major league talent. So it stands to reason that if a player does well enough in AAA, he will eventually get called up to the majors, reducing his chances to put up more big numbers in AAA. But I'm confident that these two lists (there's one for each of the AAA leagues) include players who performed well enough in the minors, but who could still make an impact in The Show. And of course there's also the commentary section, where I will go over any noteworthy exceptions or honorable mentions.

Starting with the Pacific Coast League, you'll notice that there aren't a whole lot of household names on this list (unless you hang out in my household), which is to be expected in a list about minor leaguers. Before going into the PCL's historically-inflated offense, a word about the color coding and capitalization of the list: a green highlight in the Position column indicates that the player qualifies as a rookie heading into 2013 (i.e. less than 130 AB or 50 IP in the majors). A yellow highlight in the Name column indicates that player joined a new team during the off-season. The all-important Bats/Throws column shows that player's status on his team's 40-man roster: no fill for active, blue for optioned to the minors, and red for 15-day DL. And lowercase letters in both the Level and 2012 MLB Experience columns indicates that player did not play enough games to qualify for a fantasy position, provided there was a fantasy league for the minors.

As I mentioned before, the Pacific Coast League typically produces better-than-average offenses, but that shouldn't take anything away from the top two offensive performers Adam Eaton (not to be confused with the former pitcher with the same name) and Jedd Gyorko (who doesn't share either a first or a last name with any other major leaguer past or present). Both of these players were slated to begin the year in their respective team's starting lineups, and while Gyorko has experienced a bit of a learning curve while playing 3B and 2B for the Padres, he has at least been able to play every day - Eaton has yet to play a game with the 2013 Diamondbacks after suffering an elbow injury prior to the season.

A couple of top performers were involved in transactions this off-season: former Dodgers prospect Jerry Sands was sent to Boston as a player to be named later in last season's mega blockbuster, but was then shipped to Pittsburgh in the Joel Hanrahan deal, where he is currently struggling in AAA (but hey, it's better than season ending surgery, which is what's happening to the guy he got traded for). Middle infielder Jake Elmore was plucked off waivers by the Astros: Arizona could afford let him go, despite his .908 OPS and 32 steals last year, because they netted top shortstop prospect Didi Gregorius in a trade. (Gregorius spent most of his 2012 in AA, which is why he doesn't appear on this particular list.) Rounding out the list of new faces in new places, longtime Cardinals farmhand Andrew Brown signed with the Mets on a minor league deal, was called up early this month, but was optioned to the minors to make room for newly acquired Rick Ankiel.

Although the warm climates of the PCL ballparks make for high offensive production, it's the pitching staff that has had more of an impact in the majors this year. Trevor Bauer (traded to the Indians in the aforementioned Gregorius deal) has contributed nicely to Cleveland's rotation, and the rash injuries that always seems to befall A's starters has given Dan Straily an opportunity to start in Oakland (an opportunity he is currently squandering with an ERA over 7.00). Fellow A's starter A.J. Griffin joins Cardinals phenom Shelby Miller in the pitching division of the honorable mentions, as they were both given their first shot in the show in 2012. While we're on the subject, the best player in the minor leagues last year, Wil Myers (above), does not appear in this lineup because he is not currently on the Rays' 40-man roster (even though Jake Odorizzi, who arrived in Tampa Bay in the same trade, currently is). We should see Myers in the bigs soon enough: even though he's struggling in AAA right now, he would still be an upgrade for the offensively-starved Rays. In the bullpen, you might recognize Jim Henderson as the Brewers' new closer ever since fellow Canadian John Axford lost the mantle before the season's first week was out.

Moving on to the International League, there even fewer household names on this list. The only one who has seen significant major league action is veteran Ramon Ortiz, and the last time he pitched more than 35 innings in the majors was 2007. The only reason the Blue Jays have space for him on their 40-man roster is because their season is already in the pooper. Don't get me wrong, there are a few viable major league contributors on this pitching staff: although currently back in AAA, Tyler Cloyd is the best candidate to take Roy Halladay's spot in the Phillies' rotation, Jeff Locke has an ERA under 3.00 as a starter for the Pirates, and Zach Duke made the Nationals as a lefty specialist. And while Donnie Joseph has some upside (he was traded from Cincinnati to Kansas City for Jonathan Broxton), there's an awful lot of red in the rest of this bullpen.

The all-rookie offense, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. Hector Gimenez is the only player currently on an active roster and the only other two players to have reached the majors in 2013 are infielders Cord Phelps and Brandon Laird. However, we do get to experience two more colors: Chase d'Arnaud, the brother of Mets catching prospect Travis (another honorable mention on the PCL team), is highlighted orange to denote his placement on the 60-day DL (and thus technically off Pittsburgh's 40-man roster, but this team was too desperate for infielders for me not to include him). Mauro Gomez has a nice cyan highlight, which means that he changed teams during the season: he was claimed by the Blue Jays in one of their myriad waiver wire moves, but was optioned before he played in a major league game.


So there you have it: a graphical and statistical analysis of the Pacific Coast League's utter dominance over the International League. The next stop on my ongoing analysis of the minor leagues will take me to the AA's trio of the Eastern League, the Southern League, and the Texas League. Whether I write a post about them remains to be seen.

Injustice: Gods Among Us, Chapters 1-4

The first thing you see upon starting the story mode of Injustice: Gods Among Us (subtitled The Mighty Among Us in the Middle East), is a quote from Lex Luthor: "I believe there are infinite alternate universes all going on at the same time and in all the different combinations of possibilities, etc." (Loosely paraphrased.) This is a very important premise to buy in a format that depends on the different alternate universes of no fewer than ten superheroes from ten distinct publications. However I've never held any illusions that I cared at all (or indeed knew anything about) any of the universes other than Batman's. So it's nice that you get to start your journey through the fighting game's story mode as Batman. But before you start fighting, you have to figure out what universe you're in.

The first universe you see involves the destruction of Metropolis (which I know enough to know is from Superman's universe) by a nuke that was somehow controlled by Joker (Batman's universe). Superman is so mad that he kills the shit out of the Joker and (SPOILER ALERT) becomes some kind of power-crazed autocrat. But before we see that happen, we're immediately transported to a second universe (hereafter known as U-2, with a dash to differentiate from the pop band), where the Justice League is trying to prevent the events of the first universe (U-1). Interesting piece of trivia I found out: the group that was also known as the Super Friends was almost called the Justice Society, but was changed to mimic the popular American League and National League. This is one of the rare instances (outside this blog) where the two subjects of this blog, Baseball and Batman, come together.

In the U-2 universe, Batman begins the game by fighting two characters who were featured in the first two games represented by the Unreal 3 engine: Deathstroke from Arkham City and Bane from Arkham Asylum. Now, in none of the Batman universes with which I am familiar can the caped crusader take on the Venom-enhanced barbarian in a straight-up fist fight, so right away we're playing fast and loose with the rules we all know and love. But that is to be expected in a game where characters can only interact with each other in straight-up fist fights. The fighting mechanics are easy to pick up if you're familiar with 2011's Mortal Kombat. The controls are a little dumbed down, with only three strike buttons instead of four - the back/high kick button was replaced with a one-button character specific power. The pacing is a little more jumpy than Netherrealm Studio's previous fighting entry, perhaps sacrificing some of the smoothness in favor of more interaction with the fighting stages.

I understand using a simpler control scheme to try to draw in more casual comic book fans whose fighting game affinity stops short far before the complexity of the Mortal Kombat series, and I understand wanting to have Batman be able to utilize the secret rockets concealed in the Batcave during a fight. But what I don't understand is Batman's damn fighting stance: standing upright, legs straight, his rear fist extended behind him like he's poised to throw an invisible javelin (see above). I was picturing something more crouched and active, like the pose you strike in the Arkham games when you hit the counter button when nobody's around to counter. While the Injustice Bat-stance doesn't appear to make tactical sense from any martial arts standpoint I've heard of, it did immediately strike me as similar to Scorpion's stance from Mortal Kombat. And when you consider that Batman's use of the grapple gun as part of his special moves repertoire shares more than a few characteristics of Scorpion's spear, perhaps this similarity starts to make sense. Batman's other moves include a standard Batarang projectile, a parry that allows him to counter an incoming attack, and a super move (read: X-ray attack) that involves an exploding Batarang, a taser attack, and a hit-and-run from a remote controlled Batmobile.

Anyway, before Batman's third fight against Lex Luthor, you have a chance to experience a new gameplay mechanic: a button matching minigame allows you to attempt to weaken your opponent's health before combat commences. Just another little add-on to make sure you're paying attention during the cinematics. Speaking of which, after defeating Luthor, a lengthy cinematic depicts how a group of U-2 characters (namely Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and the Joker) somehow get transported into an alternate U-1 future while attempting to stop the clown prince of crime from detonating his nuke in the middle of Metropolis. Which becomes the inciting incident for the rest of the game.

After U-2 Batman and the Joker square off in an alternate U-1 Gotham, your time playing as Batman is over, and along with it my resolve to pay very close attention to the characters. As cool as it is to follow the game's storyline through however many alternate universes we're eventually going to explore, I just don't have any real emotional connection to Green Lantern or Aquaman, even when they are fighting dark doppelgangers of themselves (which provides excellent excuses for showcasing alternate character skins). Through the exploits of these lesser heroes, we learn that U-1 Batman is leading a resistance against evil U-1 Superman (known as the High Councillor) and the legion of heroes that have joined with him in his quest for absolute power (which means that there are two active Batmans in U-1, making it infinitely cooler than any other possible universe). Things start to get interesting when you pick up play as the Joker in Chapter 4 and see what happens when a long-dead seminal figure in the world of supercrime suddenly returns and starts causing trouble. Will he join with Batman, Lex Luthor, and the other time-transplanted U-2 superheroes against their common enemy? Or does he have another trick up his sleeve? I've downloaded a move list from GameFaqs, so now I'll be ready to super competently march onward through the story and see what happens.

Baseball Cards: Topps 2013

I have enjoyed baseball cards for the better part of 20 years, ever since I inherited a shoebox full of them as a child. I have no memory of how I acquired this veritable treasure trove, and the only reason I know the rough timeframe is that the most recent cards in the box were from the 1992 Topps and Upper Deck collection. It wasn't long before I started organizing these cards in plastic sleeves. I just had a couple at first, for the top cards in my collection - Frank Thomas, Cal Ripken, Roger Clemens, etc. - while the rest remained jumbled in the box. Once I began expanding my collection, I decided that every card deserved a spot in my plastic sleeves, which eventually filled binder upon binder with immaculately organized cards. I even remember the first card I got as a gift: it was a 1994 Upper Deck foil of Cal Ripken, which I promptly ruined by bending the corner while trying to transfer it from its protective casing into my plastic sleeves...

As you can probably infer, not many of my cards are in mint condition, but resale value was never high on my list of reasons for buying baseball cards. I like them more for aesthetic reasons (there are few things more comforting to a fan's heart than the look and feel of a brand new pack of baseball cards) and of course because each one represents a snapshot of a particular player at a particular time in his career but also in baseball history. And you know what I like to do with snapshots of specific players at a particular time: make lineups out of them.

Last week, I picked up some baseball cards with the express purpose of seeing what kind of lineup I could craft with the limited options available to me. I got two promotional items from Topps: a four-pack of 2013 Series 1's (including an exclusive chance to participate in the "Million Dollar Chase" giveaway) and a double pack of the "Opening Day" variety. What follows is a starting lineup resulting from the cards in the packs I opened.

Before getting into the lineup, a few brief observations about the cards themselves. The two versions have the same layout: a white background with the player's name and team logo in the bottom left and right corners respectively, the Topps logo in the upper left or right corner (depending on the picture), and a stylized home plate just above the name, which extends into a border around the picture in the team's colors. The obvious way to distinguish the two is the Opening Day April 2013 banner stamped on the (you guessed it) Opening Day variation, but the more observant viewer will notice that while the player names and Topps logo are printed in a nice shiny silver chrome in the Series 1 set, they are in a simple matte gray and white, respectively, in the Opening Day set. I noticed this by looking at both versions of the only duplicate card I got (Josh Beckett) side by side. The two sets are also numbered differently, despite looking nearly identical: my No. 4 starter is 219 in Series 1 and 192 in Opening Day.

I'm also convinced that the colors are a little bit more vibrant in the Series 1 versions, which is unfortunate, because not only do the Opening Day cards generally include better players, but it's clear that they were also printed more recently than their counterparts. You can tell because free agents from the Opening Day pack who were signed during the off-season (namely B.J. Upton and bench player Nick Swisher) appear in their new uniforms, whereas Series 1 free agents (fellow benchers A.J. Pierzynski, Jeff Keppinger, and inactive roster member Stephen Drew) appear in the uniforms of their former teams. But whatever teams they play for, the players listed above form the best starting lineup/rotation assembled from the approximately 75 cards included in the packs I bought.

Looking at his sub-.300 OBP and negative WAR values so far in 2013, B.J. Upton looks like a terrible choice to lead off and play CF, but he's there because I'm an admitted rankings slave: the elder Upton ranked between 50 (MLB) and 90 (ESPN) places better than his next best competition Angel Pagan, both of whom showed up in the Opening Day pack. In addition, 3/4 of my starting infield came from the promotional pack: 1B (and cover boy of Topps 2013) Prince Fielder, 2B Brandon Phillips, and 3B Will Middlebrooks (who is filling in for another injured Opening Day player Aramis Ramirez, currently on the 15-day DL). We've already seen the depth at 3B (the position also includes yet another O.D. contributor Kyle Seager), but the other two positions are well-stocked too, with Freddie Freeman and Chase Utley (both also from the O.D. pack) backing up Fielder and Phillips, respectively. The only shallow position on this roster is SS, which has Ben Zobrist at his third position (behind 2B and RF) as the best option in front of fellow Series 1 members Stephen Drew and Clint Barmes.

The rest of the outfield includes AL Central stalwarts Josh Willingham and Alex Rios, but the most surprising dark horse here has been Starling Marte (in a Rookie Card edition), who inexplicably has the seventh-highest point total among all batters, ahead of such luminaries as Robinson Cano and Mike Trout. The only position in which Series 1 has a marked advantage over Opening Day is behind the plate, where Buster Posey and Joe Mauer act as C and DH, while still leaving A.J. Pierzynski available off the bench. In the rotation, the most impressive (and GIF-worthy) starter is clearly Yu Darvish, the highest-ranked pitcher on this squad and the second-highest scoring pitcher in all of baseball. It's no surprise that both he and his number 2 in the rotation, Adam Wainwright, also comes from the Opening Day pack, as does star closer Jonathan Papelbon. The top pitchers from Series 1 are Braves lefty Mike Minor and Giants closer Sergio Romo, after whom there is a big drop indeed.

I realize that most of the fun associated with baseball cards flies out the window when they're represented as a simple list, so I've included a visual representation of my depth chart made out of my cards. And although seeing a picture of them doesn't let you hold them, turn them over, and feel the permanence of them in your hands, I hope that this can at least begin to capture the excitement of playing with baseball cards again. Writing this post certainly did for me, so don't be surprised if you see further instances of me dipping into my archive to present similar projects of card sets from years past.

Astrology Baseball 2013: April Recap

Now that we've played one month's worth of games in the 2013 baseball season, it's time to introduce the second annual installment of my groundbreaking ongoing experiment in building fantasy baseball lineups based on the players' astrological signs. I conceived this project prior to the 2012 season, which saw the Libra Scales triumph over the Aries Rams to take the inaugural championship crown. Building off the hard work I did last year, I was able to spend more time refining the rosters and making some changes to the league's format. The stars themselves change slightly every year, so why shouldn't this league have the same amount of flexibility?

In 2012, the league included two six-teams divisions, corresponding to the positively and negatively charged signs. This time around, I made those two polarities into their own leagues by splitting each of them into two smaller three-team divisions corresponding to the four classical elements: the Air and Fire divisions belong in the Positive league while the Earth and Water divisions play in the Negative league. I also took the time to set a schedule for 2013 that features a much greater quantity of matchups within a team's division and league rather than the random schedule from last year. This attention to detail should hopefully result in more meaningful matchups as the season progresses.

There are also some new faces in new places this year, not because there was another purported shift in the Zodiacal landscape, but because your humble narrator wasn't as thorough when setting the rosters as he should have been to begin with. I won't bore you all with my process, but in the brief team-by-team analysis that follows, I will point out some of these changes and how they affect the dynamics of the league as a whole, as well as some other tidbits of useful information, such as the top ranked players on each team, key injuries that have made an impact, and some notable sleepers/busts. Since it's too early for the standings to tell us anything, I have ranked the teams based on my extremely unscientific power ranking system, whereby I added up the (not quite up to date) preseason rankings of each team's starting lineup (9 position players, 5 starting pitchers, and 2 relievers). I've also included some information  provided by the ESPN fantasy client about the 2012 season: each team's regular season record and point differential (whatever that means). I am honored to start with a team that is very close to my heart, because it is my own astrological sign:

CANCER CRABS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 1 (1,440 - remember, lower is better)
2012 Rank: 3 (12-8 record, +85.2 differential)

Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg is Cancer's highest overall ranked player at #24 (according to MLB.com). He is one of four players to be listed in the "cream of the crop" category by ESPN's fantasy pundits, along with 2B Ian Kinsler (one of the highest-profile aforementioned New Faces, as he's NOT actually a Gemini), C Yadier Molina, and RP Jason Motte (who could be headed for Tommy John surgery in the near future). This team has great depth at it's two strongest positions as 2B Brandon Phillips and C Miguel Montero are both listed in the ESPN "next best thing" category. Somewhat ironically, the team's current point leader (and two-time weekly matchup leader) Shin-Soo Choo was tabbed with the dreaded "thanks but no thanks" label by ESPN. I know he's not handling center field as well as the Reds had hoped, but his offensive performance has officially splattered egg all over the preseason rankers' faces.

Speaking of players on whom ESPN was down prior to the season, both SP2 CC Sabathia and SS Derek Jeter are listed in the "older but not necessarily wiser" section (is it a coincidence that they're also both Yankees?). Sabathia has been doing very well (he trails only CL Jim Johnson in pitching points), but Jeter is going to be out until at least the All-Star break after experiencing a setback while rehabbing his surgically repaired ankle. The third and last key injury is to Jeter's partner on the left side of the infield Aramis Ramirez who, along with SP3 Tim Hudson, was listed in the "steady as he goes" category, but at least they have "ready for a breakout" candidate Manny Machado to fill in. We'll see if this team has enough depth to overcome some key injuries, but my gut feeling is that they'll be able to contend all summer.

VIRGO MAIDENS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 2 (1,566)
2012 Rank: 9 (6-13-1, -83.8)

I was surprised how poorly Virgo performed last year since they looked very good on paper, what with four of the top ten players. Even though they lost the top player (it was revealed that Matt Kemp is actually a Libra), they still look pretty good this year behind a "cream of the crop" trio of 1B Joey Votto and lefty starters David Price and Cliff Lee. But this team's two category leaders so far in 2013 are two "next best things" who are quickly proving that they deserve to be promoted: Justin Upton (with a historic 12 April HR) and Adam Wainwright (who has outperformed fellow category member Gio Gonzalez by leaps and bounds). In another egg on ESPN's face situation, Jacoby Ellsbury has outplayed his "older but not wiser" label as he's second only to Upton in offensive scoring. The best consensus sleeper on the team is Freddie Freeman, who had been doing well up until his DL stint, but he's stuck behind Votto and Paul Goldschmidt on the first base depth chart. This team also has a bright future, as Goldschmidt and Freeman lead a crop of seven (7!) players poised for a breakout, including SS's Elvis Andrus and Andrelton Simmons (one of whom might chase "next best thing" Ian Desmond out of the starting spot as early as this season).

CAPRICORN SEA GOATS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 3 (1,772)
2012 Rank: 4 (14-5-1, +91.9)

The second member of last year's final four has a very strong core of four "creams of the crop," but none of them have lived up to expectations. Albert Pujols started the season as the top ranked first baseman in the game, but he's been really struggling with planar fascitis. Cole Hamels led the 2012 team in pitching points, but he's winless in 5 starts this year. Victor Martinez is only ranked as elite because he still qualifies as a catcher, but J.P. Arencibia and A.J. Pierzynski have been outperforming him behind the plate. And the article that ranked Hanley Ramirez among the elite shortstops was obviously written before he injured himself playing in the WBC. "Next best thing" Edwin Encarnacion currently leads the team in offensive points, but he's just recently started to break out of his season-long slump.

Speaking of injuries, perhaps no team has been hit harder by them this season than Capricorn. They weathered the loss of Hanley with Erick Aybar until he too went on the DL. And no sooner did Brett Lawrie return to action than CF Michael Bourn went down leaving no viable backup. Ted Lilly just ended his DL stint, but they'll still be playing catch-upafter losing Jhoulys Chacin, who was rivaling pitching point leader Jon Lester at the time of his DL trip. They were the second best team last year in terms of point differential, but if their players can't stay healthy, I don't think they'll be able to hold off the competition.

ARIES RAMS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 4 (1,812)
2012 Rank: 2 (14-6, +225.3)

If I had to pick the most intimidating team in this league, I would probably have to go with Aries, at least offensively. This team has a whopping six elite players, including the 2012 MVPs of both leagues. (Interestingly enough, the Pisces team from last year had the 2011 Cy Youngs of both leagues in Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw.) This isn't a well-rounded team, but it's got depth in its strong spots, with two of the top three third baseman (AL MVP and offensive point leader Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Beltre) and three of the top six catchers (NL MVP Buster Posey, Carlos Santana, and Joe Mauer). The only issue is that this depth isn't totally usable, for while all of these catchers also qualify for 1B, so does DH Billy Butler, and he's the more valuable option. The middle infield is also solid with Starlin Castro at short, and a second base battle between Jason Kipnis and Aaron Hill (in which Kipnis just pulled ahead due to Hill's recent DL placement). Plus they've got Felix Hernandez celebrating his 100th career win. There were two apparent weaknesses prior to the season: pitching depth after King Felix and outfield depth after potential breakout candidate Jay Bruce. But rookie sensation Matt Harvey is leading the team in pitching points, Justin Masterson has twice led the team in weekly matchup points, and Chris Sale could also be ready for a breakout. And with surging Rockies Dexter Fowler and Michael Cuddyer leading the outfield charge, those weaknesses are quickly falling away.

LEO LIONS (3-1)

2013 Rank: 5 (1,918)
2012 Rank: 6 (10-10, -8.5)

Leos are supposed to be born competitors, and their team could be poised for a breakout year thanks to the emergence of 2012 rookies LF Mike Trout (one of two "creams of the crop" on this roster) and SP1 Yu Darvish (one of four stars marked as "on the verge of a breakout"). While Trout's fellow category member 2B Dustin Pedroia hasn't yet heated up, the best player in Darvish's category has been CF Adam Jones, who is currently leading the team in points by hitters. RF Jason Heyward, however, the top ranked player listed in this category, is currently on the DL with appendix issues. He leads a crop of injured players including 3B Alex Rodriguez (who wouldn't have been much of a factor even if he were healthy) and BOTH catchers, Wilson Ramos and Ryan Hanigan. Interestingly enough, the top performer on this team wasn't mentioned one way or the other by the ESPN fantasy gurus: SP Clay Buchholz leads the MLB in pitching points and is arguably the main reason for Boston's return to relevance this season. This team was the last team to lose a game and with some big emerging star power, I'd look for Leo to challenge for a spot in the playoffs.

LIBRA SCALES (3-1)

2013 Rank: 6 (1,925)
2012 Rank: 1 (12-8, +16.7)

This team is the only one that can compete with Aries in in terms of pure intimidation factor, so it was fitting that these two squads faced off in the final matchup last year. I suppose it makes sense that players born during the heat of the playoff push would show the best promise for the game, but this team's talent level is just plain unfair, as they boast seven "creams of the crop" and a full half of the players in the top ten. The outfield depth was scary last year, and it only got better with the addition of Matt Kemp to fellow elites Carlos Gonzalez and Andrew McCutchen. And when one of them suffers through a slump or goes down with an injury, they have "next best thing" Jose Bautista and potential breakout stars Bryce Harper (offensive point leader) and Yoenis Cespedes (when/if he comes off the DL) waiting in the wings. Due to Toronto's lineup woes, Bautista is working on regaining eligibility at 3B, but that's a moot point since they have Evan Longoria and (injured) Ryan Zimmerman at the position. Need middle of the order power? How about Robinson Cano (offensive runner up) and Troy Tulowitzki as a double play combo? Even with two glaring weaknesses at first base and catcher (Michael Young and Kurt Suzuki are the best options here) this team has arguably the strongest and deepest offense in the league.

On paper, their mound presence is equally scary with elite starter Matt Cain backed by "next best things" Jered Weaver and Zack Greinke, but the former is struggling mightily so far and the latter two are on the shelf until further notice (along with "next best thing" closer Joel Hanrahan). Potential breakout candidate Kris Medlen and rookie phenom Shelby Miller (who currently leads the team in pitching points) are good people to plug up those SP gaps (they both have RP eligibility, but I'm a bit of a purist when relief pitchers are concerned), Kyle Lohse is "steady as he goes" and youngster Alex Cobb has been impressive so far. But as the 2012 Astrology playoffs proved, a hot offense alone is not enough to win a championship, and until the star power returns to the mound, I'd consider this team somewhat vulnerable.

TAURUS BULLS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 7 (1,990)
2012 Rank: 8 (9-11, -10.9)

Despite a couple of superstars, this was a very mediocre team last year, and that outlook has only gotten gloomier since two of its biggest stars (Josh Hamilton and Matt Wieters) have jumped ship to Gemini. Their departures left offensive point leader Prince Fielder as the only "cream of the crop" talent, and with "next best thing" Adrian Gonzalez their next highest-ranked player, that sews up the DH spot as well. The only other second tier players on this list are 3B Chase Headley (who really left a hole when both he and backup David Freese started the season on the DL) and C Salvador Perez (who has had a disappointing start to the season after being a consensus sleeper pick). Meanwhile, the pitching staff has seen better days: names like Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter used to inspire fear in opposing lineups, but Carpenter's career is in jeopardy and Halladay is a shadow of his former self. It speaks volumes that the top pitching scorer on this team is a reliever, although to be fair Rafael Betancourt's Rockies are on an epic hot streak right now. But even if breakout candidates Lance Lynn (pitching point leader) and Jose Altuve strike it big, I don't see this team as competition for either Capricorn or Virgo.

PISCES FISH (2-2)

2013 Rank: 8 (2,026)
2012 Rank: 11 (8-12, -41.3)

As mentioned above, no team has more pitching depth than Pisces. Steady as they go starters Yovani Gallardo and Anibal Sanchez complement both 2011 Cy Young winners (pitching point leader Kershaw and disappointing so far Verlander), and on the back end, there's three more "creams of the crop": Aroldis Chapman, Fernando Rodney, and J.J. Putz (also "next best thing" Sergio Romo). Chris Davis has impressed with his breakout start (he leads all hitters on this team by more than 150 points) and the offense got a little boost with the additions of Alex Rios and Josh Reddick (both late of Aquarius), but those gains were offset by injuries to Curtis Granderson, Brian McCann, and Dayan Viciedo. Paul Konerko and Wilin Rosario were both heavily talked about by the fantasy crowd, with each being ranked as both a sleeper and a bust by rival pundits. Despite a stellar pitching staff, I'm going to go out on a limb now and say there's no way this team contends in 2013.

SCORPIO SCORPIONS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 9 (2,039)
2012 Rank: 7 (10-10, +28.7)

If Pisces is all pitch and no hit, Scorpio is just the opposite... except that their hitting isn't that great either. Their lone "cream of the crop" is Ryan Braun, and while he is the elite of the elite (as long as he can avoid a seemingly inevitable suspension) no one player can carry a fantasy team. His supporting cast doesn't look bad on paper: Giancarlo Stanton is a borderline first round pick in most leagues, Mike Napoli can provide first base power from the catcher slot (he's leading the team in offensive production), and Asdrubal Cabrera has the potential to be one of the best shortstops in the game. But on the pitching side, sure breakout candidate Jason Grilli has really taken to the closer's role (he leads the MLB in saves and this team in pitching points), but R.A. Dickey's smoke and mirrors act has faltered in the AL East and he's the only starter ranked within the top 140. Let's just say it's looking like the Cancer Crabs might have a bit of an easy walk into the playoffs this year.

SAGITTARIUS ARCHERS (1-3)

2013 Rank: 10 (2,197)
2012 Rank: 5 (9-11, -37.1)

I'm surprised this team did as well as it did last year, because when I look at it, I see David Wright (who, not surprisingly, leads the team in points) and a bunch of closers and nothing else. But there are seriously a lot of closers, four elites at the position: Jonathan Papelbon, Rafael Soriano, Tom Wilhelmsen, and a surgically repaired Mariano Rivera (also Joe Nathan, mistakenly listed as Scorpio last year) and potential future closer Bruce Rondon). Doesn't seem fair when there are signs out there who struggle to field even one ninth inning stopper. One wonders if I were to extend this project into years past if many of the most famous bullpen specialists throughout history also share this sign. The best starter on this team is the surprisingly refreshed Ervin Santana, and I don't blame him: who wouldn't prefer pitching anywhere but Anaheim? I know Mat Latos, Ian Kennedy, and James Sheilds are solid starters, and Jesus Montero hasn't lived up to his full potential, but an offense anchored by Nick Swisher and the aging Phillies middle infield is not gonna cut it at this level.

GEMINI TWINS (2-2)

2013 Rank: 11 (2,321)
2012 Rank: 12 (5-15, -192.5)

These Twins were an even bigger disaster than the actual 2012 Twins, winning only a quarter of their matchups. However, no team has benefitted more from the rectification of my mistakes from last year to this than Gemini. Yes, they lost elite 2B Ian Kinsler to Cancer (that phrase sounds much worse than it its...), but they gained big time power threat Josh Hamilton and elite C Matt Wieters from Taurus. Add those to an offensive core that already included fantasy darling Ben Zobrist (the team's current leading hitter) and this team all of a sudden doesn't look quite as embarrassing. (It would look even less so were elite SS Jose Reyes not languishing on the 60-day DL with a severely sprained ankle.) But it's been a surprisingly effective pitching staff, led by point leader Matt Moore, Jordan Zimmermann, and closer Craig Kimbrel, that has gotten this team off to a .500 start.

AQUARIUS WATER CARRIERS (1-3)

2013 Rank: 12 (3,134)
2012 Rank: 10 (10-10, -73.5)

This team is so hopeless that they don't have a single elite player on their team and their lone "next best thing" (SP1 Johnny Cueto, coming off a career year) is on the DL. Of their two top "steady as he goes" guys, SP3 Hiroki Kuroda is a good bet to put up solid numbers, but C Carlos Ruiz is just now allowed to play again, on account of he was caught taking the speed. It's a good thing the ESPN staff agrees that fellow C Alex Avila could be ready for a breakout, along with corner infielder Todd Frazier. Two Tigers lead the team in points: CF Austin Jackson and SP2 Doug Fister. Notable sleepers include SP4 Jeff Samardzija (because everyone underrates the Cubs) and DH Lance Berkman (because he missed most of last year due to injury). Don't expect this team to finish with a winning record this year.