Quick congrats to the Dodgers

 I won't go crazy writing about the series, since I am not one of the several very good Dodgers oriented bloggers out there that will do a great job of it, but I did want to congratulate the former Brooklyn squad on its 8th championship.

I was happy to see a couple of Dodgers I really like play pivotal roles in the win, Walker Buehler and the MVP, Freddie Freeman.

Buehler has had a tough run with LA, with health issues all over the place.  I thought highly of him early in his career, but he just hasn't been able to stay on the field.  Maybe this is a turning point?  Even if it is, I think it might be doubtful that he stays a Dodger next year.  We'll see.

Conversely, I didn't think much of Freeman when he was young.  I don't really know why, but he didn't click for me.  But over the years, I've definitely grown to root for him.  I like doubles guys, and Freeman is the current active leader.

Here are a card of each of them that I picked up recently.  The Buehler is /99 and the Freeman /199.  Not exactly "Dodger Blue", but I definitely like them both.

Randomness catch up

 This post consists of a few scans that were in my drafts from card shows over the last few months.  I had some trouble posting for a while, but seem to be getting back in the swing of things, so let's take a look!

I've been picking up Stadium Club singles lately whenever I see them in the cheap boxes.  Pictures of all time greats or just funky photos are what I grab.

I believe these were all dimes or quarters.  Not sure why they decided to make the Carter card black and white, but I like it that way.

This one, I probably overpaid for, $1 I think, but I quite like the pic.  The X-Fractorness doesn't obscure it quite as much in hand.

No theme here, total randomness:

The beat up Aaron was only a couple of bucks, a steal.  The Betts is an Image Variation.  Before this card, I was not aware that there were Image Variations in the Chrome Anniversary sets.

Football???  For a buck, this card, numbered out of 75, was an interesting pickup.  I have more nice Justin Herbert cards than I need.

Basketball???   The Starting Lineup cards are cool, and the oddball Blazers autos were a nice cheap find too.  Vandeweghe and Bates were quite popular around here back in the day.

Back to Baseball.

From worthless (Showalter, but I like the image) to expensive (the Alonso is a tough pull and goes for a few bucks) to the vintage-ish (the bottom row is actually from 1983, The Starliner Stickers set, whatever that is).

Last one!

Another hodgepodge with no theme here.  Numbered Refractors of Kershaw are nice.  The Johnson card is one of those super thick hunks of cardboard.  Moments and Milestones is a ridiculous set, but and Ichiro numbered /10 is welcome here.  And the Acuna is my first "Super Rare Red Foil" card.  Super rare might be pushing it, but it's cool.

My weird 2024 MLB stats recap

 So the regular season is over.  I love statistics, so I was perusing the final season stats for MLB, as I often do.  A few things popped out at me, so I thought I would post about them.  These are only things that interest me, not anything that has wide appeal, so don't get excited.  But I've broken it down into 4 sections, 2 about specific statistics, and 2 about specific players.  Hope there is something interesting in there for you!

Batting average

After a slight rebound in 2023 to a MLB wide batting average of .248, 2024 saw a decline to .243, tied for the worst league wide average since the infamous Year of the Pitcher in 1968.  This is a bummer for a guy like me who likes to see the ball in play!

Only 7 players in MLB had a batting average of .300 or higher in 2024.  That's the fewest in any year for at least the last 20 years (that's as far as I had patience to look).  

The highest number of players at .300 or higher in the last 20 years was in 2009, with 42 players.  Wow.  

Of the 7 that made it this year (2024), all but one also had 30 home runs or more.  In that 2009 season, of the 42 above .300, only 6 of them had 30 bombs.  Kind of interesting.

Elly De La Cruz

Elly is one of the most fascinating young players in the bigs.  He's HUGE, especially for a SS.  He's FAST too.  Understandably, a lot of collectors are interested in him.  I too am intrigued by him, but at this point, I am more intrigued by his flaws.  Of course, if he can shore up the flaws, he could be one of the all time greats.

First, the good.  Elly led the majors in Stolen Bases with 67.  I think we are all aware of that, as for a while, he was on quite a pace.  Interestingly, Elly also led the majors in another stat, Errors, with 29. That seemed like an unusual combo, so I did a super quick scan, and found another player who led the league in both SB and E.   The one I found was Luis Aparicio in his rookie year of 1956.  I imagine there are others... if anyone knows of any others, leave them in the chat.  

But Elly didn't stop there.  He also led the majors in a third stat, Strikeouts with 218!   I haven't found anyone else who had that triple crown, SB, E and K for a season!  Has it happened?

So Elly struck out the most total times, but was only the 24th worst from a Strikeouts per Plate Appearances perspective.   He struck out once every 3.15 Plate Appearances.  The worst in the bigs was Elly's teammate Will Benson who struck out once every 2.19 Plate Appearances, or 154 Ks in 383 PA.  So it could be worse!

Shohei Ohtani

First off, I think Ohtani's offensive year was jaw-dropping.  Most stats will show Aaron Judge with the better offensive year, and I can't really disagree.  However, Shohei shouldn't be overshadowed in any way by Judge.  So let's talk about the aspect of Ohtani's game that Judge can't compete in, stolen bases.  Ohtani had an incredible jump in all aspects of his stolen base game this year.  **quick disclaimer - I am one of those pedantic people who think that current stolen base numbers aren't as impressive as 'the old days'.  It's flat out easier now with the rule changes!!**  OK, back to the awesome.... First off Shohei swiped 59 bags this year, 33 more than any other season in his career.  That's just a massive jump for a 30 year old player!  He also was successful at a crazy clip.  He was only caught 4 times, for a stealing percentage of 93.6%.  In his career before this season he was only at a 72.2% success rate.  Another huge jump!

Strikeouts and Walks

OK, first a quick reminder:  MLB Strikeouts are way, way way up and seem to go up even higher every year.  Again, I find myself in the old fuddy duddy camp, where we dream of a past where striking out 100 times meant you weren't much of a hitter.  So here's some interesting strikeout stuff from 2024.

(These stats include players with at least 20 walks)

Only 4 players in MLB had more walks than strikeouts:  

Juan Soto - 129 walks to 119 strikeouts, 1.08 BB/K

Mookie Betts - 61 walks  to 57 strikeouts, 1.07 BB/K

Steven Kwan - 53 walks  to 51 strikeouts, 1.04 BB/K

Kyle Tucker - 56 walks  to 53 strikeouts, 1.04 BB/K

Every other player in MLB had more strikeouts than walks including the player who is indisputably the best at not striking out....

Luis Arraez!  He only struck out 29 times in  661 Plate Appearances.  That's once every 22.79 Plate Appearances.  He beat the next best player, Steven Kwan by more than double.  Kwan struck out once every 10.45 Plate Appearances.  Arraez doesn't walk much either, only 24 times on the season!

So that's my random stat musings for 2024.  If you made it this far, you must be a stathead too!

Goodbye Charlie Hustle

Back to back passing posts.  Not fun times.  This one will be a little longer than yesterday's, because Pete Rose had a larger impact on my life than Dikembe did.  That is not to say that I think Pete was better in many ways than Mutombo was.  For instance, I think that I would enjoy hanging out with Mutombo far more than I would have with Rose.  The drive, focus, maybe even obsession that defined Rose probably wouldn't have made him the easiest friend.  In the few shows I have seen where Rose got to talk and show his personality, he seemed intense, almost to the point of being abrasive.  But he would have been fun to talk baseball with, as it's almost all he seemed interested in.

The impact Rose had on me was due partly to my obsession with numbers.  Heck, that's a part of why baseball and cards are so attractive to me.  Baseball is the most statistics oriented of the major sports.  And as a kid, one of the first real big numbers that was challenged was 4191.  And Pete did the challenging.

He wasn't the best player in the league, though he led the league in several stats several times.  But he wanted it as much as anyone, and never let up.  He is the all time leader in not only hits, but games played and plate appearances.

I have 71 Pete Rose cards in my keeper collection.  Here are 18 of them that popped out at me today when I was looking through them:

Pete in an Expos uniform always tickles me.  And cards of Pete with other players have often jumped out at me as well.

A little more vintagey with the second scan.

 Like most all of the vintage that I have been able to accumulate over the years, the is all a little beat up.  But with Pete Rose, a little beat up is almost appropriate.  I love all of these, but that 64 Topps is one of the jewels of my collection.  I don't imagine I will ever have a Pete Rose rookie, but the 64 is a much better looking card anyway.  However, if anyone has one, I would like to get a copy of one of the 1998 Topps Pete Rose Jr. cards.  Topps Chrome, Flagship or even Opening Day.