California

A Dodger Trolley is Now Available to Serve the Trolley Dodgers

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:22:00 +0000

Starting tomorrow, Friday, July 25, 2008, Dodger fans will be able to go to games from Union Station to the stadium and back for free.

The service is provided on Game Days, starting 90 minutes before game time and concluding 60 minutes after the game ends.

Additionally, it will be making 2 stops along the way on Sunset Boulevard. Go here for more info.

Dodger Autograph Alert!

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:26:00 +0000

I just got an email from the Dodgers PR Department highlighting several Dodger players who will be signing autographs this coming weekend and next weekend. Below is the list of where to go.

Friday, July 25 – 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Blake DeWitt
at:Staples Los Angeles
11341 National Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 445-4041

Saturday, July 26 – 12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m.
Chad Billingsley
at:AT&T Los Angeles
3764 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 388-9444

Saturday, July 26 – 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Corey Wade
at:Wal-Mart Santa Clarita
25450 Old Road
Valencia, CA 91381
(661) 253-1911

Saturday, July 26 – 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Jeff Kent
at:MACY’s Northridge – Men’s Department
9301 Tampa Ave # 2500
Northridge, CA 91324
(818) 885-6611

Saturday, August 2 – 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Andre Ethier
at:AT&T
3851 Overland Ave
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 559-2019

In Case You Missed This Afternoons Game

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Dodgers lose to the Rockies 5 to 3.

Is This Crazy or Brilliant?

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:39:00 +0000

As some you of you know, the 29th Annual National Sports Collectors Convention is taking place the weekend of July 30th to Aug 3rd in Chicago. This is the prominent show in the hobby. Dealers from across the country come out to show their best stuff. For vintage collectors this is the place to go shopping. All the card manufacturers give out free promos and autograph guest from every sport imaginable show up. It's a show you don't want to miss.

To add some mystique, the National and Sportsbuy.com have come together to offer the most hated Cubs fan of all a crazy deal. They are offering Steven Bartman, the idiot who interfered with that foul ball, $25,000.00 to come to the show and put his autograph on the picture below. Is this crazy? Will he even show up? Is this a big set up? Who knows? All I do know is that the Chicago press is starting to report it and this Baseball fanatic city is bound to go a bit nuts about the whole event.

1949 Bowman Uncut Sheet with Jackie Robinson

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:21:00 +0000

Thanks to collector Bob from NY I get to show off his uncut sheet of 1949 Bowman Baseball cards. It has 4 rows of 9 cards each and features, prominently in the center, Jackie Robinson. This is his Bowman rookie card. The consistent red backgrounds on the sheet give it a art deco look.
The best thing about how this is displayed is that you can see both the front and back of the sheet. If you are interested in the piece I know Bob would look at any offers, just let me know and I'll send you his email.

Card Of The Week: Justin Maxwell

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:02:00 +0000

OK. Now I'm just trying to catch up. The Card of the Week, however belated, is a 2008 Upper Deck card of Washington Nationals outfielder Justin Maxwell, #325. Justin is taking a swing while up to bat inside Nationals Stadium during construction. Construction workers stand in the background. One fellow is on the right taking his own photo of the spectacle.

L5's- More Leather

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:53:00 +0000

Thanks to Roger, who sent me an email pointing out these auctions, I get to expand a bit on the leather tobacco inserts I wrote about a month ago. Below is a collection of leather premiums that sold on eBay last week. Instead of Baseball players featured on the face like the L1's these leather items feature the ladies. They are called Hamilton King Girls and are commonly known as L5 in the standard catalog. They measure 8.25" X 12.50" and where redeemed through with a collection of coupons in packs of cigarettes in 1908.

These leathers appear to highlight women from different parts of the country and their hobbies. Check them out below.

eBay Auction: Atlantic City Girl L5:

Above is the Atlantic City Girl and sold for $224.72. Below is the Coney Island Girl which sold for $133.50. What is unusual about these leathers is how different they from the Baseball version. The Baseball leathers had drawings printed on the front. These Hamilton Girl's are pressed into the leather to give it texture and then painted.

eBay Auction: Coney Island Girl L5:

Below is the Long Beach Girl which sold for $207.50.

eBay Auction: Long Beach Girl L5:

The below item has me scratching my head. What exactly is a Comfort Girl? My imagination is running wild. It sold for $99.99. UPDATE: Well, Roger tells me that this is actually Old Point Comfort which is a beach in Virginia. Whoops!!

eBay Auction: Comfort Girl L5:

Below are links to 6 other leathers that were on eBay.

eBay Auction: Asbury ParkGirl L5:
eBay Auction: Coronado Beach Girl L5:
eBay Auction: Bar Harbor Girl L5:
eBay Auction: Manhattan Beach Girl L5:
eBay Auction: Spanish Dancer Girl L5:
eBay Auction: Palm Beach Girl L5:

UPDATE: Wow! Roger has a heck of a collection. He has sent me a link that features numerous other L5 leathers. Check them out here. Also, here is a link to a great website within the Vintage Non Sports Card Chat Board featuring all kind of early 20th century leather tobacco premiums.

Blog Kiosk 7/20/2008

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:22:00 +0000

Better Late Then Never.

Tatiana shares a great story about a very lucky kid. Also, check out the second edition of "The Baseball Card Show" as they break open boxes of Topps wax.
Are the Dodgers still eying Jack Wilson?
The Giants have a "Crazy Crab" mascot? Via Home Run Derby. The fans would boo the Crab (when they weren’t throwing things at it), the players would abuse it with rosin bags and bats, and the Crab would give it right back on talk radio and taunt fans and management, even after it was retired in 1985 - barely a season after it had debuted. But over the last decade, The Crab has seen a surge in popularity among fans.
Pyle of List writes about Jeff Kent mouthing off at Andre Ethier. (Hat Tip: Babes Love Baseball)
More Mars pics courtesy of the European Space Agency.
At the edges of the main valley lie smaller light-coloured tributary valleys or "sapping canyons" - around six miles long and 1800 feet deep.
The Echus Chasma - described by Nasa as one of the largest water sources on the planet - is connected to a much bigger valley system called the Kasei Valles which extends thousands of miles to the north.
The Antique Roadshow will be in Chattanooga, TN featuring Minor League Baseball Memorabilia. Check out the story here. There is a behind the scenes video. (Hat Tip: SCD)
With the recent "run on the bank" and FDIC takeover of IndyMac I thought it might be a good idea to pass along this link. "What you need to know about FDIC insurance"- Suze Orman.
Are you sick of the political season yet. Hold on, the next 4 months are gonna be crazy.

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Hat Tip: Huffington Post:

Looking forward to the 2nd half

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:07:00 +0000

At 15 games under .500 and an inability to win at home, I have no delusions about this team going to the postseason or World Series, but I am optimistic about the future; I think Brian Sabean is on the right track and there are a number of things I’m interested in seeing as this [...]

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The Trolley Dodger… er, Dodger Trolley

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:40:00 +0000

My head is spinning. ;)

As mentioned recently, the City of LA and the Dodgers are making arrangements to provide shuttle service from Union Station to the Stadium. More details are now available.

We’re excited to announce a new Dodger Trolley to make getting to the stadium even more convenient! The service is provided on Game Days, starting 2 hours before game time and concluding 1 hour after the game ends.

When: Shuttle service begins Friday, July 25 and will operate for the 32 remaining home games in the 2008 season.

If Things Go Well, I Might Be Showing Her My O-Swing

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:02:00 +0000

You know what I’m talkin’ about.

(10 points to whomever gets the movie reference)

After writing a little yesterday on Fred Lewis and his patient approach at the dish, BCB commenter Delorean reminded me of the great plate discipline data you can pull from FanGraphs. I’ve briefly touched on these stats here at BCB but nothing serious. Today, we’ll examine them in a little more detail. Plate discipline stats are fascinating because you can see when hitters are swinging outside of the strike zone and when they are swinging in the zone, and when they are making contact — both in and out of the strike zone.

We learned yesterday that Fred Lewis sees a lot of pitches when he takes an AB. Just seeing a lot of pitches is only a scratch on the surface, it’s also important to know when he swings and how often he’s making contact from within and outside the strike zone.

I did a few plots for the plate discipline data. Let’s look at the O-Swing and O-Contact numbers first.

O-Swing% is how often a hitter takes a swing outside of the strike zone and O-Contact% is how often a hitter makes contact outside of the strike zone.* Remember, swinging outside of the zone isn’t always a bad thing if you can consistently make contact. Hitters like Vlad Guerrero have made a good living by having awesome plate coverage. My cutoff for these plots are hitters on the Giants that have had at least 150 PA’s. For this plot I’ve sorted our data by O-Swing%, or the most likely to swing at pitches outside of the strike zone.

* A quick note: Here are the major league averages for each plate discipline stat that we’ll be using today. League averages are important because we want to know how our hitters stack up against what your league average player will do.

Season O-Swing Z-Swing  Swing  O-Contact Z-Contact Contact   Zone
2005     20.3%   68.0%  46.0%      51.8%     88.3%   80.8%  53.8%
2006     23.5%   66.6%  46.1%      57.4%     88.5%   81.0%  52.6%
2007     25.0%   66.6%  45.9%      60.8%     88.2%   80.8%  50.3%

Like we noticed yesterday, Molina loves to swing the bat. He’s the Giants hitter that’s most likely to go outside of the strike zone when hitting. We can see from our league average numbers above that from ‘05-’07 your league average hitter went outside of the zone 20-25% of the time. If we use that as a baseline for our hitters, we can see that Molina (36.67%), Bowker (33.04%), Castillo (31.05%), Rowand (30.35%), and Rich Aurilia (27.01%) will all swing outside of the zone more times than your league average hitter. Molina, Bowker, Castillo, and Rowand are especially likely to go outside of the strike zone, they all have O-Swing percentages of 30% or greater. Vizquel (21.35%), Winn (20.73%), Durham (20.16%), and Lewis (18.27%) are less likely than your league average hitter to go outside of the strike zone.

Swinging outside of the zone is one thing, but how often do these hitters make contact when they venture outside of the strike zone? Even though Molina was the most likely Giant to go outside of the zone, he was also the most likely to make contact outside of the strike zone. The league average contact percentage outside of the zone from ‘05-’07 was 51.8-60.8%, that’s almost a 10% spread over three years but if you look at the last two years, hitters have been making more contact outside between 57-60%. Molina (78.79%) and Vizquel (75%) are both excellent at making contact outside of the strike zone. Durham (70.54%), Aurilia (69.42%), Winn (66.9%), Castillo (62.11%), and Lewis (60.9%) all posted above league average percentages — if you use the ‘07 league average of 60.8% as your cutoff — for contact outside of the zone.

What about our new center fielder? Aaron Rowand is a free-swinger — 4th likely on the team to swing outside of the zone — but his contact percentage outside of the strike zone is 48.70%. That’s the worst O-Contact on the team and almost 10-20% below league average. Rowand swings like a power-hitter, but he might do well to refine his approach some and lay off of pitches outside of the zone because he’s had trouble making contact with them. Rowand has always been below average on his contact outside of the zone. His 0-Contact for the last three years stands at 48.19%, 54.04%, and 53.52%

Because I was interested in Lewis yesterday, let’s review his numbers quickly. He’s less likely than your league average hitter when it comes to swinging outside of the zone. His O-Swing this year sits at 18.27% and that’s below the 20.3-25% league average from ‘05-’07. He’s right at league average for contact outside of the zone when he decides to swing the bat. Lewis appears to be very patient and he’s not struggling like Rowand is to make contact outside of the zone when he chooses to swing.

Let’s check out the plot for Z-Swings and Z-Contact, or the percentage of swings a batter takes inside of the zone and the percentage of contact he makes in the zone.

Like I’ve done with the 0-Plot above, I’ve ordered the hitters by Z-Swing%, or by who was most likely to take a swing at pitches in the zone.

The league average hitter swings at pitches inside of the zone anywhere from 66-68% over the last 3 years. Molina (74.05%), Castillo (73.43%), Rowand (72.45%), and Winn (69.24%) are more likely than your league average hitter when it comes to swinging in the zone at pitches. Aurilia (65.34%), Bowker (64.43%), Lewis (62.86%), Vizquel (62.43%), and Durham (62.29%) are less likely to swing at pitches in the strike zone as opposed to your league average hitter. This is where the Giants would like Lewis to swing a little more, when the pitch is in the strike zone. Only Durham and Vizquel took more pitches in the strike zone than Fred Lewis.

From ‘05-’07 the percentage of contact that’s made when a hitter swings inside of the zone has held steady at 88%. Vizquel (96.68%), Bowker (90.97%), and Molina (90.44%) all made contact at 90% or greater when they swung inside of the zone. I wasn’t surprised to see Molina and Vizquel in this group because they seem to be able to get their bats on anything. I was however, surprised to see Bowker in this grouping. Bowker ranked second on the Giants when it came to swinging outside of the strike zone and only Aaron Rowand was worse at making contact outside of the zone. This is where I think Bowker’s next step to becoming a better player — if he takes this step — will occur. If Bowker can swing less outside of the zone and keep himself in the strike zone more, he’ll really benefit as a player. When he swings in the zone he’s making great contact. His tendency to go outside of the zone and miss is what’s hurting him. We all love his swing and the quickness of his bat seems to play well in the zone, the key for him will to be more selective and try not to chase pitches outside of the strike zone.

After Molina, Vizquel, and Bowker, Rich Aurilia was the only other Giants hitter to make contact in the zone at a league average or better percentage. Aurilia made contact within the zone at 89.46%. Winn (86.82%), Durham (86.40%), Rowand (85.68%), Lewis (85.03%), and Castillo (83.55%), all made slightly less contact within the zone than your league average hitter. If Lewis wants to continue to cut his K’s like the Giants wish, it should start with him making more contact within the strike zone. Another reason to not like Castillo is that he doesn’t make good contact inside of the strike zone.

Finally, let’s check out the Zone% for our hitters, or the percentage of strikes they see in the strike zone.

Name	        Zone%
Omar Vizquel	54.60%
Fred Lewis	52.26%
Randy Winn	52.10%
Rich Aurilia	51.67%
Bengie Molina	50.50%
Jose Castillo	50.36%
John Bowker	49.78%
Aaron Rowand	49.24%
Ray Durham	48.47%

From ‘05-’07 the league average Zone% looks as follows: 53.8%, 52.6%, 50.3%.

It’s clear that major league pitchers are challenging Omar Vizquel. He’s seeing the most strikes on the Giants. Pitchers obviously aren’t respecting his (.159/.228/.179) line. It also makes sense that with Lewis’ K problems — 90 punch outs at the half — that he’s seeing the 2nd largest amount of strikes on the Giants. You have to get strikes to strike out and with Lewis being as patient as he is, he’s watching some of those strikes go by. Bowker and Rowand are receiving less strikes than our top hitters because of their tendancy to go outside of the zone and miss. Why throw in the zone — where the league average contact percentage is higher — when you can go outside of the zone and make a batter — in most cases — reduce his chance of contact by nearly 20%?

Wrap up

It’s interesting that the Giants have two young hitters who are basically opposites of each other. John Bowker could use a little more discipline because when he goes out of the zone, he’s probably going to miss. Meanwhile, Fred Lewis isn’t making great contact inside of the zone and he’s not swinging in the zone as much as you would like to see. Because each player in his first full season at the MLB level, we can hope that through coaching, god given abilities, and maybe some luck, they’ll make the needed adjustments.

If you really want to blow your mind, check out Barry Bonds’ plate discipline statistics for the last few years. Just amazing numbers, from ‘06-’07 he only swung at pitches outside of the strike zone 13% of the time. He also made contact within the zone 90%+ of the time. I’d LOVE to see the plate disicipline stats from his peak years of ‘00-’04.

David Thorpe on DeAndre Jordan

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Via Maurice Brooks:

"If he was a stock on the market, you could pick him up at a pretty low price right now. I just don't think his future looks bright as a second-round pick because they don't have a lot of incentive to invest time with him. His 11 rebounds look great, but most of them came right to him. I don't think that he has got any rebounds out of area. It doesn't impress me that he jumps straight up in his spot and grabs rebounds. He doesn't play with great energy or intelligence and his emotional IQ is very low. He is a young man and he wouldn't be the first to change his career path. It doesn't happen very often."

Jordan's numbers in five summer league games: 26.4 MPG, 7.4 PPG, 7.2 RPG (2.6/4.6), .667 FG%, .417 FT%, 2.0 BPG, 1.8 TPG.

Clips Ink Offer Sheet for Kelenna Azubuike

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:24:00 +0000

From Marc Stein:

The Los Angeles Clippers have identified the latest target in their recovery from the free-agent loss of Elton Brand by agreeing to terms on an offer sheet with restricted free agent Kelenna Azubuike of the Golden State Warriors. NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that the Clippers have extended a multi-year offer using their estimated $3 million in salary-cap space left over after completing a trade Tuesday with the Denver Nuggets to acquire center Marcus Camby as their primary Brand replacement. The Warriors will have seven days to match the offer when the deal is completed, but the Clippers would appear to have a good chance of emerging from that wait with Azubuike.

If you remember the Clippers' opener from last season, then you have an idea of Azubuike's range, and springs. Filling in for a suspended Stephen Jackson, Azubuike went 12-17 from the field, 7-7 from the line, 2-3 from the arc, with 8 rebounds and 0 turns. Last season, he became a much better finisher -- though his 3P% fell off. I don't have a feel for his defensive game because Don Nelson doesn't really require one, but he's got the length and quickness to defend. Azubuike would likely play off the bench for the Clips. though I can imagine his starting ahead of Mobley in situations that demanded athleticism over precision.

In Igbo, a language spoken in Nigeria, Azubuike means "the past is your strength" or "your back is your strength." Let's hope it's the latter.

UPDATE: Three years, $9 million.

DPOY Dog Pondering

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Kelly Dwyer (with supporting testimony from some quality analysis at PickAxe & Roll) challenges the prevailing opinion that Marcus Camby is a defensive standout:

The guy doesn't leave the paint, he doesn't fight through screens, he won't show on a pick and roll, and he can (as it has been since 1996) be bullied in the low post. This fine post from Pickaxe and Roll leads to a series of other fine posts that echo what the proprietor of that site and other Nugget fans have been saying: Marcus gets blocks, and defensive rebounds, but he hurts his team defensively at times. I'm not going to go as far as to say that he hurts the team "nearly" as much defensively as he helps it - defensive boards and blocked shots still count - but Defensive Player of the Year? All-NBA Defense? No way.

Pickaxe noted back in June that Denver's defense was negligibly better with Camby on the floor and that "a truly great defender and shot blocker will alter many more shots than they block. Camby does not do that." Camby has always been a much better defensive rover than a shut-down post defender. And both KD and P&R's point is well taken -- the accumulation of defensive stats isn't a substitute for shot denial.

Thursday Grab Bag

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Action returns to major league baseball today but the Giants are still off until Friday when the G’s take on the Brewers. The opening game of the series should be a good one, Matt Cain meet CC — no longer C.C. — Sabathia. The second half of the season will also reveal the Giants new revamped rotation, which looks like this: Cain, Sanchez, Lincecum, Zito, and Correia. That’s some hot RLRLR action for you. Pushing Zito back as far as you can makes sense because you really don’t want Zito matching up with the CC Sabathia’s of the world.

And because I haven’t written much of anything today, I’m going to go the cheap route and just link to some stuff.

~ El Lefty Malo has a nice post on the state of the Giants outfield.

The outfield has preformed admirably for the Giants but I’m still itchy to move Randy Winn in any trade if I can. Lewis has been a favorite of mine but he’s really striking out a lot right now. As of today, Lewis has a K% of 27.8% which sandwiches him between Matt Kemp (30.8%) and Evan Longoria (26.8%) for 6th in the majors among hitters with 350 PA’s. Freddie-Loo has helped offset his swing-and-a-miss approach with a good dose of walks. He’s walking at 10.5%, which is acceptable.

Lewis has been the Giants most patient hitter in the first half. His average pitches per plate appearance is 4.26 and the only other Giant to see more than 4 pitches per PA, is Ray Durham at 4.13.

Check out the following plots for Pit/PA and Contact Percentage.

Name	 Pit/PA
Lewis	 4.26
Durham	 4.13
Winn	 3.87
Vizquel	 3.75
Castillo 3.64
Bowker	 3.58
Aurilia	 3.53
Rowand 	 3.5
Burriss	 3.47
Molina 	 3.3

Name	 Contact
Vizquel	 91
Burriss	 88
Molina 	 86
Winn	 82
Aurilia	 82
Durham	 81
Lewis	 79
Bowker	 78
Castillo 77
Rowand 	 73

What can these plots tell us?

First, that Fred Lewis sees the most pitches per plate appearance among Giants hitters but his contact percentage is closer to the bottom for these hitters. Seeing more pitches is a good because it tells us that the hitter has some idea of how to control the zone. It’s no coincidence that our top three hitters by Pit/PA — Lewis, Durham, and Winn — lead the Giants in BB% with scores of 10.5%, 12.6%, and 10.6% respectively. The key is when to swing and it’s something that the Giants would like Lewis to do more of. He ranks 3rd in the majors for watching a called strike three. Lewis has said that he’s still learning the zones of the different umpires and hopefully that has some truth to it. I do not think the Giants should try and make Lewis more aggressive. Part of his value is that he’s so patient and that’s going to result in a called strike three now and then.

Secondly, the Pit/PA and Contact plots confirm some of the things we see with our eyes. Namely that Molina likes to swing at everything. His 3.3 pitches per plate appearance tell us that he doesn’t wait around to swing the bat. On the flip side, Molina covers the plate well, his contact percentage of 86 was third on the team. We’ve seen Molina hit balls this year that no one should swing at let alone be able to hit in play. You’ve also got a pair of Hacky McSlaps in Omar and Manny. Omar has a awesome contact percentage but he’s hitting less line drives than ever before and he’s hitting the majority of his balls in play on the ground. Groundballs are more likely to be turned into outs and with Omar losing some mobility because of his knee, it’s not a good mix. Burriss should look to slap the ball on the ground and just run — his infield hit percentage is at a sparkling 13.8%. He might be the fastest player on the Giants and his lack of power means that any ball hit in the air is most likely going for an out.

~ Giants draft pick — still yet to be signed — Buster Posey was named the winner of the 2008 Golden Spikes Award. The GSA goes to the best amateur baseball player and if Posey signs with the Giants, he’ll join Will Clark and Tim Lincecum as former winners of GSA to wear the orange and black.

~ Speaking of Lincecum, he’s feeling better after missing the All-Star Game with a flu-like bug. He should be on schedule for his start against the Brewers on Sunday.

~ Henry Schulman has a midseason report on the Giants. Among several discouraging things he lists a couple of encouranging developments for the ‘08 Giants. In short: Lincecum great, Lewis and Bowker good, and Barry Zito terrible.