It Makes Common Sense

Lawyers are a spoiled group of people. We are used to being able to spend money on rather pricy things, such as overseas travel or Broadway musicals. As I mentioned yesterday, I spent the better part of three days in Chicago last week for an American Bar Association meeting. While in Chicago, several people I know decided to spend at least $200 a ticket to see Hamilton. 

In case you are not familiar with the show, Hamilton is the "it" show on Broadway -- it was nominated for a record-setting 16 Tony Awards and won 11, including Best Musical. It also won a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Chicago production opened on September 27. The show is about Alexander Hamilton, and what makes it so highly acclaimed is how Lin-Manuel Miranda (who wrote, scored, and starred in the original Off-Broadway production) took Hamilton's life and updated it in a way that is influenced greatly by rap music.

The video below is a song called "The Schuyler Sisters."

Of course I picked that video because Angelica Schuyler says that she has been reading "Common Sense" -- Thomas Paine's pamphlet advocating for independence.

I'm okay with Broadway musicals, though I tend toward the old school more than the current stuff. To me, these rap-influenced Broadway songs suffer from the same problem that most Broadway songs have -- they are too vanilla. For storyline, the song's lyrics need to be very clear and clearly enunciated, after all, and most rap that I like tends to have an edge to it that is more conversational than lyrical. 

All of this is a long way to get to baseball cards. As I've started to feel like I've exhausted the local card show option by going too frequently (#FirstWorldProblems), I have turned more and more to Just Commons. 

I'm pretty sure now that Just Commons is like one or two guys or gals working out of a small house on Long Island. That actually makes me happy too -- I'd rather it feel like I'm ordering from a small business with people who work their tails off than to be giving money to some troll through COMC. The best thing about Just Commons, though, is that I can load up on Brewers -- who almost all end up in the commons box, after all -- for far less money than the other online alternatives. Plus, when I get to $15, I get free shipping. That does not suck.

So, since I'm not chasing any particular cards and, instead, I'm simply trying to satisfy my OCD and get "everything", Just Commons works out great for me. I spend $30 and I get a bunch of cards. It's a win for me because that isn't much to spend, and it's also a win for me because $30 is barely something that makes my wife take any notice. So, I can get away with getting cards more frequently as a result.

I'm continuing my efforts to load up on Bowman from about 10 to 15 years ago, so let's see what came in this shipment. Just the highlights, though:

Look at how young Rickie Weeks looks here. My goodness. He looks like a little kid. With all the cards I have of him from his later years with his long dreadlocks, seeing him with short hair is almost shocking.

Of course, with the timeframe I mentioned, Rickie was the hot prospect for the Brewers at that point. A high draft pick (2nd overall) with great bat speed and plate patience, Brewers fans were actually quite disappointed in Weeks and his performance in Milwaukee. He wasn't bad -- he just wasn't as good as everyone had hoped. 

His real problem, though, was his health: he had two seasons in Milwaukee of playing over 150 games (2010 and 2012). He had two more seasons -- 2008 and 2014 -- in which he reached 120 games. Otherwise, it was 96, 95, 118, 37, 118, and 104. He just could not stay healthy. He left a bad taste behind as well in that he did not want to play anywhere but second base in his last Milwaukee season. Since he's left Milwaukee, he has not played second.

A little Geoff Jenkins came in as well. I hate to say it, but I sort of wish Topps would recycle the Bowman Heritage idea again. Bowman in the 1950s was miles better than Topps. They had better designs, real photos, and better color on the cards with color. The story of how Bowman ended up getting bought out by Topps is fascinating and worth a read here.

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon about recycling the Heritage idea. This Ryan Braun rookie/first year card makes him look like he has jaundice.

Now that's more like it. If we could get a few more uses out of this set, that would be fantastic. Let's be honest -- the 1955 Bowman set design is truly excellent. I know it got rolled out about five times in five years by Topps in the early 2000s, but can we bring it back now? Maybe?

Last two. I like these knothole cards all right. They aren't great, but they aren't bad. I just wanted an excuse to figure out who Ozzie Chavez was and to talk about Lou Palmisano. 

Chavez first. He was an international signee out of the Dominican Republic. He came to the States at the age of 17 in 2001. He played well in the Arizona Rookie League, so the club pushed him aggressively to full season Beloit in the Midwest League in 2002. In 128 games there, he made 29 errors at shortstop, hit just 1 homer, and slashed at .255/.323/.315 in 531 plate appearances. That performance convinced Topps to put him on this 2003 Bowman card. Chavez actually stuck around the Brewers organization until 2008 -- making it all the way to Triple-A by 2006 at the age of just 22. But he just never hit. He moved on to the Phillies organization in 2009 before ending up with the White Sox and then in the independent Atlantic League in 2011. The Brewers signed him for organizational depth in 2013 before cutting him loose. 

Lou Palmisano looks a little like he got the Gary Carter catcher perm. He was drafted in the third round in 2003 by the Brewers out of Broward CC in Fort Lauderdale and hit a ton in Rookie league that year. The Brewers kept promoting him the next two years, and he hit Double-A Huntsville in 2006. He stayed there in 2007, and he stopped progressing. He is now a volunteer coach with the University of Miami baseball team. I really hoped that Palmisano would become the next Brewers catcher, but he got passed quickly in 2007 when Jonathan Lucroy joined the organization.

The great thing about all the failed Brewers prospects from the 1990s and early 2000s is that none of the cards are expensive now. Sure, these cards were probably more expensive than if I had found them in the wild at a card show, but who brings 2003 Bowman cards of Ozzie Chavez to a card show in the crazy hope that a Brewers fan would show up?

Let's close with more common stuff.  Common People.

This stuff isn't vintage stuff, but I need it all the same.

Bowman Sorting

I decided to take a week off from blogging this week to try to get my Bowman team sets and assorted parallels and inserts organized. I'm getting closer on that process -- I mean, I've finally got what I consider to be good want lists put together for all of the base sets from 1989 to 2007 (which is what fit into the new binders I've employed) and, then, from 2008 to the present.  

I think it should be pretty obvious as to why I'm working on Bowman right now. Bowman is the prospector's set -- particularly the Draft Picks and Prospects set since its debut. Since I've gotten only a few cards into my collection recently, I thought I'd take my opportunity instead to look at past Brewers prospects to hit the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects. 

BA started its ranking back in 1990, so we have 26 years to work with. And, since I enjoy cautionary tales as much as I enjoy success stories, let's focus on the overhyped and overrated. Let me tell you -- there are plenty of those.

Narciso Elvira

That's Elvira's 1991 Bowman card, of course.  

Of course, for those of us old enough to remember the early 1980s, the name "Elvira" really brings to mind only one thing:

Brewer fans' hearts were on fire for Narciso Elvira in 1990 and 1991. On BA's inaugural Top 100 Prospects list, Elvira was the #23 overall prospect in all of baseball in 1990. He dominated at lower levels -- averaging over 10.6 K/9 over 251 innings over two seasons in the California League at the ages of 20 and 21 in 1988 and 1989. 

Unfortunately for Elvira, his pitches must have looked like cherry wine after that. Two issues were going on here. First, the Brewers Double-A and Triple-A outposts at that point were a gauntlet for pitchers -- Double-A El Paso, Triple-A Denver. I mean, how about just take a sledgehammer to their arms instead? At least that pain goes away quickly rather than lasting six to eight months.

The second issue is that Elvira was small (5'10" tall) and plagued by shoulder trouble. This being the Brewers under Sal Bando, that meant that minor league coordinator Bruce Manno spoke of Elvira in almost disparaging terms: "You're only a prospect so long and then you become a suspect. He has to establish what kind of pitcher he's going to be." 

He did: it was a Mexican leaguer. Elvira pitched only 5 total major league innings, walking 5 and giving up 6 hits and three earned runs in 1990 while striking out 6. The Brewers let Elvira go after 1991, and Elvira's career wandered from Triple-A to doing nothing for the years between 1992 and 1996, then back to Triple-A in 1996 and 1997 to the sidelines again then to Japan in 2000 to Mexico and Korea in 2002 and 2003, back to the sidelines in 2004, and back to the mound in 2005 and 2006 in Mexico, then 2007 and 2008 off before getting into 2 games in 2009 in Mexico at the age of 41. He even pitched a no-hitter in Japan on June 20, 2000 for Kintetsu. Here's the 9th inning of that game:

Antone Williamson

Antone Williamson was another multiple year Top 100 prospect according to Baseball America, showing up at #64 in 1995 (the Brewers' only representative on the list that year) and at #81 in 1996. The Brewers drafted WIlliamson in the first round of the 1994 draft, taking him with the fourth overall pick that year.  Playing the "what-if" game, the Brewers could have selected Paul Konerko,, Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, A.J. Pierzynski, Aaron Boone, Javier Vazquez, Troy Glaus, or Jay Payton, among others, with that pick. It wasn't a great draft, to be fair, with Garciaparra enjoying the most career WAR in that draft at 44.2. For comparison's sake and through August 6's games, Mike Trout has 45.9 career WAR according to Baseball Reference.

The Brewers were very excited by the pick. Stories in The Milwaukee Journal hyped the pick. Williamson's own quote in the story, however, wraps up why Sal Bando was an unmitigated disaster (for the most part) in terms of making draft picks: "They drafted me because they needed a corner man."

See, that's a mistake. Draft the best player available. Draft the one who projects well, has upside, has tools, has ability, is the best baseball player available at the time you pick. Don't pick a guy because you "need a corner man" -- especially because those guys are on the right side of the defensive spectrum (left is hard side, right is easy side) and can be developed by moving a shortstop with a bat over.

Williamson failed not because he couldn't hit, to be fair. He failed because of injuries. Specifically, in 1996, he was playing in a spring training game and dove for a ball. He hurt his left shoulder badly enough that it hurt to swing. This was after having a history of problems with his right shoulder.

He returned, eventually, to make the major leagues in 1997 at the age of 23, but he hit just .204/.254/.259 -- pitifully bad stats in the age of the steroid freaks like McGwire and Bonds and Sosa -- over the course of 60 plate appearances. The Brewers gave up on him after the 1999 season. No other takers stepped up, so he played a season in the Texas-Louisiana League and "slugged" .303 in 182 plate appearances. That's where his trail ends.


To be fair, most of the guys who appeared in BA's Top 100 as Brewers prospects at least made the major leagues and, in fact, even went on to have pretty good careers. For example, the Brewers had 6 guys in the top 100 in 2004: #84 Mike Jones (a pitcher who did not make it past Triple-A), #69 Manny Parra (who pitched around the fringes of baseball through last year), #48 Brad Nelson (who also did not do much), #19 J.J. Hardy, #10 Prince Fielder, and #5 Rickie Weeks.

After the recent trades, though, if only 3 players turn out to have good careers as those guys in 2004 did, it would actually be disappointing. After all, 2016's crop includes #8 Orlando Arcia, #16 Lewis Brinson, #49 Trent Clark, #57 Brett Phillips, and #59 Jorge Lopez (who has been godawful terrible this year) -- and that does not include the changes in the ratings thanks to results this year which pushed Josh Hader up in the rankings and the drafting of Corey Ray. And that doesn't even include guys working their way back from injury like Nathan Kirby.

Farm systems are a place for eternal hope and optimism. But, for the first time in a long time, that optimism might actually be more than wishcasting. Bowman is the place for that optimism.

Binders for Brewers

Atlanta is the home of a few of us bloggers and online card people. Dayf of Card Junk and I both live on the north side of Atlanta, and to be fair, both of us spend a lot of free time (and probably some not-so-free time) on Twitter too. He's @CardJunk and I'm @OffHiatusBBC. 

We met up today at the twice-monthly card show on Windy Hill Road in Atlanta and did a little trade off: I got Brewers cards, and he got binders and pages from that massive bunch of binders that I got from my in-laws for Christmas.

He's been documenting his side of the swap on Twitter.  Here's a photo of his car trunk with the binders in it:

Thanks to @OffHiatusBBC I'm set for binders for at least a couple months pic.twitter.com/NBPbbAmpn5

— Space Combat Junkie (@CardJunk) February 7, 2016

I also grabbed a stack of the pages that were in the binders and brought them along as well.  So, what did I give up? Here's the totals:

final total from @OffHiatusBBC - 32 binders and 417 pages

— Space Combat Junkie (@CardJunk) February 7, 2016

I am just happy that these binders and sheets are not heading to Waste Management, to be fair. I have probably another 50 binders left -- some of which I'll be using -- and I have at least another 1500-2000 pages left. Again, I'll use some of those, but I'll probably trade more of them to Dave at some point in the future.

And, why wouldn't I trade some to him when I get such great stuff in return? Like some Milwaukee Braves:



I get so tied up with trying to stay organized in my Brewers that my Milwaukee Braves collection's organization is somewhat lacking. I need to get more organized on cards issued after the Braves moved from Milwaukee. I have a bunch that need to get into binders and be organized properly. The Hank Aaron from 1999 reminds me of that. The other cards are great additions to my player collections or, perhaps, that neglected post-Milwaukee move group of Braves.

But the Braves were just the tip of the iceberg, because, as Dave put it, "When I saw Bowman, I started cleaning out stuff for you."



Dave was not kidding about that, pretty clearly! This highlights my lack of Bowman from about 1993 to about 2009 or so, I guess -- which coincides well with the cards readily available at the local card show, not coincidentally at all.

Surprisingly, though, there were more cards besides all those. Seriously. The newest one:



Ryan Braun is grimacing as he's about to slide on his own name, wondering why the word "Perspective" is floating around behind him on the basepaths. In all seriousness, this subset is filled with good photos. 

I don't know what differentiates it from the good photos you get with Stadium Club, though, nor do I understand how this photo of Braun sliding into third has anything to do with the "perspective" on the back of the card -- which highlights Braun's solo homer on September 6, 2015 making him the first Brewer with 7 or more seasons of 25 homers or more. I'd have liked this card more if the photo matched the "perspective" on the back: either show me Braun hitting the homer, or tell me what the story of this play is. 

Okay, the "get off my damn lawn" portion of this post is done. On to happier things.



First is this 1998 Topps "Minted in Cooperstown" parallel of Mike Fetters. I blame that 1984 Nestle set for begetting cards like this.



Dave even found a Robin Yount card that I need. I have the other Yount from this Topps Woolworth set from 1990, but I didn't have this one. That's a total win in my book. 

Finally, Dave found a bunch of Paul Molitor cards that I did not have:



That is my first Pacific Prism. To think that Panini feels the need to go with the aluminum foil versions of "Prizms" every year...now, obviously, that's to distract from the lack of logos and all. But, if we're going for distracting designs, no one did it better than Pacific.

Dave, thanks a ton for all these great cards. I know you're a big time "Brony", so in honor of that...

Remember everyone: You've Got to Share, You've Got to Care!