What's Kenny Listening To, Part II

Here's part two of the Kenny/Zippy Zappy appreciation post.

Supertramp, "Goodbye Stranger"

Supertramp was a staple of 1980s classic rock stations -- at least the ones that I heard in Milwaukee in the 1980s. I don't know if they still get radio play any more or not. In fairness, I'd pretty much forgotten this song existed, but once the first notes started playing, my memory was quickly jogged.

Of course, in typical 1970s classic rock fashion, this song lasts about 2 minutes longer than it really needs to last.

Similarly, I'd pretty much forgotten that Michael Reed played with the Brewers before getting this card from Kenny. Of course, that forgetting is much less forgivable than forgetting about a 40-year-old classic rock song, since Reed played for Milwaukee as recently as 2016 and was still in the Brewers system through 2017.

of Montreal, "Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia"

I've heard all kinds of buzz for of Montreal for a few years now. I'm very disappointed in myself for not having done any looking into them before this.

of Montreal originated in the best city in the whole wide world -- Athens, Georgia, of course. The band is fronted by Kevin Barnes, who added Derek Almstead and Bryan Poole upon his arrival in Athens in 1996. Almstead and Poole both were/are members of noted Athens band Elf Power, whom I know I saw at least once in the mid-1990s during law school.

For a while, of Montreal was on the legendary Athens record label called Kindercore alongside bands like Japancakes, Kitty Craft, and The Mendoza Line. I feel like I can recall that the label's formation was pretty big news in town back then. But, I might be projecting memories of being cooler than I actually was when I start having memories like that.

On the other hand, Yasmani Grandal -- even though he is shown playing for the Bakersfield Blaze -- is far cooler than my memories. Here's hoping that he'll stick around in Milwaukee for one or two more seasons.

Soccer Mommy, "Cool"

Soccer Mommy is Sophie Allison, a Nashville native by way of being born in Switzerland and after attending two years of college at NYU and dropping out. Wikipedia says that she cites Mitski, Taylor Swift, and Avril Lavigne as influences, but my ear on this song picks up an influence that may have come from touring with the man -- Stephen Malkmus and Pavement. 

It's a good song. It's one of those songs that will get stuck in my head if I listen a few more times -- lots of hooks and very catchy.

Joe Alexander was the Milwaukee Bucks first round pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, and boy did the Bucks screw up this pick. Alexander was the eighth pick overall in the 2008 draft out of West Virginia. Every single other first round pick other than the very last pick of the first round (J.R. Giddens out of New Mexico) played more games and more seasons in the NBA than Alexander did. Alexander appeared in 67 games over two seasons in Milwaukee. Players selected after Alexander included Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert, and, in the second round, DeAndre Jordan. Alexander was last seen playing in Turkey for Besiktas. 

Denzel Curry, "ZUU"

Curry is a Miami rapper whom I've never heard of before. Curry just released his new album, also called ZUU, on May 31, 2019. This song is short -- barely 2 minutes long. I like it, though. There's not a ton here lyrically, but the beats are good.

Plus, I give the guy props for wearing a throwback Marlins jersey. 

Jones emerged last year as the best running back the Packers had on the roster. After the Eddie Lacy pick went from golden to Golden Corral with Lacy successfully eating his way out of the NFL, the Packers went from converted WR (Ty Montgomery) to 4th round pick Jamaal Williams to 5th round pick Jones over the past three years. 

It might also help if Aaron Rodgers would stop checking out of running plays because he thinks he's the best offensive coordinator in the stadium.

Twin Shadow, "Slow"

Kenny says that this song sounds like She Wants Revenge or Joy Division to him. Yup, definitely that 80s New Wave/00s Renew Wave sound going on. Twin Shadow a/k/a George Lewis Jr. sounds to me is even more influenced vocally by Morrissey. Again, that fits into that genre quite well, since New Order and The Smiths were contemporaries in Manchester in the 1980s.

It's not the sound I was expecting, to be fair, but I'm a fan. Definitely.

I am surprised at how nostalgic I feel toward the Heritage set this year, what with it being 1970 and all. As a kid, I used to love the 1970 set for having the Seattle Pilots in it even though the team became the Milwaukee Brewers that season. I don't know why that is -- perhaps it was a reflection of my enjoyment of Ball Four or perhaps it was because the 1970s were the decade I was born and felt much closer in time to me than anything from the 1960s. 

This is why this card is such a good analog for the Twin Shadow song. I wasn't expecting to like this year's Heritage as much as I have, but I'm a fan.

Eladio Carrion, Khea, Cazzu, and Ecko, "Mi Cubana (Remix)"

As Kenny's blog said, this is a trap song entirely in Spanish. Interestingly, Eladio Carrion is actually from Kansas City. No kidding. That kind of deflates the song for me. Sure, the other three are all Argentine, but finding out that Eladio Carrion is from Kansas City is just disappointing. Maybe that's just me, though.

Kenny Clark is going into his fourth season as a defensive tackle for the Packers. Clark is a good player, no question -- getting 6 sacks in 13 games from defensive tackle is no mean feat -- but the next time Kenny Clark starts 16 games will be the first time. Yes, he played 16 games in 2016, but he only started 2 and only racked up 21 tackles -- he was a special teamer for much of the year.

I have not been impressed with the Packers most recent drafts. I feel like they don't take enough SEC players. Sure, I'm biased toward the SEC in that regard, but I thought taking the best players in the draft was the idea. Maybe that's just me, though.

Joywave, "True Grit"

I have heard of this band before thanks to their collaboration with Big Data on the song called "Dangerous" from about five or six years ago. This song is only okay to me. It just doesn't grab me. Maybe it's the mood I'm in today or what have you, but it just isn't something I want to hear again.

Similarly, while Keon Broxton is an excellent defensive outfield to my eyes, advanced metrics for him are all over the place. Add in his terrible inability to make contact on anything approaching a regular basis, and you can see why he's on his third team this year already. Granted, the Brewers got him for basically nothing from the Pirates a few years ago, so we are already ahead on that equation.

Well, folks, that's it for the Kenny Appreciation post for 2019.

Now that we know what Kenny is listening to these days, I would be interested to hear what everyone else has filling their ears. Are you a country music fan? Do you dig disco? Is New Wave your jam? Tell me what you're listening to!

And Kenny -- as always, thank you very much. You're a good man.

A Series 2 Break with Sylvia Plath

I really enjoy the diverse group of people that I encounter through the baseball card blogs and baseball card twitter and baseball cards generally. As with any group as diverse as ours, we all tend to find people that we are most like -- or at least with whom we get along best based on similar backgrounds, similar current lives, or even just similar dislikes. 

One of the people whom I feel like I truly get along with well is Peter from Baseball Every Night. I think we really bonded first over the dislike for the Ortiz-gasm that Topps had last year. Then I found out Peter is a serious, real-life scholar who focuses his scholarly life on the life and times and work of Sylvia Plath. 

I've never asked how or why that happened, but it's pretty cool to me to say that I actually know a real life world renowned expert in literally anything.

Peter broke a box of Topps Series 2 recently and was kind enough to send out the cards from the break on a per-team basis to whomever would pay the $3 shipping to get them. That sounded like a good deal to me, so I joined up immediately. Even though I had already joined Crackin' Wax's break (that will be my next post hopefully over the weekend), I told Peter I'd take the Brewers. After all, you never know when that single Brewers hit might come.

To honor Peter's generosity, let's go to music...inspired by Sylvia Plath. Now, I'm not 100% sure that these songs are all inspired by her or reference her. I'm just taking a Tumblr post's word for it.

1. Belle & Sebastian, "Enter Sylvia Plath"

I figured I'd go with a song that clearly is about her or references her -- Belle & Sebastian's "Enter Sylvia Plath" is pretty obvious about it. I chose a version that had the lyrics imposed on the video in case those help. 

This is a very long song -- over 6 minutes long -- and I have to admit that it got a bit repetitive to me. While the ballet dancing used in the video is cool, the vocals on this song start to meld together -- especially around the 4:15 point where the lyrics simply say, "From my faith [x36]." 

Let's start this Brewers post with two guys who have both had really top-notch seasons who might not get the publicity that other guys get. First, Travis Shaw, whom people know thanks to his having been with the Red Sox for two years. I don't know if it is just that he developed further since he is in his age-27 season or if it is that the Brewers had enough guts to just let him play third. 

One thing I will say that I don't like about his card is the attention to detail. Apparently, Topps Photoshop team couldn't be arsed to think about the fact that Milwaukee doesn't have red in its color scheme and, as a result, Shaw might just wear anything but red batting gloves. I have found photos from this year of him with pink, white, gray, blue, and black batting gloves...but not red.

The other big surprise story might just be "Sunday." Domingo Santana (for you non-Spanish speakers, Domingo in Spanish is Sunday) came over to Milwaukee from Houston in 2015 in the Carlos Gomez & Mike Fiers trade. Last year, he had some injuries that plagued him all year and limited his time on the field to just 77 games. This year, he is hitting .285/.374/.494 with 18 HRs and 9 SBs (in 12 attempts) while playing at a league-average level in right field. 

By the way, he doesn't turn 25 years old until Friday, has played 236 major league games, and yet he does not reach arbitration eligibility until 2019. 

2. The Bangles, "Bell Jar"

I'll admit it. I had no idea that this Bangles song existed. The Bell Jar, of course, is Plath's only novel and was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book is said to be semi-autobiographical and shows parallels between Plath's own experiences with what might have been clinical depression and the protagonist's mental illness.

But I'm not a Plath scholar, and I have not read the book. Thus, I defer to Peter's wisdom and statements about it.

I will note that I'm not sure how a movie based on the book directed by Kirsten Dunst and starring Dakota Fanning will do. Hopefully, it will be a better movie than the 1979 version starring Marilyn Hassett and directed by Larry Peerce. No, I've never heard of them either.

Corey Knebel started the year as the setup man to Neftali Feliz. Neftali Feliz was a complete disaster in Milwaukee (27 innings, 23 hits, 8 HRs, 15 BB, 21 K, 5 losses), so Knebel took over as the closer in May. He's done fairly well, but the bullpen for Milwaukee has lost a lot of games for the team. I keep reminding myself that this is a growth year. 

Zach Davies has had a Pete Vuckovich in 1982-style year this year to date. His ERA is slightly worse than league average, his strikeouts are down by over 1 per nine innings, and his walks are up 0.7 walks per nine, and yet he has gotten such crazy run support that he has a 12-5 record. Pitcher wins are such a bullshit stat.

Again, I have to remind myself that Zach Davies only turned 24 before the beginning of this season. He needs to keep developing and improving, certainly, and we Brewers fans have to hope that he stays away from the injury bug.

3. Tears for Fears, "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams"

This song was a B-side for Tears for Fears initially before being released as a single in 1991. Apparently the song was conceived of as taking a verse from the song "Sowing The Seeds of Love" sung as a rap, combined with a Talking Heads-style chorus, and put over the chord structure from one of Tears for Fears biggest hits, "Shout." 

The song title was pulled from a collection of short stories that Plath wrote that was published posthumously in 1977. The second print edition was split into four parts and included a number of new stories not available in the first edition.

Hernan Perez is like a Swiss Army knife. He's got tons of different uses -- even having pitched an inning this year -- but he is never the exactly correct tool for any particular situation. You need that knife's corkscrew in case you need to open a bottle of wine, but it's not an ideal corkscrew and there are far better ones available. You need that little scissors every once in awhile, but it's better to have a real, full-sized one. You get the picture. Perez is useful to have around to give guys around the diamond a break, a day off. If he starts every day, though, he's playing too much.

Jesus Aguilar was a surprise waiver claim from Cleveland before the season started. He played well in spring training to force his way onto the 25-man roster and has split time with Eric Thames at first base. He's a player that is nice to have around -- he's a good hitter who gets on base -- but he should be seen as expendable to improve the roster in the offseason.

Finally, those throwback uniforms on the team card are sweet, aren't they?

4. Breathe Owl Breathe, "Sylvia Plath"

Breathe Owl Breathe is a folk-rock band with a pretty unique sound. I mean, not many rock bands have a cellist playing pizzicato cello. Well, not many rock bands have a cellist. This show is from a series called "Sleepover Shows." The song is actually pretty cool, to be fair. Just very laid back. And, this video is 100% hippy. The band has an album called Passage of Pegasus that was produced by Eric Johnson of The Shins, for what it's worth.

The final cards I'm highlighting from Peter are these two. First, we have a Blue Jays-era Eric Thames photo in foil. It's odd -- I don't think I got any foil parallels in the Crackin' Wax case break, but I got one in this single box break.

The other card is, of course, the Legend Eddie Mathews. I think that's Mathews photo 3 that Topps always uses. Of course, Peter did not have to send me this card, but he knows I collect Mathews and was kind enough to make an exception.

Peter, many thanks to you for hosting the break. One more song for you: "Crackle And Drag" by Paul Westerberg.

Bowman's Coming, But I Need to Post Heritage

At the beginning of this year, I decided to stop trying to chase new sets by happenstance and, instead, jump into the case breaks that Chris from Crackin' Wax does.  I like that Chris is a Packers fan living in Minnesota, and I enjoy watching and listening to he and his wife going through the break with the cards. I also like that he donates money to charity as a result of his breaks.

I haven't had much luck scheduling-wise in catching the breaks live, though. Every time a break is scheduled, I seem to miss it. This weekend, though, I should be able to catch the Bowman case break. I noted this on Twitter recently, but I've never been more excited to pay more than the average slot cost in my time back collecting.

In fact, it's probably the first time I've ever paid more than the average slot cost for the Brewers thanks to the fact that Topps probably can't pick out Milwaukee on a map if you spotted them its location in Wisconsin. I mean, I heard that native New Yorker President Trump today identified Wisconsin as a state that borders on Canada. It does not, but that's pretty typical for a lot of New Yorkers -- there's New York, there's LA, there's Florida (a/k/a "Retirementland") and there's "the rest."

But I digress.

The most recent break that I took part in was the Topps Heritage break. Let's talk about the set through the Brewers cards:

We start with the player that Milwaukee would charitably call "the Forgotten Man," Chris Carter of the New York Yankees.  The way that Eric Thames is going, Carter will be the answer to a trivia question of "who did Eric Thames replace as the starting first baseman for the Brewers?" Thames's story is incredible -- I mean, it has to be for him to have two ToppsNow cards in the month of April!

Clearly Topps spent approximately $8 of effort on this leaders card. They reused the portrait portion of Carter's regular card as the photo for the HR Leaders card. The Arenado photo got reused on the 1968 Heritage Game card and the Bryant card makes an appearance in the Heritage set on his "NL All-Topps Selection" card. It's inspired decisions like this that show why Topps deserves the monopoly in licensed cards that it has.

Now it's time for the former Brewers portion of this post. Thankfully, Will Middlebrooks didn't make an appearance in this set. Somehow, though, Chris Capuano did. As for Scooter, well, I'm happy that he is getting to play in his hometown. The Brewers really don't have space for him anywhere, and Gennett simply did not have the ability to play elsewhere on the diamond to make his presence useful.

Two starters for this year's team. My stomach just sunk when I read on Baseball-Reference that Garza has a vesting option for 2018. Oh God No. Could that happen?

Well, thankfully, Garza has spent too much time on the DL for that option to vest. Thankfully. It's now a unilateral team option that could be exercised for $5 million. I would not doubt that the Brewers could use that option as a trade chit somehow if Garza can stay healthy. The team may even exercise that option depending on how players develop or how this year plays out. We'll see.

As for Peralta, well, he currently leads the National League in wins with three. Congratulations.

Next up: the guys who've come from elsewhere to play pretty well as Brewers. In order: the Mayor of Ding Dong City has come to Milwaukee and is slugging like crazy -- of his 18 hits through April 24, 14 of them have been for extra bases. Shaw is a candidate to stick around for a few years depending on how guys like Isan Diaz and Lucas Erceg develop. Shaw is still cheap and isn't arbitration eligible until 2019. I can see him being a Gennett-type -- kept around while necessary, dumped when not.

Hernán Pérez is a similar guy, I think. He's the "super-utility" type who will be useful to play all the positions while the Brewers develop better options. He doesn't walk enough -- only 18 walks in 430 plate appearances last year -- so he has to keep his batting average high to be useful. He reaches arbitration after the 2018 season; we'll see if he's still a Brewer then. Incidentally, the Brewers have had both players named "Hernan" play for them -- Iribarren and Pérez.

Keon Broxton has started the season slowly again. He showed a fair amount last year in the half-season he played (.784 OPS) but he cannot afford to relax at all with the prospect-studded outfield at Colorado Springs.

Finally, we have the youngest player on this page, Jonathan Villar. That's right -- Villar has been in the majors since the age of 22 with Houston back in 2013, and he's about six weeks younger than Pérez. He's almost a full year younger than Broxton. Shaw is older than Broxton by three weeks. Villar also comes up for arbitration in 2018.

Here are the two horizontal cards -- youngster Orlando Arcia (whom some in Milwaukee are already wondering whether he is a bust...at the age of 22...thanks to his lifetime slash over 74 games of .217/.264/.345...oh my god he's Rey Ordoñez) and Harvard grad Brent Suter.

Suter actually follows me on Twitter thanks to the fact that I passed along a message to him from Ray Peters, so I've got that going for me. Perhaps because of that, I really hope for the best for him and want him to be in the major leagues with the Brewers. After all, no pitcher should have to pitch in Colorado Springs regularly.

Finally:

I got one copy of the New Age Performers card of Orlando Arcia. I mean, I really hope Arcia develops and all, but his bat has never been his strong suit. Still, he needs to pick up the pace at the plate.

Now, this case was pretty terrible for me. I didn't get any Ryan Braun cards from the short-printed high numbers. I had to hit eBay for those two. Oddly, though, the hardest card to find -- which I also purchased on eBay -- was the "Then and Now" card of Villar with Lou Brock.

Here's hoping that the Bowman break treats me right this weekend. I'd better be in the chatroom though to get some of that famous Crackin' Wax Chat Room Mojo©!