Marquee Matchup for April 6th, 2010

I do like a great pitching matchup. I am all about sitting down for every game and thinking that I could be a first-hand witness to the next perfect game. I love strikeouts, I love great defense, and a good pitching duel.


Yesterday I took the day off of work and was excited to be able to watch the aces go head-to-head. For the most part, I was pretty disappointed with the results. There were A LOT of runs put up yesterday, and most all teams showed some rust. There were exceptions. Halladay, Santana, and Lincecum looked stellar...though my heart skipped a beat when Lincecum called the trainer out of the dugout...for a fork to clean his cleats with. Don't do that to me, Smokey!


I think I am going to try a new feature, and if you get sick of it, or just plain don't like it I will shut it down. But being a pitching fanatic, I thought it would be fun to highlight a matchup of the day to keep your eyes on. Sometimes there might be more than one, sometimes picking one will be a struggle. Just to make it interesting for myself I will keep a tally on the sidebar for everybody to see how awful I am at predicting sporting events.


So for tonight's stanza, I want you to know that I have reviewed ALL matchups, and I am not just being a homer here, but tonight's Marquee matchup is Lester (Boston) V AJ Burnett (New York).Jon Lester

AJ (gas can) Burnett.

The Lowdown: On paper, this matchup looks pretty good, but a closer look show that in four games last season again the Red Sox, Burnett had a paltry 8.85 ERA while allowing a .291 BA and 6 HR's allowed. Even more telling? Three of those games were at the Fens, where the ERA jumped to an abomination of 14.21 with a BAA of .379 and ALL 6 HR's given up.

Lester? In four games against the Yanks, had a slightly elevated ERA of 4.43 with a BAA of .283 and 4 HR's given up. But you put him at Fenway, and the ERA dropped to .286 with a BAA of .240 and only 5 HR's given up ALL SEASON.

Of course you can't always look at last seasons numbers, and you can't win without the bats behind you...but I wagering that the Red Sox will be on an emotional high after Sunday's big comeback and be ready to pounce on AJ early once again.

Prediction: I'll take Lester for the win.

Opening Day madness, plus a SP offer.

Today has been a whirlwind of baseball activity. What began with last evening's entertaining first act has turned into a ton of action and incredible plays today.

I would have to say, that even though it is only day two, it is safe to say that we have already seen the play of the year. I have also witness the monster that is Albert Pujols, in a very entertaining game, and can safely say that J-Hey gave the fans a great debut. I got a little sick of the gushing that the announcers were heaping on Heyward, ala Brett Favre or Jon Gruden, but I have to say, the guy is good. He does not look like a 20-year-old rookie should look. He seems confident and powerful. Look out, National League East.

I also watched Gallardo, and while he did not look perfect, he would have had a chance if he would have gotten a little bit of run support from his teammates (sounds oddly familiar). Also, saw a bit of Santana mowing down Josh Johnson and the Fish.

Currently, it's my game of the day, Lincecum v Oswalt. The Triple Cy Young award watch begins today and he had a couple nasty K's in inning 1.

Tonight, I will check out King Felix and the Mariners and see what they are all about this season. It has been a baseball heavy day.

But we are here to talk about cards, and I want to toss an offer out there before I wave the white flag and send these cards to eBay. I have opened one box and scattered packs of Topps Heritage 2010. I have gathered nine shortprint cards. They are below...

For record, they are 429,434,443,452,457,470,477,484, and 487.

My goal is to find somebody who has nine shortprints that are on my 2009 Topps Heritage needs list. I am desperately wanting to finish that set and am about 30 cards shy at this point. Does anybody out there want to do a swap?

Well, back to baseball. Sandoval just pulled a Tommy Hanson (blowing a bubble on a play). Classy

And we're off!

Well, strike up yet another topsy-turvy Red sox V Yankees matchup! The game just wrapped up moments ago and initially I thought that this write up was going to go a completely different direction. Here were my initial impressions...

Yeesh, can these two teams ever play a brisk game? This one clocked in at nearly four hours, not that there is anything wrong with that...just saying.

Things started ugly with some sketchy pitching by the Red Sox ace, a misplay off the wall by Ellsbury, and maybe I just play too much of "The Show" but even I know not to try to pick of a steal attempt at second when there is a runner at third. I used to double-steal all the time in MVP Baseball.

I got to thinking about Ellsbury out in left though, and to be fair, it must be tough to play the entire pre-season in Florida and just show up and have to suddenly deal with the Green Monster. I can let that misplay slide, but out of the gate I would say most of the rust belonged to Beckett.

But then suddenly the tides began to shift, and the Red Sox had three straight hits to left off of CC and were starting to get their timing down. Then it was time to go after that suspect Yankee bullpen. The rest is history as the Red Sox come back and win big. Tonight's heroes... Dustin Pedroia hit the game-tying home run deep over the Monster in the 7th inning, and also added a "take a breath" insurance run in the 8th inning...

Youk! Welcome to the cleanup spot. Youk delivered two doubles and a two-run triple that got the Red Sox momentum back in full swing. Also scored on the passed ball by Jorge Posada to go ahead for the first time all night and put the pressure on the Yankees.

Whew! What a beginning! My opening day is just under-way as well. I have taken tomorrow off and will plot and chart my course through several of the best pitching matchups being televised tomorrow. I am also going to use that time to get some cards organized and get some packages out the door....in pajamas!

Gimmick Alert and Something Shiny!

Happy Easter/Opening Day! We all woke up this morning and watched and Jacoby ran around the house looking for "balls" (eggs). Seriously, everything that is round is a ball these days, and he likes them all, football, baseball, basketball, and this morning the Easter Bunny added a soccer ball to his collection. After all, World Cup is coming soon.

We are going to have some family over for brunch this morning, and then this evening is 100% dedicated to opening night at the Fens. Brats, potato salad, BOSTON baked beans, and maybe a little Sam Adams to boot. It has been the longest pre-season ever, and I am ready for the real thing.

In the meantime, I disappeared to the shop for a couple minutes yesterday to once again praise the owner for the incredible luck he brings me on packs and boxes. For no reason other than to purchase the prospect edition of Beckett and round out the purchase, I snagged one Jumbo of Topps. I miss that mustardy smell of the Topps cards, and I always have dreams of a silk pull or another nice hat relic.

Eek! Talk about great anti-luck! Here is the pull of the pack... Topps number 370 Super-Shortprint Yankee Pie In The....back of the head?? And what the heck is Bronson Arroyo doing in this card posing as a Yankee? Hmm, must be the "Hidden Bronson" variation. Start checking those Cincinnati cards folks!

Needless to say, this card had to be expelled from my collection immediately...if interested, here is the shameless plug. Equal opportunity for all Yankee fans.

Also yesterday, My wife told me the Easter Bunny had paid a visit, and after several lengthy hints I was able to locate a redemption from Topps! Not too shabby, since I entered it around the same time as my Upper Deck redemption. This came out of an ill-advised purchase of Topps Sterling one day at the shop. You will notice that I never did a post on it, and reason being that it was very uneventful, in fact I don't even remember what was in that box...

BUT, there was a redemption for a gold refractor signature #/50...


Dayan Viciendo...at last look this guy is still struggling to prove his worth and I don't believe he made opening day roster for the Pale Hose, but really, this is an absolutely stunning card and really glows, and his signature is insanely nice looking. Some cards really work with sticker autos and this is one of them.

Well, gotta get ready for family. Have a great day, and for the first time this year....GO SOX!

2008 Masterpieces Needs List

Pardon me while I take care of a little admin duties to add to my sidebar...

2008 Masterpieces Need:

92,93,94,101,102,103,104,105,107,108,110,111,112,114,115,118,119,120.

We now return you to your (irregularly) scheduled blog