Baltimore Orioles All-Time Team

The 2023 Major League Baseball season is underway, and so is The Collector's All-Time Teams series!

Let's head out to Camden Yards in beautiful Baltimore, Maryland for our first All-Time roster.

The Baltimore Orioles last won a World Series in 1983. They were World Champions in 1966 and again in 1970, when Hall of Fame Manager Earl Weaver established "The Oriole Way."

Here's the starting lineup for the All-Time Orioles.

Well, it looks like Weaver will be sticking with the same starters here. Are there any new faces on the Baltimore bench?

Boog Powell and Adam Jones easily retain their roster spots. The others were an open competition:

	Orioles stats	WAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	*Rick Dempsey	21.2	0.238	0.319	0.355	0.674	89
	Gus Triandos	13.1	0.249	0.326	0.424	0.751	107
	*Manny Machado	31.9	0.283	0.335	0.487	0.822	121
	Harlond Clift	40.1	0.277	0.394	0.453	0.847	116
	*Brady Anderson	34.9	0.257	0.364	0.430	0.794	110
	Nick Markakis	24.8	0.290	0.358	0.435	0.793	113

Machado holds off a hard charge from Harlond Clift based on his advantage in power and defense. Anderson's power, speed, and longevity give him the slight edge over Nick Markakis. Dempsey was initially chosen for his work behind the plate, but Earl Weaver can no longer tolerate his weak bat. Gus Triandos earns the backup catcher job.

This one is not going in the album.

On the pitching side, there was a lot of competition for the fifth starter and middle relief roles.

The top three starters are secure, including a pair of Hall of Fame hurlers.
 

Urban Shocker struggled in Spring Training but managed to hold on to his spot as the fourth starter. The fifth starter competition was heated, and in the end Earl Weaver decided to make a change.

	Orioles stats	WAR	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*Mike Cuellar	17.1	3.18	109	1.68	1.188
	Milt Pappas	21.7	3.24	113	1.78	1.225
	Jack Powell	31.5	2.63	109	1.82	1.152
	Mike Flanagan	21.4	3.89	100	1.75	1.323
	Scott McGregor	20.2	3.99	98	1.75	1.291

Incumbent Mike Cuellar loses his fifth starter spot to Jack Powell, a standout star from the early days of the franchise. [Oh no, does that mean I have to track down a Powell card? Crud.]

Now let's take a look at the Baltimore bullpen, where Tippy Martinez has been knocking on the door:

The O's would love to have another lefty in the 'pen, and Stu Miller does have eligibility with another team. However, this is a case where the stats call the shots:

	Orioles stats	SV	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*Dick Hall	60	2.89	124	3.96	1.005
	*Eddie Watt	74	2.74	123	1.97	1.133
	*Stu Miller	99	2.37	145	2.44	1.120
	Tippy Martinez	105	3.46	112	1.60	1.370

Miller was much more effective as an Oriole than he was as a Giant; there's no guarantee he'd make the San Fran roster. Martinez has the longevity (second among Orioles in appearances, fourth in saves, first in games finished) but the production gap between him and the incumbents is too much to overcome. The bullpen stays as-is.

Looking ahead, there aren't any current Orioles who can push for a spot on this All-Time roster. Adley Rutschman could get there one day, not only for his limitless potential but because he happens to be a catcher - one of Baltimore's weakest positions.


TL; DR: Two changes from the original roster. Cuellar and Dempsey out, Powell and Triandos in.


Come back tomorrow for our next All-Time Team, the Boston Red Sox.


Thanks for reading!


 
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All-Time Teams 2.0

Three years ago I released an All-Time Teams series to celebrate 150 years of professional baseball. If you missed that series, it featured 25-man rosters of the best players by position in each MLB franchise's history. All 32 rosters were entered into a simulated tournament presented by DraftKings (of course) in which the Yankees held off the big Red Machine to win the World Series. 

I'm joking. I had nothing to do with that sim, it was just some fortuitous timing.


There were some basic parameters I put in place to make roster construction more interesting. They are:

• A minimum of four years with a franchise to be eligible for their All-Time Team. That means great players who moved around a lot might have trouble finding a home. It also results in average(or below) players earning spots on longevity alone if no one else qualifies.
   
• Players can only represent one team. This got messy in our initial run, as several all-time greats have near-equal splits with multiple teams. Almost all of the negative comments I received on the series had to do with my assignments related to this rule. I don't care. I ain't changing it.
  
  
• Players will be evaluated based on their contributions to that specific team only. For example, if an All-Time great player is blocked at his primary franchise, he may end up on a team for which he played 4+ years but not the majority of his career. However, if his numbers for that secondary team don't measure up to the other players who played there, he may be left out entirely.

Every team will have a Designated Hitter - which was not the real-life rule at the time but is now standard across MLB. Another thing I'm not changing is the roster size. It's tempting to expand these rosters to 26 players, but it would take a lot of fun out of All-Time Teams 2.0 if personnel decisions were this easy:

There won't be data and description for the holdover players whose rosters spots are secure (I don't need to explain why Tony Gwynn or George Brett made their respective All-Time Teams, lol.) We'll have something new in store for them so it's not a complete copy of the original.

There will be data and description for players who are in danger of losing their spot on an All-Time roster, either due to re-evaulation, re-assignment, or a current star climbing the ranks.

Also, since this remastered series was initially conceived as a way to display the cards in my All-Time Teams binders, I should clarify that every card you see scanned in this series is from my personal collection. That includes the 1957 Topps Dodgers Sluggers single at the top of this post. I might even attempt to post a video of the full album(s) at the conclusion of the series.

For those of you stopping by from TCDB, or if you're just commenting for a chance at free cards (no judgment) this post is the official start of the contest. Once the series ends, I will hold a random drawing for everyone who commented by selecting a random post number (this counts as post #1 for contest/series purposes) and then a random comment number.


Instead of going alphabetically through the entire league, we're going to go by division this time. I hope you'll join me tomorrow for our first All-Time team - the Baltimore Orioles.

Thanks for reading, and play ball!



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Opening Day

This is how I celebrate receiving a job offer at a sports apparel company:

My local Target hasn't been this stacked in years. Prizm packs? Penny sleeves? Repack boxes? Hell yes!

The reason baseball is missing is because the only product available is 2023 Topps, and if I buy a pack of that I'll be tempted to build the set. I've got enough set projects left to complete as you can see here.

Don't worry, there will be baseball on this blog tomorrow. And the next day, and the next, and the next...

As for the job, it's right down the street. It pays more than any job my wife or I have ever had, and it's right down the street. At a sports apparel company! Did I mention it's right down the street?!??! 

The only obstacles left are my background check (no worries there) and my professional references. Hmmm. I sure hope they don't talk to the office manager at my last job. And I realllly hope they don't talk to my previous office manager, who was showing us back office boys the OnlyFans page of our administrative assistant and being very personally critical of her. Without an HR person to report it to, I was torn between defending my mentor/Best Manager Ever or the Witch Goddess I was swooning over. I'd like to think I would have done the right thing regardless, but I'll never know. 

Anyway, that's ancient history now. It blows my mind that I worked at that place as recently as 2022. You're not here for office stories, you're here for cards. So let's start cracking open some packs!

 The hockey repack promised seven packs, one sealed fat pack, and one "bonus item"...

A loose common with a corner ding. Grr. And I didn't get one sealed fat pack in this box. I got two.

To save time/space, here's the rundown of packs and pulls:

2017-18 Upper Deck Series One 5-card pack: Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler UD Canvas
2020-21 O-Pee-Chee 8-card pack: P.K.! Connecticut Cam! McAvoy! Ethan Bear retro
2020-21 Upper Deck MVP 5-card pack: some old Russian "rookie" on Winnipeg
2021-22 O-Pee-Chee 8-card pack: some Finnish backup goalie rookie for Trannah
2021-22 Upper Deck Series One 8-card pack: a Young Guns RC I could get for 45 cents on COMC
2021-22 Upper Deck MVP 6-card pack: Hedman, Bread Man, CT Cam again, Carey Price
2021-22 O-Pee-cheek 28-card fat pack: Pastrnak, Makar, Tanner Jeannot RC, two Winnipeg retros
2021-22 Upper Deck Extended 26-card fat pack: a Devils card, four Kraken, and an actual decent Young Guns RC that I can't get for two quarters on COMC.

the whole hundred-dollar haul

The hand-picked 2022-23 packs were not even worth mentioning. Nice cards though.

My football boxes are full, so I only picked up one pack of 2022 Donruss. I didn't pull a Packer or a notable rookie. 

Thud. Should I have picked a Panini Prestige pack instead? This is beginning to feel like a bad idea.

That only leaves the big prize - basketball. I sure hope that Optic or Prizm can save the day...

I sure hope that Prizm can save the day...

I pull one current superstar out of these packs and it's Ja Morant. Figures.

The patriotic 'bonus pack' parallels were underwhelming:

At least Tim Duncan pops up again. 

 

Good news! I pulled two different Prizm parallels of an active player with an MVP award on his resume.

Bad news? It's Derrick Rose:

Did you know that Cam Thomas was born in Yokosuka, Japan? Has he repped the rising sun in international competition? (googling....) Nope. He does not appear to have Japanese citizenship.

Welp, that was $100 spent. I guess my good luck went as far as getting a good job within walking distance. At least I've got some new stuff for trades and giveaways.

Could I have done better at the card shop two blocks away? Perhaps, but his hobby pack prices are higher than Target's fat pack prices. I would probably have ended up with significantly fewer cards and few (if any) significant 'hits'. 

Oh and the shopkeep just went on vacation anyhow. Store's closed for the next five days.

Tomorrow.... baseball!


Thanks for reading!




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The Finest Years

About a month ago, Billy published a post ranking every Finest basketball set - including my personal favorite, 1999-00.

I'm not going to steal Billy's idea of ranking each Finest design, but I do want to discuss some of my favorite Finest sets across all sports - specifically the years in which Topps used similar concepts.

Topps was very uneven with their Finest hockey releases. Despite holding an NHL license up until 2003-04 the company only released three sets under the Finest banner: 1994-95, 1995-96, and 1998-99. The '94-95 set is comprised of 165 cards, the most notable of them is Miikka Kiprusoff's only RC. I've got 30 of the 165 cards (no Kipper though), and I've never attempted to complete the set. I do have the complete 150-card set from 1998-99. It's nothing special; there are no rookies or subsets in the set.

1995-96 is a fascinating set. I was drawn to it as a teen, but I couldn't afford more than a couple packs at the time. It was the first time Topps attempted the Bronze Common/Silver Uncommon/Gold Rare tiers that would continue over the next several Finest sets.

The 1995-96 Finest basketball set didn't use this design or concept; it appeared in the 1996-97 Finest release.

Is this the most expensive Finest "base card" ever made?

The 1997 Finest baseball and football sets also had Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers, but I didn't like them quite as much as the 1996 cards. Lack of borders was a major reason.

One other Finest design that jumps out at me is the honeycomb hexagon sets of 2002-03:

 

Each of these sets are under 200 cards. The smallest is 2003 Finest baseball - just 100 base cards and 10 autos. Football and basketball are much tougher to complete; there are 18 relic cards and 31 autographs in the 2003 Finest football set. 

The 2002-03 Finest basketball set includes 40 serial-numbered rookie cards (38 of them autographed), 36 serial-numbered relics and ten XRCs of such legends as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony - which somehow count as part of this set. Blasted  redemption cards.

I've got a complete base set of 2003 baseball and a handful of cards from the football and basketball releases. But there is one year that I have two complete Finest sets that use the exact same design:

These are completed 1999 Finest baseball and football sets. I also have completed sets for 2000 Finest baseball and football but the designs are different. Nothing serial numbered, short-printed, or autographed in these sets. No Hall of Famer rookie cards in '99 Finest baseball (yet?) and only two in football (so far). The design is clean but grey, which makes the shiny parallels really pop:

Did I peel this David Cone refractor or did I acquire it pre-peeled? I honestly don't remember.

Refractors from these sets are still affordable (unless you're reaching for the stars) but Gold Refractors (sn'd to 100) of any player are drying up. I managed to hold on to one, but it's not the biggest name:

I miss the days when each card had just two parallels. 

Since I wasn't collecting basketball cards at the turn of the century, targeting 1999-00 Finest singles has been a way to reignite my appreciation for this design.

I pick up some base singles on TCDB and Sportlots whenever I can. Not going to attempt a set build trifecta though; the last fifteen cards are RCs serial numbered to 2000 including Grizzlies legend Steve Francis and Ron "Metta World War" Artest.

Guess I'll just stick with the refractors then. I would have surely completed a 1999-00 Finest hockey set had Topps released one that year, but I can understand why they didn't. That rookie class was horrible.

Thanks for reading!




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600/600/600 Giveaway

I'm approaching both 600 posts here at The Collector and 600 completed trades at TCDB. And to celebrate, I will be giving away 600 cards once those milestones are reached. 

This will be two separate giveaways of 300 cards each - though anyone is eligible to win either or both prizes. Here's how:

Any TCDB user who completes a trade with me from now until my 600th trade (I'm at 580 now) will be entered into the first random drawing. If you are reading this from my blog, please feel free to send me a trade offer at TCDB (I'm hockeydude).

If you are a TCDB user and you are not following my blog please feel free to do so, as anyone who comments on my blog posts beginning March 30th and ending at my 600th post (I'm 34 away) will be entered into the second random drawing. That one will be randomized by post number, then comment number. More comments gives you more chances to win!

During this time I will be rebooting my All-Time Teams series with updated rosters for all 30 MLB franchises (and the "Best of the Rest" Barnstormers). I will also be sending out some TCDB trade offers for users who have some of my traders on their wantlist. I am happy to swap PWEs of 2-24 cards with anyone in the USA and Canada. 

If you have something on my wantlist but you don't need any of my tradebait, let me know. I may be willing to offer cards from my personal collection in exchange.


The winners will be announced on my blog sometime in June, or whenever both milestones are reached. I will also post updates on TCDB. Just my way of saying Thank You for reading nearly 600 posts! :)

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Irish Day Updates

Aaron Rodgers told his special friend Patty McCaffeine that he wants to play for the Jets this season.

No trade is imminent as the two teams teams are still discussing compensation. Gutey, get Josh Morrissey or let Throw Rogan rot.

Fellow Packers fan Fuji sent a care package to Collector HQ this week:

Brendan Morrison (top left) continues the Irish theme. He's joined by three Scott Gomez inserts and a pair of James Lofton Topps singles for Ye Olde Green & Gold. I really should try to complete a run of Lofton Topps singles, at least from his Green Bay days. He's got an awesome Nike promo card that I recently learned about.

Hopefully other collectors have overlooked it since a young Michael Jordan is also in the set.  

Fuji included these gems as well. I'm very happy to add the Sami Kapanen and Donny (not Donyell) Marshall autos to my Connecticut Collection, and the 1988-89 Fleer cards are awesome as well. But that golden Doug Weight at the top left is a much better prize than it may appear. You see, this Playoff One on One card game (which is my wife's; I'd never heard of or seen them at the time) was issued as a starter/booster pack with common/uncommon/rare tiers. Weight happens to be an Ultra Rare; these were inserted at a rate of one per four booster packs. She managed to pull one (Alexei Zhamnov) but there are 39 38 more we need.

I doubt I'll ever manage to complete the set, but even if I don't it's a PC-ish card as Weight was one of my favorite hockey stars around the turn of the century. Fuji, thanks for the great cards!

So... this has been sitting in my basketball card box for a few years now:

Apparently it's worth a couple dollars. A couple hundred?!??! dollars??!?!

I think I might have to sell it. Maybe I'll just give up the job search and sell cards all day...

Speaking of Steve Nash, this year's NBA MVP race is ridiculous -- emphasis on race. I'm a bit of a Giannis guy, and I like Nikola Jokic as well. I'm neutral on Joel Embiid. But it seems to me that, all things being equal, the award should go to the best player on the best team. That would be the Bucks in the East (and overall), and the Nuggets in the West. If you want to look at which player has the weakest supporting cast as an indicator of which candidate is most valuable then that would be Giannis.

Embiid has James Harden on his team, and they're not as good as Denver or Milwaukee buuut he's leading the NBA in scoring. Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of the three. That's not how some people see it. Because some sports talkers are already eliminating Jokic from the discussion (looking at you, Perk)

Why? Because three MVP awards (especially consecutive) is legend territory. Certain sports talkers don't want to admit that Jokic is worthy of winning three. Many of those same people don't think Steve Nash should have won either of his two MVP awards. Haven't we given you people enough undeserved accolades?

 
I'm not enough of a basketball fan to care one way or the other. Give it to Joker, don't give to Joker.. whatever. Just don't not give it to Nikola because he's not welcome in da club.

 Back to the job hunt. See you next week, and Happy St. Patrik's Day everyone!

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