2018 MLB Predictions

I know I've been super quiet for the last year or so. To be honest, I've mostly stepped away from collecting for the time being. Sometimes there are more important things that require money. But I still enjoy reading the other blogs and hope to get back to collecting sometime.

Anyways, I thought it was about time to post my predictions for how the 2018 MLB season will turn out. I might get some guesses right and I'll almost certainly be way off on others, but here we go.

AL East
1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees - Wild Card
3. Toronto Blue Jays
4. Baltimore Orioles
5. Tampa Bay Rays

AL Central
1. Cleveland Indians
2. Chicago White Sox
3. Minnesota Twins
4. Kansas City Royals
5. Detroit Tigers

AL West
1. Houston Astros - Best Record
2. Los Angeles Angels - Wild Card
3. Seattle Mariners
4. Texas Rangers
5. Oakland Athletics

I feel pretty confidant that the Indians and Astros will run away with their divisions. The east is shaping up to be ye olde slugfest between the Sox and Yanks with the rest of the division not making much noise. Two teams who I think will have good years are the Angels, with their off-season additions, and the White Sox with their incoming wave of young talent. I foresee the Angels riding it to the playoffs and while I think the White Sox won't make it, it will be a promising preview of the years to come.

AL MVP: Mike Trout
AL CY: Chris Sale
AL ROY: Shohei Ohtani

Wild Card game winner: Angels
ALCS: Indians over Astros

NL East
1. Washington Nationals - Best Record
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. New York Mets
5. Miami Marlins

NL Central
1. Milwaukee Brewers
2. Chicago Cubs - Wild Card
3. St. Louis Cardinals
4. Cincinnati Reds
5. Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. San Francisco Giants - Wild Card
3. Colorado Rockies
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. San Diego Padres

That Nats are going to run away with the East, again. But I feel like the Central and West are going to be more competitive this year. The big surprise that I'm predicting is the Brewers winning the Central. I have a feeling that this is the year the Cubs run is going to stall, but they will still limp their way into the playoffs. The Dodgers will face some tougher competition in the division this year but still come out on top. While the Giants will see massive improvement after being the worst team in the NL last year, to this year snagging a Wild Card spot.

Wild Card game winner: Giants
NLCS: Nationals over Dodgers

NL MVP: Bryce Harper
NL CY: Max Scherzer
NL ROY: Ronald Acuna

World Series: Nationals over Indians in 6

I feel like this is the year the Nationals finally get over the hump and not only win a playoff series, but win it all. Between Harper being in a walk year, Scherzer not getting any younger, and teams in Atlanta and Philadelphia on the verge of becoming serious contenders there should be plenty of motivation to push them there before the window closes.

2017 Predictions - How did I do?

Howdy folks, it's been awhile. I've been really inactive with my blog this year, having not posted since the end of May, though I do still read many of yours regularly. I've really taken a step back from collecting this year, mostly due to finances. I'm sure some of you know how that is. But I thought I would check in and followup my 2017 MLB predictions post from before the season and see how I did.

Starting with the AL East:

My prediction

1. Orioles
2. Red Sox
3. Blue Jays
4. Yankees
5. Rays

And how they actually ended up:

1. Red Sox
2. Yankees
3. Rays
4. Blue Jays
5. Orioles

So I really missed the mark here placing none of the teams in the correct spot. That really doesn't come as a surprise to me with as competitive as the AL East tends to be every year.

AL Central:

Mine
1. Indians
2. Royals
3. Tigers
4. Twins
5. White Sox

Reality
1. Indians
2. Twins
3. Royals
4. White Sox
5.. Tigers

For the AL Central I got the Indians in first place correct, that's not a surprise. The rest of the division was a little harder to predict. I don't think many people expected the Twins to make the playoffs nor the White Sox to finish ahead of anyone, but both of those things happened.

AL West:

Mine
1. Mariners
2. Astros
3. Rangers
4. Angels
5. Athletics

Reality
1. Astros
2. Angels
3. Mariners
4. Rangers
5. Athletics

I thought the Astros needed one more year before they would be ready to win the World Series. Glad I got that wrong. Also, calling the Athletics in last was not difficult.

And now the big three AL awards.

MVP
Mine: Mookie Betts
Reality: Jose Altuve

Betts certainly was a legitimate pick pre-season. Altuve definitely earned it.

Cy Young
Mine: Felix Hernandez
Reality: Corey Kluber

I was thinking..or maybe hoping King Felix would bounce back to his old self, (he was a centerpiece of my fantasy team's pitching staff for years.) Alas, injuries took everything he had left. Kluber on the other hand was fantastic and has proved once and for all that his 2014 Cy Young wasn't a fluke.

ROY
Mine: Andrew Benintendi
Reality: Aaron Judge

Benintendi was another legitimate pre-season pick. No one saw the record setting rookie year that Aaron Judge had coming. It will be very interesting to see if he can maintain this level of performance.

And now the National League

NL East:

Mine
1. Nationals
2. Mets
3. Marlins
4. Braves
5. Phillies

Reality
1. Nationals
2. Marlins
3. Braves
4. Mets
5. Phillies

Predicting the Nationals in first wasn't difficult, nor was the Phillies in last. However, I thought the Mets were going to have a better season. Definitely didn't foresee the implosion of that pitching staff.

NL Central:

Mine
1. Cubs
2. Pirates
3. Cardinals
4. Reds
5. Brewers

Reality
1. Cubs
2. Brewers
3. Cardinals
4. Pirates
5. Reds

Like the Nats in the East, predicting the Cubs as first in the Central was a given. Though the Brewers did give them a run for their money for much of the season.

NL West:

Mine
1. Dodgers
2. Giants
3. Diamondbacks
4. Rockies
5. Padres

Reality
1. Dodgers
2. Diamondbacks
3. Rockies
4. Padres
5. Giants

Again the division winner was easy to predict, in fact I got all three NL division winners correct. I definitely didn't think the Giants would be that bad, so bad that the Padres finished seven games in front of them and they finished tied with the Tigers for the worst record in baseball.

NL Awards

MVP
Mine: Yoenis Cespedes
Reality: Giancarlo Stanton

Picking Cespedes was definitely way off the mark. And now we know how good Stanton can be when he stays healthy.

Cy Young
Mine: Noah Syndergaard
Reality: Max Scherzer

Scherzer would have been a safe pick pre-season and he followed through on that. Instead I went with the riskier pick in Syndergaard and he may well have been a contender for the award if injuries hadn't kept him out for most of the season.

ROY
Mine: Dansby Swanson
Reality: Cody Bellinger

The Braves fan in me obviously made me a little overconfident in how Swanson would do this year. He definitely didn't have the season I thought he would. I'm hoping he'll turn it around with more experience and become a solid major leaguer. Now Bellinger had a fantastic season. He was almost overshadowed by the record setting rookie year Aaron Judge had, but Bellinger got to play in the World Series.

And speaking of the World Series..

My prediction: Nationals over Indians in 6
Reality: Astros over Dodgers in 7

I missed the mark here but at least both the teams I predicted still made the playoffs, though both were eliminated in the Division Series. I'm not disappointed though as the Astros vs. Dodgers World Series was an instant classic.


So overall I was wrong for the most part with my predictions, though it's hard to accurately predict the results of a 162 game season. I did get four of the six division winners correct and five of the ten playoff teams correct, though not all in the right position.


Well that's a wrap folks. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season!

College World Series contest over at Autographed Cards

Hey guys. I'm still around reading everyone's blogs and occasionally commenting. Haven't had anything to post about, myself. Truth be told I've been selling off a lot of my collection outside of my main PC's to make some extra cash.

But today I'm here to pimp the 8th Annual College World Series contest going on over at Autographed Cards. It's pretty easy to do, in fact I won the contest a couple years ago and he sent me some sweet autographed photos of Dennis Eckersley, Aaron Boone, John Kruk and Steve Carlton.

Check it out at the link below and put in your own entry!

Good luck!

Autographed Cards 2017 College World Series Contest

2017 MLB Predictions

Well let's see how wrong I end up being.

AL East

1. Orioles
2. Red Sox
3. Blue Jays
4. Yankees
5. Rays

AL Central
1. Indians - Best Record
2. Royals
3. Tigers
4. Twins
5. White Sox

AL West
1. Mariners
2. Astros - Wild Card
3. Rangers - Wild Card
4. Angels
5. Athletics

The AL will be interesting with some teams having deceptively less than awesome records. The east and west seem to have a good bit of parity which should make for some tight races. I think in both cases the teams will beat up on each other so much that someone less expected to win, in this case the Orioles and Mariners, will slip by and win the divisions.

AL MVP: Mookie Betts
AL CY: Felix Hernandez
AL ROY: Andrew Benintendi

WC winner: Astros
ALCS: Indians over Mariners

NL East
1. Nationals
2. Mets - Wild Card
3. Marlins
4. Braves
5. Phillies

NL Central
1. Cubs - Best Record
2. Pirates
3. Cardinals
4. Reds
5. Brewers

NL West
1. Dodgers
2. Giants - Wild Card
3. Diamondbacks
4. Rockies
5. Padres

The NL I see as having fewer wide open races with the top teams being clearer from about June forward. I fully expect the Cubs to continue tearing through the NL again this year, winning the central by a double digit margin. My hope for the Braves is to build on the strong finish they had last year and continue to improve and develop prospects. I will be happy if they finish with less than 90 losses. 

NL MVP: Yoenis Cespedes
NL CY: Noah Syndergaard
NL ROY: Dansby Swanson

WC winner: Mets
NLCS: Nationals over Cubs

World Series: Nationals over Indians in 6

Still around

Hey guys. It's been three months since my last post. I guess I'm taking a hiatus from posting stuff. Part of that is a lack of things to post about. I haven't been buying or trading much for the last few months, though I do have a few things that I haven't scanned yet. But I've really just not had the motivation to post either. I am still reading your blogs and commenting occasionally. Hopefully I can find the motivation and the material to get back into it sometime.

I hope you guys are having a great 2017!

USWNT Autos

I've made my fandom of the US Women's National Soccer Team pretty evident in the past. So I've been wanting to pick up some autos for quite awhile. In the post-World Cup hype last year they were a little out of my price range. But now that we're solidly in the lull between World Cups where the average casual fans aren't paying attention, autos can be had at much more affordable prices.

Tobin Heath

#139/179

Best, most underrated player in the world.

Kelley O'Hara

#073/179

Becky Sauerbrunn

#013/179

All of the autos are from 2012 Panini Americana and I got all of them for less than half of what they were going for a year ago.

2016 Topps Triple Threads hobby box #2

Here is the second box of TTT, and final item from the October show.

#5/9

After the Gallo relic /9 was not a patch getting a piping patch on this Marcell Ozuna relic is an improvement.

#32/50

Who?

This guy has a total of 30 plate appearances in the majors and 6 hits. Not sure why he's in a high end set. Thanks Topps.

#15/36

A sweet triple relic of three great pitchers. This is more like what I like to see from TTT.

#36/50

And a nice Trea Turner auto/triple relic to finish it off. 

With the end of this box I am now only one post away from being completely caught up!

2016 Topps Triple Threads hobby box #1

The last thing I picked up at the October show was two boxes of 2016 Topps Triple Threads. I've had a love affair with TTT since 2013 that I am never able to indulge as much as I would like. My dream would be to bust a few cases every year. Alas, even one double master case would cost more than I currently spend in an entire year on cards. So while that's not something feasible for me I can at least open a box or two every year as well as pick up singles on eBay. Here is the first of the two boxes.

There base parallels were all higher numbers so I will just stick with the hits.

#6/9

Seems like the relics numbered to nine or less generally have a patch. So getting plain white jersey is a little disappointing. 

#11/18

Ick..Yankee hit...*gag*

#67/99

I thought in previous years that the rookie card autos were "extra" hits that replaced a base parallel. I could be wrong about that but it makes me feel like I was shorted a relic as this card replaced the Unity single relic/auto.

#65/75

Maikel Franco is a pretty decent auto to pull. So while the rest of the box was lackluster at least it ended with an ok card.

2016 Bowman Chrome hobby box - SUPAH

The second box I picked up at the October show was a 2016 Bowman Chrome hobby box. I know some people have been pretty critical of Topps in how they configured Bowman Chrome this year going with the double mini box setup for hobby and doing the vending boxes to replace the jumbo boxes. It made sense for Topps as between the two they were able to produce far fewer base cards, assuming the number of cases produced was similar. In the case of regular hobby, 2015 and previous years contained 72 total cards per box between base, parallels, inserts and autos. 2016 boxes are 60 cards. Cases this year and previous contain 12 boxes so that is 144 fewer cards per case that Topps produced. Over an entire print run of thousands of cases that certainly added up to huge overhead savings for Topps. A lot of people don't seem to like that, getting fewer cards. I on the other hand, do like it. I mentioned before my issue with storage space for cards so I actually really don't mind getting 12 fewer base cards in a box while still getting the same number of autos and an average number of parallels. 

Now on to the cards.

Green Refractor #53/99

Refractor #243/499

Base

Green Refractor #50/99

And then the last card, which I posted about on the day I pulled it.

Superfractor #1/1

I didn't even want to take it out of it's top loader to scan it. I still can't believe I pulled a Super. I've pulled a a few one of ones previously, printing plates and a Platinum parallel from Topps flagship, but nothing like a Super. I haven't decided yet what I want to do with it. Part of me wants to just keep it since it being my first super it should become a major centerpiece of my collection. On the other hand, Jimenez had a phenomenal 2016 season and is currently ranked by many as the current #2 Cubs prospects. So this card may fetch a pretty penny when he, hopefully, makes the majors. We shall see.

2016 Topps Heritage Minor League hobby box

I picked up this box sort of on a whim at a show in October. I'd finished my shopping for the day and still had some cash left which of course meant opening some wax I don't normally open. This product is always pretty cheap so it was fairly low risk to go for.

Blue Parallel #96/99

Blue Parallel #55/99

Blue Parallel #92/99

So as you can see I pulled nothing special, and that's ok! With the low cost of these boxes it's worth the risk to go for the variations and nice autos. And who knows, like with other prospect products, some of these players may end up being stars in a few years.

2016 Topps Chrome hobby jumbo box - Nola shows up AGAIN

This was the last box I bought from the show in July. I always enjoy breaking Topps Chrome. At this point this set has been completely analyzed by anyone and everyone so I won't bother with the non-color and non-auto cards. Nothing special in the inserts department. The usual smattering of regular refractors. Now for the color.

Blue Wave Refractor #41/75

Purple Refractor #159/275

And now the autos

Base

Base

Base

Base

And there is number three. In one day, in one breaking session, three different boxes, three different products, two different manufacturers I pulled Aaron Nola's auto three times. I had previously pulled his auto from 2015 Bowman's Best. So I already think it's abnormal with the low amount of breaking I do that I've personally pulled his auto four times. But pulling it three times in one day? That takes the cake.

Refractor #322/499

Blue Refractor #021/150

And a nice Trea Turner auto to finish out the box.

And count 'em up, yep! Six autos!! This was also the second box in the break that I pulled an extra hit after Allen & Ginter. It's normal to pull extra hits from Panini products, but Topps? I think I had only had that happened to me once previously. I've gotten shorted hits from Topps products more than I've pulled extras. So this was nice.

October show boxes coming soon!

2016 Topps Strata hobby box

In 2015 I bought a couple singles of Strata and was a big fan of how the cards looked, save for the relic window not being open. So this year I decided to get a box and try my luck.

#71/99

Bumgarner wore this jersey for the Giants game at home against the Dodgers on April 7th, 2016. The Giants won the game 12-6. However, Bumgarner was not pitching that day. So another case of "game worn"rather than genuinely "game used".

Nola auto #2 of that day.

So not a very good box. But still a nice looking product. With just two cards per box Strata, I'm sure, can be very mercurial. Still it's less than $60 a box now so not a bad deal. I've got another show coming up in a couple weeks so I may get another box.

2016 Donruss Optic hobby box

When Optic was first announced I was willing to give it a shot. It seems like Panini is following Topps' lead on low-end products as of late. Optic is obviously supposed to compare to Topps Chrome. At the fairly cheap price point I thought it worth opening a box to see how it was. It ended up being a fun break!

#144/299

#108/199

#031/149

El Oso Blanco

We are so used to seeing autographs using blue ink that it feels odd to see a card signed in black. I like it. This was also the first of three times that I pulled Aaron Nola's auto in one day. More on that in future posts..

Donruss Optic is overall a decent product in it's first go round. Optic replaced Panini Prizm as the low end chrome offering in their lineup. I think Optic's base cards are more pleasing to the eye than Prizm. The parallels are where Prizm knocked it out of the park but Optic, while not exactly falling flat, feels more "been there done that". Prizm and Optic both had/have the insert autos with stickers that are nothing special. The on-card autos look nice in both, I think. So really I see Optic as on the same level as Prizm was. No better, no worse. But Prizm probably won't be coming back. Optic just makes more sense as the chrome companion to the regular Donruss flagship set. And I'm ok with that.

2016 Allen & Ginter hobby box

This was my one yearly box of A&G that I bought back in August. Turned out ok.

The Skippers mini inserts are an unannounced pseudo case hit. This is probably the most valuable card I pulled.

Brooklyn Back mini #22/25

Woo!! Sharapova may be serving PED suspension but I don't think it was justified. Banned meds used to treat a diagnosed condition IIRC. So I was pretty happy to pull her auto. Not to mention that it's always nice to pull an extra hit!!

2015 Bowman's Best box- A nice Cub auto

The next few posts will be about the various boxes I purchased at recent shows. Up first is 2015 Bowman's Best. I had bought one box previously and enjoyed it despite not doing well. This time turned out a little better.

I'm still used to when Atomic refractors were in Topps Chrome and numbered to 10. It's weird that these are unnumbered. 

And another

Gold Refractor #22/50

Base

Refractor unnumbered

Green refractor #40/99

Green Refractor #77/99

Schwarbs!!

Loose Pack Cards

Here are three nice cards from loose packs I bought at shows. Two from 2016 Tribute and one from 2016 Stadium Club.

#10/99

Conforto wore this jersey on July 31st, 2015 against the Nationals. The Mets won the game  2-1 in 12 innings. However, Conforto did not play in this game. So even though the card states that this is "Game Used Memorabilia" it really is the definition of "Player Worn Memorabilia".

#90/99

Always nice when I can pack pull a card for my HoF relic PC.

#13/99

Contact Sheet white parallel. At 1:638 packs not an easy pull. Even better that it's Harper!!