-2007 Just Justifiable Zech Zinicola autograph. Aside from winning a few "Only a Ballplayer Can Be Named..." competitions, Zech Zinicola is an interesting sleeper prospect with the Washington Nationals. He's a righty relief pitcher who throws a fastball, sharp-breaking slider, and changeup. He got his start in professional baseball in 2006, where he looked like he would come busting out of the gate in under two years to become the Nationals closer. But then he hurt his arm in 2007 Spring Training. Although he recovered pretty quickly, he struggled with his command and control that year and finished with an ERA over 5.00 in AA ball. This year, in 2008, his command improved significantly. He pitched very well in A Advanced ball and AA ball, but struggled in AAA. He gave up entirely too many hits (44) and walked 17 in 33 innings. To say nothing of giving up 6 homeruns. However, Zinicola is an extremely talented pitcher. Although he'll likely repeat AAA ball in 2009, he'll probably also do far better and at the very least get himself a call-up in September.
-2003 Bowman's Best Darrell Rasner rookie autograph. Darrell Rasner, originally drafted by the Montreal Expos, pitched in only five games with that organization on the Major League level, and that was after they'd moved to Washington in 2005. In 2006, the New York Yankees selected him off waivers. He pitched well in 2006 and appeared well on his way in 2007, but his season was cut short when during one of the two annual Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees, Mets left fielder Endy Chavez lined a pitch off his forearm. Although he threw two fastballs and looked okay, he broke a bone when trying to throw a curveball and misssed the rest of the season. This year, it once again looked like Rasner was doing well when he started having problems with dead arm/tired arm in late July. No cure for that; you just have to pitch through it. And Rasner has. Unfortunately for him, he's pitched terribly through it, ballooning his ERA to 5.38. I see a future for him either on another team or in the extremely weak New York Yankees bullpen.
-2002 Bowman's Best Blake McGinley rookie autograph. Blake McGinley is a perfect example of how NOT to develop a promising pitcher. A left-hander, McGinley was correctly drafted by the Mets as a relief pitcher. However, from the onset, he was pitching 2+ innings a game and starting to wear his arm out. What you're supposed to do is ease a pitcher into throwing a high number of innings. By 2005, the fastball/slider/curve pitcher had reinvented himself as a sinkerballer to save his arm. However, he now threw only one breaking pitch, a slider. Although he was good enough to even start a few games on a AAA level, he wasn't good enough for the Majors. He pitched through 2006 with the Mets organization before being released, then signed on with the Florida Marlins. He pitched with their AA and AAA affiliates with diminished velocity and movement before simply retiring.
-2007 Bowman Signs of the Future Andrew McCutchen autograph. The number one prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, McCutchen is an outfielder who can hit for average and power, has great speed on the basepaths, is a very good fielder, and has a great arm. Many five-tool players like McCutchen tend to flame out rather early; after all they were probably overdrafted as a result of having all the tools, but not having any of said tools polished. Not so with Andrew McCutchen. Drafted in 2005 at age 18, he's rocketed through the Pittsburgh Pirates system and should make his MLB debut next year. Although 2007 was a disappointing season for Andrew, all of his other seasons have been well above average. Also, unlike a lot of Minor League outfielders, Andrew is already posting .990+ fielding percentages with great range. A prototypical number three hitter, Andrew is definitely one to keep an eye on.
-2007 Bowman Heritage Signs of Greatness Jorge Cantu autograph. Jorge Cantu was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998. He wasn't yet 17 years old and didn't play his first professional game until 1999, when he played a few games before leaving the organization to finish high school. However, while he did well in his first Minor League season, he was still mostly a "projectability prospect;" that is, a prospect who hasn't yet filled out and while he has no yet, his swing is such that he will eventually. Many other projectability prospects (though not Cantu) haven't yet learned proper plate discipline. In 2003, mostly playing AAA ball, Jorge Cantu hit 7 homeruns. But then, when he repeated AAA ball, he hit 22 homeruns in just 368 at-bats. He quickly found himself in the Major Leagues, where he finished the season well. In 2005, in full time action, he batted .286 (albeit with a relatively poor .311 on-base percentage), hit 28 homeruns, and drove in 117 runs. His lack of plate patience started to catch up with him in 2006. That year, he only hit .249 with 14 homeruns and 62 RBI's. In 2007, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays traded him after a terrible start to the Cincinnati Reds for some low-caliber prospects and cash. He started hitting in no time and seemed destined to become a fixture in Cincinnati's infield. Bizarrely, they didn't offer him a contract after the season had ended. The Florida Marlins, in desperate need of infielders, quickly signed him and alternated him at first base and third base. This year, he's hit .274 with a .323 on-base percentage (his plate discipline has somewhat improved), 26 homeruns, and 83 RBI's. Although he may not be a fixture with the notoriously trade-happy Marlins, he'll catch on somewhere and has now regained his status as a solid ballplayer.
-2000 Fleer Autographics Ryan Anderson autograph. Ryan Anderson may have been the most hyped pitching prospect of the 1990's to never pitch in the Major Leagues. He was a left-handed pitcher drafted by the Seattle Mariners and given a signing bonus of over $2 million. He threw 100 mph, had a vicious slider, a nasty changeup, and a knee-buckling curve. At 6'10" and 225 lbs., he reminded many observers of Randy Johnson. He was given the nicknames "Little Unit" and "Space Needle" by the Seattle press. However, he had extremely poor pitching mechanics that resulted in no less than three shoulder surgeries and many in the Seattle organization questioned his work ethic and endless cockiness. Although his attitude improved after he had surgery, Seattle released Anderson at the end of the 2003 season. In 2005, he attempted a comeback with the Milwaukee Brewers organization, but did poorly with little velocity and no bite on his slider. His attitude problems a thing of the past, Ryan simply retired. He hopes to open a steakhouse in the near future.
-1999 Fleer/Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Autograph Collection Bo Belinsky autograph. And speaking of wasted talent, here we have Bo Belinsky, who was tabbed as the next Sandy Koufax (the Los Angeles Angels quickly pointed out that his mother was Jewish...although Bo identified with the Polish Catholic aspect of his ethnic background). Bo didn't begin his career with Los Angeles, though. Instead, he started out in the Baltimore Orioles organization, one of many left-handers the team signed in an attempt to get some to work out. On the way up, in Pensacola in the Alabama-Florida League, he met another Polish Catholic left-hander by the name of Steve Dalkowski (aka my namesake). It was Bo who introduced Steve to alcohol; Steve is now recovering (albeit very well) from alcohol-induced dementia. The manager whose idea it was to have Steve room with Bo Belinsky was fired. The Orioles left him exposed to the expansion draft in 1961, but the Los Angeles Angels instead took coveted right-hander Dean Chance. By the end of 1961, the Orioles had reached the end of the rope with Belinsky. When I interviewed Steve Dalkowski, he said most of the rumors floating around were that while the Orioles could put up with Bo drinking and womanizing (he would later gain notoriety for dating actresses), they could not put up with him trying marijuana. The Orioles almost certainly paid the Angels to take Belinsky in the Rule V Draft at the end of the 1961 season. From an on-field performance standpoint, it worked. In his first Major League season, Bo Belinsky went 10-11 (with a terrible team), had a respectable 3.56 ERA, threw three shutouts, and struck out 145 batters in 187 innings. He also threw a no-hitter. In 1963, he had arm problems, but they seemingly went away in his successful 1964 season. But near the end of that season, he beat up an elderly LA Times sportswriter and was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. Then he completely blew his arm out in 1965 and drifted between several different teams. After having been cut after the 1970 season, Bo started to have regrets about the way he lived his life. In the late 1980's, he found God, swore off alcohol, drugs, and womanizing, and became a substance abuse counselor. Although he found work as a customer relations head for an automotive group in Las Vegas, he didn't gamble. But hard living had taken its toll and Belinsky died of a heart attack brought about by vascular problems and bladder cancer at the age of 64.
-2000 Fleer Skybox Autographics Damion Easley autograph. Damion Easley is the second baseman and best right-handed bat off the bench this year for the New York Mets. Before then, he was with a few different teams that he'd struggled with as well as the Detroit Tigers, where he was an All-Star for a single season (1998). He could seemingly never control his wild swing and while he hit for power, he couldn't hit for average. Then, with the Mets, he stopped trying to hit for power and his batting average went up. Although he's only hit 16 homeruns in 2 season with the Mets (he hit 38 with Detroit in 1998), he's also hit first .280 and then .272. The former is his highest batting average since 1992, when he hit .313 in his second year of Major League baseball with the California Angels. Although he's primarily been a second baseman over his career, he's played every position except pitcher, catcher, and center field while with the Mets and is a fan favorite.
-2007 Topps '52 Rookies Autographs Levale Speigner rookie autograph. A journeyman, Levale Speigner has pitched well in the Minors (as well as out of the bullpen, where he has a solid 4.58 ERA), but has been shelled to the tune of an ERA of an 11.79 ERA as a starting pitcher in the Majors. A sinkerball pitcher, most of his starting troubles came as the result of not having a starter's mindset. Most of his bullpen troubles have come as the result of having poor fielding Washington Nationals infield behind him. He could work well for the relief-pitching-starved Nationals, so long as he never starts another game.
-2007 Upper Deck Black Prominent Numbers Joel Zumaya autograph. Joel Zumaya, a right-handed pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, is probably the hardest thrower is modern professional baseball. On a modern radar gun, he topped off at 104 mph. However, at 60'6" (the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate), Zumaya's fastest pitch registered 92.7 mph. By comparison, an exhausted Steve Dalkowski hit 93.8 mph without a pitching mound or a warmup (about 105 on a modern radar gun), Atley Donald hit 96 mph (about 107), Bob Feller hit 98.5 mph (about 108 mph on a modern radar gun), and Nolan Ryan hit 100.1 (a shade over 109 mph on a modern gun). Many baseball fans often wonder as to why pitchers have gotten faster over the years; it's because the radar gun reads the pitch just ten feet from the pitcher's hand. That said, Zumaya still throws incredibly hard. Although he's suffered from control problems this year, he's usually not too bad and gives up very few hits. He's also had terrible luck with regards to having freak injuries, too. He got tennis elbow just before the 2006 World Series arfter playing the video game Guitar Hero. In Spring Training 2007, he ruptured a tendon in his middle finger after hurting it while playing catch. After the 2007 season, while helping his parents evacuate their home from encoraching wildfires, a suitcase containing a bowling ball fell on his shoulder and he needed surgery. He's come back with relatively poor control (and has been unable to take the closer's role from washed up closer Todd Jones) and one can only wonder what the next weird injury is going to be. I hope nothing, considering the Tigers are my AL team.
I have to get off now, so I'll blaze through this one...
-2006 Just Stars White Donald Veal autograph (top pitching prospect with the Chicago Cubs)
-2006 Topps '52 Rookies Henry Owens rookie card, signed (Pitching prospect with the Florida Marlins; the Mets traded him away. His disastrous pitching mechanics have landed him on the DL over a dozen times in the Majors and Minors)
-1989 Pacific Legends Carl Erskine, signed (Erskine was the number two starter on the 1950's Brooklyn Dodgers teams)
-2003 Upper Deck Team USA Signed Jersey Huston Street autograph/jersey swatch (Street is the Oakland A's closer)
-2006 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Ultimate Signatures 3 Sean Casey autograph/Oliver Perez autograph/Jason Bay autograph. (Casey is a good bench bat and great clubhouse guy with the Boston Red Sox after having played well with Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, Perez is the number three starter for the New York Mets, and Bay is the regular left fielder with the Boston Red Sox)
-2004 Bowman Chrome Draft Gio Gonzalez autograph (A star pitching prospect with three organizations, the promising left-hander has hit some bumps in the road in his rookie season in the Majors, but he should be fine. He gave up the 250,000th homerun in Major League history to Tigers DH Gary Sheffield while with the Oakland A's, his current team).
-2004 Fleer Genuine Insider Genuine Autographs Magglio Ordonez autograph ("Maggs" is the star outfielder for the Detroit Tigers right now and probably the only guy who has consistently hit well this year. To see the autograph, you actually pull out a little tab on the bottom of the card. It's kinda neat, though you unfortunately cannot display the card with the autograph showing.)
More later!
