The benefit of an experienced rotation..

So for the past two seasons, the Braves have, and have publically admitted to, shall we say, not tried to hard to win a lot of ballgames.

Yeah.

They tanked.

Anybody young with promise? Traded away.

Anybody hitting really well? Traded.

Able to pitch a ball over the plate? Gone.

All gone, except Freddie. He's the face. Gotta keep him. And god love him for staying positive and having a damn good year despite management's best Major League efforts.

It's been a lean two years. TV doesn't show them anymore. As a result, I have no idea who most of the lineup is.

Why would anyone do this?

Money.

What? Get rich by losing? Huh?

It's all a big master plan to start to win in 2017. The year they move out of antiquated Turner Field (what?) and move into their brand new shiny digs, SunTrust Park in Cobb County.

All I can say is, this better be worth it. These last two years have been hell.

Now in preparation of winning it all, the Barves have started to assemble their new Cy Young winning rotation.

On Thursday, they announced the first signing.

42 year old R.A. Dickey. Atlanta will be R.A.'s sixth team in fifteen years.

On Friday they announced the signing of 43 year old Bartolo Colon. Atlanta is Bartolo's ninth team in twenty one years.

 and yes, Colon did pitch for the Expos. Remember them? Not as a rookie.... but in his sixth season.
Yeah.............................


Today, the final piece was added with the surprise re-signing of former Brave, 77 year old Phil Niekro.

General Manager John Coppolella was heard saying about Niekro that they needed to add some veteran leadership for the youngsters. It will be nice for Phil to mentor young Dickey. Help him develop and perfect his curveball that he has spent the last fifteen years using.


Looking forward to a great year! (maybe it should be Cialis Park?)

finally, a solution to the puzzle.

I hate blogger. Just wanted to put that out there. Since last Thursday I haven't been able to post anything because their image uploader hasn't been working for most people who use Explorer. I see a lot of blogs have been having the same issues.

After a week of troubleshooting the genius tech crew at Blogger come up with a solution!!!!!

They tell me to temporarily try using Google Chrome.

Seriously.

I sense shenanigans.

At least I don't have to make a deal with the devil they call Firefox. I'd quit blogging before doing that.

Onto some more pleasant things, like baseball cards. I've received a couple of packages in the new year, and I need to show them off. Now that I can upload pictures, I will do just that.

First, from night owl. A smallish, but power packed package. How so? Let me explain.

First card out of the package, a 2006 UD Oscar Villarreal. Oscar was the top card, and so was volunteered to be the brave warrior against the dreaded painters tape during the voyage here. He ended up victorious, but shows the scars of battle near both top corners.

from the same set, a Kevin Barry rookie card. You can tell UD was serious about baseball back then. Kevin is card #1014.  That's insane.

from this year's Bowman. Or is it last year's? Who can figure this stuff out? Anyways... a nice shot of BMac before injuries killed his season.

same set, Martin Prado about to gun someone down at 2nd base.

and, according to me, and every baseball stat site on the internet, the best right fielder in all of baseball, Mr Jason Heyward. 6.6 war ladies and gentlemen.

I'm guessing these are 2012 Topps Update cards? My first card of Jack Wilson as a Brave. Jack sure plays hard. Too bad he can't hit.

Ditto my first Brave card of Paul Maholm. By the way, when did Baseball Reference become so expensive? $270 to sponser Maholm??? $1500 for Chipper? I used to sponser starters on the Braves for under $25. WTH?

The most dominant reliever in baseball, Craig Kimbrel. Averaging 2 strike outs per inning. Nasty.

No wonder Dan forgot how to hit.... he's using waaaaay too many gloves.

getting back to this being power packed... I got to this card of former Brave and current free agent Michael bourn and realized that this was the first card I've seen before. Therefor the first duplicate! Woot! I needed all of those other ones! It's like owl took a look at my wantlists or something! (although to be truthful he didn't as I don't have public lists for any of those sets yet.... but still...)

not a great shot of Freddie...

but finally, the last card. Another one I didn't have. And even though it's one of the most over used pics in all of baseball card land, I love it. An auto of everyone's favourite knuckler, Phil Niekro.
Thanks owl!!!

CCC Rider...

awhile back, Paul from Carl Crawford Cards offered up some relic cards for trade. I saw one I wanted, and left a comment, offering up a 2008 Bowman Orange Carl Crawford #/250. Paul immediately sent me an email demanding the Crawford, as well as a case of maple syrup, 20 Francs, and the head of Diego Garcia.
I negotiated him down to the Crawford, and a 1982 Kellogs Vida Blue. After all, where the hell would I get 20 Francs???

No, I was not trading for smiling Dave here... we'll get to him in a moment...
Here's the beauty I was after. An N.L. Artifacts of Phil Niekro. Simply sweet.

True to Upper Deck though, It's an National League card featuring a Braves pitcher, with a Yankees swatch. Genius. A future Nobel Prize winner designed that baby. No matter. Phil wore it during his 83 year pitching career and now it's mine.

Paul also included 4 different 2007 Fleer Ultra Chippers.

an Adam LaRoche just for me....

and most of a 1992 Pinnacle Braves team set. Well, the scrubs mostly... but now I have to track down the rest of them. This is the life of a set collector...

Paul actually sent 2 Sid Breams. But that's okay. There's always a seat at my table for Sid. If you don't know why, you aren't a Braves fan....

and that brings us to these....

if a card could sum up the '90's... it would be smiling Dave there....

Thanks for the trade Paul!