Miggy, Miggy, Miggy can't you see...

500 career home runs!

Congrats Miggy!

Which active players do you think will one day join the 500 HR club?

Don't be a poser! Set your milestones another night...aka Congrats Joey Votto...aka good luck tonight Miggy

I was really hoping that Miguel Cabrera would hit his 500th HR last night so I could show off some of my Andrew McCutchen and Joey Votto/Miguel Cabrera cards.

I have shown off my relic collection of Joey Votto when I discussed Players I shouldn't root for, but I do.  That post is 3 years old and I have added a very nice parallel to the card you see above to my collection.

Joey Votto hit his 2,000 career hit last night at the age of 37.  It is unlikely that he will get to 3,000 but he could be a favorite for MVP this year especially if the Reds make the playoffs.

I will save the Cutch/Miggy/Votto cards for another day, but here is an uncut sheet of Allen & Ginter minis from the Topps Vault that features Andrew McCutchen, Joey Votto, 

Max Poser set a record prior to 2010 for longest spiral of dominos to be toppled over (450 meters) and the most dominos stacked on a single domino (1,002).

With the 2,000 hits for Votto out of the way the dominos are set for more milestones of these 3 players to come to fruition tonight.

I predict Cutch will get to 1,800 career hits tonight and/or Miggy will get his 500th career homerun.

Let's see if I can predict the future again like I did back in 2017 when I declared Charlie Morton would be standing on the mound in Game 7 of the World Series for an Astros victory.

A New YouTube Channel To Watch

I don't have much of a social media presence despite doing nearly a daily blog post here.

I didn't join Twitter until last year.
My Instagram has 1 picture on it.
I sign in to Facebook maybe 3 times a year.
I don't use TikTok.
I don't post on forums.
I don't post content on YouTube.

However I do lurk A LOT.  I read a lot of blogs/forum posts and watch a lot of YouTube videos.

One person who I have recently added to my subscribe list for YouTube is TripleCrown24.

I began following him because he is a fellow Supercollector and I always enjoy learning of other supercollector and how they go about their collections.

If you can't tell by his username, JT is a Miguel Cabrera supercollector.

I have 4 cards featuring Miggy with Cutch.

Please give JT a follow on his YouTube TripleCrown24.  He is documenting his pursuit towards 3,000 unique Miggy cards on his YouTube.

Players I Should Hate But Can't: The Reds Mountie

Joey Votto has blossomed into one of the game's best hitters not just of this decade, but in history.

He plays for one of the Pirates oldest rivals, the Cincinnati Reds.

He has slashed a line of .320/.447/.494 good for an OPS of .951 against Pittsburgh pitching over his career.

By all accounts I should hate him.

But like other players I should hate, but can't he is just too entertaining to root against.

He could be impersonating a Canadian Mountie on Intentional Talk or having some fun with fans by denying them foul balls, smashing paper airplanes, or getting salty by fans preventing him from making outs at home games.

He has turned into a villain at road games.

While not being a jerk as a road villain, he is helping bring children happiness.

Unfortunately the young fan has passed away, but Joey has kept in touch with the family.

On the field in the batter's box is where most of us recognizes Joey's true talent as a ballplayer. A recent article writes about the injustice caused by Joey Votto never winning a Silver Slugger award.  It really is eye opening to how good Votto is, but receives no appreciation.

Below are a pair of cards I have shown on this blog before.

I wish there were more patches besides Votto in the Blue /25 version.

My only other cardboard featuring both Cutch and Votto is this triple mini blank back from the Topps Vault.

The card is an uncut version of the black border minis Max Poser (#270), Andrew McCutchen (#124) and Joey Votto (#70).  In case you're unaware of Poser, he is a legend with domino stacking.  Check him out on youtube.

Like all other blank back cards, the Topps Vault card comes with a certificate of authenticity.

To wrap things up, I will leave you with this Intentional Talk gem.

If the Avengers can't stop Thanos in the upcoming Infinity War, maybe Votto can hop on Nibbles and solve some problems.

M-V-P Thoughts

Over the year's Topps has produced some manupatches and manurelics and manupins etc.
This year they decided to make miniature MVP awards in their flagship release.

Of course there are various color parallels to chase too.  So far, I only have the base award though.  The black, red, and gold are still out there for me to chase.

With the MVP awards being handed out last night, there seemed no better time to show off my latest piece of Cutch cardboard.

Many thought that the AL race would be very close, but it was actually the NL race that was extremely close, one of the closest of all time in fact.

I have no problems with who won the awards, but the basis of which they won made me do some head scratching.  Let me clarify and say no disrespectful things to Jose Altuve or Giancarlo Stanton, they are both fantastic athletes and superstars in the league.  Personally though, I think voters got it wrong for who is the Most Valuable.

Stanton seemed to have won the award based on the number of homeruns he hit, but Aaron Judge who posted one of the best All-Time Rookie seasons in the history of the game got very little MVP love, amassing only 3 first place votes.

Altuve who exceeds at all aspects of the game got a lot of admiration and received 27 of the 30 1st place votes.  Nolan Arenado who is this generation's best defensive third baseman and is constantly one of the league leaders in homeruns and RBIs continues to get overshadowed because he plays in Colorado got very little 1st place votes.

Here's how the top 5 MVP vote getters played out and how their teams would have done without them according to WAR on Baseball-Reference page.

Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
Altuve had 8.3 WAR and the Astros won 99 games.  With Altuve missing from lineup, the Stros still make the playoffs by winning their division.

Aaron Judge, New York Yankees.
Judge amassed 8.1 WAR and the Yankees won 90 games.  Without Judge, the Yankees don't make the playoffs.

The rest of the AL MVP debate wasn't as close as the NL so I am leaving out the likes of Trout, Ramirez, and Lindor.

Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
Stanton posted monster power numbers, but he did it for a team celebrating their 9th losing season.  Stanton did lead the league in homeruns, but his 77 win Marlins failed to make the playoffs (obviously) despite his 7.6 WAR.  They would still be a non contender without him.

Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
The Reds finished with one of the worse records in baseball having lost 92 games.  Votto and his incredible strike zone discipline and above average defense compiled a 7.5 WAR.  He was just one of a handful of qualifying players who had more walks than strikeouts and did it by a +51 rate.  That's mind blowing in today's age where everyone is so prone to the punch out.

Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
Goldy might be one of those guys that never wins an MVP award but is always deserving of being in the conversation for one.  Without his 5.8 WAR, the DBacks still make the playoffs.

Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies
Arenado had 7.2 WAR for the 87 win Rockies.  Without Arenado, the Rox go from being a playoff team to missing the playoffs.

Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies
Chuck Nazty and his 6.0 WAR make the Rockies miss the playoffs, but they still post a winning record which is something that can't be said without his teammate Arenado.

There's many things that goes into the MVP voting.  I don't think anyone will ever give a definitive answer to what makes a player most valuable.

How did Clayton Kershaw who appeared in 16% of the games and only impacted less than 13% of the innings played for the 2014 Dodgers win an MVP award?  Was he dominant for those 13% of the Dodgers innings?  Yup.  Was the other 87% of the Dodgers season that meaningless in comparison to what Kershaw did?   Probably not.

Why wasn't Carlos Correa or Mike Trout who both missed large amounts of time, but still posted above 6.2 WAR each considered more heavily for what they were able to accomplish in a short period of time?  Are they not Valuable to their teams?

I showed this card off after the Astros won the World Series.  This card officially features four MVP award winners now.

Above is another parallel that I have and below is the back.

What are your thoughts on the MVP?
Did the voters get it right?

Personally I would give the awards to Judge and Arenado.

Money and WAR, what is it good for?

This 2017 Immaculate card features 4 guys who are on the verge of having Hall of Fame careers.  All four players were signed to contract extensions within 2 years of one another and all player for smaller market teams.  There's no New York, Chicago, or LA players here.  

An article for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette was recently written about how frugal the Pirates have to be in terms of their market and valuing.

I will take a look at all four players contract extensions and calculate their WAR as provided by Baseball-Reference.  It's understand that 1 WAR is currently valued at roughly $8 million.

Let's begin with the top right corner and work our way around clockwise.

The Tigers extended Miggy in 2014 after restructuring his current contract and extending him an extra 8 years for a 10 year $292 million deal.  So far Miggy has posted WAR totals of 5.0, 5.2, 4.9, and -0.6 giving him 14.9 WAR over the first 4 years of the 10 year deal.  At $8mil per WAR that values his performance at $119.2 mill.  His AYV salary is $29.2 mill which is $116.8 million for the first 4 years.  The Tigers have gotten value, but Miggy's performance is heading in the wrong direction and could lead to tough times ahead for Tigers fans.

Votto was awarded a 12 year contract worth $251 million with a club option for his age 41 season at the start of the 2012 season.  It's not that Votto has been unproductive.  In fact he continues to put up MVP caliber numbers year after year by slashing .300/.400/.500 lines almost every year since signing the contract.  Since signing the contract in 2012 Votto has posted WAR ratings of 5.9, 6.6, 1.9, 7.6, 4.0, and 6.4 equal to 32.4 WAR with 7 seasons remaining on the contract.  32.4 WAR at $8mill per WAR is equal to $259Million.  So far the Reds have gotten their value from the Votto contract.

The absolute steal of the bunch has to be Jose Altuve.  He was given a $12.5 million contract extension with a $750,000 signing bonus.  There are two club options for the 2018 and 2019 seasons at $6 million and $6.5 million respectively.  Over his 4 year contract he has produced 26.5 WAR which when extended by $8mill per WAR would equal $212 million ($200 million over his actual salary).

Cutch signed a contract extension just before the 2012 season for 6 years and $51.5 million.  The Pirates reaped the benefits very early on the contract as Cutch posted monster WAR numbers 7.0, 8.1, and 6.3 for the 2012 to 2014 seasons.  Post dreadlocks era Cutch began with good WAR (4.9 in 2015) but has become more average in the past two years -0.7 and 2.1 (this year).  Depending on if the Pirates pick up the team option for the 2018 season could linger on how he finishes this September.  His 6 year contract has amassed 27.7 WAR which equals $221.6 million in value.

So to recap since signing the contract extensions the teams all received positive returns on their investments so far.

The Tigers seem to be in severe jeopardy of recouping value on Miggy if his numbers continue to decline.

Votto continues to put up outstanding numbers and won't be a free agent until 2023.  His numbers could begin to decline as the contract wears towards the end.

Both Cutch and Altuve contracts have provided the most benefits to the teams this far and both teams have club options to pick up the contracts of the players at season's end.  Altuve is a lock for having his contract picked up and I suspect Cutch will get his option picked up as well since there will be no asset returned to the team if it's not exercised.