Trade With Bob Walk The Plank: Kemp, Kershaw, Puig, Bauer, Magill, Ryu, Cole.

I completed my first trade with Matthew from Bob Walk The Plank, a relatively new card blog. Matthew contacted me about a swap of cardboard and he sent over some fantastic cards. Go check out his site and work out a deal of your own, as you will not be disappointed.

Another Yasiel Puig RC in the books, and I'm very grateful I've been able to trade for the vast majority. This will forever be one of my favorite photos of ManBearPuig.

Matt had this fantastic Trevor Bauer on-faux-baseball John Hancock as bait, and it immediately caught my eye. Bauer and I attended UCLA at the same time, and I enjoy picking up hits of his. I still believe he'll be a good starter at worst in the bigs.

A brand new Matt Kemp and a new Clayton Kershaw are due up next. The Kemp card is awesome and that Kid K is just all sorts of perfection. A mini with a black border; a vintage-y throwback look; a great action shot of Clayton; and the Brooklyn B on the cap just go oh so well together.

This Matt Magill auto is my first signature of his, and though he struggled last year in spot duty, I think he can still be a solid number five or even four starter due to his swing-and-miss stuff and youth.

A potpourri of Blue Crew goodness. The Kemp gold rookie is my second, and I'll take as many Bison cards from 2005 Topps Update as I can get my hands on. The Ryu Archives Rookie is sweet and the Koufax and Jackie are obviously nails.

And finally, some randomness highlighted by three Gerrit Coles (go Bruins!). This will be the second Juan Uribe card to call my collection home, which is two more than I ever thought I would own.

Thanks for the great trade Matthew and welcome to the blogging community! I'm working on a return package of Pirates that I hope you'll enjoy!

Luis Cruz, You Putz.

I'm not a fan of Luis Cruz the baseball player and now I find myself disliking him as a person after his actions in starting and then REALLY starting a brawl during a Canada/Mexico World Baseball Classic game yesterday.

The worst part is that this is somehow, inevitably, undeniably, going to lead to Juan Uribe getting playing time in 2013.

Cruz acted quite cowardly during the entire incident. Oh, and "unwritten baseball rules/etiquette" is idiotic to begin with. You don't like someone laying down a bunt (not even taking into account that run differential is vital in the WBC)?

Pitch better.

Trade With Nomo's Sushi Platter: Two New Kershaws and A Plethora of Random Goodness.

I completed my seventh trade with Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter. You can check out our first here, second here, third here, fourth here, fifth here, and sixth here. Mike sent over some awesome player collection additions, beginning with two new Clayton Kershaws which take my Kid K Kollection beyond 170 unique cards.

Next up, a bunch of new Chase Utleys. A Dodgers' draft pick AND a Bruin. A wonderful combination.

Some Ryan Brauns found their way to me, and I'm happy to take them off of anybody's hands.

Some random additions: a Carlos Santana (thanks Uncle Ned!), an awesome Longoria Mini RC, a Jerry Sands dupe, a fantastic David Wright mini, a pair of Nomos for Arno (as he'll appreciate them more than I ever could), a sweet Kenley Jansen Chrome RC, and random Hamels.

Penultimately, I have no idea what the meaning of this is, but he has a distinctly Jewish name, so I'll go with that. It's numbered 114/206 and is a miiiiinnnniiiiii. Never a bad pairing of cardboard traits.

And finally, I got Ewwwwribe'd. Mike, I thought we were pals?

Thanks for the great cards Spiegel!

Los Angeles Dodgers 2012 Season Preview: Centerfield

My Season Previews reached their conclusion over at ChadMoriyama.com, and the most enjoyable to write was my take on The Bison. So I'm belatedly posting it over here as well, in its original form, because I like to skew analytical every now and again.

-----------------------------------

This is one of the few pieces in this 2012 Season Preview that I am going to truly enjoy penning. How could I not find joy in recapping one of the greatest seasons in franchise and National League history, one of the handful of players on the Dodgers who will actually be productive in 2012 and beyond, and the man who should have won the 2011 NL MVP, PED test or no PED test?

Following a down 2010, many sought to have Matt Kemp shipped out of Los Angeles. Accusations of laziness, an inability to mentally impress and comprehend the game itself, and caring more about a personal relationship than his on-the-field performance, plagued the Dodger centerfielder. Heading into what unfortunately was a make-or-break year in 2011, few stood behind Matty - mostly Dodger bloggers who skew analytical - and I'm proud to say I was one of those believers in The Bison.

You simply don't give up on a 26-year-old who hits for power, can run the bases, and has a rocket arm, particularly at a time when his value was at its absolute lowest (and his luck on balls in play was the worst it had ever been, with a .295 BABIP that was well below his career .352 BABIP).

Kemp backed up his supporters' beliefs and proved all of the doubters wrong with a season that had him atop both the fWAR (8.7 - NL leader, second in baseball) and rWAR (10.0 - MLB best) leaderboards. Kemp mashed to the tune of a .324/.399/.586/.985 slash line with 39 long balls, 76 extra-base hits, 40 stolen bases in 51 attempts, a 171 wRC+, and a phenomenal .419 wOBA.

Matt improved the areas of his game that most affected the productivity of his '11 campaign. He reduced his whiffs from 25.4% to 23.1% while simultaneously keeping his unintentional walk rate steady (7.3%/7.3%). Both his raw total of free passes and his walk rate increased (53 to 74 and 7.9% to 10.7%) due to 24 intentionally-awarded trips to first base. While many would discount this as simply a product of a horrid lineup around him, Matt's dominant offensive season and ability to go yard in any situation also led to more four-ball, no-strike walks.

The lineup around Kemp is yet another reason to praise him for a season-long Beast Mode that earned him the NL Hank Aaron Award as the top performer in the Senior Circuit. Matt crushed both lefties and righties (.341/.461/.682/1.143 and .319/.380/.560/.940, respectively), increased the amount of line-drives he hit (20% to 23.2%), and continued to not make weak contact, as he popped up to an infielder only 2.2 percent of the time. All of this occurred with guys like Juan Uribe and James Loney providing "protection." It was nothing short of an awe-inspiring performance.

Defensive metrics for one season should really mean nothing, and I'll never be convinced that Matt's 2010 season actually yielded a -27.5 UZR/150. 2012 saw an improvement in the fielding numbers, with a -4.7 UZR/150. With some conflicting numbers on defense (an average of a -9.5 UZR/150 over the last three seasons, with the one atrocious year sandwiched by a positive season and the aforementioned -4.7 campaign), I believe that we can all agree on the basis of Matt's glovework as this: he has a tremendous arm, great speed, and can run down a lot of balls despite the occasional bad route.

I don't fault Kemp for the poor route reading; as long as he makes the play, that should be all we care about. Even if he were to be moved to right field, his bat plays anywhere, and he's an elite player period. His 2012 season is the outlier, not 2011, as he has produced two 5+ WAR seasons with the one poor and unlucky one in-between, as well as a pretty good 2008 season as a 23-year-old.

Questions regarding Matt Kemp's aptitude and Baseball I.Q. were misguided from the start, and frankly were intellectually lazy as well, bordering on TMZ-ish analysis. These ideas ignored the numbers which clearly pointed to where Matt's game had fallen off between 2009 and 2010, and his 2011 performance cemented that he was more than just a big bag of tools.

The Bison is an elite talent and an elite player, and a franchise cornerstone now locked up for almost a decade. He and Clayton Kershaw are the guys you build a winner around. Now, if only Ned Colletti was baseball savvy enough to be that builder....

Trade With Facebooker Ben Schragger: The Dirtiest David Wright Swatch This Side of Long Beach (and Erin Hawksworth).

I completed my first trade with Ben Schragger, who I found through the Facebook group The Sports Card Hangout. I sent Ben a Daniel Hudson auto, and in return received the two relics below.

A new David Wright, which is always a welcome sight. I had no idea it would feature a sweet dirty swatch when I requested it, but it was a most pleasant surprise when I opened the bubbler. It's my second Wright relic with dirt. The most welcome sight, though, would be Wright in Dodger Blue. Make it happen. Oh crap, Ned's still our G.M. Juan Uribe, a lifetime contract is in your future.

Rounding out the trade, this Tulo will find a nice home in my Dirtbags PC.

Thanks for the trade Ben!

And I totally whiffed on this (but did write to her on Facebook), but yesterday was Erin Hawksworth's birthday! Happy (Belated) Birthday Erin! You know what that means:

There Are 5 Of These Jerry Sands Obak Autos In The World. I Own 1 Of Them.

Every now and then I'll scour eBay listings in search of cheap and new Jerry Sands autographs. Sands quickly became one of my favorite Dodgers, perhaps because he's one of the only legitimate offensive prospects, and can alleviate the pain I've felt and will feel - and the soon-to-come inevitable yearnings to blind myself - if I have to watch a single game with James Loney, Juan Rivera, Juan Ewwwribe, and Mark Ellis comprising half of the Dodgers' lineup. Putting that truth aside, Jerry has excellent upside, and he's a decently affordable prospect to collect. Case in point, my latest Sands pickup below.

From 2011 TriStar Obak, a purple parallel John Hancock of the young power-hitter, and it's numbered a cool 3/5. Yes, it's a sticker, but it fits in well with the design of the card, although unlicensed products incorporating as many hard-signed cards as possible would certainly make up for the fact that team logos can't be used, lest lawsuits rain down from the Topps sky. I scored this bad boy for the paltry sum of $8.62 delivered, with a winning bid of just $5.67.

Another Jerry signature in the books, and hopefully more will be acquired in the near future. Oh, and start the kid somewhere Donnie Baseball. He's the only bat with upside not named Matt Kemp, as those 19 extra-base hits, 11.0 BB%, and sterling defense in right (albeit a small sample size) in just 61 games attests to.

Matt Kemp Had A Titanic Season In His Dodger Threads

Topps Marquee is well out of range in terms of what I would consider busting. But, when an affordable hit from one of my guys pops up, I'll grab it. Hence, the newest addition to my Matt Kemp PC.

#'d 67/99, it's from the subset Titanic Threads, which I really like. As you can also clearly see, there are three creases on the right side of the relic border. I'm fairly positive my idiotic self accidentally did this as I was attempting to remove the blocker card the seller heavily taped to the toploader. Thankfully, I think I'll be able to grab another rather cheaply in the future. Have any of you ever accidentally damaged a card as I foolishly did?

My favorite part of the card, by far, is the picture of Kemp in those beautiful throwback Brooklyn uniforms - and with his Rick Ross beard - in full Bison Mode. I can only imagine he's yelling at Juan Uribe to not be so damn atrocious, and to do something, anything, other than make an out.