Lightning Trade Artyukhin and an announcement.

I'm done with reading comments on certain sports pages that cover my favorite team. Too much hatred out there. At first it seemed like the comments pages provided information and helpful links, now they're just filled with hate filled invectives at players, coaches or other posters.

In the best interests of my mental health and blood pressure I'm done reading them. I think the internet would be a slightly better place if people weren't allowed to post a comment on a story for 24 hours. Passion is one thing, but the negativity that is overtaking reason is getting out of hand.

Oh, and the Lightning traded the Russian Freight Trane Evgeny Artyukhin to Anaheim for Drew Miller and a 3rd round pick. It seems Miller will be another name in the hat for a spot on the third or fourth line.

The good news is that it frees up even more cap space that can be used to conclude the long courtship of Alex Tanguay.

Mail Call!

Mail day. Is there anything better than having those little yellow envelopes in the mail? Probably, but it’s still pretty cool. The other day I wandered down to the mailbox and saw that Mr. Mailman had dropped not one, but TWO envelops in the ol’ mail slot. Good times indeed.

Envelope #1 -

Courtesy of JD’s Daddy from JD's Wild Cardz




I sent him some Heritage 2009 extras that I had in exchange for a 2009 Icons Scott Kazmir relic card. It’s shiny and Scott looks like he’s pitching from the stretch. Something that he’s done quite a bit over the past two seasons.

Mike also threw in a few Evan Longoria cards. The 09 Topps base is probably my favorite since it features a Ray and the good ol’ Topps All Star Rookie trophy. One of these days I’m going to start collecting all of the cards that feature the iconic trophy on it.

Envelope #2 -

Courtesy of Chris from Nacho’s Grande aka FanOfReds




Chris helped me clear out some 2009 Allen and Ginter extras and minis that were taking up space on my desk. In return he was going to hook me up with a Carl Crawford Heritage jersey card and “some assorted rays/orioles cards”. Nice, that’s right up my dual collecting alley.

Above you see the highlights out of the 28 cards he sent me. I love the Dick Perez sketch cards. The 1993 Topps Gregg Olsen reminds of what it was like back when the O’s had a closer. The 1988 first round pick racked up 160 saves in six years with the O’s including 27 in the magical 1989 “Why Not” season where a rusty nail was the only thing that kept the O’s out of the postseason.

Chris also knocked off two cards from my 2009 Topps wanted list and one more of my 2008 Allen & Ginter (less than 10 to go!).

Thanks a lot guys!

The Latest from Lightning Land

So what’s happened since last we talked about Lightning hockey. Umm not much. They cut popular winger, Vinny Prospal, the owners are now engaged in an all-out, buy-the other-out battle for control of the team. They did manage to con someone into taking Radim Vrbata off of their hands before they were forced to eat his contract. Oh, and their number one goalie who is coming off a serious concussion took a shot off the helmet, from a 14-year old. So all in all a normal off-season continues.

Let’s tackle issue two first. According to the St Pete Times it was announced on Sunday that the NHL has told co-owners Len Barrie and Oren Koules that there can only be one. Barrie is up to bat first and has till the end of September to buy out Koules. If he is unable to then Koules has the chance to buy out Barrie. If neither can come to an agreement then former owner Palace Sports and Entertainment can regain control of the team or the league will accept offers for the team from any eligible party not named Jim Balsillie.

This latest missive from the head offices is the latest in a series designed to bring balance to the Force…..err the Lightning hockey club. You know what? Whoever buys the team should rename it Lightning Club de Hockey. Just for fun. And the word “club” looks odd if you type it three times in four sentences. OK, back to the column.

First, Mr. Bettman called the grownups into his office during the draft weekend to sort out who did what with the club. Koules was named the head boss, GM Brian Lawton was in charge of player acquisitions and Barrie had to sign off on all moves over $2.5 million.

Second, Barrie had to prove he could pay off his share of the debt. He produced a $10 million letter of credit that satisfied the league. He also settled a $3 million loan Koules had given him last season. It looks like someone has enough money to keep him in Ed Hardy shirts and Diesel jeans for quite some time now. If it’s enough to acquire sole ownership is a questions yet to be answered.

Finally, this buy out situation. Hopefully, they can figure it out without getting the courts involved. The last thing the team and the league needs is another situation like the one taking place in Phoenix. No one (I.e. local radio hosts) knows why Barrie was given the first chance for sole ownership.

This humble writer’s theory is that the NHL would like Koules to own the franchise. Barrie is going to have much less time to secure the funds necessary to buy out his co-owner / rival. The amount of money required to buy out the other hasn’t been mentioned. OK Hockey bought the team last year for about $200 million (about $100 million which was financed by Palace Sports). We can assume, however, that it is a healthy bit of coin.

Barrie has had cash problems in the past, most of them caused by the ongoing saga of his Bear Mountain Resort in British Columbia. On July 20th of this year he announced that he hoped to “finalize a $350 million investment in Bear Mountain Resort arranged by Siraj Capital (Dubai) Ltd.” in October. How much of that money is going into his pockets remains to be seen. In the same statement he said that the funds would be used for “expansion and future development of the Resort”.

Will he get enough, and will it be in time for him to own the team outright? I don’t think so. He still has the chance to put together a group of investors, something he’s allegedly been trying to do since earlier this year.

Can the Lightning survive a Len Barrie-led ownership? I think they can, but it would be stressful. The rumors of the Lightning not being able to meet payroll would probably persist. Personnel would continue to fluctuate. Despite his support of Vincent Lecavalier, the possibility of a trade wouldn’t go away. As long as money is an issue for this club the possibility of trading their elite center man will always be on the table.

Thinking about it makes my head hurt. I can’t wait for training camp. If my current employment situation continues, well my lack of employment I should say, I might be able to attend some of the camp sessions. Woo-hoo! More autographs!

One player that I won’t be getting an autograph from is Vaclav “Vinny” Prospal. In a somewhat surprising move the Club de Lightning (catchy isn’t it?) cut ties with one third of the once vaunted “MVP” line, Surprising in the sense that they were already short a top six scorer before the move.

If they’re able to turn his dismissal into cap space to sign Alex Tanguay and Petr Sykora or Maxim Afinagoniv then it might all work out. Prospal is well liked by a majority of Lightning fans, but has been spotty at best in non-contract years. Forty-five points and a -20 is unacceptable for a player who spent his time on the top two lines. Especially when he hitting the cap at $3.5 million.

Under the terms of the bargaining agreement the Lightning cap will know be dinged at $1.17 million a year for the next six years (2/3 of the remaining contract over twice the length). The Bolts also saved some coin by finding a taker for disenfranchised winger Radim Vrbata. The Lightning sent him back to the Coyotes for Todd Fedoruk and blue liner David Hale.

How will this affect Lecavalier? Reports are that he was best buddies with Prospal, and while I’m sure he understands it’s business related you can’t help but think he’s bummed out about it. Much like he probably wasn’t too pleased with the plethora of trade talk over the last two years.

Of course winning would go a long way to helping him get over it. The pressure is on GM Lawton to make this all work out. So far his summer has gone rather well. He has gone out of his way to make sure there will be depth on the backline, a notable weakness from last season. Bringing in two wingers who could get into the 15-23 goal range each would turn this team into a potential playoff contender.

Oh and by the way, Mike Smith did survive the shot off the head from the teenager. So I guess that’s good news, eh?

A Contest....Also Hopefully the only time I have to use the NASCAR tag

So I went to the flea market today for some new card relief. I spent five bucks and managed to cut down my 2008 Allen & Ginter needs by one, my 1983 Topps needs by 25, mt random Oriole cards by about 25 and my Crawford collection by 3.

The owner also threw in a bag of 200 various cards for free. In that bag was 43 NASCAR / Racing cards. I'm not an aficionado of the racing sports so I have no use for these.

Hopefully someone out there does. So I propose this. The first person that can offer me one (just one) Carl Crawford relic, auto, or just cool ass card that I don't have gets the entire lot.




First come first serve.....

Is this the end of baseball cards as we know it? Probably not

As I was enjoying my morning bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and starting on my daily internet surfing my life was flipped around and turned upside down. Did I finally get a job offer - alas no. Instead I stumbled accross an article on google news.

Upper Deck, after losing it’s NBA license a few months ago, also has lost it’s MLB license. Major League Baseball and Topps have come to a five year agreement that makes Topps the exclusive rights holder for trading cards. Wow. For the first time since 1989 there won’t be an Upper Deck base set to look forward to.

Well that might not be entirely true. Upper Deck does still have an agreement with the players’ association so they can release cards with their images on it. They just won’t be able to have the major league logo or the team logo’s on the cards. How this will be received by the collecting universe won’t be known until the new releases come out next year.

Upper Deck has definitely stumbled this year. Their base set lacked imagination, Goudey was a step back from last year and their decision to cut Masterpieces from the rotation was met with almost universal scorn by the collecting blog-o-sphere. Their one last hope to salvage 2009 lies in their new Goodwin Champions release that should be coming out shortly.

Goodwin Champions, check Mario’s page for a preview, is Upper Deck’s shot at an Allen & Ginter artist inspired set with oddball inserts. If it’s successful it should be an easy set to keep rolling out. Airbrushing off the logos in a “painted” set would look more natural than it would on a photo based set.

Hopefully this is a wakeup call for Upper Deck. Lack of imagination and worthless sets have plagued them over the last few years. UD Documentary (a good idea poorly executed), UD X (just a poor concept) and A Piece of History have all failed. Perhaps losing their license will force them to blow up their products and start from scratch.

In 1989 they were the new kids on the scene. Stunning photography and superior card stock made the competition seem like a minor league product. Unfortunately for UD the rest of the companies, at least the one’s that survived, improved their product to the point that there was a level playing field again.

Topps’ 2009 base set marked the first year where I thought their photography was better than UD’s. The pressure will be on Topps to keep their product from growing stagnant now that they have a monopoly on the MLB licensing. Some are referring to this as a new glory age, like the ’70’s, when Topps last held an exclusive contract.

Today’s high end, $150-a-pack card universe is a lot different then it was four decades ago. How will card shops / on-line retailers react if Topps releases a high end set that bombs with the collecting public? They might not have another brand to turn to in order to help recoup lost sales.

Michael Eisner, Topps Owner, is playing this as a chance for Topps to bring the industry back to the kids. An interesting position, but how is that going to go over with the collectors? Kids aren’t dropping $80-$100 for a box of Allen & Ginter. It’s going to be interesting to see if they can balance an appeal to kids and still satisfy the higher end / older collector out there. Who knows maybe we’ll see a decent product for less than a buck a pack next year.

Is this the beginning of the end for baseball card collecting? No. It’s an upheaval that needs to happen every few decades to freshen things up. Five years will go by pretty quickly, in that time Upper Deck could be back and better than ever. Panini might show that it can do cards as well as stickers. Without competition Topps might have the freedom to try some truly innovative designs without having to worry about the bottom line.

Will they be able to rebound and offer a competitive product in 2010? Will they scrap baseball and focus on hockey - the sport they have an exclusive contract with? Only time will tell.

Good day in Baltimore.....

According to the Brett Hollander show that I'm listening to online, Derrick Mason is going to report to the Ravens tomorrow. His retirement is over.

I'm not too surprised by this. I had a feeling that Mason was rattled by Steve McNair's death and didn't know what he wanted to do. After taking a couple of weeks to think about it he must have realized he still had some gas in the tank.

That's pretty good news for the Ravens who would have been staring at a huge hole in their receiving corps if Mason had stayed retired. He's not going to light up the scoreboard with touchdowns, but he abilty to get open and extend drives by making receptions on 3rd down is key to the Ravens offense.

Also, the same show is reporting that Andy McPhail is debating whether or not to bring up pitching phenom Brian Matusz. With Brad Bergesen on the DL the O's are short a starter and it appears they want to take at the young right hander.

The 22-year-old has dominated AA going 7-0 in his seven starts. The left-hander's ERA is an absurd 1.59 and has struck out 45 hitters while only walking 10.

If he is called up then that would make the O's 3 for 3 in calling up their top prospects this season. Baseball America had Matusz ranked third behind Matt Wieters and Chris Tillman.

Looks like O's fans get a glimpse of the future a little sooner than expected.

Trade Deadline Rant to begin in 3...2....1...

Alright, perhaps the solution to my problem is to stop listening to talk radio. I’m sure that will keep my blood pressure lower. Forgive me this rant for I am normally a pretty laid back guy. Some might even say a little too laid back, but when I listen to some of the radio hosts and their callers it get’s under my skin.

Yesterday I actually yelled at my radio - loudly. It’s not something I’m proud of and I’m glad I was in the call by myself. Perhaps I should hook my Sirius back up for some nice commercial free music.

So what’s prompting these out of character explosions of emotion? Well Rays fans of course. It’s the trading deadline. The Rays are currently on the outside looking in as far as the playoff races go. That means “Rays Fan” (I.e. the ones who thought they traded Aubrey Huff for Aki!) get to bitch and moan about the team.

All day I’ve heard, from both the radio hosts and the callers, that the Rays have to make a move or the season is done. The problem is - the Rays already made their deadline deal. His name is Pat Burrell. They just did it January instead of July.

Once they inked the deal Stu Sternberg and the rest of nDRO made it clear that they were maxed out in the payroll department. According to a St Pete Times article from April the Rays have raised their payroll over 160% in the last two seasons.

If you had told me in 2007 that the Rays would bump their payroll to $62 million by 2009 I would have laughed at you and then asked what city they had moved to. Let’s get it through everyone’s head that they are maxed out.

I’ve written about it before, if the Rays shell out big money on free agents they can’t afford to make mistakes. I hesitate to call the Burrell signing a failure as of right now. I will say it’s not working out, but you can’t call it a failure until it’s over. Who’s to say Burrell doesn’t bang out 15-20 home runs over the next two months and leads the Rays to an amazing comeback?

What I’m trying to say is that yelling about something that you knew was going to happen is pointless. If I tell you for 8 months that I’m not getting you a pony for Christmas and I don’t get you a pony, why would yell at me?

All I’ve heard for the last 5 or 6 years is “we want the Rays to be competitive”. Well guess what, they are competitive! They are eight games over .500 and still in the hunt for the wild card. Now all I hear is that they’re not willing to spend enough to go the extra step. I suppose that’s easy to say when you’re not the one writing the check, but let’s be realistic. Small market teams like the Rays are always more likely to be sellers than buyers for the big names on the market.

Could they have offered Cleveland more than Boston did for Victor Martinez? Without a doubt. Guess what happens if they do. Carl Crawford gets traded or his option isn’t picked up in the off-season. So then you’re looking at losing whatever prospects they traded and Crawford for Martinez and his $7 Million option for next season.

Also, this organization is built on sustained competitiveness. They didn’t sell out the franchise last year when they were leading the division and they didn’t do it this year when they’re 4.5 games out of the wild card.

The Rays spent 10 years stockpiling their young talent, and it seems this team is more than willing to actually have these guys play for them. That’s in contrast to teams like the Red Sox or Mets who only seem to develop talent in order to trade it for established players.

There are weaknesses on this team (cough, cough Navarro), but not worth making a trade that could have sever repercussions somewhere down the line. The boys in the front office have proven that they know what they’re doing so stop whining at the moves they do or do not make. Seriously, stop it! Go out and cheer for your team instead.

So everyone in the TBA just relax. Sometimes the best deal is the one you don’t make.