you would be surprised that many athletes retain a fan's perspective on autographs...i read recently that a famous movie star who was friends with frank sinatra had an autographed photo in their living room just like a fan.......and they were personal friends......i think you have to be somewhat of an autograph collector to understand the mentality.

Posted by dino27 on 9/20/2017 2:54:00 PM (view original):
im a major autograph collector.....5 sports....i was surprised to find out that many players....even stars like to get autographs from other players...it is a great sign of respect......players of today are prima donas......as neshek said all grienke would have done is put a v on the cards.......today's athletes usually sign a graffiti signature not worth having...........in this instance im sure greinke is a jerk....the cards could have been for neshik or his kids...either way a compliment.........each card would probably not fetch more then 100 to a buyer.....cards are less valuable then photos........im not sure what greinke's value is but a player today would not be looking to make profit like that....im sure it was for him or his kids....i believe ive read that brady has signed for some teamates or other players.

This. You see it all the time. After the MNF game between the Lions and Giants, you saw players taking off their jersey, signing it, and exchanging it for someone else's signed, game-used jersey. It's a sign of respect and idk, maybe they have a man cave at home that needs some more decor

exactly...i just saw an article about obj...odell beckham jr before he signed coming into training camp and signing stuff for teamates and how thrilled eli manning was......i cant bring up the link but i think it will explain a lot.

anyone that occasionally buys autographs should never buy them on ebay.....more then 90% are fakes.

I hear Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming back for a new season. So which guy would Larry David be in this Neshek-Greinke scenario? The pushy guy pestering someone for an autograph and getting irate when he's turned down, or the grumpy guy who promised (or maybe not -- there was a misunderstanding?) to sign the card but later felt hounded and said no way?

Back to the topic of the home run explosion: Ruffneck Odor may be the worst 30 home run hitter in the history of MLB. He's got a line of .209/.253/.410/.663 and an OPS+ of 68. When I saw those numbers I thought, Dave Kingman at his worst!

I searched the WIS database to see if there was a 30 HR hitter with a lower OPS than Odor's .663. There's not. In fact there's only one 30 HR hitter with an OPS under .700 -- Kingman in 1986 (35 HR, OPS .686). Despite the 35 HR that season, Kingman was unable to latch on with a team in 1987, and after a brief stint in the minors retired from baseball. (To be fair, it probably wasn't just the OPS that sealed his fate -- there was also the incident with the lady reporter and the rat.)

Posted by crazystengel on 9/21/2017 3:51:00 PM (view original):
Back to the topic of the home run explosion: Ruffneck Odor may be the worst 30 home run hitter in the history of MLB. He's got a line of .209/.253/.410/.663 and an OPS+ of 68. When I saw those numbers I thought, Dave Kingman at his worst!

I searched the WIS database to see if there was a 30 HR hitter with a lower OPS than Odor's .663. There's not. In fact there's only one 30 HR hitter with an OPS under .700 -- Kingman in 1986 (35 HR, OPS .686). Despite the 35 HR that season, Kingman was unable to latch on with a team in 1987, and after a brief stint in the minors retired from baseball. (To be fair, it probably wasn't just the OPS that sealed his fate -- there was also the incident with the lady reporter and the rat.)

That’s really cool. I’ve been paying attention to all the pitching seasons some players are having this season I completely ignored the offensive teams like the Rangers

I saw this graphic on Ryan "Clutch" Goins during today's Jays-Yankees game. Too bad he's batting mostly with none on so he's saddled with a .227 average. Not his fault the bums in front of him never get on!

He did manage to pull off the ol' hidden ball trick yesterday.

Judge hit HR #47 and 48 today. He's one away from McGwire's rookie record with 7 games to go. I'm cheering for him to get 50.

He didn't need the whole week, just the next day!

#49

#50

Least likely player to have a dominant season?

Matt Albers - 1.66 ERA .86 WHIP 60 IP

What's the deal with Jon Lester? I thought John Lackey was the only jerky Cub starter...

I just read that Matt Cain announced his retirement at age 32 (nearly 33). I looked up his page at b-r.com and was surprised by his sharp decline after 2012:

From 2013-17 he's 19-40, with an ERC+ in those seasons between 67 and 86.

From 2007-12 he pitched at least 200 innings a season and had an ERC+ of 126. He also pitched 51 innings in the Giants two World Series runs in 2010 and 2012 with an ERA of 2.10.

What happened to him?

Posted by crazystengel on 9/27/2017 5:53:00 PM (view original):
I just read that Matt Cain announced his retirement at age 32 (nearly 33). I looked up his page at b-r.com and was surprised by his sharp decline after 2012:

From 2013-17 he's 19-40, with an ERC+ in those seasons between 67 and 86.

From 2007-12 he pitched at least 200 innings a season and had an ERC+ of 126. He also pitched 51 innings in the Giants two World Series runs in 2010 and 2012 with an ERA of 2.10.

What happened to him?

That's what I about a lot of these pitchers from when I was a kid. Lincecum, Zito, etc

Yeah, Lincecum especially has a similar career trajectory. Like Cain he was really good through his age 27 season, and then fell off a cliff.