RIP, Jose Fernandez (1992-2016)

Saddened today to hear about the passing of Marlins pitcher, Jose Fernandez at the age of just 24 from a boating accident.  Always tragic to lose someone with such a bright future at so young an age.  My thoughts go out to his him family, friends, teammates and fans.  And to all of MINE out there: Please be careful out there, OK?

National league All-Stars Updated!

NOW we're done: The National League All-Stars Page is updated at long last!

A quick note about inclusion... In the spirit of the "All-Star Team," even though the were selected on Career WAR (total, not just with that league!) I still wanted to try to get SOME representation from each team.  As it works out, I had that with just one exception: The ROCKIES.

The Marlins had Kevin Brown, albeit on the A.L. Team and an off-roster representative in Mike Piazza. (Who's shown on the page in the Marlins uniform he wore for a whopping EIGHT DAYS in 1998. lol)

The Devil Rays had an off-roster rep in Wade Boggs (again, shown in his Devil Rays jersey, c.1998-'99.)

And the Diamondbacks had Randy Johnson (on the A.L. Team) and Curt Schilling who legitimately made the N.L. squad.

But there was a single player on either team who'd played even a single game for the Colorado Rockies. EVER. So TODD HELTON's inclusion was by far and away the least embarrassing way to remedy that.  He was the ONLY player, of the 80 on either team, that was not chosen for his WAR ranking alone.  And don't worry: He didn't knock off Willie McCovey!  The guy who was cut for Helton was Roger Connor, another dead-ball era player who I've already been told I have too many of. I disagree, but I don't suppose I'll here any complaints about this in any case.

Also, while it APPEARS that we don't have any DODGERS. (Yeah, IKR?!) That's only because Piazza is shown in his marlins jersey.  It IS a bit odd that there were any other All-Time Dodgers though. :/

All-Time Diamondbacks Updated!

The All-Time Arizona Diamondbacks page is updated!

AND with that, all 30 teams are completed: Rosters selected and cards posted. (At least the FRONTS.) ;)

Officially there IS one team left to post: The All-Time National League All-Stars. After that, and in another week or two once the season is over, I'll start posting team stats. A few teams (those without active players on them) have their stats posted already.  I'll also revamp the Standing page as well.

Beyond that? I would like to do something with individual player stats, but I now from experience that this can be time-consuming and tedious, so I'm not sure just yet how I want to do it.

In the meantime, please enjoy and let me know if you have any questions about any of my selections! :)

All-Time American League All-Stars Updated!

So... I was going to finish the Diamondbacks page first, but since I already had the cards done, and the A.L.is finished now, I went ahead and updated the All-Time American League All-Stars Page.

There are a handful of bizarre looking choices, but please remember that the players were chosen first on the basis of TOTAL Career War, and then assigned to the respective League's team according to which league they had the most WAR with, and what the alternative choices would be.

All-Time Rays updated!

The All-Time Tampa Bay Rays page is updated!

...And with that, the American League Pages are all updated. (A.L. All-Stars coming soon!)

All-Time Rockies Updated!

The All-Time Rockies Page has been updated, and I now have all teams completed through the 1993 expansion!

All-Time Marlins Updated!

The All-Time Marlins Page is updated!

Just three more teams to go! (Not including the two All-Star teams.) A coupe of thoughts...

1) Looking at this team it is CRAZY how many guys went on to enjoy considerable success on other teams, (or go down as huge busts of historic proportion, like Carl Pavano!) But think about it: Beckett, Penny, Lowell, Millar, Reyes, Nen, Brown, Cabrera, Burnett, Delgado, Renteria, Uggla, Sheffield... They were either just passing guys through for a cup of coffee, or else serving as the AAA Club for the rest of the major leagues!

2) Given how weak the team has been, it should come as no surprise that there are EIGHT active  players on it. Except... EIGHT! 20% of the team! So this team is a PRIME example of why I'm not posting player and team stats until the 2016 season is over. I'm reasonably confident the rosters won't change, but obviously the stats will.

3) Another team where the new color in the lettering doesn't really work with the older uniforms. And it looked MUCH WORSE if I used that Blood-Orange color as opposed to the Electric-Blue.

All-Time Blue Jays updated!

The All-Time Blue Jays Page has been updated, and teams are now complete through the 1977 Expansion!

All-Time Mariners Updated!

The All-Time Mariners Page is updated!

I'm not happy with these cards for a couple of reasons...

1) There are not a lot of pictures out there of Mariners players prior to 1993. (In the old, blue and gold uniforms.) Consequently there are several really low pictures used here. (Bankhead, Hanson, Young... ugh.) If anyone has any better ones, I will totally use them if you send them to me!

2) The Blue-on-Teal lettering is difficult to read. At least I find it that way.

3) Just as with the Padres there was a dramatic color shift, this time from Light-Blue on Gold to Dark-Blue on Teal, and the new color lettering looks really odd over the older players and with the older logos.  I'm debating whether or not to fix this with these two teams now, or to wait and do something different in next year's set, assuming there is one.

All-Time Royals Updated!

The All-Time Royals Page has been updated!

All teams now complete through the 1969 Expansion!

All-Time Nationals and Expos are updated!

The All-Time Washington Nationals and Montreal Expos page has been updated!

All-Time Astros Updated!

The All-Time Astros Page has been updated!

AND, this now marks ALL teams through the '62 expansion being updated!

All-Time Brewers Updated!

The All Time Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Pilots Page is updated!

All-Time Rangers Updated!

The All-Time Senators and Rangers page is updated!

All-Time Mets updated!

The All-Time Mets page is updated!

I really like how this team turned out.  You want to hear something crazy? The 1986 team had 13 of these guys on it!  And the 1988 team had 14!

The All-Time Angels Page is updated!

The All-Time Angels page is updated!

All-Time Padres Page is updated!

The All-Time Padres Page is updated!

I'll be honest... This one looks REALLY weird.  The Navy Blue-on-White motif is based on the CURRENT Padres uniforms, which is how I'm doing the color scheme on ALL the cards.  But between the Brown and Gold uniforms and either the Brown and Gold or Brown and Orange Logos... One or the other look REALLY out of place.

All-Time Pirates Updated

The All-Time Pirates Page is updated!

And with that I have completed the CARDS for the original 16 Franchises.  STATS will not be posted until the 2016 season ends, as many of the remaining teams have active players and the stats will change slightly.  Expansion teams will also be done in the order of giving priority to teams without active players first as not only are the stats likely to change, but there are several cases in which the ROSTER may change, if certain players continue to play well and gain WAR.  So I'll start with the safer teams first.

Something different...

It's really too bad we weren't closer to April 1st. Oh well.

 All-Time Celtics:

Twins and Senators Page is Updated!

The All-Time Minnesota Twins and Washington Senators Page is updated!

...AND with this updated, I've completed the original 8 American League teams! (I just have the Pirates to go and the original 8 National League Teams will be done as well.)

All-Time Reds Updated!

The All-Time Reds page is updated!

All-Time Indians Updated!

The All-Time Indians page is updated!

Also - trying to figure out how I want to start including STATS.  So the Indians page will be my first attempt at this. We'll see how it goes.

Teaser Cards:

All-Time Phillies Page Updated!

The All-Time Phillies are updated!

The Black Aces

Since I appropriated Mr. Grant's original idea (honoring the twelve (now 15) African American Pitchers who have won 20+ games in a season) and created a "Latin Aces" page last night, I figured it was only fair to come back and do one honoring his original "Black Aces," plus the three Pitchers that have (in theory) joined the group since he originally honored the first twelve.  And a hats-off to "Mudcat" for recognizing them in the first place!

2016 All-Time Oakland, KC and Philadelphia Athletics page is updated!

The All-Time A's page is updated!

The Latin Aces

In the same spirit of Mudcat Grants "Black Aces," which honors the now 15 African American Pitchers (including Grant himself) who have won 20+ games in a season, here are the "Latin Aces." A group of honoring the 16 Latin American born Pitchers who have also won 20+ games in a season.

The cards use the same template as my 2016 All-Time All-Stars, but with different pictures and borders colored to represent the flag of the country of their birth. The year(s) listed was their 20-win season(s). (Check out Juan Marichal!)

All-Time Cubs Updated!

The All-Time Cubs All-Stars page has been updated. Here's the first sheet: