ATG 8 Player Addition #5 Nomination Thread

I agree 100% with Salty. Players should be selected based on their individual cards, not whether one player fills a franchise need better than another player. The best way to fill franchise needs is for SOM to add complete teams.

Further, when it comes to adding complete teams, SOM should be more proactive and just add teams, as some badly needed franchise teams may never get voted in.

Lastly, I don't understand why SOM insists on adding new cards in very small dribs and drabs, like scraps falling off the table for the peasants. They have a whole library of teams to draw upon, nearly every team from 1950 to the present and maybe about one third of the teams from 1920-1949. That's about 40,000 player cards in the archives, already prepared and ready to go. Those cards don't have to be created or reinvented, but merely have their data entered to be in the ATG series

Just to put things in perspective, if SOM issued 100 new cards a month from its current inventory of cards it would take NEARLY 40 YEARS to exhaust that inventory and by then there would be another 40 years of inventory to choose from for those of us still left!

Come on SOM, do the right thing and step it up. Although we complain, your fan base is among the most loyal of any game EVER created. We share a mutual interest in seeing the game improve, thrive and survive.

I also agree but today this is how it works. So instead of reacting to SOM's call out for player nominations I believe it would be better to take a proactive approach and create a top players to add list. And this shouldn't turn into just a fill that franchise hole...the added focus on era should bring deserving cards to the forefront regardless of franchise. Ultimately if a card can fill multiple slots (great franchise add and deserving era card), then great.

I also agree but today this is how it works. So instead of reacting to SOM's call out for player nominations I believe it would be better to take a proactive approach and create a top players to add list. And this shouldn't turn into just a fill that franchise hole...the added focus on era should bring deserving cards to the forefront regardless of franchise. Ultimately if a card can fill multiple slots (great franchise add and deserving era card), then great.

Here are the batters and pitchers wish list compiled over the past few years. A good place to start:

Batters:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10Zg8UzVKj5q6vxrhFj0pW7FCCICQMIXAK97D-WQY1vc/edit?authkey=CPr8geoB&authkey=CPr8geoB#gid=0

Pitchers:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S2kAOenrcRfPzjZcKbL2qbH1IL9ScFI6v-8PnDZqidw/edit?authkey=CLXE3sME&authkey=CLXE3sME#gid=0

Should be able to find something you like here.

Bill

Thanks Bill! That will be a great aid.

Do you have a key to columns J and L? Some of it is obvious but some not so much. And the colors, those are the ones that have been added?

Cheers
Rosie

Thanks Bill! That will be a great aid.

Do you have a key to columns J and L? Some of it is obvious but some not so much. And the colors, those are the ones that have been added?

Cheers
Rosie

Rosie-- Bill has been compiling that list from years back.

What other suggestions do you have on us being pro-active ?

Back to the current page

Here are the first 40 players nominated (SOM will have to make the call about Bryce Harper)

1 Joe Cunningham 1959
2 Jeff Zimmerman 1999
3 Sandy Alomar 1997
4 Joe Gordon 1942
5 Terry Pendleton 1992
6 Ron Blomberg 1973
7 Joe Sewell 1923
8 Sandy Koufax 1964
9 Dick Ellsworth 1963
10 Orlando Cabrera 2001
11 Jack Morris 1983
12 Orel Hershiser 1988
13 Bibb Falk 1926
14 Mark Loretta (SD )2004
15 Roger Metzger 1973
16 Todd Hundley 1996 or 1997
17 Mickey Vernon 1953
18 Rusty Staub 1969
19 Darrell Evans 1973
20 Ichiro Suzuki 2007
21 Harlond Clift 1938
22 Ray Durham 1999
23 Mike Lowell 2007
24 Justin Verlander 2011
25 Ellis Burks 1996
26 Omar Vizquel 1999
27 Javy Lopez 2003
28 Felipe Alou 1966
29 George Kell 1950
30 Miguel Tejada 2004
31 Ozzie Smith 1985
32 Charley Radbourne 1884
33 Charlie Gehringer 1929 or 1936
34 Deacon White 1876
35 Sammy Sosa 2001
36 Luke Easter 1950
37 Stuffy Stirnweiss 1945
38 Ben Zobrist 2009
39 Wayne Terwilliger 1959
40 Bryce Harper 2015 (if doable) or Johnny Dickshot 1945
CLOSED - Any players after the first 40 (or nominations for additional new cards for a player after the first) will not be used for the poll.

I think a great place to start (for Strat) would be to eliminate the voting process and just give us all 40 cards that have been requested.

Another idea would be you get to have a card added for every 5-pack you purchase. Throw us a bone here.

Thanks,
Bill

Thanks Bill! That will be a great aid.

Do you have a key to columns J and L? Some of it is obvious but some not so much. And the colors, those are the ones that have been added?

Cheers
Rosie

Column J is for positions (O for early 20th Century outfield, the others for scorebook notation), column K for those who asked for the player/year first, column L is a combination of things -- some obvious as you said MVP, Aaron Award winners, some not so obvious, BRC: better representative card, BIP: Bill's Idiosyncratic Pick, players who might fly below the radar but would have a place, SITH: Significant Impact on Team History, could be record holder for a particular team, could be a position player with the most number of games played for a particular team at a position, TEAM: members of a particular year (the best year of a team in a 22-year block (1900-1922, 1923-1944, 1945-1966, 1967-1988, 1989-2010), HOF: best year of a Hall-of-Fame player. The color codes come from a series of monthly polls that I ran a while back; I have been too lazy to take the colors away -- red represented those players most desired by SOM players over a series of polls. WS: from the 1932 World Series (a year chosen at random).

Hope that answers any questions. Glad the list is of some help.

Bill

I posted this once before, but it seems relevant here. There seems to be an obvious discrimination against player cards from 1981 in the ATG8 set.

BATTER CARDS:
1978 - 35
1979 - 48
1980 - 48
1981 - 2
1982 - 66
1983 - 34
1984 - 76

PITCHER CARDS:
1978 - 28
1979 - 30
1980 - 31
1981 - 8
1982 - 49
1983 - 28
1984 - 51

Is it just because the players went on strike in the middle of the season? Is this some sort of twisted pay-back? What gives? 1981 was memorable for many reasons:
- Six of the 7 AL East teams had records over .500.
- Billy Martin's "small-ball" Oakland A's lead the league in HR.
- The Yankees won the pennant, and then missed the play-off for the next 14 seasons.
- Over in the NL, because of the strike the teams with the best records in both divisions missed the play-offs.
- The Expos made their only play-off appearance.
- For the only time in history, the World Series MVP was shared by 3 players.

The next time that SOM wants to add players to the ATG set, how about focussing on this apparently "forgotten" season! There are lots of great individual performances from 1981 out there waiting to be included.

So when do we vote ??? There are many great choices to narrow down.