Other Ideas, Maybe 18.2

2002 Barry Bonds

(Sure, we have Bonds' great 1992, 1993, 2001, and 2004 cards, but the highest priced card we ever saw for the steroidal homerun king was his $17.38m card for the 2002 season: http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/real/535365)

I'd vote for spine surgery before I'd vote for yet another Barroid card.

NEW PLAYERS WELCOME
Like the idea of adding players who do not have cards in the set. There were a few nominated for the 18.1 add. Some having long and distinguished careers. Some on pennant winners. I would most like to see new players, than a 3rd or 4th addition for one player. They may never be used, but they should be included.

I’ve posted this in past years, but I can’t give it up. 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.

One argument is that everybody would be a 15-game injury risk but couldn't Strat pro-rate the card for Injuries? I know you can pro-rate players for 162 that played in strike shortened seasons in a very old version I had (6.2) that was released on floppy disks.

It would be simple enough to pro-rate the 600 Plate Appearances based on the percentage of real games played. It's just math, and works out to approximately 395. I don't know how their programs are written, but to correct this can't be more than one line of coding.

Besides, we al use players all the time that have 15-game injury chances. Isn't it Strat’s role to make players available, and then our decision which players we choose to use? There didn’t seem to be a problem when we asked them to add the 1994 Expos, also with the same injury issue from a strike-shortened season.

Just a few examples here of deserving players, trying to stay away from players that are already well represented from other seasons. They may have other, better seasons, but 1981 needs all the help it can get :
1981 Tony Armas – 22 HR in 440 AB, .480 SLG, .774 OPS
1981 Hubie Brooks - .307 BA, .411 SLG, .756 OPS
1981 Dwight Evans - .296 BA, .415 OBP, .522 SLG, .937 OPS
1981 Greg Luzinski – 21 HR in 378 AB, .365 OBP, .476 SLG, .841 OPS
1981 Milt May - .310 BA, .376 OBP, .759 OPS
1981 Steve McCatty – 14-7, 2.33 ERA, 1.08 WHIP
1981 Jerry Mumphrey - .307 BA, .429 SLG, .783 OPS
1981 Tom Paciorek - .326 BA, .379 OBP, .509 SLG, .888 OPS
1981 Tim Raines - .304 BA, .391 OBP, .829 OPS, 71 SB (rookie season)
1981 Jerry Remy - .307 BA, .368 OBP
1981 Mike Scioscia - .276 BA, .353 OBP (rookie season)
1981 Dave Winfield - .294 BA, .464 SLG, .824 OPS (1st Yankee season)
1981 Richie Zisk .311 BA, .485 SLG, .851 OPS

Armas may be the most deserving from this list. He was one of the top power hitters in the AL from 1980-85 but is only represented by his very sub-par 1986.

I agree that Steve Kemp should have a card. And I like all those 1981 cards for sure.

1971 Steve Mingori

Steve F - 71 or 74 Mingori? Both are good upgrades to the current card

I like the '71 card better, though he will be with Clev instead of KC...

I like the '71 card better, though he will be with Clev instead of KC...

I agree. the 71 is a "backward" card, while the 74 is more of a "loogy" card. Still, the 71 card was the one that gave me fits when I was a youngster

I've long been on record as being a big fan of the '71 Mingori card, as are STEVE F and BC15NY. As I've previously stated elsewhere in the ATG Card Discussions forum, Mingori was the best reliever in the '71 card set.

Here's a link to Mingori's 1974 card from the '70s game:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/player/738322/1670/1/70

It's kind of an ugly card, especially with the HRs against righties. He'd be a lefty specialist only.

Here are Mingori's numbers for each season:

1971 Steve Mingori, Indians 1-2 1.43 0.971. Career bests in in ERA, WHIP, HR9, H9 (an astounding 4.9).

1974 Steve Mingori, Royals 2-3 2.81 1.129

I don't think that there's any comparison between the two cards, as Mingori's 1974 ERA is nearly double his 1971 ERA.

The difference in the two cards is likely even more pronounced than the difference between John Franco's two cards.

If the choice is being made solely on the numbers, this would appear to be a clear no brainer in favor of Mingori's 1971 card.