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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Sunday Night Baseball: Nick Markakis 2009 Topps Propaganda #PP23 (UER)

The Orioles host the rival New York Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball. As part of both our SNB and 2014 Playoff Contender's series tonight we take a look at long time Orioles outfielder Nick Markakis.


2009 Topps Propaganda  #PP23 Nick Markakis (uer)


Recently @HighHeatStats Twitter feed noted that the top six players in Active Games played with only one club were as follows: 

Derek Jeter 2730
Jimmy Rollins 2090
David Wright 1508
Chase Utley 1460
Nick Markakis 1353
Ryan Howard 1315

There he is Nick Markakis right in the middle of a couple of New Yorkers and a bunch of Phillies. He has made his way onto the list by keeping himself healthy. Since 2006 he has played in 147 or more games every season but one. The one year that Markakis did get injured was 2012 and it cost him his one previous shot at postseason play.  

Outside of an exceptional 2008 season none of Markakis' individual seasons have been outstanding, Markakis has been quite steady. He has put up double digit homers every year and never had an average below .271 - career BA .290.

The AL WAR of 2008
In 2008 Markakis Led all AL players and position players in WAR (7.5) yet he didn't get a single MVP vote. The Orioles were dreck that year (93 losses), but teammate Aubrey Huff got MVP votes (32HR vs 20 for Markakis, 108 vs 87 RBI). Huff's role as a DH limited his WAR to 4.1. Award winner Dustin Pedroia was 2nd to Markakis in AL WAR and AL Position WAR. The offensive WAR category went to A-Rod - Pedroia finished 5th but was tops among players that made it to the playoffs. Note the BoSox were not division winners in 08. They got in on a Wild Card behind the Rays, then lost to the Rays in a 7 game ALCS. 

2009 Topps Propaganda
Propaganda is a 30 card insert set of 2009 Topps Update.  I believe there is one card for each team, the Phillies representative is Ryan Howard.

The card design which evokes the propaganda posters of the 1940 was developed by Chris Speakman,  Speakman continues to do a lot of work with MLB and has a number of Seriagraphs and Posters for each MLB team. His Phillies subjects include Howard, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Chooch.

UER
The Uncorrected Error on the above Markakis card is that Orioles establishment year. The O's only date back to 1954 not 1894.  There is a second inception date for the Orioles but that is Pre-O's Pre-Browns Milwaukee Braves who played their inaugural game in 1901. Regardless that ain't 1894 either.

I am not sure where the 1894 date originates other than it was propagated from a similar card, except my hack research failed to uncover a team that joined baseball in 1894.

The error highlights an inconsistency in the propaganda set. Andrew Bailey's Athletics card specifies 1968, the year they moved to Oakland, rather than 1901 the year that the Philadelphia A's were a charter member of the American League. However, the crosstown Giants card of Tim Lincecum does not specify the year the team arrived in San Francisco, 1958. The card specifies 1883 which is the year they joined the NL representing New York as the Gothams - their nickname prior to becoming the Giants. 

Sources & Links
Baseball Cardpedia
Baseball-ref
Playoff Contenders Index
SportsPropaganda

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