Why would Chase Utley STAY in Philadelphia?

This spring Chase Utley was coming off of two injuring riddled seasons. A large question lingering for the Philadelphia Phillies was whether or not they should re-sign the all-star second baseman who is set to be a free agent at the end of the season. 

To me that has all changed.  Utley is off to a good start, the Phillies not so much. 

2011 Phungo #26 Chase Utley

Chase Utley is batting .309 with 4 Homers and 16 RBI with an OPS+ 144 during the early part of 2013. This project to just a tick under his best career years. True he has been worthless v LHP (.200 BA/ .273 OBP/.450 SLG) to the point where he bunted to get on TWICE during the Pirates series, but the overall number still stand up.

This brings up the question with Chase Utley getting this kind of production and the Phillies treading water in neutral at best.

Why would Chase Utley want to remain with the Philliies?

The Spring Traing Q has been reversed.

The Phils keep saying they want to get younger but they don't.  Even with Utley and Ryan Howard in the lineup they are plaqued by the same issues they had in 2012 - General lack of scoring and scoring Opps and bad 7th & 8th inning relief. 

A player of Chase Utley's caliber and age (34) may not want to stick around for the Phillies youth movement and I see him both A) getting traded  and B) becoming a free ageint.  Buster Olney mentioned both the Orioles and Royals as landing spots recently.  I would love to see him play for the O's as they are the Team Phungo AL home team.  I really can't stand to see him go but that would soften the blow.

- signed Phungo 2 Cents

Phungo Cards 
Some other Chase Utley Phungo Cards
2013 Phungo #26 Chase Utley (scroll down)
2012 Phungo #26 Chase Utley
2009 Phungo #26 Chase Utley

Links
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
    

TAXES!!! - ticket Tax that is or "Convenience Fee"?

Ok Convenience Fees and Order Charges are not Taxes, but they feel like Taxes.

This is easily noticed when you pick up tix from your favorite team, the prices never seem to be what they was originally advertised.  I did a little research to find out what these hidden fees amount to and how they can affect the consumer.  Here is what I found.

PHILLIES	Face	Final Cost	Hidden Fees	Hid Fee %	Conv Fee	Per Order Charge	Notes
SRO $17/Tix Single	$17.00	$24.00	$7.00	41%	$2.50	$4.50	4/10 v Mets Cheapest
SRO $17/Tix x 2	$34.00	$43.50	$9.50	28%	$5.00	$4.50	4/10 v Mets
section 421 Row 2 - $30/tix	$60.00	$72.50	$12.50	21%	$8.00	$4.50	4/10 v Mets Upper Plate
Sec 130 r 9 - $70/Tix x 2	$140.00	$154.50	$14.50	10%	$10.00	$4.50	4/10 v Mets Lower Plate
ORIOLES	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
Sec 336 r 19 Up $9 Single	$9.00	$14.75	$5.75	64%	$1.75	$4.00	4/16 v Rays Cheapest Tix
Sec 336 r 19 Up $9 2 tix	$18.00	$25.50	$7.50	42%	$3.50	$4.00	4/16 v Rays Cheapest Tix
Sec 54 r 12 $60	$120.00	$139.50	$19.50	16%	$15.50	$4.00	4/16 v Rays Lower
NATIONALS	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
Sec 403 r L single tix	$10.00	$15.75	$5.75	58%	$1.75	$4.00	4.22 v Cardinals
Sec 404 r M x 2 tix	$20.00	$27.50	$7.50	38%	$3.50	$4.00	4.22 v Cardinals
Sec 312 r G x 2tix	$48.00	$60.50	$12.50	26%	$8.50	$4.00	4.22 v Cardinals
Sec 116 r C x 2tix	$130.00	$151.50	$21.50	17%	$17.50	$4.00	4.22 v Cardinals
BRAVES	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
SRO single	$6.00	$9.60	$3.60	60%	$1.50	$2.10	4/16 v Royals
SRO two tix	$12.00	$17.10	$5.10	43%	$3.00	$2.10	4/16 v Royals
sec 402 r 16 x2	$24.00	$30.60	$6.60	28%	$4.50	$2.10	4/16 v Royals
sec 104R r19	$136.00	$151.60	$15.60	11%	$13.50	$2.10	4/16 v Royals
METS	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
Sec 534 r 3 x2	$13.00	$20.75	$7.75	60%	$1.75	$6.00	4/23 v Dodgers
Sec 534 r 3 x2	$26.00	$35.50	$9.50	37%	$3.50	$6.00	4/23 v Dodgers
sec 114 r9 x 2	$170.00	$194.50	$24.50	14%	$18.50	$6.00	4/23 v Dodgers
YANKEES	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
Sec 420B r11 single $6	$6.00	$9.30	$3.30	55%	$0.00	$3.30	Special $5 for MasterCard Tickest for selected Tues
Sec 425 r8  two tix $6	$12.00	$15.30	$3.30	28%	$0.00	$3.30	$5 Master card offer as above
Sec 225 r3 two tix 155.00	$310.00	$328.10	$18.10	6%	$18.10	$0.00	4/15 v Diamondbacks
sec 20 r 7 two tix 700	$1,400.00	$1,439.40	$39.40	3%	$39.40	$0.00	4/15 v Diamondbacks
Wilmington Blue Rocks	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
Reserved Seat single	$9.00	$10.50	$1.50	17%		$1.50	4/15 v Carolina
Reserved Seat X2	$18.00	$21.00	$3.00	17%		$3.00
Reading Phillies	Face	final	hidden	hid %	conv	order	notes
Boxed Seat	$11.00	$14.00	$3.00	27%	1	$2.00	4/15 v Harrisburg
Boxed Seat x2	$22.00	$26.00	$4.00	18%	2	$2.00

I took a look at The Phillies and their brethren NL East as well as Yankees and Orioles largely because they are within reasonable commuting distance. I also included some local minor league teams.

For each team I looked into the cheapest ticket, an Upper level behind the plate ticket and a pricy lower level ticket. All games are for weeknights - generally the teams next home game on a school night.

I don't think anything here will shock fans. The ticket fees are generally the same regardless of the base cost of the ticket.  If there is one thing that is surprising it is how much extra one pays on a convenience fees for a "budget:" ticket vs swanky seats behind the dugouts.

The Phillies have $7 in ticket fees on a $17 SRO tix.  That bumps up the cost of the original ticket by 41% to a cost of $24.  If you have the funds to purchase two tix in the lower level your fees on a pair of $70 tix are $14.50.  The hidden fee pct is only 10%. So yes in this case the 1% due fair better than us schlubs that are just happy to get into a game.

The Orioles had the most egregious markup - there $9 upper level tickets actually cost close to $15 on line. The hidden fees amount to 64% of the original price.

Just for fun I looked into some Yankees Legends seats.  The ticket fees themselves were $39.40!!!!

Of course those cost $1400 for a pair, therefore the ticket fees are only 3%. 

There are some other ticket fees that varied on how you wanted the tix delivered.  The Braves were the first team that had an upcharge for Will-Call tix.  The Yankees had several different ticket delivery options and prices.  It is interesting to note that the Yankees offer a $6 ticket on Tuesday Nights if your a Mastercard holder. 

I should also note that these ticket fees can likely be saved by purchasing tickets at the stadium, although this may not be possible day of the game if there is the prospect of a sellout.

I honestly don't mind the hidden fees, but I wish the teams would be more up front about the fees.  Rather than nickel and diming a fan like an airline I would prefer they just tell me the tix price up front.  Stubhub has moved to this format - right away you know what your spending as opposed to navigating through several screens to find out your $15 tix is really going to be $25. 

2011 Phungo Cards - Jamie Moyer

I wanted to take a timeout to recognize Phungo Phavorite and all-around good guy Jamie Moyer on becoming the oldest pitcher to record a Win in a Major League game.   Moyer went 7 strong for the Rockies last night in their 5-3 victory over the Padres.  The two runs that Moyer gave up were partially due to an error by Troy Tulowitzki on a routine grounder.

2011 Phungo #50 Jamie Moyer

It was career win number 268 for Moyer, tying him for 35th all-time with Jim Palmer.

Photo on the above Phungo Card was from prior to a game in 2007 - On many of Moyer's off days he would go from dugout to foul pole signing autographs.  This is one of several reasons I frequently salute Moyer as part of the Good Guy Club. 

Congrats to Jamie on the victory, and I hope he racks up a few more.

2012 Topps Value Box - Is it a Value??

For The Collector - Value Box??? 


The Box claims there is a 40% Savings - Is this true.   


Lets do the math. 
5 x $1.99 for five Topps Pack = $9.95
2 x $4.00* for two Hobby Heritage =  $8.00 

2 bonus cards = $3.05

Ok I cheated on the Mantle card and the bonus and made up a number.  All 3 chrome cards are gong for $3.99 and up on the bay.  The GG cards are going for a buck each.  $3.05 is a conservative estimate.  Has anybody actually sold one of the chrome inserts on ebay?? 


*also I assumed a cost of $4 on the Heritage Hobby.  Not sure what single packs are going for this year.  I am just going off past experience.   


That gives us $21.00.  The Box lists for $14.99.  There is a savings of $6.01. 

This comes down to where you call the savings number at - if it is off of $21 your savings is only 28%, however if you specify $14.99 as the base then the savings is.....40%


etc

oh yeah there are cards in the box - here is the chrome insert

Thats a teaser more content tomorrow. 

Hero Numbers Part II: Can they Mean More?

2012 Topps #100 Jose Bautista
 As an adult I now realize Hero is a term that is more appropriate when applied to my local EMT making snap decisions under difficult circumstances then a Millionaire Ballplayer throwing and hitting a little white ball.  In that way I suppose we should use the term Glamor Number, but Hero Number is what I grew up with and I am sticking to it.


This line of thinking let me down a strange path ...Lets look at this years Heroes.  


100 Jose Bautista 
200 Miguel Cabrera
300 Josh Hamilton


I quickly noted that the latter 2 in the group have had various issues with alcohol and substance abuse. 

Should Hamilton and Cabrera get Hero Numbers?

I wanted to find out how much this is noted by fans of the players.  

Regarding Miguel Cabrera 
Too Many Verlanders: 
When he got in trouble again for drinking and driving, I definitely got very frustrated, as I get every time some knuckleheaded gazillionaire athlete, who could easily afford 10 different limo drivers every night, pulls that crap.  He's more frustrating than most for me because he plays for a team I root for, and more importantly he obviously has so much more talent than almost every Major Leaguer that I would hate to see him throw that away.


Then TVL went on to add an interesting comment
....while what Cabrera did (multiple times) was very reprehensible, and probably should have resulted in more severe punishment either by the local authorities, MLB or both, I find people criticizing Cabrera and fawning over Josh Hamilton frustratingly hypocritical.
 
When I asked the questions Too Many Verlanders was unaware that one of the other Hero Number Mates was Hamiton. 


Regarding Hamilton 
Play at the Plate

We would all hope the people our kids look up to would be solid citizens who don’t make mistakes.  In reality, many athletes aren’t good role models.  It could be for any variety of on or off field behavior, but it’s true nonetheless.  The thing I like about Josh Hamilton is that he stood up and faced the media, and thus his fans, when he could have just tried to ignore or cover up his recent relapse.  All of us make mistakes, but most of us don’t face the scrutiny someone like Hamilton faces.

interesting comments all.   And I am glad I asked the question. 

Granted at the time of publication Topps didn't know that Hamilton would tarnish his refurbished image.  Regardless It's obvious that Topps didn't really note off the field activities when awarding the numbers.


And I ask Why Not? 


Would you consider it a gimmick if Topps awarded the Hero Numbers to star players who are also solid citizens??? 

Check the Right Hand Side - Topps sort of owns the concept of Hero Numbers so why not capitalize on it.   

Award Numbers 100 200 and 300 to star players who are also part of the community and generally on the good behavior side.  

Hero Numbers could be a topic of instant conversation every year and not just another lame gimmick.

On Deck
Hero Numbers Pt III - Two more Hero numbers I want to see 


Replay - Previous Post on Hero Numbers Plus
Are Hero Numbers Significant 
A comprehensive List of Topps Hero Numbers (1952-2012) compliments of Night Owl Cards  big THANKS 


Thanks also to Too Many Verlanders and Play at the Plate for some insights into two of the games biggest stars. 

Did 2012 Topps Sandbag Stars out of Series One?

While reading reviews and opinions associated with 2012 Topps I notices a handful of bloggers commenting that their packs and breaks lacked star power. 

2012 Topps #319 AL LL Wins Verlander, Sabathia, Weaver 

Indeed 2 of the 3 players on the AL Wins League Leaders Card were not honored with Series 1 base cards.

This poses the following Question:

Did Topps Sandbag Series One in 2012 in an attempt to Backload the Stars into Series 2?

This is an odd assumption.  I have thought that Series 1 was a little more star laden in the past few years, but maybe I am just jaded by the time Series 2 hits the streets.

To look into whether Series 1 is Star Deffered I had to find a way to measure Stardom.  Depending on what the researcher values this can be measured a number of ways.  Baseball-Reference has an incredible warehouse of information easily accesible.  In the end I decided to use something that is pretty unscientific, yet I believe highly fitting -  The MVP Voting.  The MVP voting is definitely a subjective excercise - but so is Superstardom.  Chances are unless your a fantasy geek you first learned about a star player from outside your club via word of mouth, not analyzing their OPS in the Internation League.

Between the 2 leagues there were 72 Players who recieved either an MVP or Cy Young vote for the 2011 season.  Of those 72, 10 were duplicated pitchers who also were on MVP Ballots (ie. Justin Verlander).  I removed 4 players that were either FAs or we expected to move teams during the off-season (Pujols. Fielder, Reyes, Beltran) although in the end 2 of them were sort of issued cards :)

That left us with 58 "Stars" In theory half of these players (29) should have been issued Cards in Series 1 while the other 29 would get into Series 2.  Let see how they fared

In each column pair, the player name is preceded by their series 1 card number.  If no number is given that indicates that the player was not in 2012 Series 1.  Pardon the weird psuedo-alphabetical order.    

Card	Player		Card	Player		Card	Player
213	A Avila		290	Grandrson		288	Montero
130	A Cabrera		150	Halladay		165	Morse
50	A Gonzalez		190	Hamels		120	Pence
294	Axford		300	Hamilton			R Cano
100	Bautista		280	Howard			Romero
	Beckett		76	I Kennedy		117	Ruiz
310	Beltre			I Kinsler			Sabathia
	Berkman			J Shields		185	Sandoval
1	Braun			J Upton			Stanton
103	Bumgarner		250	Jer Weaver		110	Teixeira
155	Cain		330	Kemp		140	Tulowitzk
270	Castro			Kershaw			V Martinez
	CJ Wilson		20	Kimbrel			Valverde
	D Haren		105	Konerko			Verlander
	D Pedroia			Lee			Victorino
206	D Robertson			Lincecum			Vogelsong
	E Longoria		200	M Cabrera			Votto
	Ellsbury		180	M Rivera		195	Zobrist
	Gallardo		55	M Young
	Gordon		174	Molina

From the chart we see that 33 of the 58 stars received S1 cards.  that is 4 more than half, or 57% to be more specific.  Even if you add Fielder and Beltran as misses, Topps was above the 50% threshold. 

This doesn't necessary mean 2012 Topps contains as many stars as years past - it only means that cards were issued for over half of the "stars" in our pool.  There is typically some overlap of some cards between S1 and S2 so that may account for the extra 7%.  In years past this number may have been greater - if I get the energy we will look at 2011 Topps to compare and cotrast. 

There may be some other factors at play - I am only investigating Stars, there may just be more unkown or little known players this year - this adds to the perception of less stars.  The 2011 release calendar may have hampered getting some rookies into 2011 Series 3 and Topps added them to the inaugural 2012 set. 

I also think that there are less know stars in the post-steroid era.  Stars stick around less time and age out sooner.  There is more new talent and we are less likely to know who they are.  Also there is the agism factor - the older I get, the harder these things are to track.

Sources:

2012 Topps Series 1 Checker - Baseball-Cardpedia

2011 MVP and Cy Young Award Voting - Baseball-Reference