A.L. Playoff Preview

 

The contenders - listed in order of tolerance:

Baltimore Orioles

Pennants:  7

World Series Championships:  3

Last Pennant:  1983

Last WSC:  1983

Stat to Know:  Led the A.L. in Slugging Percentage.  

 

Detroit Tigers

Pennants:  11

World Series Championships:  4

Last Pennant:  2012

Last WSC:  1984

Stat to Know:  Led MLB in Triples.  

 

Kansas City Royals

Pennants:  4

World Series Championships:  2

Last Pennant:  2015

Last WSC:  2015

Stats to Know:  Bobby Witt Jr. led the team in Runs Scored, RBI, Doubles, Triples, Home Runs, Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, OBP, and OPS. 

 

Cleveland Guardians (nee Indians)

Pennants:  6

World Series Championships:  2

Last Pennant:  2016

Last WSC:  1948

Stat to Know:  Best Home Record in the A.L.

New York Yankees

Pennants:  40

World Series Championships:  27

Last Pennant:  2009

Last WSC:  2009

Stats to Know:  Led the A.L. in Runs Scored, OBP, and OPS.  Led MLB in Home Runs.  Best Road Record in MLB.  Best Run Differential in the A.L.

 

Houston Astros

Pennants:  5

World Series Championships:  2

Last Pennant:  2022

Last WSC:  2022

Stat to Know:  Led the A.L. in Batting Average.

Mrs. Verlander

 

Scoring from My Dealer

 

Got a haircut Tuesday then went across the street to Commie Town for a soda.  Looks like they've gone in a different direction with their card offerings.   Gone was the special roped-off section full of blasters and such.  Instead, I was directed to a check-out lane that had a couple depleted shelves of who knows what.  The one thing they did have in stock that was remotely interesting was 2023-2024 Hoops Haunted Hoops.  120 cards for $22 plus tax.  

Anyway, let's see some highlights:

  

-  Cobwebs in the upper left and lower right.  Shadowy (?) background.  Jack-o-lantern on the back.  Orange and slime (purple* and green) parallels are the two most common and I got several of each.  Thin stock was giving me Pro Set football flash-backs but I got used to it after a bit.  No dupes in the 120 but I pulled 3 or 4 players' base and a parallel both.  Towns and Lillard are a couple of them, which isn't so bad.              

-  Yes, that's a Wembanyama RC.  Probably doesn't matter though, with it being such an obscure set.   

-  I think it turned out to be a decent purchase.

*Yes, it's purple in real life.  Don't know why it shows up as blue in cyber land.  

Scoring from My Dealer

 

Bought some cards from Card Barrel for the first time in a long time.

There were 140, but let's just look at a smallish portion of that.  Ha.  

 

-  Loaded up on trivia guys with Tommy John, Steve Yeager, Alan Wiggins, Mario Mendoza, etc.

-  Phillies legend.

-  Wanted to play for the Phillies, but they had Steve Carlton.

-  The last Oriole to play SS before Ripken's streak started.  

-  Phillies legend.

-  Fills a frankenset slot.

-  Loaded up on cheapish Diamond Kings. 

-  A couple top tier catchers. 

-  A couple young guys.  

-  Another trivia guy.

-  My first Ohtani as a Dodger.

-  The other Elly that I got, so I can mention that I'm no longer chasing prospects who haven't done anything.  We can thank Jo Odell and Christian Pache for this.

-  Gunnar rainbow foil.