Tag Archives: Rick Ankiel

Cashing in on Hot Rookies

To sell or not to sell?

For those of us in the aging collector demographic, our childhoods were spent dreaming of the vast fortunes that awaited us in adulthood as our cards grew in value like those from generations past. The reality turned out to be quite the opposite though, as our massive cardboard reserves are now barely worth the paper they’re printed on. Ever since that harsh reality set in, collectors have struggled with the decision of what to do with hot cards they pull from packs. Sell for the quick cash? Wait and see for a little while and dump at the first sign of a downturn? Or hold on for the long haul and hope for a big return in the far future? My take is that you shouldn’t worry about it much, just keep what you like and sell off anything else that has value. Live in the now and let someone else take on the risk. But how has that worked out for me over the last 15+ years?

Read more »

2013 Mets Debut Autographs

Auditions for 2014 are now open

It’s been a rough year for the Mets. Starting pitchers have been dropping all season long, with Johan Santana and Shaun Marcum unlikely to return, Jeremy Hefner out for all of 2014, and Matt Harvey due to be ready for Opening Day, either in 2014 or 2015. David Wright missed two months, Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada went down just when they were trying to make a case to come back in 2014 as more than AAA org filler, Bobby Parnell and Scott Rice saw their seasons end with surgery, Jeurys Familia and Frank Francisco missed most of the season… All of this does open doors for the prospects though, until they too suffer an injury like Wilmer Flores did and is still trying to recover from while also getting playing time (the opposite of recovery…). If you want a job in baseball in 2014, the Mets are the team for you.

Take starting pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Aaron Harang, for instance. Both earned release from their previous teams and were quickly snatched up by the Mets. Both are aiming for a starting job in 2014, for another team. I’m not sure Mets fans could take much more of either of them, but I guess you need someone to pitch those innings with Montero, deGrom, and now Wheeler shut down. Lost amid the rotation shakeup is the outstanding job Dillon Gee has been doing; he should be getting a nice little contract in the offseason to keep him under team control at a reasonable price for the next few years. The bullpen has its share of 2014 candidates as well, with Vic Black and Sean Henn making their Mets debuts, Carlos Torres splitting time between starting and relief, and Jeurys Familia, Pedro Feliciano, and Tim Byrdak back after recovering from injuries. Frank Francisco is almost certainly not coming back next year, but fill-in closer LaTroy Hawkins wants to come back and the Mets want him back, so hopefully the Mets don’t go and screw this up like everyone expects them to.

The outfield is nothing but 2014 auditions with the departure of Marlon Byrd, but more playing time for Juan Lagares and recent call-up Matt den Dekker can’t be a bad thing. As for Eric Young Jr., well, there’s always a backup role to shoot for. Around the infield, Lucas Duda is at first trying to prove that he’s a first baseman, which is better than when he was an outfielder trying to prove that he’s a first baseman. Juan Centeno beat out Francisco Pena for the third catcher spot and, after Ruben Tejada’s freak injury, Wilfredo Tovar made his MLB debut after spending the season in AA. Barring another freak injury, that should be it for the 2013 Mets, leaving them with 28 new faces. That’s tied with 2006 for the 5th most new Mets in the club’s history, behind only 1962 (45), 1967 (35), and 2002 and 2004 (29). Interestingly, those 2002 and 2004 newcomers include one current Met in each year (Pedro Feliciano from 2002 and David Wright from 2004), while no current Mets debuted in 2006. Daniel Murphy in 2008 is the next oldest debut on the active roster behind Feliciano and Wright (next is Niese, then nothing until 2010). With such a young team, just about everything should be up for grabs next year.

John Buck Marlon Byrd Collin Cowgill Brandon Lyon
1 April 2013 1 April 2013 1 April 2013 1 April 2013
Scott Atchison Scott Rice* Greg Burke LaTroy Hawkins
1 April 2013 1 April 2013 3 April 2013 3 April 2013
Aaron Laffey Anthony Recker Juan Lagares* Shaun Marcum
7 April 2013 7 April 2013 23 April 2013 27 April 2013
Andrew Brown Rick Ankiel David Aardsma Carlos Torres
3 May 2013 13 May 2013 8 June 2013 16 June 2013
Zack Wheeler* Eric Young Jr. Gonzalez Germen* Wilmer Flores*
18 June 2013 19 June 2013 12 July 2013 6 August 2013
Travis d’Arnaud* Daisuke Matsuzaka Matt den Dekker* Vic Black
17 August 2013 23 August 2013 29 August 2013 2 September 2013
Sean Henn Aaron Harang Juan Centeno* Wilfredo Tovar*
9 September 2013 12 September 2013 18 September 2013 22 September 2013

*MLB Debut
Read more »

Player Spotlight: Rick Ankiel

A Mets legend 13 years before putting on the uniform

I’ve been a big fan of Rick Ankiel since 2000 for two rather contradictory reasons.  The first is because I managed to pull not one but two of his autograph cards from 2000 SPX.  Numbered to 1500 (which was what passed for limited in those days), the Rookie / Young Star autographs in SPX were tough pulls.  To get two of the same autograph from a few packs was quite unlikely, but for them to be from one of the hottest rookies in the game?  That was just amazing.  Ankiel would go on to finish second in Rookie of the Year voting with a bright future ahead of him and solid value in his cards.

The second reason I am fond of Rick Ankiel undid the first.  TINSTAAPP.  Look it up.  While the regular season validated Ankiel’s top prospect status (he was ranked #1 by Baseball America going into the 2000 season), everything fell apart in the postseason.  In Game 1 of the NLDS, he lasted only 2 2/3 innings against the Braves and gave up 4 runs.  The Cardinals took the series and eliminated the team that had knocked the Mets out of the postseason in 1999, seemingly clearing a path for the Mets to go to the World Series.  All that stood in their way were the Cardinals, with Ankiel set to start Game 2 and get a shot at redemption.

There are two things I remember most clearly about the Mets in the postseason back in those days.  The first is Robin Ventura’s 15th inning grand slam single in 1999.  The second is the first inning of Game 2 of the 2000 NLCS.  Ankiel started off with a full count strikeout and then the wheels fell off.  A full count walk, a wild pitch, and a second full count walk on a second wild pitch put runners at the corners for Todd Zeile, who hit a sac fly on, you guessed it, a full count.  Robin Ventura broke the streak with a four pitch walk and Benny Agbayani got impatient and hit an RBI double before he could be issued his three balls.  That would do it for Ankiel, who somehow gave up only two runs in his second postseason meltdown.  He got one more chance to turn things around in Game 5, coming in to start the 7th inning of what would be the 7-0 blowout clincher for the Mets.  That went about as well as his previous outing – one strikeout, two walks, two wild pitches, and one run in 2/3 of an inning.

As a fan of the Mets, I always like to see them walk (literally in this case) all over their opponent.  As a fan of baseball though, I hate to see a career implode as suddenly as Ankiel’s did in October 2000.  Ankiel would pitch just 34 more innings in the majors between 2001 and 2004 before it was clear that his postseason performance was no fluke.  Rick Ankiel the pitcher was done.

This would not be the end for Rick Ankiel.  Starting back at the bottom of the Cardinals’ system, he used his strong arm and decent bat (for a pitcher) to transform himself into an outfielder.  In 2007, he made his return to the majors as a slightly better than replacement-level hitter.  After six years spent between the Cardinals, Royals, Braves, and Nationals, Ankiel hit bottom and signed with the Astros for the 2013 season, appearing in 25 games before being released.  By the Astros.  There was nowhere left to go.

And then he signed with the Mets on May 13.  Rick Ankiel, replacement-level outfielder who wasn’t good enough to play on the 2013 Houston Astros, was eagerly snapped up by the Mets to patch up their sinking ship of an outfield.  You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not jumping for joy over this move.  But hey, at least those autographs count as part of my Mets collection now.  And with a major league career spanning nearly a decade and a half, he must have a lot of interesting game-used cards, right?

Eh, not quite.  The bulk of his game-used cards are bat or white/gray jersey cards from 2000-2002.  He does have some blue mesh Team USA jersey swatches, a few Cardinals patch cards, and at least one game-used shoe card.  Beyond that, we have to dig down to game-used base cards and game-used dirt cards.  Seriously.  There were a few more boring jersey cards in 2009 and 2010, then nothing.  Rick Ankiel hasn’t been relevant in years.  Welcome to the Mets.