Life... Successfully
  • Life Successfully
  • Intent-sive Nature
    • Gift Cards
    • Expert Publicity, Content, & Consultation >
      • Intent to Read Publishing
    • Jewelry
    • Healing Jewelry & Talismans >
      • What is the Meaning Behind Intent-sive Nature Healing Jewelry?
    • Healing Readings
    • Yoga & Meditation
    • Incense & Burners
    • Candles & Accessories
    • Crystals & Gemstones
    • Herbs
    • Essential Oils & Oils For Anointing, Magical Use, And Aromatherapy
    • Dream Catchers
    • Spells & Altar Supplies
    • Rune Sets & Accessories
    • Tarot & Oracle Decks, Books, & Accessories
    • Wands
    • Bath, Beauty, & Self-Care
    • Holiday
    • Books & Media
    • Music
    • Education & Homeschool Resources
    • Clothing
    • Baby Gear, Travel, Outdoors, & More
    • Baby Safety
    • Baby & Toddler Feeding
    • Toys
    • Decor & Home Accents
    • Wind Chimes
  • Writing, Web, Business, & Tech
    • Brand Shamans Brand Healing Journal
    • Write W.A.V.E. Media Thought Leadership & Tech Journal
    • Writing Tips Journal
    • The One-and-Only Internet Money Making Guide!
    • Writer's Resumes >
      • Lyn Lomasi >
        • Ask Lyn
      • Get Your FREE Writer's Profile & Online Resume
    • Be a Writer!
    • FREE Guest Post Submission >
      • Submission Guidelines
  • News
    • News Articles
    • Science and Nature Articles
    • Sports Break Journal >
      • NFL 2019 Squares
  • About Us & Contact
    • Become an Affiliate!
    • Promotional Banners
    • Disclosure, TOU, Dislaimer, & Privacy
  • Domains For Sale
  • Hire Us!
  • Family & Home
    • Mekai's Branches ~ Family Adventure Journal
    • Kymani's Travels ~ Family Travel Journal
    • The Nova Skye Story ~ Family Journal
    • Upstream Parenting Journal >
      • Upstream Parenting Book
      • The Pregnancy & Baby Care Guide EVERY Parent Needs!
      • The ONLY Potty Training Guide You'll Ever Need
      • Elementary Learning Supplies...
      • 10 Safe Toys
      • Soothe Crying Baby
      • Playing Cards With Kids
    • Life & Home Journal
    • Momtrepreneur Moments ~ A Business Mom's Journal
    • Successful Relationships; A Heart-Focused Journal
    • Better Plumbing Blog >
      • Hire Better Plumbing - Your Denver Plumber
  • Education & Literature
    • Heart 'N Mind Homeschool Journal
    • Free Learning Education Journal >
      • Two Affordable And Fun Toys For Teaching Kids To Read
      • Elementary Learning Supplies You Can Find At The Dollar Store
      • Free Counting Fun For Toddlers And Preschoolers
      • Why School Choice is Important in High School
      • Choosing Childen's Books That Create Smart Readers
    • Free Homeschool Worksheets
    • The Bibliophile's Library Journal - Book News, Reviews, & Info
    • Penning Your World ~ A Creative Writing Journal
    • Monsters Within Us ~ An Otherworldly Journal of Monstrous Incantations >
      • A Lighter Shade of Green
  • Health & Beauty
    • Whole Body Health, Healing, & Medicine Journal
    • Good Eats For The Soul ~ Vegan Diet, Recipes, & Food Journal >
      • Recipe Books By Lyn Lomasi
    • Fash Diva ~ A Clothing, Shoes, & Fashion Journal
    • Naturally Simple ~ A Self-Care & Beauty Journal
    • Senior Living
    • Disabilities Articles
    • Green Living Articles
  • Society & Causes
    • Causes We Support
    • Speak Up!; A Homelessness & Social Justice Journal
    • Animal Advocacy >
      • Pet Resources >
        • Heart 'N Mind Paw Rescue >
          • Pawsitive Parenting Pet Rescue Journal
        • Sounds of Nature
      • Animal Advocacy & Healthy Pet Parenting Journal
      • Positive Pet Parenting Journal
      • Raising Pet Positive Kids
      • Supermom ...Kind Of
      • Pawsitively Adventurous Pets
      • Purrely Pawsitive And Barkably Amazing Pet Training Tips
      • Dog Praising
      • Spirit of the Wild Lands and Animals
    • Motivational Friends Inspirational Journal
    • Straight Up LGBTQ Blog
    • Colorful Expressions
    • Inner Healing & Spirituality Journal
    • Naturally Connected Journey - Views On Life, Passions, & Interests
  • Travel
    • RV'ing Successfully ~ A Family Roadschooling & Travel Journal
    • Hometown Love ~ A Local Journal
  • Fun & Games
    • Gaming Successfully
    • Luna Starlight Comics
    • Crafting Successfully Arts & Crafts Journal
    • Culture Carnival; A Festival, Tradition, & Holiday Journal
    • Mouthy Momtrepreneur Journal
    • Clowning Around
    • Music Articles Journal
    • Entertainment Articles Journal
    • Humor Treasure Trove; A Funny Comedy Journal

Chone Figgins 2002 Bowman Chrome #249 - A Rookie Card Review

11/19/2019

0 Comments

 
by     Phoenix Desertsong, Sports Fanatic
Picture
When Chone Figgins was announced for the 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot, his name immediately trended on Twitter. Of course, Figgins was a popular player for the then Anaheim Angels, who he won the World Series with in 2002. But, no one has really ever thought of Figgins as a Hall of Fame player, and it will be quite funny if he gets even one vote from a Baseball Writers Association of America member.

Still, despite probably not being a so-called “Mariners legend” - outside of the obvious overpay the Seattle Mariners made for his services - Chone Figgins was a good ballplayer. It should be noted that Figgins hit for the cycle on September 16, 2006 - hit a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game - making him forever a part of the PSA “Hit for the Cycle Club” Set Registry.

The Chone Figgins rookie card mentioned in that registry is the key focus of this Rookie Card Review, 2002 Bowman Chrome #249. Considering that a mere 11 examples of the base card and 9 examples of the refractor have been graded by PSA, it’s safe to say that hobbyists didn’t think of him as a future Hall of Fame “hopeful.” But since the announcement of him simply appearing on the ballot, interest has spiked in this rookie card and its refractor. It’s a nice looking card, featuring Figgins in an old style Anaheim Angels uniform in the follow-through of a successful swing, watching the ball likely hitting a gap somewhere.


Chone Figgins’ Angels Success

The 5-foot-8 switch-hitting utility player hit a lot of gaps, hitting .291/.363/.388 for a 99 OPS+ in his 8 years with the Angels, being an above-league average hitter 4 out of 8 seasons. His offensive value was boosted by his stolen base ability, averaging over 40 plus steals a season. Figgins also played second base, third base, shortstop, center field, right field, and left field in his career. Defensive Runs Saved sees Figgins as a disaster in the outfield, below average at second base, and significantly below average at shortstop. But at third base, which became Figgins’ best position, Figgins was above average.

In fact, Figgins had one of the best contract walk years you could imagine in 2009. Not only did he have a solid .298/.395/.393 slash line (110 OPS+) with 42 steals, he had a career high 101 walks and an absurd 29 Defensive Runs Saved at third base. These numbers helped Figgins secure a 4-year, $36 million contract with the Seattle Mariners. That contract would turn out to be a disaster.


The “Mariners Legend” Chone Figgins...

Seattle didn’t treat Figgins well. Not only did he get moved to second base full-time where he was below average (-10 DRS in 2010 alone), but his bat just never really got going. He played in 161 games, but mustered only a pitiful .259/.340/.306 slash line. His only saving grace was 42 stolen bases against only 15 times caught.

The 2011 and 2012 seasons were even worse. Not only did Figgins suddenly become extremely injury prone, but when he did play, he couldn’t even hit .200. After hitting around .180 - .190 in limited action in those years, the Mariners released him after the 2012 season, eating his $8 million salary for 2013. 

Figgins wouldn’t even make his way back to the Major Leagues in 2013, although he catch on as a bench player with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014. It wasn’t a great final stint in 38 games, and he was released by the Dodgers in mid-August. He did manage 0.7 WAR though, so he wasn’t a total negative. While Figgins retired a rich man, and did sign a one-day contract to retire as an Angel, I’m sure that’s not the way he wanted to spend the second half of his career.

But, to be fair to Figgins, he was an All-Star caliber player for several years. He could steal bases with the best of them and had great on-base percentages. If there was any knock against him, it was his misadventures in the outfield - not entirely his fault. While Figgins is never going to be more hobby relevant than in the wake of this news, his Angels career and his rookie card are worth remembering.


0 Comments

Ty France: A Rookie Card Review

11/6/2019

0 Comments

 
by    Phoenix Desertsong,  Sports Nut
In the baseball off-season, one of my favorite activities is checking out the various player projections for 2020. One of my new favorites which started in the past couple of years was Steamer/600 at FanGraphs. It takes the existing Steamer projections and prorates them to 600 Plate Appearances for hitters (425 PA for catchers). For pitchers, it prorates to 200 innings for starters and 65 innings for relievers. 

When I was checking the projections for each position, I saw some names that stood out to me with projections as league average hitters. Those names will warrant future features on the Rookie Card Review. When it comes to the Hobby, league average is the cutoff if you're looking for cardboard gold. In some of my Rookie Card Reviews, you will see me mention these Steamer projections. While obviously most may not get the playing time in the near future to rack up the projected counting stats in MLB, many of them are knocking on the door.

Today, we take a look at a Padres Infielder who has possessed an above average bat. But, it hasn't yet broken out at the MLB level. The projections seen to believe 2020 holds good things for this young ballplayer.

A Nice Diamond in the Rough Infielder: Ty France

When I was looking at those 2020 projections for second basemen, I found that nestled in between Asdrubal Cabrera and Brian Dozier for a projected 100 wRC+ is Ty France. No longer really considered a prospect, the 25 year old France has seen some major league action for his hometown San Diego Padres. It hasn't really been that glorious for the infielder, whose natural position of third base is currently occupied by $300 million man Manny Machado. Because he can also play second decently enough and is a bat-first player anyway, France is intriguing from a hobby perspective, regardless of where the Padres find a place to stick his bat.

Ty France Has Hit in the Minor Leagues

It's not like this projection for France comes out of nowhere. He's been a well above-average player in the minor leagues, with an incredible explosion in AAA - thanks in part to the "rabbit ball" - in 2019. France posted a video game slash line of .399/.477/.770 that led to a ridiculous wRC+ mark of 196 - or 96 percent above league average.

While that absurd unsustainable power surge does inform that projection, France has been a 20 to 30 percent above league average hitter in his career. But in his first major league action, France mustered just a .234/.294/.402 slash line. His walk rate slipped to 4.5 percent and his strikeout rate jumped to 24.4 percent as he chased some bad pitches (30% outside swing rate).

Of course, there were good signs from his 69 game stint. He did hit 7 home runs in 201 plate appearances. His hard hit percentage was 41.9 percent, well above the league average of 34.5. But, StatCast didn't show anything else encouraging in his profile other than he is doing what he can to lift the ball - 15.1 degree average launch angle. Interestingly, France actually hit breaking balls much better than fastballs. It's possible that he just hadn't yet adjusted to major league fastballs. If he can, watch out…

That brings us to our Ty France rookie card review. 

Picture
Ty France Rookie Cards Offer Few Choices But Significant Upside

As of this writing, there are only two rookie autos for Ty France. The bad news is that they are both Panini - whose lack of full MLB licensing despite high quality cards greatly hurts their appeal. But, Panini did see fit to include France as low number autos in both the high-end National Treasures and Chronicles sets.

The National Treasures is the better card of the two, having both a patch and an autograph. There are two versions of the card, one numbered to 99, and the other - a gold parallel - numbered to 49. The Chronicles autograph, part of the Obsidian Autographs subset, is limited to several colored parallels, each numbered to 99 copies, 50 copies, 25 copies, 10 copies, 5 copies, and a one-of-one. But relic auto combos win. Understandably, these two cards haven't yet sold for much, but they do have interest.

For our exercise, though, we'll focus on his "true" rookie card, the 2019 Topps Update #US129 - his first ever Topps card. It's sold on eBay for around $0.75. however, the parallels have fared much better. In particular the Walgreens Exclusive Yellow, Gold, Black #'d to /67, Vintage Stock #'d to /99, and Independence Day #'d to /76 have all been selling. The Independence Day card sold for as much as $13 in early November 2019. So, there's a demand for this guy's true rookie.


Will Ty France Get Consistent At-Bats in 2020?

The real issue for France is his path to playing time. On the official Padres depth chart, he's behind Machado at third base and is buried behind Luis Urias, Greg Garcia, and Ian Kinsler at second base. However, he's also listed as Eric Hosmer's backup at first base. 

Of course, Eric Hosmer's projection is quite similar to France. In fact, were it not for his albatross of a contract, it wouldn't be hard to see France replace him at first. Their Steamer 600 projections are so remarkably similar. But the Padres are paying Hosmer $18 million a year to be a replacement level player without much upside in sight.

For Ty France to gain much more hobby relevance, he needs to find a route to playing time. But, if he does and hits consistently enough, his Topps Update card could get interesting in a hurry. Because it's his only true rookie card, it will have a large amount of demand if he delivers on that projection.


0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    ALL STAFF

    Lyn Lomasi Rowell
    Richard Rowell
    Laurie Childree
    Stephanie Laursen-Nolan

    OWNERS

    Picture
    Lyn Lomasi & Richard Rowell  are life & business partners. Owners of the Brand Shamans network, we are your brand healing, soul healing, marketing & content superheroes to the rescue!

    Running our network of websites, tackling deadlines single-handedly, and coaching fellow writers, brands, & entrepreneurs to be thought leaders is our top priority.

    While rescuing civilians from boring content and brands, we conquer the world, living the RV life and managing our Intent-sive Nature with our awesomely crazy family while taking our kids on Upstream Parenting adventures & lessons.

    We also strive to one day cuddle with lions and giraffes. Until then, we’ll settle for furry rescue kitties and doggies.

    We support many causes via our business ventures, such as homelessness, support for trans youth, equality, helping starving artists, and more! A portion of all proceeds from Intent-sive Nature goes toward helping homeless pets in local shelters.

    Categories

    All
    2014 MLB Playoffs
    2018 MLB Playoffs
    2019 MLB Sleepers
    Abdullah
    Arizona Diamondbacks
    Athlete Profiles
    Atlanta Braves
    Baltimore Orioles
    Baseball
    Baseball America
    Baseball Cards
    Baseball Hall Of Fame
    Baseball Mogul 2016
    Baseball News
    Baseball Player Biographies
    Baseball Player Bios
    Basketball
    Basketball Cards
    Blue Jays
    Boston
    Boston Red Sox
    Boxing
    Card Collecting
    Chicago Cubs
    Chicago White Sox
    Cincinnati Reds
    Clay Buchholz
    Cleveland Indians
    Colorado Rockies
    Console Baseball Games
    Daniel Murphy
    Detroit Tigers
    Fantasy Baseball
    Florida Marlins
    Football
    Football Card Investment
    Football Cards
    Football Pool
    Football Squares
    Free Printables
    Golf
    Hockey
    Houston Astros
    Houston Colts
    Husain Abdullah
    John Lackey
    Junk Wax Dynasty
    Kansas City
    Kansas City Royals
    KC
    KC Royals
    Listia
    Los Angeles Angels
    Los Angeles Dodgers
    Lyn Lomasi
    Major League Baseball
    Miami Marlins
    Milwaukee Brewers
    Minnesota Twins
    MLB
    MLB 2019 Preview
    MLB Baseball
    MLB Hot Stove
    MLB Player Bios
    MLB Players
    MLB The Show
    NASCAR
    NBA
    NCAA
    New York Mets
    New York Yankees
    NFL
    NHL
    Oakland Athletics
    Office Pool
    Office Squares
    PC Baseball Games
    Pedro Martinez
    Penalties
    Philadelphia Phillies
    Pittsburgh Pirates
    Playoffs
    Playstation Baseball Games
    Portland Sea Dogs
    Prayer
    Prayer In Sports
    Racing
    Red Sox
    Red Sox Cards
    Rookie Card Review
    Rookie Cards
    San Diego Padres
    San Francisco Giants
    Seattle Mariners
    Sports
    Sports Card Market
    Sports Cards
    Sports Collectibles
    Sports Films
    Sports Games
    Sports Simulation
    St Louis Cardinals
    St. Louis Cardinals
    Superbowl
    Super Bowl
    Super Bowl Squares
    Superbowl Squares
    Tampa Bay Rays
    Texas Rangers
    Topps Heritage
    Topps Update
    Toronto Blue Jays
    Vintage Baseball Cards
    Xander Bogaerts
    Yahoo Fantasy Sports

    Archives

    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013

COMPANY & SUPPORT

About Us & Contact
Brand Healing Journal
Become an Affiliate!
Disclosure, TOU, Disclaimer, & Privacy Policy
Write For Our Sites!

ALL SITES

Brand Shamans
Life Successfully
Intent-sive Nature
Write W.A.V.E. Media
Pawsitive Parenting

Guest Post Writers

Daily Cashouts
GoSteady.me
Poverty And Homelessness
Article Writer For Hire
Lyn Lomasi
Heart 'N Mind Homeschool    
Pre-K Yoga
Kids Chakra

Legit Cash Now
Souls Within
Better Plumbing (Partner Site)
Heart 'N Mind Paw Rescue
© 2005-2020 Life... Successfully by  Brand Shamans
Photos used under Creative Commons from slgckgc, Keith Allison, Keith Allison, slgckgc, Gerry Dincher