Alexei Wins A Silver Slugger

Congratulations to Alexei Ramirez on his Silver Slugger award!!!
Yes. I'm aware that there is nary a bat in sight of Alexei on this card.
Thank all the people who voted for Derek Jeter's Gold Glove.

A New Rookie Record

Four grand slams in a season by a rookie!

Congrats Alexei Ramirez!

The August AL Rookie Of The Month

The votes are in and Alexei Ramirez has been selected as the American League Rookie of the Month for August.

Ramirez batted .308 with six homers and 22 RBI last month. He recorded a four-hit game against Baltimore on August 25.

Others in the running were Minnesota pitcher Glen Perkins and Twins outfielder Denard Span. Perkins was 4-0 with a 3.31 ERA in August, while Span hit .292 for the month with 23 RBI and 20 runs scored.

Gillette, who sponsored the event, will donate $5,000 to a charity of Alexei’s choice and present him with a trophy prior to one of the team’s upcoming home games.

Sounds like the rest of baseball is waking up to Alexei Ramirez. Maybe Topps will do the same? No, Alexei doesn't even get Fukudome love from Topps.

The Alexei Syndrome

Topps and Upper Deck series 2 cards are now out. The dust has started to settle a little and I'm beginning to figure out the checklists. A disturbing trend is starting to emerge with Alexei Ramirez.

I was hoping that one of the many TBD spots on the Topps series 2 checklist would be filled by Alexei Ramirez. Well, it wasn't to my knowledge. What happened to the Alexei Ramirez card in the set? Well, it's there. It's just nothing that you would expect.

Topps decided to release an unmarked card of Alexei. The problem with this is that Alexei is pictured playing for Cuba's team in the World Baseball Classic. That was in 2006 and Alexei has now been on the White Sox 25 man roster since Opening Day. I would think that this fact would shoot Alexei to one of the TBD spots in the checklist, but that would only make sense.

What makes matters worse is that the card in question appears to be extremely short printed. This card on eBay is selling for just under $100. If I were to get this card in my collection, it would be fine, but I'm not going to actively seek it out. Plus, I'm not going to pay a lot for this card. It doesn't fit my general criteria for collecting. Alexei is not in a White Sox uniform and is not identified as being on the White Sox.

Upper Deck has more success with Alexei, although he's not in their base set either. He is in a special rookie set that gets tacked on to the end of series 2. It doesn't appear to be short printed in any way, but I haven't gotten that confirmed. Upper Deck features Alexei in a White Sox uniform and has him listed as being on the White Sox. That's more like it!

Being a team collector is tough. It's unimaginable to believe the amount of homework one needs to do before the collecting can even begin. With the penchant for companies to release cards of players in older uniforms, you can't buy sight unseen anymore. You will get burned and burned often. I can't even assume that Jermaine Dye will be in a White Sox uniform on a 2008 card. There is one of him on the Braves that came out this year.

The time and research are well worth the effort. I have a better understanding of the cards I collect by the research that I have to do. I just wish that things were a lot simpler when it came to collecting by team.

Canada Or Bust

It seems that the Sox may be short one player on their trip to Toronto. Alexei Ramirez can get into Canada, but can't get out due to his defector status. The Sox have been working on the issue since Spring Training to no avail.

So far, there has been no indication of a call up for the Toronto series to take Alexei's place. If there is no call up, then the Sox are shorting themselves a player for the entire series. With all the extra inning games lately and with the offense playing catch up in the late innings, the Sox could be shooting themselves in the foot.

Jerry Owens is ready and doing very well at AAA. Alexei needs regular playing time to get used to this country's type of baseball game. He's not getting it at the major league level, but could replace Jerry Owens in AAA and get his regular at-bats to boot. What will the Sox do? It should be interesting this weekend.

Maybe Alexei could use the time to autograph some stickers for Topps? That would certainly be a productive use of his weekend off. Then we may finally see some cards of Alexei in the near future.