When you Swish upon a star...

2009 Topps #528 Nick Swisher

STAT

Check out Swisher's home/road splits so far in 2009:

Split    AB  R HR RBI   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Home    175 23  3  20 .200 .373 .309 .681
Away    237 44 20  52 .287 .370 .624 .994

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/3/2009.

This is really surprising, especially considering the frequency of homers hit at the New New Yankee Stadium this year.

Here are his career splits, including this year:

Split     AB   R HR RBI   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Home    1216 202 59 190 .237 .360 .445 .805
Away    1310 218 68 206 .252 .354 .469 .823

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/3/2009.

Trust me when I tell you that his career splits were just about even before this season. Weird, huh?

CARD

What a cool, wacky card! Let us count the ways:

• It's not a game shot or a posed shot but rather what appears to be an oddball spring training photo.
• Swisher's holding his bat in a very unusual manner, another rarity
• That halo & lightning bolt logo is pretty cool. It's for Ditek surge protectors.
• Swisher's got his tongue out, or something odd like that.
• Mainly, though, this card captures Swisher as he is: a man of the people. Swish is renowned for his affection toward the fans as well as his willingness to interact with them. This guy loves baseball and is having a damn fine season too.
  

Low-Tek

1996 Port City Roosters team-issued card

                                                         
Split              G   PA   R   H SO/BB   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS
Jason Varitek     94 3511 374 786  2.62 .251 .320 .404  .724
George Kottaras   34 1027 133 269  2.16 .293 .355 .432  .787
Victor Martinez   17  603  90 157  1.62 .297 .371 .485  .855
Dusty Brown        1    5   0   2  0.00 .500 .600 .500 1.100

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/3/2009

As Jason Varitek's offense has dwindled over the last few years, much has been made of his impact on the pitching staff. Many people, including some of the Red Sox pitchers, feel that Varitek's contributions in terms of preventing run-scoring by the other team (by assisting pitchers) outweigh any lack of offense he provides as a batter.

The table above suggests that this might well be true, at least this season. The opposing OPS is far lower against Varitek than it was againt George Kottaras when he was catching or against Victor Martinez since he joined the team in a July trade. All the numbers are better, including K/BB ratio and averages against.

CARD

I chose the card above because it reminds us that Varitek didn't come up in the Boston organization. Rather, he was acquired in one of the most lopsided trades in recent history:

July 31, 1997: Traded by the Seattle Mariners with Derek Lowe to the Boston Red Sox for Heathcliff Slocumb.

Slocumb was on the down side of his career by this point and while he wasn't horrible for the Mariners, he left as a free agent a year later and both of the minor leaguers acquired by the Red Sox went on to long, successful major-league careers.

Minor league baseball cards are often fantastic, as is the case with this card. There's the unusual team name, unusual logo, and the clean & simple look of the field. At first glance, I thought the "C" down near the bottom was on Varitek's belt buckle. In fact, it's just his position designation.