What’s up crew? I got a little burnt out with the formula after Saturday, so last night I decided to shift gears and come up with a new idea.
I’ve been wanting to design a template for a custom baseball card, something I used to dabble in when I was a little kid. I said I was ~12 in this post from 3 years ago, but I think I was more like 9 or 10…
Eventually I got ‘better’, and my brand was called Diamond Cards
I ended up making somewhere near 40 of these bad boys, using old cut-up magazines, scraps of common cards, and clippings from the Staten Island Advance sports section, to create my own. If I traded a player in Baseball Stars to a different team than in IRL, they got a card. JD Drew on the A’s? Yessir. (Side note— I’ve gotten several Immaculate Grid answers wrong because of these cards lol). They stayed protected in a box in my parents’ house, stored safely for 30+ years. Now they’re likely sitting in a dump, or incinerated, somewhere in Germany, thanks to my amazing ex-wife. Oh well, onward and upward. Or at least, onward and sideways?
It’s crazy to me how easily something like this can be done now, in this day and age. Creating a template for the new line of PARS Cards was time consuming, but now that it’s done, each player will be a lot easier. A template? A saved digital file? No more scissors and Elmer’s glue! We definitely lose something with everything being digital. But we gain way more than losing whatever it is that I am trying to convey.
With that said, in this series, I’m going to highlight some players that are ranking high in PARS that weren’t on most top ___ lists going into 2024. Instead of doing my own deep dive rundowns, I’m going to try something else. There is SO much information on everyone now. The Juan Yepez-hype train would have been started well before I first conducted it, had it happened this year. It seems everyone is doing prospect analysis these days, and I welcome it. More info, more data, more videos, more takes. And for the LOVE OF GOD, Statcast for all of MiLB soon, yeah? So, I am going to collect as much useful info on each highlighted player, put it all in one place, and then give my quick take at the end.
Zyhir Hope: LAD/19/A. PARS score: 81.2
Might as well start with my own take on him, from the first and only Diggin’ in the Crates series. The series was fun. PARS discord user @TheCableGuy would throw a bunch of unknown players my way, and I’d research, review, and rate them on a scale from 1-5. It was supposed to read like a Rolling Stone magazine album review (or for my old hip-hop heads, The Source…. 5 mics anyone??). It was littered with (terrible) music puns, and DJ Khaled was the logo. I really want to continue this series now, brb.
Anyway, here’s what I wrote back in August 2023:
Joe Tourville, who I discovered and followed just now, had an extensive post-draft tweet on Hope in July 2023. There’s too much to screen grab, but it’s a great read.
Cubs personality and podcaster Greg Huss had this writeup in December on Northsidebound.com:
On 4/6 Dodgers prospect writer @Bnicklaus7 tweeted:
On 4/9 the homie Lucas aka @UpsideProspect provides a spot-on summation of Hope:
Josh Thomas, a great follow for all things Dodgers, he tells us that Hope smashed a dong at 113mph (he had one at 112mph earlier this month as well)
Josh also shared some great defense yesterday, where Hope showcased some of that sprint speed and athleticism:
The hype-train gained some new passengers on 4/14 and 4/15, but by then, it was likely too late in most dynasty leagues:
PARS conclusion:
There is SO much info out there. Sheesh. No wonder there are so many posts in the trade-advice channel on the PARS discord. How can we remember all of this, for everyone, all year? Team-based accounts are great… they know their guys in-and-out, but some can get homer-ish at times. When you find a source that you vibe with, that speaks to you, remember them. Turn on notifications for them on Twitter. Keep their recommendations bookmarked. Fill in their star (watchlist them) in your fantasy leagues. And use the PARSlist rankings. Hope has been high on the sheet all year.
Fun fact: the only hitters from the draft last year who rank ahead of Hope on the PARS ranks (Langford/Schanuel excluded) are Matt Shaw, Jacob Wilson, Luke Keaschall, and Nick Goodwin. Nick Goodwin? Looks like he’s the next PARS Card!
Let me know what you think of this series, the format, the new card design, whatever. I love feedback.
Thanks for reading!
-Rick ✌🏼