When I think back to the days when I first really started getting into the game of baseball, I always come back to the summer of 1987.

I was 10-years-old at the time, so you can do the math if you want to know my true age. I lived in a townhouse community with my mother and twin brother, so we had access to lots of kids and we would gather after school at the edge of the playground for some pick-up games. Of course, our field was also somewhat one-sided, as a line of trees cut off the 1^st base side of the field, but we made due. You just learned to be a right-handed pull hitter really quickly.

But it wasn’t these pick-up games that have me waxing nostalgic. No, it is the nostalgia of wax that has me remembering those days, as in wax packs.

One of our former colleagues at TSN, FanOfReds, writes a hell of a blog called Nachos Grande, where he chronicles his continued adventures with baseball cards. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been reading his blog quite a bit and it has reinvigorated my desire to collect cards again. With my kids being 8-years-old now, I figured it would be a perfect time to get back into it.

So I started buying a few packs here and there. And as I did when I was younger, I started with the tried and true classic; Topps.

Sure, Topps isn’t a collector’s favorite. It is overprinted and doesn’t have the quality subsets that other series have. But inside those packs of Topps is where I found my Delorian to take me back to the summer of 1987.

As one of the subsets included in the 2012 series, Topps has miniaturized the 1987 design and randomly inserted the 50 card subset in 1 of every 4 packs.

I was immediately excited when I saw the first one pulled, Evan Longoria, but it wasn’t because I’m a huge fan of the Rays third baseman. No, I was excited because this is the first set of cards I ever started collecting and remains my favorite design to this day.

I still remember opening those first packs. The wood paneled design jumped right out at you after you peeled away the wax wrapper and threw away the stale stick of gum. The Future Stars emblems, the famous Topps All-Rookie Cup in the corner, and the Turn Back the Clock cards were just some of the special features included in that set.

But there was more than just the memory of the design and the set for me. It was the interaction with my friends over the cards, back in the days when you traded for your favorite players and not based on a price guide value. Back in the days before cable, that was how a kid learned about players and it opened up a whole new understanding of the world of baseball outside of your geographic setting.

Needless to say, I have a goal over the next several months, and that is to complete the 50-card collection of the 1987 Topps Mini set. Sure, it may mean buying quite a few packs, but it may also mean getting back into trading with other collectors.

And all the while, I’ll just be taking myself back to those days on the front stoop, passing cards back and forth to my friends.

If anyone is interested in helping me put the set together, here is the checklist.  I only have 3 of the cards thus far, and they are highlighted in Bold. I’d be willing to trade and I have some older cards from my previous excursions that I can dig into for fodder.

The first thing to hit you when you stepped into the batter's box was the stare. It came out from under the bent brim, with the only the eyes being visible behind the curtain of impossible shadow that fell across the scowl on his face. That stare could look right into the soul of a hitter and know almost instantaneous whether or not he had him out before he even threw a pitch.

And more often than not, he did.

For those of you familiar with the Oakland Athletics of the late 1980's and early 1990's, you know that while the press chose to spotlight the exploits of the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, that these teams dominated because of one simple rule; pitching wins ballgames.

And no other pitched on those staffs better personified that mantra than Dave Stewart.

Quick pop quiz for the baseball fans out there; who was the last pitcher to win 20 games in four consecutive seasons? If you said Dave Stewart, you would have won a lollipop. From 1987 to 1990, Stewart went an amazing 84-45 with a 3.20 ERA, 41 complete games, and 718 strike-outs.

What makes Stewart's statistics even more impressive is the fact that he never finished higher than second in the Cy Young voting, despite consistently winning games and leading the league in complete games twice during the span. Each year, there always seemed to be at least one pitcher who out-shined the erstwhile Oakland ace. Here are the voting results:

1987

1988

1989

1990

Needless to say, Stewart was easily the most dominating pitcher of the period. Put aside the four-consecutive 20-win seasons for the time being. Of the group above, Stewart was the only player to finish in the top-four of the Cy Young voting during each year of that period and the only one to do so twice in the same period aside from Clemens. That alone is huge when you consider that we are talking about Clemens during his utmost dominance, before Brian McNamee, not to mention Frank Viola and Bret Saberhagen.

So to you Dave Stewart, we here at The Baseball Big Brother Project offer you a tip of the cap!

Welcome friends and baseball fans to another edition of This Week in Small Market Baseball. This week, we tackle the Pirates, the Nationals, the A’s, the Twins, and the Cleveland Indians, so let’s jump right onto the diamond and hit the bases.

-         - Pirates’ starter James McDonald is having a solid season despite his team’s offensive struggles. He is 2-2 on the year with a 2.42 ERA and 39 strike-outs over 44.2 innings pitched. Still, the 27-year-old righty deserves better, as he’s allowed 3 earned runs or less in all 7 of his starts and has taken a loss or a no-decision in 5 of those. He can blame the offensively challenged Pirates who are last in Major League Baseball with only 89 runs scored in 32 games. You can’t win a lot of games when the offensive can’t give you at least 3 runs scored.

-         - Just when I was ready to admit that Bryce Harper had become the mature player that I had previously said he needed to grow into, he proves me right. His leap to the majors has been successful, minus the power that will come, but his ability was never the question. He has shown the need to become more professional and on Friday night, he showed why he still has a long way to go. Harper took a strike-out badly and decided to take his frustration out of the dugout wall. The only problem was that this was the one time he didn’t have good bat control, and the bat rebounded off the wall and clocked him in the melon. The subsequent wound required 10 stiches to close up and cost Harper a little bit of the luster from his star. Hopefully it is a lesson learned because Kevin Brown and Amare Stoudemire are horrible role models for a young player.

-         - Think the Tigers are wishing that they had waited out Brandon Inge’s struggles? The third baseman, now with Oakland, has 4 home runs and 17 RBI in 10 games since joining the A’s.  More impressive is the streak he is on, with 4 RBI or more in four of the last five games he’s played. Inge is still batting only .197 on the season, but he’s been a solid boost for an A’s line-up looking for a power bat.

-         - At 29-years-old, Joe Mauer should be entering the prime of his career, yet he is starting to look like his best years are behind him, with a .274 average and just 7 extra-base hits in his first 113 at-bats. Since signing the biggest contract in club history prior to the 2010 season, Mauer has played in just 250 games, hitting .308 with a total of 13 home runs and 120 RBI. Granted, he’s had trouble staying healthy through the last two seasons, but his lack of power makes paying $23 million a season to an Ichiro type hitter a bit much. It was a contract that the Twins needed to sign in order to show the fans that they were committed to fielding a winner, but six more seasons at that rate may be a big chunk to swallow for a team that cannot afford to make those kinds of mistakes.

-         - Watch out folks, but the best trade in the entire off-season may have been the Indians acquisition of right-hander Derek Lowe from the Braves. Cleveland sent minor-leaguer Chris Jones to the Braves for Lowe and $10 million to offset his salary prior to the 2012 season, and Lowe has made them look brilliant. The 38-year-old is 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA for the first-place Indians. Causes of concern include the fact that batters are hitting him at a rate of .303 on the season and he sports a meager 2.7 strike-outs per nine innings pitched, but Lowe is also getting a solid 2.33 ground-outs to air outs. He may not keep it up throughout the season, but it may almost be safe to say that the Indians are getting their $5 million worth.

We are now roughly 1/5^th of the way through the Major League season and this season has been full of surprises, ups and downs, and general mayhem. We’ve seen perfect games, no-hitters, 4 home-run contests, appearances of top prospects, and intentional plunkings.

I love baseball!

But what I love most about the game is the parity. Sure, there are some teams that always seem to be near the top, but at this time of the year, there are also a handful of surprise teams making improbable, and sometimes short-lived, runs to the top of the division.

With that in mind, I thought I would take a look at some of the teams I am buying and selling at this stage of the season; the over-achievers, the under-achievers, and the real deal teams of the league.

Washington Nationals – Selling

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Nationals and the way they are playing the game. And yes, I’m watching the Bryce Harper show the same way I used to enjoy the “Tiger Watch”. Their pitching is absolutely phenomenal, with Strasburg, Detwiler, Gonzalez, and Zimmerman all showing the talent that makes them one of the best young rotations in baseball. That said I’m selling because I don’t think this offense can do enough to sustain the momentum. You cannot rely on pitching every night of the week and a team that ranks 27^th in runs scored and 24^th in average is not going to be there to bail out the pitcher when he fails to carry the load.

This is a good, young team, but they are still a year or so away from contending for the long haul.

Los Angeles Angels – Buying

At 14-18, the Angels have been one of the most disappointing teams in baseball, and with Texas having such a solid start to the year, they have dug themselves a big hole to start the season. Still, this is a team that is underperforming more than any in baseball and the signs are pointing to them coming out of it, as they have won 7 of their last 10 games. Remember, this is a team whose best hitter, Albert Pujols, is swinging the bat to the tune of .198 with just 1 home run and 11 RBI. They also can expect better things out of rotation stalwarts Ervin Santana and Dan Haren, both of whom have been inconsistent but have shown flashes of brilliance during the year.

You just can’t keep a team with this much talent down.

Boston Red Sox – Selling

Well, it appears that the Red Sox have figured out a way to beat the new MLB Draft slotting system, as they are bound and determined to secure a high pick after a 12-18 start. They have the second worst ERA in all of baseball and the struggles of their top three starters (Lester, Beckett, and Buchholz) are not showing any signs of getting better at this stage. You can tell that times are desperate when fans start looking forward to the return of Daisuke Matsuzaka from Tommy John surgery to stabilize the rotation.

The offense is doing its job, but when you have to consistently score 7-8 runs to stay in a game, there is something else offensive going on.

Cleveland Indians – Selling

Sometimes it is hard to justify selling on a first place team, but the numbers do all the talking for me with the Indians. Despite ranking 18^th in team hitting and 21^st in team pitching, this team has managed to place itself atop the mediocre American League Central division. That said, is it just dumb luck that Cleveland is holding on to the division lead or is it more of a bi-product of the disappointing season thus far for the Detroit Tigers?

I’m more apt to believe the latter and banking on Detroit making a similar run to the one they did to close out 2011, while Cleveland flirts with the division title, but fades by August.

Toronto Blue Jays – Buying

If there is a team that has been dying for the chance at a division change or an additional playoff spot, it is the Toronto Blue Jays. This is a team that has been on the cusp of contending only to suffer because of the division they play in, getting leaped by the Tampa Bay Rays along the way. Still, there is a lot to like in Toronto, with some electrifying young players (Brett Lawrie, Eric Thames), Edwin Encarnacion having a career year, Jose Bautista set to get back to being Joey Bats, and a top quality, young pitching staff coming into its own, the Blue Jays are poised to snap up that extra wild card slot.

Los Angeles Dodgers – Buying

Remember when people were trying to argue that Matt Kemp should have won the MVP award over Ryan Braun a year ago, and that was before the PED controversy? Well, Kemp is out to prove them why by going out and playing as the MVP this year. But the Dodgers are so much more than Kemp. Andre Ethier is one of the more exciting young bats in baseball and is in a walk year. The top four starters in the rotation all have an ERA under 3.32, and have the third lowest starters ERA in the majors.

And now with new ownership decided, the team can focus on winning games and winning back the Los Angeles market share back from the Angels.

It’s not everyday that a pitcher finds his groove at 30-years-old. It is even more surprising when said pitcher finds it one his third team and in the middle of the American League East, which has a history of being rough on pitchers.

Yet that is exactly the situation we are finding Jason Hammel in. Projected as the number three starter on the young Orioles pitching staff, Hammel has taken years of under-achievement in Tampa and Colorado and parlayed it into a winning formula on one of the biggest surprise teams in all of baseball.

Sure, it is hard to really gauge the success of a pitcher based on the results of roughly 1/5^th of his starts, but it is hard to argue with the results. In Hammel’s six starts, he is 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA, a 0.983 WHIP, and an outstanding .196 BAA (Batting Average Against).

If we delve a little deeper into it, we can see where Hammel’s true success lies:

Hammel currently registers a .255 BaBIP, or Batting Average On Balls in Play. That’s about average for the league. What he’s done well is keep the ball out of play, as he’s putting up a career high 8.8 strike-out per nine-innings pitched mark. That will come down a bit as the season progresses.

Along the lines of BaBIP we have Rdef, or Runs of Support from Defense. Hammel is currently sporting a zero in this category, meaning that his team’s defense isn’t saving him any runs. Again, this comes back to the strike-out rate and keeping the ball out of play. However, I also beg to differ on this a bit. There have been zero stolen bases against Hammel this season, with two caught stealing. There should be some credit to the defense here at catcher Matt Wieters is throwing out 44% of would-be base stealers, and at some level that has to be a deterrent. Hammel is also averaging a career best of 1.92 ground outs per air out, so at some point infield defense is making a difference for him.

The one stat that truly jumps out is Hammel’s Ravg (Runs for Average Pitcher) number of 21. That is significantly higher than the 9 that Hammel’s has surrendered thus far on the season. Now, that may be a bit troubling that the average pitcher against the same opponents and in the same ballparks would give up more than twice as many runs as Hammel. That indicates what we see in the ERA is that Hammel has done a superb job of keeping runs off the board. It would be tough to say that he could maintain that, especially after the aforementioned point that he plays in the American League East and against some of the best hitting line-ups in baseball.

Still, as the numbers support, Hammel is doing his job and has made an excellent transition from a journeyman to top of the rotation starter. Again, it is just a small sample, but it is a tremendous one at that.

The Orioles appear to be a team worth keeping an eye out on in the race and if they hope to maintain their tremendous run, they will need Hammel to widen that sample.

*Thank you to Baseball-Reference for all of the statistics in this analysis.