Blog Kiosk: 12/6/2011

Here's an item you don't see very often. This is a 1961 Wilson Meats premium photo of Frank Howard. Found on eBay. Below are todays links:

• Jamie Hoffman has been claimed off of waivers by the Rockies, via Tony Jackson at ESPN.
  
• Here is Baseball America's Ranking of top 10 Dodgers prospects.
• John Sickels at Minor League Ball provides his top 20 Dodgers prospects.
  
• Hall of Famer Pat Gillick has been approached by several bidders and declares his interest in joining the Dodgers once a group has been picked, via Steve Dilbeck at LA Times.

  Gillick said he has been approached by prospective bidders for the Dodgers but said he would not align with any potential ownership group. Once a new owner is selected -- and if that new owner is interested -- Gillick said he would consider a position as president of baseball operations.

  "It would be something that I would take a look at," Gillick said Monday at baseball's winter meetings in Dallas.

• The camera used for principle photography on Star Wars in 1977 recently sold at auction at $625,000.00, via Deadline.com.
  
• Wow. Here's an old story I had never heard before. Topps was sued by a couple of collectors for false claims about card scarcity. Topps lost. Story via ESPN.

  According to an eight-page newsletter released by Topps and distributed to hobby dealers, there were supposed to be no more than 150 gold refractor cards of each player in its 1995-96 Hockey's Finest and 1996 Baseball's Finest sets. The fact that the two had collected more than were supposedly made threatened to devalue their investment since prices were based on the company's claim of scarcity.

• Do what Collector's Crack did and buy a piece of the Packers. Shares are for sale for the first time since 1997.
• Gary Livingston lets us know that he did a photo shot with Kings forward Dustin Brown and his family for an upcoming release of The Fourth Period.
  

Harang'd

With confirmation coming from all circles, it now appears that our five man rotation is set with the signing of Aaron Harang to a reported two year $12Mil contract, via @Jon_Heyman.
I'm trying to stay calm, but Mike at Mike Scioscia's Traggic Illness already analyzes what is plain to see. Harang's comeback was a bunch of bunk. For confirmation read what Mike writes in the link above, then look at some statistics pulled out by Baseball Musings that shows how we were bamboozled. Last season, in the year called Harang's great comeback, he pitched much more often at pitcher friendly Petco Park than on the road. A further review confirms that his downward slide has not abated. Below is from Baseball Musings:
Those road and home splits do not give me much confidence. Although, he did blank us in his one start in LA, so there's that to be happy about. Of course, he won't be facing our lineup this coming season.

Oh well, all I can do is sit here and exclaim, 'Welcome to the Blue, Aaron!' Below are his complete stats from Baseball Reference.


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Since we are at it, I now expect the Dodgers to go after the slimmer Dmitri Young- who now appears ready to play.

eBay: An Vintage Koufax Pocketknife

Here is a great vintage 1960's era pocketknife featuring Sandy Koufax found on eBay. It has two blades and a belt clip on the reverse. It doesn't seem very functional, but it sure looks cool. I believe these were originally sold at stadium concession stands at Dodger Stadium and through their mail order catalog. Over the years I've seen this show up from time to time, and they always sell at a reasonable value. This particular item just closed at a price of $37.98.

(eBay Auction Link)