Just in time, Mr. Wright

I decided to take a bit of time last weekend and sort through the Series 2 cards that I had piled up, and this card immediately struck a chord...

This guy loves the daytime

I think this is one of the best pictures in Series 2 that I've seen, great shot of El Toro connecting with the ball at PNC Park.

I've really watched a lot of Alvarez over the past two and a half seasons, and while he is a strikeout machine (106 in 292 ABs this year), he has also carried the Pirates on his shoulders a couple of times during the 2012  and 2013 seasons.

It was very funny to hear the local Pirates announcers going ballistic over the choices that David Wright made for the NL home run derby over the past few days.  They were even calling on the fans to make their feelings known to David when he came to town for the "snub" of Pedro.

I heard that Pedro finally got in today, replacing Carlos Gonzalez who has a sprained middle finger on his right hand.

Kind of ironic that a sprained middle finger is keeping out Gonzalez, because I'm sure that there would be a few of those flipped this weekend when the Mets made their way into town.

They love this kid in western PA, and come the end of the 2014 season, he's going to demand quite a raise over the $700K the Pirates are paying him now.

Good job Mr. Wright, now if you go hitless in the series this weekend, Pirates fans will be a lot more forgiving.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I took a chance

There's probably a lot of people that don't give a flying fig about my serial insanity project, but I've actually been buoyed a bit lately by the cards that I've received from other bloggers in trades.

With the project quickly approaching the 900 card mark, I decided to do a little ebay hunting last weekend for some serial numbered cards on the cheap. 

What always troubles me about trying to find lots of serial numbered cards on the bay, especially larger card lots, is that the serial numbers of the cards aren't listed.  For me, that sucks.  For the seller, I can completely understand, because when you're getting into 20+ cards on a gold parallel lot, you sure as hell don't feel like typing out all those serial numbers.

I actually found one auction for 24 '13 Topps gold parallel cards on Saturday that was ending within an hour.  The current bid?  $2.99.

Damn!

I put in a max bid of $5, hoping to get the lot on the cheap.  I hit the bid button, and I wound up with the high bid, $3.24 with about 58 minutes to go.  My luck with bidding lately hasn't been too good, and I expected to be outbid with a handful of seconds to go, as per usual.

Amazingly, the notice came over my smart phone an hour later.  Ebay item won!!  Nobody else bid. 

So for $5.50 shipped, I received my 24 gold cards yesterday.  Without having any idea if any of the serial numbers would fit. 

The magic number out of the 24 that I needed? 

Eight.  A little disappointing, but at this point in the game with almost 900 cards gone, 1 out of 3 cards in the lot is actually not too shabby.  Even better is that some of the cards hit teams that I'm desperate to get more cards for, such as Houston and Minnesota. 

One of the remaining 16 actually works good for me, as it will fit into the Jays collection:

My first Jays gold card from Series 2.  Another great season from Casey so far this year, I can't see the Jays passing on his $4 million option for 2014.

The other 15 gold cards?  Well of course they're up for trade. 

Let's start with a pic of the cards from the junior circuit....

 

The V-Mart is the only one that is spoken for, I do owe Pat from the Hot Corner a few cards....need any of the other 6?  Comment away...

Not your cup of tea?  How about some NL players....

 

Again, comments are welcome.  This could be a PWE weekend for me if I get enough requests....

I took a chance with this lot, but at that cheap of a price, how could I not?  Not only is it going to help me, but I'm sure that there are others out there that may also benefit from this cheapo purchase.

In that end, isn't that what we all want?

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial insanity cards 866-870

These next 5 cards bring the set to 58% completion.  I still have a nice little pile to go through and post for everyone, but in the meantime, take a look at these:

Card # 866:  Pee Wee Reese

  

Serial Number: 364

Team: Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers, card # 28 out of 50

How different is the MVP award in today's game?  Pee Wee received MVP votes in 11 straight seasons between 1946 and 1956.  He only hit .300 once during those seasons, never hit more than 13 HR's, never drove in more than 84 runs.  Not too many votes would come today to a person with those offensive numbers.

Card #867:  Adrian Gonzalez

 

Serial Number:  1285
Team:  Boston Red Sox, card # 29 out of 50

Adrian's lowest HR total for any full season was 2012, with only 18.  In contrast, Gonzalez's career high for stolen bases also came in 2012.  He swiped 2.

Card # 868:  Brandon Boggs

Serial Number:  738
Team: Texas Rangers, card # 34 out of 50

Who knows, Boggs might get a call up to the Braves when the rosters expand to 40 players in September.  Brandon signed with the Braves in May, and has hit .273 in 46 games since then.

Card # 869:  Alcides Escobar

Serial Number:  1442
Team:  Milwaukee Brewers, card # 24 out of 50

I'm sure the Royals would like to see his batting average start to climb back up to last year's level.  That would help him get more chances to steal bases, something that he is perfect at so far this year (12 for 12).

Card # 870:  Jordan Zimmermann

Serial Number:  1315
Team:  Washington Nationals, card # 40 out of 50

Somebody tell me why this guy's name isn't mentioned more when a discussion of top flight pitchers in the NL occurs.  It's the damn wins....only 8 in 2011, 12 last year.  Both of those seasons, he had great stats, but wasn't getting the support to get the wins.   That appears to have changed this year, since he already has 12 wins. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

The cards or the cube, which is worth more?

My wife and I did our usual Saturday shopping, and part of the trip was a stop at Target.   There wasn't a whole lot there that attracted my attention, so on a lark I bought one of those 250 card cubes.

I know I shouldn't expect a lot when I purchase one of these, but when the highlight is the great starter sets I wound up getting for '87, '88 and '89 Topps sets, it just reinforces my stupidity in purchasing the cube.

Let me take that back, the cards weren't all bad. There were a few in there that I found interesting.  One of the older Donruss sets that I'm going to get around to collecting one day is the '84 set.   I don't really have any of the cards at all now, but I've had a few in the past, and I believe that the set looks sharp.

Again, not all of the cards were bad, I actually was able to get a handful of 1988 minis in the cube, and there weren't any stiffs in the group!

How would you like to have those 6 to start your team??!!  I'd take my chances with the other 3 players on the field when I have names like Schmidt, Sandberg and Yount to start.

Another thing that I noticed in the cube was the two or three mini player collections.  Groups of 2 or 3 of the same player inside was quite an interesting find.  Mike Lansing of the Expos was the one that I decided to show off, because the cards were all interesting.

I think all 3 cards are interesting, especially the rookie cup card on the bottom.   I don't remember how many horizontal rookie cup cards I've seen over the years (I'm sure the collectors of these probably have that number in their back pocket).  The positioning of the cup is very unique as well, almost dead center of the card.  We've all seen many double play cards over the years (GCRL is a great testament to that...), but the card in the upper right of the players greeting each other at home plate is one that you don't see very often.

Finally, I'll show off some All-Star cards that were in the cube, featuring more great players in this group such as Ripken, Ozzie and Doc...

Oh yeah, how about Ken Griffey Jr. getting ready to bunt!!   That might be a picture of one of the 8 career sacrifice bunts that Griffey completed. 

All in all a few interesting cards in the cube.  Yes, the title was a bit on the sarcastic side, but hey, I gotta be me.

At least I was able to pick up another storage cube!

Thanks for reading, Robert

You ever have one of those trades....

It starts out simple.  A fellow blogger sends you an email.   Hey Robert, I've got such and such for you.  I take a look at a nicely detailed want list and email back that I have a bunch for that person.

And it snowballed.  4 or 5 emails later, Matt from the 26 cent summer blog (his trade post linked here) and I had a deal done. 

The initial email Matt sent told me that I had a bunch of '73 Topps coming my way, 2 pages worth in total.

I'll show off 3 players you might know about:

How about Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager?

Yep, it's slightly miscut, but still a great card of Yeager.  Turns out this is Yeager's rookie card.  I never knew that Yeager once finished a game in 1969 after breaking his leg in a first inning plate collision. 

Now that's tough. 

We started with a very good catcher, let's move on to one that many would consider to be great...Johnny Bench.

Yes, you could say that this card has a crease or 3, but to be honest, it's still a great card.  It appears that Johnny is getting no love at all from the Giants (?) bench while attempting to catch a foul pop fly.

I don't think I've had the opportunity in the past to look at Bench's career stats.  The first thing that jumped out at me was his durability.  During Johnny's first seven years in the majors, the lowest number of games he appeared in was 147.  Incredible numbers for a catcher!

How about we move on to a legendary outfielder, some guy named Reggie...

It just seems a little strange to see Reggie without the usual #44 that we saw later in his career.  Anyone remember Reggie as a free swinger?  How about this stat...

9 straight seasons between 1972-1980, Reggie had more hits than strikeouts in each of those seasons.  But starting in the strike shortened 1981 season, his last 7 seasons he had more strikeouts than hits.  For his career, 2597 K's, 2584 hits.  In case you were wondering, Adam Dunn is the current threat to Reggie's all time K's mark as a hitter, he's only 465 behind.

Let's fast forward to 2011, and a set that has long been on the want list here, that's the '11 Heritage set.  Matt was kind enough to send a couple of SPs this way...

What's a trade package to the habit without a couple of Jays in it??  How about one each of the red/blue parallels from '13 Topps

Finally, Matt sent a couple of cards for the insanity project, including one that is going to present a little bit of a dilemma...

Got my choice of 3 teams on this card...just gotta decide which one to use.

Matt, thank you for the trade, the cards are very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial insanity cards 861-865

Here's 5 more serial numbered cards, all featuring 2011 Topps Triple Threads cards for your viewing pleasure


Card #861:  Jason Heyward

Serial Number: 222
Team:  Atlanta Braves, card # 31 out of 50

The numbers just aren't wowing me this year for Jason, but it's also hard to fathom that this is his 4th full year of pro ball at the age of 23.  I have a feeling that he's going to kick it into another gear after the all star break and the numbers will climb quickly.

Card #862:  Ryan Howard

Serial Number:  243
Team:  Philadelphia Phillies, card # 25 out of 50

The 4 year period between 2006-2009 for Ryan may be one of the best 4 year periods for any major leaguer, ever.  198 HR, 572 RBI, and all 4 seasons in the top 5 in MVP voting.  To be honest, I think he still has something in the tank, but a change of scenery is necessary in order to get it out of him.   Maybe DHing in the AL will be the tonic?

Card #863:  Josh Hamilton

Serial Number:  475
Team:  Texas Rangers, card # 33 out of 50

Maybe giant contracts aren't what they're cracked up to be?  If he thought the boos in Texas were bad, wait until Angels fans run out of patience with his .229 batting average.   If they haven't already.

Card #864:  Rogers Hornsby

Serial Number:  586
Team:  St. Louis Cardinals, card # 36 out of 50

OK, maybe this 4 year period for Rogers was just as good.  Between 1922-1925, Rogers hit .404 and won the triple crown twice!  In 1922, Rogers led the NL in every offensive category except for triples (he only had 14 that year, the NL leader had 22) and stolen bases (he had 17).

Card # 865:  Kevin Youkilis

Serial Number:  620
Team:  Boston Red Sox, card # 28 out of 50

The nickname "the Greek God of Walks" that I heard from the Moneyball movie kind of stuck with me, so when writing this I decided to look at his walk totals over his career.  Nothing earth shattering really, 91 back in 2006, 77 in a season twice, but other than that, mostly in the 50s-60s range.  It could have been worse, he could have been the Greek God of strikeouts....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Cutting to the chase with R. A. Dickey

Pat from the Hot Corner Cards blog was kind enough to send me a couple of PWE's with some great cards in them, including this cut to the chase card of R.A. Dickey

I like it.   It's the 2nd die cut of a Blue Jay that I have from this years Topps releases (Brett Lawrie is the other). 

I'm not using this post to gloat.  I was not convinced that the acquisition of Dickey by the Jays was the best move.  The numbers so far this season are bearing that out...

Dickey leads the AL in earned runs allowed.  Including the 6 he gave up today, the total now stands at 65.

The home run he gave up today was his 19th (3rd most in the AL before today's game).   His previous season high was 24 in 2012.  He's now 8-9 on the season.   Not what the Jays were hoping for.


The splits between his career NL numbers and his career AL numbers are startling.  He won 39 games in 3 seasons in NY, he has won 30 games in 8 seasons in the AL (including 2013).  NL career ERA?  2.95.  AL career  ERA?  5.25.  NL career WHIP?  1.15.  AL career WHIP?  1.52

As much as I would have liked to have seen this trade work out for the Jays, honestly I don't think they did their homework on this deal, and tried to cash in on the momentum that was Dickey's incredible 2012 season.

The AL and NL are two different worlds.   Dickey's stats prove it.  The Jays only have 2.5 years left on his contract to endure....

Endure is a strong word I know, but unless something changes soon, it will be appropriate.

Thanks for reading, Robert