Friday, July 27, 2018

Linsanity and a Diamond Kings Break

The last 24 hours have yielded some new stuff.  I actually went on to Ebay last weekend and picked up a couple of cheap cards that jumped at me.  The first card is below:
2018 Bowman Chrome Talent Pipeline Jay Groome/Michael Chavis/Tzu-Wei Lin.

I think this card cursed all three players.  Coming into the season, Groome and Chavis were Boston's top two prospects and they were highly regarded too.  Groome was thought to be a future ace and Chavis had some big-time power, the best power-hitting prospect Boston has developed since Mo Vaughn.  Now, both players face uncertain futures as Groome underwent Tommy John surgery and will be out the entire season and Chavis was suspended 80 games for a PED violation.  Only time will tell what happens with those two.

By contrast, Tzu-Wei Lin was never really one of Boston's top prospects.  He was always considered a good defensive player but lacking at the plate.  Last season, he surprised everyone with a very good year in Pawtucket and was called up to the Majors and produced for a little while.  He ended up with just a line of .268/.369/.339 but showed some impressive contact hitting and ability to get on base while providing solid defense in the infield.  Lin has declined markedly this season though, at least in the Majors.  He is having a great season in Pawtucket.  I would love to see Lin stick as a utility infielder in the Majors with Boston.  He is fun to watch and can certainly help the team, as long as he plays more like 2017 than 2018.

I was in Lincoln recently since my wife dragged me to the Def Leppard/Journey concert (I suppose payback for when I dragged her to Mayhem/Immolation/Black Anvil last Fall.  That debt was coming due at some point).  I stopped at Walmart late at night and saw that they had blasters of Diamond Kings, a set I love and seem to have pretty good luck with.  Since my local Walmart ran out, I bought one.  What a great move.  I want to preface this scan by saying that there were 33 cards in this blaster.
1.  Harry Hooper Artist's Proof Red (Photo Variation).  The very first card out of the box was this awesome parallel of obscure HOFer Hooper.  

2.  Mookie Betts Aurora.  Here is the standard Mookie Betts card for my breaks.  Nice colorful card here.  I like this card a lot.

3.  Chris Sale.  Just a boring base card.  (Not really).

4.  Chris Sale Gallery of Stars.  The very next card was this terrific insert that calls to mind the Triple Play Gallery of Stars cards in the early 1990's.  

5.  Johnny Pesky.  This is why I love this set so much.  So many classic old-time players.  Pesky is one of those players I would have loved if I had been able to watch him.  Just a terrific contact hitter who lived up to his name.

6.  Joe Cronin.  I am actually currently reading a biography of Cronin.  The author is a bit of an apologist with regard to the issues the team had while Cronin was running things, most notably in its history with African American players.  I suppose there is no real proof that Cronin was part of the problem, but he certainly did not help solve it either.  That being said, Cronin was a fascinating individual who rose from player to manager to general manager to league president.

Yes, six Red Sox cards out of 33 total cards.  Somehow though, I still got more Yankees.  That just is not right.

And finally, another Ebay item:
2018 Gypsy Queen Missing Blackplate Tzu-Wei Lin.  Yes, I had Linsanity last year.  That probably is not a huge surprise given my history of pulling for the unknown guys.  Like I said above, I would love to see Lin develop into the next Brock Holt for Boston.  

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