Oh boy. I was very excited about these two packages in the mail. I made two big trades that knocked off a bunch of wantlist needs, and quite a bit more.
I am not going to spend much time talking about it, let's take a look:
2. 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Xander Bogaerts. Yes, he appears to be throwing left-handed. This is the reverse negative variation and is a very rare card. Xander is the MVP of this package, as you will see.
3. 1993 Stadium Club 1st Day Matt Young. Young was a huge bust in Boston, his big "highlight" being an eight-inning no-hit loss to Cleveland. It is not recognized as a true no-hitter as he did not go the full nine innings since Cleveland was the home team and won the game.
4. 1997 Bowman Chrome International Donnie Sadler. I remember Sadler coming up and being compared to Nomar. He may have been a better defensive player and a faster runner, but he was no Nomar.
5. 2012 Topps Gold Sparkle Matt Albers. This was not on my want list, but Albers only has the base and parallels of this card for his stint with the Red Sox despite being a pretty good reliever for a while.
6. 2014 Topps Yellow Jake Peavy. Peavy was a good midseason acquisition for Boston in 2013 and did just what was needed to help the team to the postseason and beat the Cardinals in the World Series.
7. 2001 Fleer Genuine Paxton Crawford. This was at a time when Boston was really terrible at developing pitching. When Tomokazu Ohka is the best pitcher a team can develop during a five year period, there is a problem.
8. 2001 Fleer Genuine Sun-Woo Kim. Here is Exhibit #2 of that.
9. 2005 Ultimate Collection Ted Williams. This is one of many higher-end set singles from this trade.
11. 2006 SP Authentic Curt Schilling. Schilling is one of those players that I got tired of adding so much at one point. So my wantlist has a lot of Schilling cards on it now that I am not too concerned about that issue.
12. 2013 Bowman Sterling The Duel Matt Barnes/Tyler Austin. I did not realize this card existed. Barnes is the better of the two players here, settling in as a good setup man for the Red Sox while Austin was traded to the Twins earlier this season after not reaching his potential with the Yankees.
13. 2013 Bowman Sterling The Duel Xander Bogaerts/Taylor Guerrieri. Only Bogaerts is still in the Majors of this card.
14. 2013 Topps Opening Day Play Hard David Ortiz. A rare Ortiz card showing him doing something on the basepaths. There is a pretty good reason for that.
15. 2014 Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge David Ortiz. I always like die-cut cards.
16. 2015 Finest 1994 Finest David Ortiz. I like these cards using old Finest designs. Unlike Topps Archives, these look just like the old design.
17. 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball Legends Carl Yastrzemski. The second-greatest Red Sox player of all time.
18. 2017 Bowman 1951 Bowman Xander Bogaerts. Based on the 1951 set.
20. 2017 Bowman 1992 Xander Bogaerts. I love the shot here. 1992 Bowman had a lot of photos of players not in uniform, so this is a very realistic throwback card.
21. 2018 Topps MLB Opening Day Andrew Benintendi. Benny is another player with a ton of cards in this post.
22. 2012 Bowman Sterling Travis Shaw. I liked Shaw quite a bit when he came up as a rookie. Boston made a mistake in dealing him. But Devers should be able to make up for it.
23. 2014 Elite Xander Bogaerts. Not much to say here, just another Xander.
24. 2014 Topps Museum Collection Xander Bogaerts. Same here.
25. 2013 Topps Triple Threads Jimmie Foxx. Foxx card #2 in the post.
26. 2013 Topps Museum Collection Ted Williams. Classic photo here and definitely over-used.
27. 2014 Topps Museum Collection Jim Rice. Rice was the third Hall of Fame left-fielder in the three-person line between 1939 to 1989.
29. 2012 Topps Tribute Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury was once one of my favorite players due to his game-changing speed, but I always felt that he was definitely not staying in Boston. That proved to be correct. Unfortunately I am beginning to feel the same way about Mookie Betts. I love watching Mookie, but the longer it takes for Boston to lock him up long-term, the more likely it seems that he will be leaving Boston when he is a free agent.
30. 2013 Topps Tribute Carlton Fisk. How about some shots of him in action behind the plate?
31. 2016 Topps Tribute Ted Williams. Hey, a photo of Williams I have not seen before. What are the odds?
And here is the second trade:
2. 2017 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects Black Jay Groome. Hopefully Groome will develop into the top-flight starter he is projected to be, but the injuries have hurt his development. This card is serial-numbered to 10.
3. 2017 Donruss The Prospects Rafael Devers. Another Devers card.
4. 2017 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects Rafael Devers. And another.
5. 2017 Bowman's Best Dean's List Rafael Devers. And another. Devers looked like the MVP of this package early on but will give way to someone else.
6. 2018 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects Gold Cole Brannen. This card is serial-numbered to 25. I gave up quite a bit to get this package and the Brannen and Groome helped make it worthwhile.
7. 2018 Finest Cornerstones Andrew Benintendi. Another player with a big breakthrough in this post.
8. 2018 Finest Andrew Benintendi. Benny has turned into a star this year. He is having a very good, underrated season.
9. 2018 Topps Heritage Then & Now Chris Sale/Catfish Hunter. Sale is the MVP of this package. Before this package, I really did not have THAT many Sale cards. Afterwards, he seems a little more reasonable, though there is a long way to go.
11. 2018 Topps Silver Pack Andrew Benintendi. I tried picking up a pack of these once, I pulled two Yankees and two Orioles in my pack. What a waste.
12. 2018 Topps Chrome 1983 Refractors Chris Sale. Another Sale card.
13. 2018 Topps Superstar Sensations Mookie Betts.
14. 2018 Topps Chris Sale LL.
15. 2018 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects Tanner Houck. Houck was Boston's first round draft pick last year and is one of the better pitching prospects in the system.
16. 2018 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects Jay Groome. Hopefully 2019 will be the year Groome breaks out.
17. 2018 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects Cole Brannen. Brannen was the second round pick in 2017 and also has yet to justify it.
18. 2018 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects C.J. Chatham. Chatham is having a good year this year.
20. 2018 Topps Big League Andrew Benintendi. This is the Players' Weekend Nickname Variation card. "Benny" is not the most interesting nickname unfortunately.
21. 2018 Topps Big League Rick Porcello. I still have not been able to add many Porcello cards, despite winning the Cy Young Award in 2016.
22. 2018 Topps Big League Pedro Martinez. There is a Cy Young theme in the Big League base cards I received. Martinez won it in 1997 with the Expos, and 1999 and 2000 with the Red Sox.
23. 2018 Topps Big League Roger Clemens. Clemens won the 1986, 1987, and 1991 Cy Young Awards with the Red Sox. He also won it in 1997 and 1998 with the Blue Jays, 2001 with the Yankees, and 2004 with the Astros.
24. 2018 Topps Chrome Hanley Ramirez. This is oddly a different picture than his base Topps card.
25. 2017 Topps Chrome Chris Sale.
26. 2018 Topps Chrome Andrew Benintendi. This is another card with a different picture than the base card.
27. 2018 Topps Archives Jimmie Foxx. And the final Foxx card of the day.
29. 2018 Topps Archives Chris Sale.
30. 2018 Topps Archives Nomar Garciaparra. Just a few more cards from Archives to go.
31. 2018 Topps Archives Andrew Benintendi/Mookie Betts. If they really wanted the Boston B's, they should have added Bradley and Bogaerts.
32. 1987 Fleer All Stars Roger Clemens.
33. 2018 Bowman Andrew Benintendi.
34. 2018 Bowman Chris Sale.
35. 2018 Bowman Prospects Chrome Josh Ockimey. Ockimey is one of the team's top prospects but he faces some stiff competition from Michael Chavis even though Ockimey is closer to the Majors, it is not by much.
36. 2018 Donruss Optic Chris Sale.
38. 2018 Donruss Optic Mound Marvels Chris Sale.
39. 2018 Donruss Optic Andrew Benintendi.
40. 2018 Stadium Club Chris Sale. What a great photo here for Sale. And Sale breaks through quite a bit with this package.
41. 2018 Stadium Club Tzu-Wei Lin. And we close things out with the base Stadium Club Lin card. This is card #24 for my Lin collection.
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