Minis and More

Up today are a couple more TCDB trades.  Just some randomness for the day.

The first deal featured a number of A&G minis: 

Of particular interest in this scan is the Xander Bogaerts blue parallel from Topps UK.  I don't think there is a Topps UK set any more, but I suppose I could be wrong.  I like the green parallel of Alex Verdugo from last year's Archives set.  The Ted Williams is from the Chrome A&G set.

This package was primarily some random base cards I needed to complete team sets.  The Nomar Garciaparra was an All Star subset card.  Derek Lowe came from 2003 Topps Opening Day.  

So, not the most exciting of mailday posts, but I need to get caught up.

A Bunch of Wong Parallels

Connor Wong had a big game today.  He had four hits in four at-bats with two home runs and three RBIs.  We will see if he gets a Topps Now card tomorrow.

Anyway, here are a bunch of the 2024 Topps parallels.  The first one is the True Photo variation.  These are not serial-numbered, so I am not sure how rare they are.  The second is the Holiday Rabbits parallel, serial-numbered to 50.  The third is the Independence Day, serial-numbered to 76.  And the fourth is the black parallel, numbered to 73.  

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Today's post is some rando stuff that I've gotten in recently, along with a blaster break.

Up first is a two-card TCDB trade with some boxed oddball cards from the 1980's:

1.  Wade Boggs.  Unfortunately, I was not collecting at the height of the oddball craze in the 1980's when you could walk into Rite-Aid and pick up a special box of cards.  So, I still have to work to find some of these things.  

2.  Mike Greenwell.  Greenwell was once one of the brightest young stars in the game and looked like a superstar for years to come.  After 1988 though he just sort of settled into being a good, occasionally very good, player.  He still hit .303 for his career, which is often overlooked.

Up next is a blaster of 2024 Topps:

1.  Masataka Yoshida.  Yoshida started off the season a little slowly, but has started getting it going in recent days.  

2.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Rafaela signed an extension shockingly.  His defense has been terrific, but there have been some growing pains offensively.  He's a bit of a free swinger, which is a bit problematic.  We will see where that leads.  He will likely settle in at shortstop for this season.

3.  Kenley Jansen.  He has had a couple of rough outings but seems to be stabilizing.  I still think he is going to get traded.

1.  Keith Foulke.  This was a one-card deal that got me a jersey relic of Boston's closer for the 2004 season.  That season he was 5-3 with a 2.17 ERA, 79 strikeouts against 15 walks in 83 innings, and saving 32 games.  Unfortunately, he was never again a reliable closer, but he made a big impact in 2004.

1.  Trevor Story.  Unfortunately, one of my big predictions for the year will not come true.  Story suffered a season-ending shoulder injury a couple weeks ago.  I really thought he was going to be healthy this season and turn in a 20/20, Gold Glove season.

2.  Manny Ramirez.  Ramirez is still playing professional baseball in Asia and just hit a home run the other day.  He says he is not officially retired.

3.  Bobby Dalbec.  One of my more negative predictions was that Dalbec would be released by the Red Sox.  That hasn't happened yet, but considering he has just one hit in 32 plate appearances with 18 strikeouts, it probably is not far off.

4.  J.D. Martinez.  Martinez had a bounceback season last year with the Dodgers but has yet to play for the Mets this season.

5.  Alex Verdugo.  I expect his tenure with the Yankees to be short.  I just do not see him enjoying the much more strict clubhouse culture of the Yankees.  He's not playing great right now either.

R.I.P. Dave McCarty

 

McCarty was a member of the 2004 World Champion Red Sox, hitting .258/.327/.404 with four home runs in 89 games as a bench player and even had a 2.45 ERA in 3.2 innings with four strikeouts.  He was a top prospect for the Twins in the early 1990's but just never seemed to find his way into regular playing time.  He also played with the Giants, Mariners, Royals, Devil Rays and A's.  He spent his last three seasons with the Red Sox from 2003 to 2005.  I always liked McCarty and he was a subject of my Unknown Heroes series.  

Wong Update

The next couple of packages were a couple of the 2024 Topps parallel cards.  This is the Orange Crackle Foil and the Aqua parallels.  Wong has started the year off fairly well.  As of today, he is hitting .342/.333/.605 with three home runs and eight RBIs.  For awhile there it looked like Reese McGuire was going to overtake Wong for playing time, but that has changed this week.  Wong had a really bad game defensively last week, but seems to have come back around.

Mailday Madness (Yet Again)

I am way behind.  I have a long way to catch up.  I have spent a bunch of time lately getting all of my Red Sox cards into binders, something I have been neglecting for about the last three years or so.  But recently, my parents gave me the card collections of my brothers (who did not want them) and I picked up three binders that I could use for my cards.  So, here we are.  This is two of the recent TCDB packages.

1.  Ellis Burks.  Burks is one of those players that has much better numbers than I remember.  For his career, he hit .291/.363/.510 with 352 home runs, 1,206 RBIs and 2,107 hits.  Those are some very impressive career numbers.

2.  Dwight Evans.  A lot of Evans's numbers are even better than those of Burks.  He hit .272/.370/.470 with 385 home runs, 1,384 RBIs and 2,446 hits.  Given that he played in a much weaker offensive time period and has eight Gold Gloves to his name makes him a good candidate for the Hall of Fame.

3.  Coco Crisp.  I remember when Boston acquired Crisp, he looked like a younger version of Johnny Damon.  Injuries slowed him down in 2006 and he was basically an average player in his three years in Boston.  Good, but not what he was expected to be.

4.  Alexi Ogando.  Here's a guy that people probably forget spent time in Boston.  He was 3-1 with a 3.99 ERA as a reliever with the Red Sox in 2015.

5.  David Price.  Price's contract is probably largely a bust, but he was a massive part of their 2018 World Championship.  I still believe he should have been the World Series MVP, going 2-0 in three games with a 1.98 ERA, ten strikeouts and six walks in 14 innings pitched.

6.  Garrett Whitlock.  Whitlock is still Boston's greatest acquisition in the Rule 5 Draft even though he has been mostly inconsistent since his amazing season in 2021.  He is a part of the rotation this season and has been pretty good until an injury last night.

7.  David Ortiz.  This is a shot of Ortiz delivering his terrific speech after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, an event that solidified Ortiz as a folk hero.  This was one of his greatest moments.

8.  Caleb Hamilton.  Yeah, this card features several other players, but Hamilton is the only one I care about.  This was a short print from last year's Heritage.  Hamilton played in five games in 2023 for Boston and was hitless (though he did walk once) in six plate appearances.

1.  Jon Lester.  Lester will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for 2027.  He has an interesting case, enhanced by postseason success and intriguing storylines such as his cancer fight and helping the Cubs win their first World Series in over a century.

2.  Chris Sale.  Sale's Red Sox stint started off so well, but he has been absolutely wrecked by injuries since 2018.  

3.  David Price.

4.  Xander Bogaerts.  Padres fans are already complaining about Bogaerts.  It's going to be a difficult contract for him to live up to.  

5.  J.D. Martinez.  Martinez is going to be with the Mets this season, but has yet to play a game for them.

6.   Jeff McNeely.  I remember when McNeely was a major Red Sox prospect.  He was going to be the fastest player on the team since Tommy Harper.  Well, he was fast, stealing six bases in just 21 Major League games.  I don't really know why he never got another shot.  He hit .297/.409/.378 in his only shot with Boston, but he had a rough year in the minors in 1994 and then was traded to the Cardinals in the Luis Alicea deal and never made it back.

7.  Julio Lugo.  Lugo was another fast Red Sox player.  He led the team with 33 stolen bases in 2007, but a 65 OPS+ and being an adventure on defense caused the team to look for other options at shortstop.

8.  Adrian Gonzalez.  Gonzalez was definitely the offensive force Boston wanted when they finally acquired him, hitting .338/.410/.548 with 27 home runs, 117 RBIs and a league-leading 213 hits.  But he was not the clubhouse leader he was expected to be and caused some issues that led to him being packaged in the giant Dodgers deal in 2012.  

Zippy-Zapped with a TTM Auto

I am way behind again.  I haven't been posting much because work is busy.  I will try to eventually catch back up.

Up first is a Zippy-Zapping:

This is a TTM auto of former Red Sox prospect Cole Brannen.  Brannen was Boston's second-round pick in the 2017 draft, the one in which current starter Tanner Houck was the team's first-round choice.  Brannen made it to High-A ball, but never hit higher than .231 and never developed any power.  It just did not work out for him and he was released in Spring of 2022.

Thanks for the card Kenny!

Red Sox Opening Day Lineup 2024

I do this occasionally.  Actually, I'm not even sure if I can say that.  I know I have done it before.  Maybe a couple times.  Anyway, here is the Red Sox Opening Day Roster for 2024 along with some predictions.  A lot of my predictions are somewhat positive.  I really do think this team has some good, young talent.  This is a year to determine what it is that they have and supplement it going forward.  I do not think this team will contend, but they will win some games.  I do think they will be active during the trading period, hopefully bringing in young pitching.  

WILYER ABREU

2024 Prediction: Abreu will turn out to be the best player Boston got in the Christian Vazquez deal, becoming the regular right-fielder by mid-season.

CHASE ANDERSON

2024 Prediction:  Anderson will not even be with this team by May 1.  He will only have a couple of mop-up appearances and a bloated ERA.

BRAYAN BELLO

2024 Prediction:  Bello will make big strides toward becoming a potential ace and win 15 games.   

ISAIAH CAMPBELL

2024 Prediction:  Campbell will turn out to be the best under-the-radar pick-up for the team in 2024 and be a valuable member of the bullpen.

TRISTON CASAS

2024 Prediction:  Casas will have his first season with 30 home runs.

KUTTER CRAWFORD

2024 Prediction:  Crawford will become Boston's #2 pitcher, finishing with 12 wins and an ERA below 3.50.

BOBBY DALBEC

2024 Prediction:  This year is the end of the road for Dalbec in Boston, and possibly very early.

RAFAEL DEVERS

2024 Prediction:  Ho-hum, just another 30 homer/100 RBI season for Devers.  

JARREN DURAN

2024 Prediction:  Duran will steal the second-most bags in a single season in Red Sox history.  The number to beat is 54.

TANNER HOUCK

2024 Prediction:  Houck will be the closer by the end of the season.

KENLEY JANSEN

2024 Prediction:  Jansen will be traded at the Trading Deadline, but will be an All Star before he goes.

CHRIS MARTIN

2024 Prediction:  Martin has another ridiculously good season and actually gets his first card since 2020.

REESE MCGUIRE

2024 Prediction:  McGuire's numbers continue to slide and he is released by the end of the season.

TYLER O'NEILL

2024 Prediction:  O'Neill has a renaissance season in 2024, but is traded at the deadline.

NICK PIVETTA

2024 Prediction:  Pivetta has another solid season, but is also traded at the deadline.

CEDDANNE RAFAELA

2024 Prediction:  Rafaela contends for the A.L. Rookie of the Year and wins a Gold Glove in his rookie season.

PABLO REYES

2024 Prediction:  Reyes will be a valuable utility infielder.

JOELY RODRIGUEZ

2024 Prediction:  Rodriguez will be the first player to be dropped from the roster and Brennan Bernardino will be brought back.

JUSTIN SLATEN

2024 Prediction:  Slaten, a Rule 5 pick, will stay on the roster all season and gradually work into more of a trustworthy arm out of the bullpen.

TREVOR STORY

2024 Prediction:  Story has a 20/20 season and wins a Gold Glove.

ENMANUEL VALDEZ

2024 Prediction:  Valdez hits well, but his defensive problems make it impossible to keep him on the roster and he is eventually traded.

GREG WEISSERT

2024 Prediction:  Weissert becomes a fan favorite and makes the Verdugo trade worthwhile.

GARRETT WHITLOCK

2024 Prediction:  Whitlock solidifies his place in the rotation and wins 12 games.

JOSH WINCKOWSKI

2024 Prediction:  Winckowski becomes one of the team's setup men with another strong season.

CONNOR WONG

2024 Prediction:  Wong is an All Star in 2024.

MASATAKA YOSHIDA

2024 Prediction:  Yoshida contends for the batting title in 2024.

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Pt. 16: Babe Ruth

NAME: Babe Ruth

POSITION: Starting Pitcher, Outfielder

WHY IS HE HERE?:  Arguably the most famous baseball player of all time.  Ruth started his career in Boston as a starting pitcher, but gradually was moved to the outfield.  He had a record of 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA in 1,190.1 innings with 483 strikeouts.  He had his best season in 1916 when he was 23-12 with a league-leading 1.75 ERA.  In his only full season as a position player for the Red Sox in 1919 he set a then-record with 29 home runs and led the league in runs (103), RBIs (113) and twice led in home runs.     

WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?:  Absolutely.  

ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?:  The only better choices are already in the set.

WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?:  Once again, of course.

ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?:  Guys like David Ortiz and Mookie Betts are probably among the more popular players since this set came out.  And those players absolutely would be in the set.

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 34: Howie Storie

Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right.

Howie Storie is another one of those ultra-obscure players to play for the Red Sox in 1932.  Storie actually played parts of two seasons for the Red Sox, but that was for a total of 12 Major League games.  During that time, he did not make a single error and he caught one of the two attempted base stealers on him.

Storie was just 20 years old when he made his Major League debut with the Red Sox in 1930.  That year, he appeared in six games, accumulating 20 plate appearances.  He had two hits and three walks against two strikeouts and scored two runs.  That gave him a line of .118/.250/.118.  

He spent most of the 1932 season in the minors, appearing in 34 games with a line of .227/.227/.351.  Of his 22 hits, four were doubles and four were triples.  He made it into another six games in the Majors, but had just eight plate appearances, mostly early in the season.  He had three hits and had a line of .375/.375/.375.  

Storie played in 13 games in the minors in 1933 and hit just .167.  He was released at some point in the season, and that was it for his career.

2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Pt. 15: Joe Dobson

NAME: Joe Dobson

POSITION: Starting Pitcher

WHY IS HE HERE?:  Dobson was a consistent and reliable starting pitcher for the team during the late 1940's and was an All Star in 1948 (16-10, 3.56).  He won 106 games with the Red Sox which is tenth in team history.  He had a record of 106-72 with a 3.57 ERA in Boston.  

WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?:  Probably not.  I was a little surprised by Dobson's inclusion in the set.  Even though he was seventh in career wins in team history at the time the set came out, he was never really dominant.  

ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?:  Well, just looking at the wins leaders, Bob Stanley does not appear in the set and he had more wins than Dobson.  Ellis Kinder is also not in the set and he had some huge seasons for Boston.  Tom Brewer, Ernie Shore and Rube Foster also deserve consideration.

WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?:  Not unless it's a huge set.

ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?:  Among starting pitchers since 2001 that are not present in the set are Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello and Chris Sale.  

The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 33: Andy Spognardi

Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right.

Andy Spognardi is another of those super obscure players from the 1932 season.  1932 was his only Major League season, but he did get a bit more playing time than guys like Hank Patterson, Johnny Lucas and Regis Leheny.  Spognardi was a Boston native who signed a contract with the team and did not spend a day in the minors before making his Major League debut.  He played 17 games in the Majors in 1932 and that was it for his Major League career.

Spognardi played second, third and shortstop for the Red Sox.  In his 41 plate appearances, he accumulated a surprisingly successful .294/.400/.324 line with nine runs scored, a double, an RBI and six walks.  Despite that, he played just a handful of games in the minors the next two seasons and never made it back to the Majors.

According to his biography on SABR, Spognardi was just using baseball to help pay some of his medical school tuition.  He became a doctor after his playing career was over.

Mailday Madness Pt. 11

Keeping this thing going.  Let's get into this.

This was just a one-card trade for Hanley Ramirez.  That's right, that's Hanley, not Manny.  I believe I have talked about this before, Hanley was the first prospect I really collected from the Red Sox.  I got in on the ground floor, grabbing his very first minor league card as soon as it came out.  Then in 2003 when he started getting Major League cards, I grabbed a lot of them.  As such, I have a rather impressive amount of his first year cards, including an autographed X-fractor and a printing plate.  I probably could have made some decent money had I sold my cards in the first few years of his Major League career when he was one of the most exciting players in the game.  Unfortunately, Ramirez was traded after he made just two at-bats in Boston before he was traded to the Marlins in the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell deal.  Ramirez did come back to Boston in 2015 and had a really good year in 2016.  

1.  Jarren Duran.  As I am typing this I just picked up Duran for my fantasy team.  Hopefully he can build on his season from last year.

2.  Alex Verdugo.  This is a nice-looking Verdugo card.

3.  Enrique Hernandez.  Hey, the border of this card matches Hernandez's socks.

4.  Bobby Dalbec.  Dalbec is probably at the turning point in his Boston career.  With C.J. Cron on hand now, it becomes less likely that Dalbec will stick around.

1.  Nick Pivetta.  Pivetta is in the running for Opening Day starter.  He is not my first pick, I would go with Brayan Bello.  Pivetta is a reliable starter though and fun to watch.

2.  Trevor Story.  I am predicting a 20/20 bounceback season for Story this year.  He looks healthy and has been playing well this Spring.

3.  Jackie Bradley Jr.  It looks like JBJ has retired.  He finishes with a line of .225/.303/.381 with 109 home runs, 449 RBIs and 69 stolen bases.  His most impressive stat is his 10.3 career dWAR.  

4.  Manny Ramirez.  This is one of my favorite insert sets of recent years, particularly the non-Chrome cards where they are actually die-cut.

5.  Johnny Damon.  It is sort of odd looking over Damon's career that he was only an All Star twice.  And both of those came during his time with Boston.  That's right, never with Kansas City and never with the Yankees.  

6.  Cecil Cooper.  Cooper spent six seasons with the Red Sox and hit .283/.324/.447 with 40 home runs.  He was then traded to the Brewers in the deal that brought back George Scott and Bernie Carbo and got a lot more playing time and blossomed.

7.  Kyle Schwarber.  It looks like the pitcher Boston gave up in the Schwarber deal stalled out.  Aldo Ramirez looked like a decent prospect in 2021, but struggled after the deal and hasn't pitched since.  I am not sure what happened.

1.  Hirokazu Sawamura.  Sawamura had a pretty good ERA during his two seasons in Boston, but his FIP was a less-than-impressive 4.59 and his release becomes a little more clear.  I still liked him though and was disappointed when he was simply released.

2.  Jonathan Arauz.  A Rule 5 pick by Boston prior to the 2020 season, Arauz hit .204/.280/.320 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 59 games played as a utility infielder.  He has played with the Orioles and Mets since, but has never hit much.

3.  Xander Bogaerts.  

4.  Rafael Devers.  Here's another City Connect uniform card.

5.  Dustin Pedroia.  Pedroia will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for next season.  

1.  Michael Chavis.

2.  Rafael Devers.

3.  Hirokazu Sawamura.

4.  Tanner Houck.  Houck looks like a good bet to make the starting rotation this season, giving Boston three home-grown starters for the first time in a very long time.

5.  Chris Sale.  Sale and Houck are almost mirror-images of each other on the mound.

6.  Rafael Devers.

7.  Mookie Betts.  Betts has a lot of really cool cards that I missed out on.

8.  Jarren Duran.

More Wong Updates

I started my fantasy baseball draft today.  How early is too early to grab Connor Wong?  It takes several days for us to do our draft, so it will probably be awhile before I start to think about trying to grab him.  As I am writing this, I just made my fifth round pick.  Triston Casas is my only Red Sox player so far.

Anyway, here are the Wong cards.

Here is the Holiday Easter Eggs parallel and the Yellow parallel.  I don't like the Easter parallels quite as much as the Halloween parallels from Topps Update last year.  They are just kind of odd.  Unfortunately, I recently missed out on a Printing Plate from 2024 Topps, not because I was outbid, but because I got really busy suddenly and just missed the auction ending.  It was annoying.

Mailday Madness Pt. 10

This one will be pretty quick.  I have just two packages to show off and neither of them are very big.  The Red Sox are in a bit of trouble with Lucas Giolito going down with an injury, possibly for the entire season, and Vaughn Grissom also having issues.  It would be nice to add another starter, but the team seems unlikely to do that.  

1.  Moe Berg.  My parents called me one day and my dad started talking to me about this movie they had just seen the night before called The Catcher was a Spy.  Of course I remembered this as the title of the biography of Berg which I have read a couple of times.  Berg was an enigma.  I have yet to see the movie, but maybe I will check it out soon.

2.  Cy Young/Roger Clemens.  It is pretty cool to have a card featuring the pitchers who are tied for the all-time team record in wins (192).  Tim Wakefield came close with 186 wins.  

3.  Kutter Crawford.  Crawford is a pitcher I think could turn into something pretty good.  I am not predicting stardom, but a good middle-of-the-rotation arm.  He had some impressive peripheral numbers.  

1.  Josh Beckett.  Beckett won 89 games with the Red Sox.  He is tied for 18th all-time on the Red Sox leaderboard with a legendary figure himself.  He is tied with Babe Ruth.

2.  Mookie Betts.  The MVP subsets/inserts from Donruss sets were not as beloved as the Diamond Kings, but some of the choices were still pretty unusual.  They were also not nearly as long-lasting.

3.  Rafael Devers.  Devers has been on fire this Spring.  I am looking forward to seeing what he will do this season.

4.  Corey Kluber.  Kluber goes down as another star pitcher who spent just one year with the Red Sox.  Unfortunately, his last season was a disaster.  He appeared in 15 games, starting nine (and notching his only career save), but had a record of 3-6 and an unsightly 7.04 ERA.  He struck out 42 and walked 21 in 55 innings.