A Pile of Rafaelas

It seems like we will be alternating posts between Ceddanne Rafaela and other players for the time being.  I am feeling more comfortable with my numbers, so things will probably slow a little on the acquisition of Rafaela cards.  Plus, his struggles since the All Star Break have been frustrating.  He is a streaky player, but this cold streak has been pretty bad.  He did homer late in the game the other night against Baltimore which took the lead and eventually won the game, so his clutch ability has been unaffected.

Most of these are pretty low-end parallels, but there is still some fun stuff here.  The more interesting ones are the Silver Pack card from last year's Topps set (second row, left), the Aqua Lava Refractor from 2022 Bowman Chrome Draft (second row, middle), and the Aqua parallel from last year's Update (third row, right).

The top row of this scan all came in a lot.  I still try to grab lots as much as I possibly can, but it is becoming less and less common as I add more cards.  The card in the middle of the third row is an interesting one.  Topps has been making over-sized cards to be on the top of hobby boxes lately and those cards are generally different than the base cards.  I don't love over-sized cards and rarely get them purposely.  Last year, Topps made standard-size Companion Cards for the over-sized cards, and that is what this one was.  There's also a couple of Sky Blue Bowman parallels.

Two Very Small Trades

Long week this week.  I had a jury trial take up half the week and trying to catch up afterwards.  This is going to be a very quick post, showing off two trades that I made that produced three cards.  It won't be the most exciting, but I show every new card.

It may be a small trade, but I really like this one.  

1.  Roman Anthony.  I added another Roman Anthony card, my eighth.  He is the real deal.  I have been more and more impressed with him all the time.  Especially now that the power has started to show.  I love the fact that he is signed for the next several years.  

2.  Masataka Yoshida.  This is my first relic card of Yoshida, so I am definitely happy to be adding it.  Unfortunately, I am predicting his time in Boston is over at the end of this year.  It has been a very bad year for him and I just do not think the team is going to have much use for a left-handed DH that cannot really hit that well.  I think he has run out of time.  Maybe if he goes on a hot stretch through the rest of the season, but I am not sure that will happen.

1.  Kutter Crawford.  I had big hopes for Crawford coming into the season, but he is going to miss the entire season due to injury.  He will be in the mix for next season.

Three Days of Rafaela

Not much to say here.  The last three mail days have all been Ceddanne Rafaela cards as I rocket up the TCDB rankings.  As I am writing this post, I am in second place and within striking distance of first.  In fact, there are enough cards of him that I am still waiting to receive that will put me in first place.

DAY 1:

The first day I received just two cards.  The Brooklyn Collection card is a very nice-looking card, a bit thick for my tastes though.  And then the other card is the Gold Refractor for this year's Chrome Future Stars card.

DAY 2:

The second day brought in a Panini Prizm parallel (sets that I will be grabbing more of in the future) and the Chrome Purple Refractor from last year's Heritage set.  I like this set a lot, because I loved the 1975 Topps set, but Rafaela's card is a bit on the boring side.

DAY 3:

The third day was the big haul.  This is what launched me into second place in the TCDB rankings.  The first two cards are more Panini Prizm parallels.  The Donruss card is the Orange Laser, and I love these cards too.  The fifth card is the Chrome Image Variation.  This has the refractor look, but I think that is the way the base image is supposed to be.  Then, two more Chrome cards that came in a lot, including the Negative Refractor and the Purple Speckle Refractor of the Rookie Autograph card.

And so, I am positioning myself to have more Ceddanne Rafaela cards than anyone else on TCDB.  And very soon, I probably will.  The question is whether I will be able to hold that position.  Currently, I am in first place for Tzu-Wei Lin, Connor Wong and Sandy Alomar, Jr.  The Alomar surprises me more than anything.  

More TCDB Trades

I have been doing quite a few trades lately.  This post will show a couple small ones, five cards each.

The original version of this trade featured a refractor of a former prospect named Tony Granadillo.  I decided to counter the offer and put in that Jose Canseco card.  I just didn't have a ton of interest in a prospect card of a guy who never made the Majors.  The Ted Williams is a favorite for obvious reasons and I am two cards closer to the 2025 Topps team set.

Nice collection of players here.  We have David Ortiz, who I am considering elevating to my second-largest player (which would require about 150 cards, doable, but a big project), Babe Ruth and Marcelo Mayer.  Then there are two guys who were traded at trading deadlines.  Craig Hansen was a first-round pick who never reached his potential and was traded to Pittsburgh as part of the Manny Ramirez-Jason Bay trade.  Niko Kavadas was one of several players sent away at last year's deadline.  Granted a lot of those players would have been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, but they really didn't get much value for them.  Kavadas, along with Ryan Zeferjahn and Matthew Lugo were sent to the Angels for Luis Garcia, who had an 8.22 ERA in 15 games.  Kavadas hit four home runs last year in 30 games.  Boston also sent Eddinson Paulino, Cutter Coffey and Gilberto Batista for Danny Jansen who hit just .188/.323/.300.  Not great. 

The Next Round of Rafaelas

We are still going on this for now.  It's fun being in the early days of a new player collection, even if I am not intending to pursue this for the long term and certainly not to the extent that I have collected guys like Jason Varitek, Tzu-Wei Lin and Connor Wong.  That being said, there are quite a few cards coming in.

There are a couple of cards to highlight here.  The Big League card is apparently a Wrapper Redemption, which is something I would have liked some more information about.  The entire second row came in one lot, which was pretty cool.  The first is the Triple Threads Jumbo Relic and I enjoy this card because I always like getting cards with the yellow City Connect uniforms (I am still hoping Connor Wong gets one at some point).  Then the second is a refractor and the third is the Tier One base.  The final card is the Blue Prizm from 2023 Select.

One of the cooler items I have picked up so far is this item which is a patch from the same yellow City Connect and an autograph.  This is the orange variation and is serial-numbered to 25.  

That's it for now.

Topps Now: July 12, 2025

July 12, 2025

It is sort of odd to think about, but Garrett Crochet was not a starting pitcher when he came up to the Majors.  Just like another former White Sox lefty ace the Red Sox acquired in an offseason trade for four major prospects.  Crochet did not start his first Major League game until 2024 and suddenly he was one of the top starting pitchers in the game.  Because of that, he had never thrown a complete game until July 12 of this year.  In a 1-0 victory, Crochet went the distance, giving up just three hits and striking out nine Rays hitters.  Carlos Narvaez supplied the offense, driving in Roman Anthony for the only run of the game in the fourth inning.

The bonus cards for today are from a small TCDB trade.  This will be a Ceddanne Rafaela-free post.  All three cards are pink parallels from last year's Archives set, one I need to go back to and get the team set.  I also still need to finish off Heritage.

I feel like I talk more about Vaughn Grissom than he actually produces for the Red Sox.  He is still banished to the minors.  At this point, they need to just trade him so he can get another shot somewhere.  I don't know what he has done to deserve to be in the doghouse like this, but he probably deserves a shot somewhere.  Bello is one of my favorite current players and I love getting cards of him, and of course, I can never turn down the franchise icon. 

Moving Forward

I am getting to the point that I am just days behind when I am getting these cards in.  It should only be a few more posts before I am fully caught up.  So, let's keep moving.

Up first is another batch of Rafaela cards.  The top card is my favorite, an Allen & Ginter In Action card.  Rafaela should win a Gold Glove this year.  I don't know if he will, but he should.  Then, there is a Bowman Platinum autograph, the black version of the City to City insert and a couple of Diamante parallels that came together.

Up next is a quick two-card TCDB trade:

1.  Kristian Campbell.  Campbell broke camp with the team for Opening Day and was one of the team's top prospects coming into the year.  He started off well, but cooled and was sent to the minors for more seasoning.  He is hitting well again and could make it back to the Majors by the end of the season.

2.  Richard Fitts.  Fitts was acquired in the deal that sent Alex Verdugo to the Yankees.  He has made 14 starts in the his Major League career to this point and is 1-5 with a 3.79 ERA.  He has some work to do to become a dependable starter, but the talent is there.  

Anyway, back to the Rafaelas:

Some mid-range cards here.  The top two cards were picked up in a lot.  There were some other duplicates in the lot as well.  The Big League autograph is the Orange parallel and is serial-numbered to 25.  I love the Aqua parallel of the 1989 insert.  The Bowman in the second row is the Green Shimmer Refractor and was more expensive than I expected.  The relic shows Rafaela on what must have been Memorial Day, based on the hat.

Here is my first patch card.  I assume this is from the City Connect jerseys based on the blue number.  It would have been better if it had some of the yellow on it as well.

I have never seen one of these before.  This is the Lightboard Logo Refractor.  I have no idea how rare these are, but I thought it was pretty cool so I grabbed it.  I may have to grab one for Connor Wong as well.

And closing things out with some more Rafaelas.  And a cameo from Wilyer Abreu.  The first card on the bottom row is from Topps Dynamic Duals and is the Amethyst parallel.  Ceddanne Rafaela takes up most of the card, but the player in the follow-through swing is Abreu.  This is just my eighth Wilyer Abreu card.  I have begun trying to target him a bit in trades, with less than great results.  The other card is another Exotic parallel, this is the Giraffe parallel.

The Anatomy of an Extremely Important TCDB Trade

Well, it was important for my Rafaela collection anyway.  I traded a rookie(ish) card of a certain superstar that I had no use for (any guesses?) and added a bunch of Rafaela cards.  The other party is a Red Sox fan, but is willing to move cards of them in the right deal.  After a little negotiating, I got most of the cards I wanted.  He took one Rafaela out (the Stadium Club Sepia I showed a couple days ago that I bought after the trader took it out) and there were a couple of other cards he did not want to include, but I got most of the cards I really wanted.

This was the focal point of the trade.  This is the 2023 Panini Immaculate Clearly Immaculate Signatures Red card.  It is an autograph serial-numbered to 35.  This is the card I identified as my top priority in the deal, but he had a lot more Rafaela cards that I needed.

Most of the above cards are base cards, but there are a few parallels and inserts.  The big ones are the middle row left is the Lunar Glow Refractor of the 2023 Bowman Chrome Prospects card, and the bottom row left is the Green Ice Prizm from 2023 Panini Prizm.  I love the Panini Prizm parallels.  I will definitely be grabbing more of them.  The bottom row right card is the Rookie of the Year Contender card.  Rafaela did not end up getting any ROY votes in 2024, despite a decent year at the plate that saw him hit 15 homers and steal 19 bases while playing great defense.  Wilyer Abreu was Boston's best rookie in 2024.

Here are the rest of the Rafaelas, including a couple base cards and more inserts/parallels.  The top row are base cards.  Then we have the Donruss Optic Holo, Topps Flagship insert, Bowman Draft Invicta insert and the Rainbow Foil parallel.

So, 16 new Rafaela cards in just one trade.  But, that was not all, the trade included one more card:

I was surprised the other party left this card in the trade given Anthony's rise to stardom this year.  I was absolutely thrilled to add this Roman Anthony card.  He is going to take off in my collection real soon.  

All of that for a rookie year card of a superstar player.  I don't know where the values lead, maybe I gave up too much, but I am perfectly happy with this deal.  I have been offered several other packages for that card, but none of them came close to this one.

Some Higher-End Rafaelas (Plus a Wong)

I keep saying I am not going to super-collect Rafaela.  I maintain that that is true, but I have been getting a bit more into the higher-end stuff lately.  Now, I am not going to spend $100+ for any cards.  I declined to do so on what would have been a 1/1 over the weekend.  At least for the time being.  So, I have had some restraint.  Just not enough.

1.  2024 Topps Gilded Collection.  A single box of five cards from this set runs over $1,000.00.  So even base cards are pricey.

2.  2025 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractor Connor Wong.  Yes, I am continuing to grab Wong cards.  He appeared in this year's Topps Chrome.  Rafaela did not.

3.  2024 Topps Holiday Silver Glitter.

4.  2024 Donruss Blue.

5.  2024 Topps Chrome Raywave Refractor.

6.  2024 Topps Archives Yellow Foilboard.  This and the Raywave came in a lot together.  I still try to grab those when I can.

7.  2023 Bowman Sapphire Purple.  These are always very attractive cards.

8.  2024 Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Selections Gold.  These are extremely hard to find.  I don't have any of the base or parallels.  I should grab those.

9.  2024 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs.  I said quite some time ago that the Real One Autographs are some of my favorites.  I prefer the ones from players in the sets that Heritage is paying tribute to, but I will grab the current players occasionally too.  I definitely wanted the Rafaela.

Topps Chrome and Series 2 Blaster Breaks

When I was at Walmart recently I saw they actually had some cards.  Against my better judgment, I grabbed two blasters.  Man, cards are expensive these days.  The Chrome blaster was $40.00.  For that price, they really should guarantee an autograph, even if it is just a minor rookie autograph.  Anyway, here are the results:

1.  Nick Sogard.  My favorite card from the breaks is my only non-base card I pulled for the Red Sox.  I talked about Sogard recently, and there is not much more to say.

2.  Triston Casas.  Of course, I had to pull either Casas or Devers.

3.  Brayan Bello.  Bello is a guy that will likely increase quickly in my collection.

4.  Kutter Crawford.  Crawford is going to be out the entire season.  That's a shame because he looked like someone who could break through this season.  He will have to wait until next year now.

Topps Now: July 5, 2025

July 5, 2025

With a win over the Washington Nationals in our nation's capital over the 4th of July weekend, the Red Sox recorded their 10,000th win in their history.  They won 10-3 with Walker Buehler getting the win.  Ceddanne Rafaela homered and drove in three and Romy Gonzalez had a three-hit game.  I grabbed this card though for the two players shown.  We have Carlos Narvaez in catchers' gear, and this is just my second card of him.  The other guy is Jorge Alcala, and this is likely the only card he will have in a Red Sox uniform.  He was acquired in a trade from the Twins and had been doing well for a little while, then completely lost it and was DFA'd.  The Cardinals claimed him, so his Red Sox tenure lasted just under two months and 19 games.

Closing things out, we have some more Rafaela cards, including a relic.  The bottom two came together in a lot on Ebay.

A Couple TCDB Trades

This post will not be focused on the increasing Ceddanne Rafaela collection.  This is a couple of TCDB trades that resulted in a lot of new cards.  There will be some of the usual suspects as I discussed in a post a few days ago.  

The first trade was one I really could not pass up.  It features 46 new cards, including an appearance from Jason Varitek and a quad relic.  I did not do too much negotiating on this deal which was offered to me from the other party.  I did insist on one addition though, which will be pretty obvious to anyone paying attention to this blog recently.  The victim that got removed was a Marcelo Mayer parallel to a card I previously had.

1.  Jason Varitek.  We start things off with the Varitek card.  This is card #1,003 in my collection, and the first new addition since last year.  I should probably try to get some more cards of him.

2.  Masataka Yoshida.  This is the Rookie Design Variation.  Yoshida has been hitting better recently.

3.  David Hamilton.  Hamilton is back in the minors after his struggles continued.  He had a couple of stolen bases late in a game against the Padres a bit back, but couldn't get a sacrifice bunt down in the final inning that helped lead to a loss.

4.  Pedro Martinez.  Martinez is another guy that gets offered up a lot, but I don't tend to turn them down since he is a Hall of Famer with a Red Sox cap on his plaque.

5.  Masataka Yoshida.

6.  Nick Yorke.  Yorke was a surprise first-round draft pick in 2020, but Boston proved they knew what they were doing as he played well in the minors.  He was traded to the Pirates at the deadline last year for Quinn Priester, who pitched one game before being traded to the Brewers.

7.  Masataka Yoshida.  Like I said, Yoshida is definitely one of the players that gets offered to me a lot.  This is already the third in this trade.

8.  Nick Sogard.  Sogard always seems to hit reasonably well in the Majors.  It would be nice to keep him as a utility infielder, but they have too many guys like that.

9.  David Price.  Ultimately, his massive free agent contract was a bit of a bust, but it will always be worth it for him stepping up in a huge way in the 2018 postseason.  I still think he should have been the World Series MVP.

10.  Xander Bogaerts.  One of the usual suspects.

11.  Ted Williams.  I do get offered Williams cards a lot, but I will always take cards of Boston's greatest player of all time.

12.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Believe it or not, this is the only Rafaela card in this entire post.

13.  David Ortiz.  Like Martinez, I get a lot of Ortiz cards offered to me, and will always take them.

14.  Antonio Anderson.  I remember he was a big deal when he initially signed with Boston, but he really hasn't shown a ton in the minors.  He is just 20, so there is some time here.

15.   Kyle Teel.  This is only my second Teel card.  I don't see him getting too big in my collection since he never played in Boston before being traded.  A card here and there is fine though.

16.  Yoelin Cespedes.  Despite the very similar name, he does not appear to be related to Yoenis Cespedes.  He is a top 20 prospect in the Red Sox system right now, a bit lower than he was coming into the season.

17.  Triston Casas.  Another usual suspect.

18.  Blaze Jordan.  Jordan was traded to the Cardinals at the trading deadline this year in the deal for Steven Matz.  His power is real, but it is not clear that he will be a regular Major Leaguer.

19.  Eduardo Lopez.  Lopez is no longer in the system, having been selected by the Phillies in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft.  He does not appear to have played this season.

20.  Jarren Duran.  This is from the UK Edition.  Like I said yesterday, Duran will be a likely player to cross the 100-card threshold, which would make him one of three current players to be over 100.  He is at 77 currently, but could easily gain 23 cards.

21.  Triston Casas.

22.  Wade Boggs.  I always like adding cards of my first favorite player as well, even if he did leave Boston for the Yankees.

23.  Bobby Dalbec/Trevor Story/Xander Bogaerts/Rafael Devers.  Here is the quad relic, the starting infield for the Red Sox in 2022.  It is my first relic of Story (and Dalbec).  

24.  Drew Pomeranz.  Proof that the team officials know more than fans.  Fans were pissed when Anderson Espinoza (Boston's top pitching prospect at the time) was traded for Pomeranz.  It didn't help when Pomeranz didn't pitch real well in 2016, but he made the trade worthwhile with his great 2017 season.  He was 17-6 with a 3.32 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 173.1 innings pitched.

25.  Rafael Devers.

26.  Bianca Smith.  

27.  Masataka Yoshida.  Here is the fourth card of Yoshida.

28.  Marcelo Mayer.  Unfortunately, Mayer might be done for the season.  Hopefully next year he can break through.

29.  Jarren Duran.  Here is card #78.  22 to go.

30.  Chris Sale.

31.  Chase Meidroth.  Meidroth was another prospect traded to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal.  He could be a decent regular.

32.  Triston Casas.

33.  Xander Bogaerts.

34.  Pedro Martinez.

35.  Bobby Dalbec.  Another usual suspect.

36.  Brayan Bello.  Bello always seems to be right on the verge of breaking out.  He has been really good most of the season, but seems to have a bad game from time to time.

37.  Chris Sale.

38.  Masataka Yoshida.  That's five Yoshidas in this trade.

39.  Triston Casas.

40.  Enmanuel Valdez.  Valdez continues to struggle at the Major League level.  It still amuses me that I thought he was the better prospect in the Christian Vazquez deal that also brought Wilyer Abreu.

41.  Bobby Doerr.  This photo gets used all the time on cards of him.

42.  Luis Tiant.  I will always add Tiant cards.  Maybe someday he will be elected to the Hall of Fame.  

43.  Mookie Betts.

44.  Tim Wakefield.  This is my 200th Wakefield card.

45.  Mookie Betts.

46.  Triston Casas.  I don't love these manufactured relics, but this one is kind of nice.

And here is the second trade:

1.  Vaughn Grissom.  I am not sure what is going on with the team and Grissom.  He has nothing more to prove in the minors, but he has not been great in the Majors.  He could play second in the Majors, but with the crowded outfield picture, Ceddanne Rafaela has been playing a lot of second base.  I thought he would be traded at the deadline, but that didn't happen.  That Chris Sale trade keeps looking worse.

2.  Garrett Crochet.  Just my fourth card of one of the leading Cy Young candidates.

3.  Vaughn Grissom.

4.  Connor Wong.  I finally got the base 2025 Topps card.  I didn't see the point in paying for it, it would eventually find its way into my collection.

5.  Scott Cooper.  Cooper is one of the oddest two-time All Stars in baseball history.  Sure, every team needs an All Star, but the 1993-1994 Red Sox had Mo Vaughn, John Valentin and Roger Clemens.  

That's it for today.

Topps Now: July 11, 2025

Just prior to me making the post about the Rafael Devers trade, Ceddanne Rafaela endeared himself to me in a big way.

July 11, 2025

In a Friday night game against the Rays, Rafaela walked it off with a home run crushed over the Green Monster.  The Red Sox were down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning with Pete Fairbanks, who had not given up a homer all year, on the mound.  There was one out with Roman Anthony on base after a walk and Rafaela came up and launched the ball.  This card marks my first Rafaela card in the new green City Connect uniforms.  Boston has now had five walk-off wins in these uniforms.

Here's a few more Rafaelas just to keep things going.  This gets me above 100 cards, making him just the second current Red Sox player to be above 100 cards (Connor Wong is obviously the other one).  I grabbed the Sepia Stadium Club parallel after a guy I was trading with removed it from a deal.  That trade is coming.  I was a little confused as to why he decided to remove that card.  I made it clear I wanted all of the Rafaelas in it.  I will talk about that more in a few days.

Closing things out for today is a Connor Wong card.  I decided I needed to keep grabbing stuff as long as he was still in Boston.  And he has started playing a bit better.  Maybe he will stay around after all.

Rafaela and More

Like yesterday's post, this is going to be full of random packages, though most of them will be Ceddanne Rafaela cards.

There are some interesting cards here.  The second card in the top row is the Image Variation from 2024 Stadium Club.  There are a couple more variations in that set out there.  The center card is one I really like.  I liked the Bowman International parallels in the late 90's, so it is really cool to see them bringing those back.  The bottom left is another relic.

These two cards came as freebies with the Pink Refractor in the previous scan.  I love it when the freebies are cards I need, even if they are players who appear in my trade offers all the time.

Up next is another TCDB trade.  This is an individual I did a trade with a couple weeks ago, the MLB Showdown guy.

It would be cool to get something like MLB Showdown again.  I liked the player selection from that set.  None of theses guys (Jose Offerman, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Bill Mueller) were exceptionally rare, but I was able to add cards of players like Rheal Cormier, Pat Rapp, Mark Portugal, Damon Buford, Rich Garces and many more through these sets.

More Rafaela cards.  The third through sixth cards came in one lot and the bottom row came in another lot.  I really like the top row, middle card.  That laser effect is kind of cool.  I have not done a ton with the A&G minis yet.  That is probably an opportunity to add a bunch.

I will close things out for today with the next scan:

I really like both of these cards, but I want to talk about the top card.  I was vaguely aware a couple years ago of a Leaf Exotic set with animal skin parallels, which sounded pretty cool.  I never really got a chance to check them out though, and it was a limited set with very few players available.  When I started this Rafaela focus, I saw that he was in that set, so I decided to try to get some of them.  This is the Alligator Crystal parallel. 

Random Pile

I'm steadily working my way through the influx of cards that have arrived in the last several weeks.  In order to do that, I might have to occasionally throw a bunch of stuff together that might have once warranted an individual post.  Oh well, it still gets shown off the same.  So, without further ado, a pile of a bunch of random stuff.  There will be Rafaelas and even a Wong in here.

Up first, a small TCDB trade:

1.  Dick Williams.  That's Hall of Famer Dick Williams to you.  This came from a small oddball set.  There was a B&W version and a color version.  I bought the B&W version all at once and only have a couple of the color versions.  Dick Williams was of course, the manager of the Impossible Dream Red Sox.  I'm not sure why that qualifies him for this All Time Red Sox set over someone like Joe Cronin (the winningest manager in team history to the date this set was released) or Bill Carrigan (the only Red Sox manager to win back-to-back World Championships).  If this set came out now, I would expect Terry Francona.

2.  Tony Perez.  I think I was just talking in my Donruss break post about wanting Donruss to think outside-the-box more.  Well, this qualifies.  Sure, Perez is a Hall of Famer, but showing him with the Red Sox is definitely unusual.  He had one good season with Boston and only spent about four years with the team.

3.  Roger Clemens.  This one makes sense.

I told you there would be Rafaela cards.  I love that the Chrome Future Stars shows him in the yellow City Connect uniforms.  Spoiler alert, there is coming a card of him in the new green City Connect uniforms.  The Panini Prizm parallels are some of the most attractive in the hobby these days.  It's a shame the company does not have a Major League license.  Now that Rafaela is no longer a rookie, he will not be appearing in any more sets.  I do want to note that every time I see that image, it makes me think of Masataka Yoshida.  I have no idea why.

Up next is another TCDB trade.  I have been re-working a lot of these offers lately.  Everyone wants to give me their Chris Sale, J.D. Martinez, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Alex Verdugo cards.  I still like all of those guys, but I really want the rarer guys or guys still with the team.

1.  Adam Ottavino.  Ottavino had a good single season with the Red Sox.  He does not have many cards with Boston.

2.  Tim Wakefield.  Wakefield is a guy who is making a strong push lately.  Since his untimely death, I have loved adding his cards to my collection.

3.  Masataka Yoshida.  I just like this card.  Plus, Yoshida is still with the team, so he has to keep adding on.

4.  Hunter Renfroe.  Another guy who had a great single season with the Red Sox and is not heavily-represented in my collection.  He took over Cody Ross for my All-Time One-Year Wonder Right Fielder with his 31 homer/96 RBI/great defense season.

Another couple of Rafaela cards.  That Home Field Advantage card is probably one of my absolute favorite cards of him so far.

Some more Rafaela cards.  These all came as a big lot of Donruss parallels from 2023.  There were lots of duplicates from it.  These were the four new ones.  

Up next is another TCDB trade:

1.  Xander Bogaerts.  Bogaerts is another guy who is always in these offers.  I do make an exception for cards that look like that.  Plus, Bogaerts is a special case guy who was one of my favorite players.  Mookie Betts is another guy in that category.

2.  Nazzan Zanetello.  I don't expect much from him at this point, but that is a really cool card.

3.  Trevor Story.  Story walked-off the Marlins Friday night.  He appears in offers a lot too, but is a current player on the team, so I do accept those.

4.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Initially this offer had some other cards in it, I re-worked it to include a couple Rafaelas he had that I didn't.  This is the 582 Montgomery.

5.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  And this is the All Star Game foil.

6.  Rafael Devers.  Another guy like Bogaerts who is offered all the time, but that I will still accept, though I think I will probably cool down on him a bit.  I have over 350 cards of him.  That gives me something realistic to shoot for with Rafaela.

And some more Rafaelas.  The Holiday card is the image short print.  The necklace of lights was added.

And I will close things out today with another TCDB trade.  All the usual suspects are going to be in this deal, so you can see what I mean.  I did not really feel like negotiating much on this, he offered all of these for a single Cubs prospect insert that was not even really all that big a deal.  So I just accepted that a bunch of holes would be filled.

1.  J.D. Martinez.  That's one.

2.  Alex Verdugo.  That's one.

3.  Chris Sale.  That's one.

4.  Chris Sale.  That's two.

5.  Rafael Devers.  That's one.

6.  J.D. Martinez.  That's two.

7.  Jackie Bradley Jr.  That's one.

8.  Alex Verdugo.  That's two.

9.  Trevor Story.  That's one.

The next nine cards will be better from this deal:

10.  Connor Wong.  I purposely do not spend money on the base cards.  I figure eventually they will make their way into my collection through trades these days, or even pack breaks.

11.  Masataka Yoshida.  Quickly becoming one of those players everyone offers in trades.

12.  Triston Casas.  So is he.

13.  Triston Casas.

14.  Danny Jansen.  I am a little surprised he made it into the Series Two Topps set since he signed with the Rays as a free agent after his short stint in Boston as a trade deadline acquisition.

15.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  I will likely do the same thing with Rafaela that I do with Wong base cards.

16.  Garrett Crochet.  Crochet is another guy that probably deserves some more attention in my collection.  This is just my third card of him, with a couple more coming.

17.  Jarren Duran.  Duran was once one of those players I got offered a lot.  Until he had a great season in 2024.  Now, very few people offer them up anymore.  If he stays with Boston next season, he will likely cross the 100 card threshold.

18.  Marcelo Mayer.  I guess this came in a separate trade, but it fills out the scan.

That's it for today.