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.