Mostly Wantlist Hits

I will pre-emptively apologize for the bad scan.  I decided to try to cram all ten cards into one scan.  There is not much exciting here, mostly just base cards with a couple of minor parallels so I will not be spending a lot of time on it. 

First up is some Bowman Platinum cards and the one I want to highlight is David Price.  Price will probably go down as something of a free agent bust, since he was signed to a huge contract for an ace starting pitcher and never really performed anywhere close to that.  But I will prefer to remember him as the one who stepped up huge in the 2018 postseason, particularly the World Series.  I still think he should have been the World Series MVP, or at least co-MVP with Steve Pearce.  

Up next is an A&G mini of Carlton Fisk.  If I had to pick one Hall of Famer whose cards I enjoy getting more than anyone else, it may very well be Fisk.  It's sort of odd I know.  Ted Williams is the greatest Red Sox player of all time.  Carl Yastrzemski spent more time in Boston than anyone, a record unlikely to be broken.  Even Jim Rice was a Red Sox player his whole career.  But there is just something about Fisk that I cannot explain.  Maybe it is the fact that he was a catcher, and I have always liked catchers.

Then we have a few random cards.  I love the picture on the J.D. Martinez Gallery card and obviously the Andrew Benintendi photo is terrific.  I am not sure what happened to Benintendi, since the All Star break in 2018, he has not been the same player.  I am still waiting to see who Boston gets in that deal other than Franchy Cordero.  

That brings me to Dustin Pedroia and what a sad ending to his career.  A few years ago I thought he was a lock for the Hall of Fame as long as he had a few more seasons to compile some numbers.  That unfortunately did not happen and his career effectively ended in 2017.  His numbers still look decent, with a career line of .299/.365/.439 as a second-baseman, but his counting stats really do not come very close, with less than 2,000 hits.  Unfortunately he is probably another Nomar Garciaparra, a player with a very good peak, but not a long enough career to justify making it into Cooperstown.  That's a shame.