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.