Still Trying to Catch Up

Up first are a couple more Connor Wong cards.

These are not terribly exciting, just the standard Rainbow Foil and Gold bordered parallel cards.  But, of course I have to add them.  A year ago I said I would probably not super-collect Wong.  Now here I am with well over 500 cards of a player who has only one full season in the Majors.

1.  Alex Verdugo.  Verdugo has hit a rough patch at a bad time for the Yankees.  Jasson Dominguez is close to returning and Verdugo won't get more playing time than either of the other two outfielders.  It looks like his time is coming to an end.

2.  Chris Sale.  It is frustrating to see how good Sale has been this year.  He hasn't been this impressive since 2018.  Of course Boston's pitching is plenty good as well.  The offense on the other hand...

3.  Chris Sale.

4.  Brayan Bello.  Bello is back from his injury.  Hopefully he will return to form soon. 

5.  Masataka Yoshida.  Yoshida is still hurt, Boston could desperately use his bat in the lineup.

6.  David Ortiz.  This shot is from the 2013 World Championship celebration.

7.  Trevor Story.  Another bat Boston could sorely use back in the lineup.  Unfortunately, Story looks like he is out for the year.  Again.

8.  Rafael Devers.  Devers seems to be heating up.  He has homered in each of the last three games.

9.  Wade Boggs.  Nice shot here of Boggs making contact.

10.  Jarren Duran.  Duran has been very impressive this season.  He has built upon his successful season last year and currently leads the league in triples.

11.  J.D. Martinez.  

12.  Alex Verdugo.

13.  Xander Bogaerts.  Bogaerts's rough season has continued.

14.  Trevor Story.

15.  Ted Williams.

16.  Ted Williams.  This card is an error.  It lists Williams as winning the Triple Crown and MVP.  He did win the Triple Crown, but he came in second (ridiculously) for the MVP.  Williams hit .343/.499/.634 with 32 home runs and 114 RBIs.  MVP winner Joe DiMaggio hit .315/.391/.522 with 20 home runs and 97 RBIs.  The only category DiMaggio led Williams in was stolen bases (three to zero).  This was one of the absolute worst screw jobs in MVP voting history.

17.  Enrique Hernandez.  Hernandez is hitting just .212 so far this season.

That's it for now, but there is obviously more to come.

Living Set: Luis Tiant

Absolutely I had to grab the Luis Tiant Living Set card.  One of these days, one of the Eras Committees needs to right the wrong of Tiant not being in the Hall of Fame.  I love that this card captured Tiant's charisma.  Plus, you gotta love the fu manchu.  

A Few Rare Wongs

Connor Wong is having an impressive season, at least at the plate.  His defense has struggled at times and he has not had much success throwing out baserunners, but he is still a solid defensive catcher.  Where he has really surprised has been at the plate.  He has drastically cut down his strikeouts (33.3% last year down to 20.9% this year) and is hitting .360/.385/.581 with five home runs and 14 RBIs.  If he can increase his walk rate, get his defense back on track and start utilizing his speed on the basepaths more, he could be a big star.

Anyway, here are the next batch of Wong cards.   

1.  2023 Topps Chrome Update Red/Orange Lava Lamp.  This one is serial-numbered to just 10.  The scan does not do it justice.

2.  2022 Panini Chronicles America's Pastime Swatches Holo Platinum Blue.  This is another 1/1 added to my collection.

3.  2023 Topps Holiday Skeleton.  Not nearly as rare, but it took a long time to find this one.  It is serial-numbered to 50.

Several Scans Here Today

I need to try to get caught up, so I will be combining a bunch of packages into this post.

1.  J.D. Martinez.  Martinez recently made news upon hitting Wilson Contreras with his swing, breaking Contreras's arm.

2.  Bobby Dalbec.  Dalbec has been extremely frustrating this season.  He struggles greatly at the Major League level.  Boston is having difficulty finding a first-baseman to fill in for Triston Casas.

3.  Michael Chavis.  Chavis is playing for the Mariners' minor league team and hitting well.  

4.  Ted Williams.  My favorite stat of all time is Ted Williams's career .483 OBP.  That is really crazy.

5.  J.D. Martinez.

6.  Xander Bogaerts.  Bogaerts is struggling greatly in his second season in San Diego.

7.  Xander Bogaerts.

8.  Manny Ramirez.  Ramirez hit .313/.407/.592 with Cleveland and .312/.411/.588 with Boston.  Those numbers are remarkably consistent.

9.  Bobby Dalbec.

10.  Kyle Schwarber.  Schwarber is hitting .211, but with nine home runs this season in Philadelphia.

11.  Rafael Devers.  Devers has been struggling the last several days, but is still hitting .289/.405/.485.

1.  Connor Wong.  This is the team color parallel.  I probably paid too much for this, but I wasn't sure how rare it was.

2.  Connor Wong.  This is the Blue parallel from Panini Chronicles Rookies and Stars and is serial-numbered to 50.

1.  Masataka Yoshida.  Yoshida is another hitter who has been having injury issues this season.  Hopefully he will come back strong, he was on fire before he went down.

2.  Wade Boggs.  Boggs was a much better third-baseman than his reputation with the Red Sox.  He probably deserved to win a couple more Gold Gloves.

3.  Rafael Devers.

1.  Connor Wong.  This is the Cracked Ice Green Prizm from Donruss Optic.  It is serial-numbered to just seven.

1.  Connor Wong.  This is the Red Crackle Foil.  

2.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Rafaela has not hit much, but has played terrific defense and his ability to play both shortstop and center field well has been extremely valuable.

3.  Wes Chamberlain.  I really liked Chamberlain during his time in Boston.  He was a valuable fourth outfielder, particularly in 1994.  And he hit a walkoff pinch home run on my birthday in 1995.

1.  Marty Barrett.  Barrett was the ALCS MVP in 1986.  He had a terrific postseason, though he was notably the final out in the World Series.

2.  Don Baylor.  Recently I was thinking about an Immaculate Grid category.  Of all the players to play for both Boston and the Yankees, Babe Ruth is the only one to have a 30-homer season for the Yankees.  Baylor, along with Butch Hobson, George Scott and Jacoby Ellsbury all did it for Boston.

3.  Nick Pivetta.  Pivetta is back in the rotation after an injury.  Hopefully he will get back on track.

4.  Rafael Devers.

5.  Alex Verdugo.  Verdugo has been playing well lately for the Yankees.  We will see how long that lasts, he had a great first half last year before completely falling apart in the second half.

6.  Jarren Duran.  Duran already has five triples this year.  He is on pace to equal the team record of 22, but I am not holding my breath.

7.  Joe Jacques.  This is a great card of a very minor pitcher.  He had a 5.06 ERA in 26.2 innings last year and pitched in just one game this season.

8.  Team Card.

9.  Enmanuel Valdez.  Valdez was recently sent to the minors after struggling at the plate.  His defense has been improving though.

10.  Kutter Crawford.  Crawford has been great this year.  He has a 1.75 ERA in eight starts, leading the league in both categories.  Who saw that coming?

1.  Mikey Romero.  Romero has been injured most of the season this year.

2.  Bobby Dalbec.  

3.  Juan Chacon.  Chacon is in High-A this season.  He has yet to start playing well in the minors.

4.  Adam Duvall.  A One-Year Wonder post is due on Duvall.  He hit .247/.303/.531 with 21 homers and 58 RBIs.  

5.  Jason Bay.  Bay's 2009 season was a terrific one, which helped make up for the loss of Manny Ramirez.  He hit .267/.384/.537 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs, plus 13 stolen bases.  He also walked 94 times.  He was an All Star and won the Silver Slugger and finished seventh in the MVP vote.

6.  Jacoby Ellsbury.  Ellsbury is one of just two players to have a 30/30 season for the Red Sox, which was shocking because it was the only season he hit more than 16 home runs.

7.  Christian Vazquez.  The players Boston received after trading Vazquez have both made impacts on Boston with Wilyer Abreu looking like the real steal in the trade.

8.  Ian Kinsler.  Kinsler only hit .242/.294/.311 with one homer and 16 RBIs in his short stint with Boston, but he won a Gold Glove.

9.  Mookie Betts.  Betts is the other 30/30 player in Red Sox history.  He was not surprising as he came close a couple seasons earlier.  His stolen base numbers have declined significantly since joining the Dodgers.

10.  J.D. Martinez.

11.  Matt Barnes.  Barnes was recently DFA'd by the Nationals.  Could a return to Boston be possible?

12.  Dave Roberts.  Roberts is a Boston legend due to just one stolen base.  He didn't do much in his stint with the Red Sox, but that steal was huge.

13.  Kyle Schwarber.

That's it for now.  More to come.

A Couple Blue Wongs

One of these days I swear I will get caught up.  It doesn't help that I have been too busy to post more than once every few days or so.  

Today's cards are both blue Wong cards from 2024 Topps.  The first one is the Royal Blue parallel.  The second is the Father's Day Powder Blue, which is serial-numbered to 50.  The Wong collection keeps going and if he continues to play as well as he has so far this year, it is likely he will get a lot more cards made soon.

More TCDB Mailday Madness

I have a couple more packages to show off today.

1.  Xander Bogaerts.  I do not get a ton of relics these days, but this came as part of this trade package and I am not going to turn it down.  I just don't target them as much, except in rare occasions.

2.  Bob Stanley.  This is a Topps Tiffany card.  Stanley was a subject of my Loyalty and Longevity series as he played his entire 13-year career with the Red Sox and retired as the team career leader in games pitched and saves.  He is still the career leader in games pitched (637), and that appears safe for the foreseeable future.

3.  Dave Valle.  For awhile, it seemed like every year Boston acquire a player who was a big disappointment.  Valle was one of these as he hit just .158/.256/.250 in 30 games before he was traded for the return of Tom Brunansky.  Other players that were disappointing were Matt Young, Ivan Calderon, Mark Whiten, Mark Portugal, Jeff Fassero, Dustin Hermanson and Tony Clark.

4.  Jose Canseco.  If only Canseco would have been healthy the entire time he was in Boston.  His Red Sox tenure is something of an afterthought now, but he hit .298/.389/.571 with 52 home runs in 198 games.  His .960 OPS and all three slash numbers were higher than with any other team.

5.  Roger Clemens.  Clemens will be up for possible induction in the Hall of Fame again in December, 2025 for the 2026 induction.

6.  Aaron Sele.  Sele was the first big prospect I remember making it to the Red Sox.  He was a first-round draft pick in 1991 and made it to the Majors in 1993.  He was great to begin with and looked like he might contend for the Rookie of the Year before fading down the stretch and ultimately finishing third.  He had a solid 1994 season and was pitching well in 1995 before suffering a season-ending injury.  He never really recovered with the Red Sox and was traded to Texas after the 1997 season where he resurrected his career.

7.  Troy O'Leary.  O'Leary's most underrated season was probably 1997 when he hit .309/.358/.479 with 15 home runs and 80 RBIs.  It was his career high for average and one of only two times he hit above .300.  He was a solid player for the Red Sox for several seasons.  

8.  Jose Offerman.  Offerman was great his first season in Boston after signing a big free agent deal.  He was the subject of a lot of jokes as he was signed shortly after Mo Vaughn left, but Offerman hit .294/.391/.435 with 107 runs scored, 96 walks, 37 doubles and a league-leading eleven triples.  Unfortunately, he went downhill after that.

9.  Jerome Gamble.  I wonder if Gamble is the largest player in my collection that never played in the Majors.  I have 21 cards of him.  He was on the 40 man roster in 2004, so he got a ton of rookie cards made even though he did not actually make it to the Majors.  He was a fourth-round pick in 1998 and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2001.  Boston lost him to the Reds in the Rule V Draft, but was returned to the Red Sox.  He reinjured his elbow in 2003 and that pretty much killed his chances of making the Majors.

10.  Troy O'Leary.

11.  Mike Shawaryn.  Shawaryn was a fifth-round pick by the Red Sox in 2016 and made it to the Majors in 2019, pitching in 14 games, but with a 9.74 ERA.  That was his only Major League experience.

12.  Jose Vinicio.  Vinicio was a highly-touted international free agent signed to a big contract.  His bat never caught up to his glove at shortstop though and he stalled out in the minors.  He made it to Pawtucket in 2016, but was released after the season.  He bounced around after that, but never made it to the Majors.

13.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Boston is putting a lot of hopes into Rafaela.  His defense has been great, but he has struggled at the plate.  He had a big game last Saturday though when he drove in seven runs.

14.  Jackie Bradley Jr.  JBJ is kind of the template for what Boston is hoping Rafaela will be.  A great fielder with an average bat.  JBJ had a couple of very good seasons at the plate though and was an All Star in 2016.

15.  Pedro Martinez.  One of my big regrets is not being able to see Martinez live in person.  I never seem to get to see Boston's aces, or if I do, it's before the pitcher becomes an ace.  

16.  Enmanuel Valdez.  Boston recently sent Valdez to the minors after he failed to impress with the bat this year.  It's strange because he has always hit well before.

17.  Blake Loubier.  It's strange to see Loubier in a 2023 set since he was released prior to the season.  The 13th-round pick from the 2019 draft struggled in the pros.

1.  Dustin Pedroia.  It's sort of weird to see Pedroia showing up in retired player sets.  

2.  Pedro Martinez.  I loved Upper Deck 40 Man.  Too bad we don't have anything like that now.

3.  Shea Hillenbrand.  I am not a big fan of minor league cards, but this trader insisted on adding this.  I did like Hillenbrand though, who was an All Star in 2002.  He hit .293/.330/.459 with 18 home runs and 83 RBIs that season.

4.  Rafael Devers.  One of the many players who has had injury problems this season for Boston.  They have been teetering on the edge of disaster for awhile, but have held it together.  I love this card.

5.  Rafael Devers.

6.  J.D. Martinez.  Martinez has finally made it back this year after some injury problems with the Mets.

7.  Tris Speaker.  Speaker was the first massive talent Boston traded away in his prime, though that is somewhat forgotten since Ruth was sold so soon thereafter.  Speaker was traded to Cleveland for a package including Pinch Thomas and Sad Sam Jones and some money.  Jones was a reliable starter for a few years and a 20-game winner in 1921.  Thomas hit .257 in 44 games as a backup catcher.