Mookie!

1.  2014 Bowman Prospects Purple Mookie Betts.  Of all of the rookies to spend time in Boston this year, Mookie has been by far the most productive.  He has been playing in the outfield thus far but will be spending some time at second base this week.  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, but it is also possible that he will be traded.  Hopefully not.

An Interesting Vintage and Oddball Trade

Here are the most recent pickups as the Red Sox continue to struggle:

1.  1979 Hostess Dennis Eckersley.  It is kind of lazy that a card with one year of stats with the Red Sox has an airbrushed cap on it.

2.  1957 Topps Pete Daley.  Easily my favorite card from the trade.  Corners are a little soft, but it is 57 years old, which incidentally is my parents' age.

3.  1988 Topps Tiffany Jim Rice.  Rice was starting to go downhill at this point.

4.  1988 Topps Tiffany Dwight Evans.  Evans was still going strong though.

5.  1979 Hostess Dwight Evans.  I love food issue cards.  I wish they still existed.

6.  1979 Hostess Jim Rice.

7.  1976 Hostess Dwight Evans.

The Daley is definitely my favorite, but I do love the oddballs.

Red Sox in Order

Tom from Angels in Order recently contacted me to set up a Red Sox for Angels trade.  Since my blog trades have been pretty sparse these days I jumped at the chance to gain a new trade partner.  He sent me a bunch of Red Sox and I sent him a bunch of Angels.  

Of course the Red Sox and Angels have a nice history together.  Boston was down three games to one in the 1986 ALCS when Dave Henderson single-handedly brought the team back in Game 5 and Boston rolled in Games 6 and 7.  Then Boston swept the Angels in the 2004 ALDS on their way to their first World Series win in 86 years, capped off by David Ortiz's walkoff home run in Game 3.  Boston also swept the Angels in 2007 in the ALDS on their way to another World Series win.  Manny Ramirez hit the game-winning blast in Game 2.  The Angels finally won a game against Boston in the postseason in 2008 but Boston still took that series 3-1.  Then the Angels swept the Red Sox in the 2009 ALDS.  So yeah, tons of history there.

Here are the cards that Tom sent:

1.  2014 Topps Upper Class Jacoby Ellsbury.  Despite his free agent defection to the Damn Yankees, I will always like Ellsbury.  Boston has just not had a lot of speed over the years.

2.  2005 Flair Manny Ramirez.  For some reason I did not have any of the base Flair cards.  I do have a Jason Varitek auto from that set, but no base.

3.  2005 Flair David Ortiz.  He hit two home runs tonight.  His batting average is down but he is still hitting them out.

4.  2005 Flair Curt Schilling.  A big postseason hero for the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007.  It will be interesting to see what cap he wears in Cooperstown if he gets in.

5.  1994 Donruss Jeff Russell.  Tom hit a bunch of my wantlist needs.

6.  1994 Pinnacle John Valentin.  Valentin was an underrated player for a few years in Boston, particularly in 1995 when he could have won the MVP.  I love the double dip shot here.

7.  2004 Leaf Second Edition Derek Lowe.  I have no idea why there was a Second Edition of Leaf in 2004.  There really did not need to be.

8.  1992 Conlon Phil Todt.  Todt was one of the few decent players Boston had in the 1920's.  He was one of the few Red Sox players blessed with power, hitting double digits in home runs three times when no one else in Boston was hitting any.  Todt was almost requested by the Yankees in a trade at one point but Boston management, after being burned so many times in trades with the Yankees said no.  Unfortunately the player offered in trade for Todt was Lou Gehrig.  Dammit.

9.  1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball Wade Boggs.  This is my first of these cards.  They are wider than I would like.  They are probably not cards I would seek out, but certainly don't mind adding them to my collection.

10.  1983 Donruss John Tudor.  Tudor was a gifted pitcher coming up with the Red Sox in the early 1980's when they were flush with pitching prospects.  Tudor, Bruce Hurst, Bob Ojeda, Oil Can Boyd, and Roger Clemens all came up within a few years of each other.  That could have been a terrific staff if they had not traded off Tudor and Ojeda.

11.  1983 Donruss Bob Stanley.  The Steamer was the Red Sox relief ace for a long time and held the team single season saves record until Jeff Reardon broke it in 1991 and the career saves record until Jonathan Papelbon broke it.

12.  1987 Donruss Rob Woodward.  There has never been an interesting fact about Rob Woodward.  Ever.  Although this did complete my 1987 Donruss team set.  Yep, Ron Woodward was the last card I needed.  Depressing.

13.  1985 Donruss Rich Gedman.  Gedman was coming off a great season in 1984 when he hit 24 home runs.  He was an All Star in both 1985 and 1986.

14.  1992 Stadium Club Dome Roger Clemens.  Hard to believe I did not have this card.

15.  1992 Stadium Club Dome Wade Boggs.  Same here.

16.  1991 U.S. Playing Card Co. Roger Clemens.  I wish they still made sets like this.  Oddball items showing all of the All Stars each season.

17.  1991 U.S. Playing Card Co. Jeff Reardon.  Another card from the same set.

18.  1992 U.S. Playing Card Co. Rookies Bob Zupcic.  Zupcic had a couple of full seasons in 1992 and 1993 then faded into obscurity.

19.  1992 U.S. Playing Card Co. Rookies Scott Cooper.  Cooper had a terrific throwing arm but made a lot of errors because Mo Vaughn was basically a brick wall at first.

20.  1993 Classic Mo Vaughn.  But at least Mo could hit.

Thanks for the cards Tom!

Prizm Trade

A couple of quick base cards came in from my Wantlist today:

1.  2014 Prizm Mike Napoli.  If he were healthy all season, he would be having a better season.  As it is, he has been pretty good.

2.  2014 Prizm David Ortiz.  Ortiz, on the other hand, is having a very good season, one of the few.

Red, White, & Blue

They have been hard to watch lately, but I am still working on picking up cards.  Today was a good one from a three pack of Prizm with three Red, White, & Blue Pulsar parallels.

1.  2014 Prizm Red, White, & Blue Pulsar David Ortiz.  Yay, I got one of the special parallels.  I think these would look even better with team logos.  But man, this is a nice card of Ortiz, who just hit his 30th home run tonight.

Dernell Stenson

Today was just a one-card mailday.

1.  1999 Bowman Chrome Gold Dernell Stenson.  Stenson is a tragic story.  He rocketed through the minor leagues with the Red Sox and then stalled in Triple A for four seasons.  I don't know why.  He was hitting, but it seemed he was constantly blocked.  Eventually he left as a minor league free agent and joined the Reds organization where he finally made his Major League debut in 2003.  He played in the Arizona Fall League after the season, unfortunately that is where his career, and life, ended.  Stenson was murdered for reasons that are still unclear.  He was bound, shot in the head and chest, and run over with his own car.  Four individuals were arrested and three were convicted.  A sad tale for a gifted young player.

Massive Vintage Package from Mark

Holy crap.  I just received the latest package from Mark Hoyle who has been firing off vintage Red Sox cards to me for some time.  He is easily one of the most generous trading partners I have found in the blogosphere.  This one though is really something:

1.  1962 Topps Ted Wills.  This is one of my favorite Topps designs.  I am not overly familiar with Wills, but one previous owner decided the card needed to be updated with his trade to the Reds.

2.  1963 Topps Russ Nixon.  I like this design as well.  Boston unfortunately did not have much luck with catchers for a long time.  Nixon was not very good.

3.  1965 Topps Felix Mantilla.  Coming off of a 30 home run season, Mantilla had been a utility player most of his career to that point.

4.  1966 Topps Jose Santiago.  Santiago hit a home run in his first World Series at-bat in 1967.  Here he is wearing something that is clearly not a Red Sox uniform.

5.  1967 Topps John Wyatt.  Wyatt was the "closer" for the Red Sox in 1967, though that was not really an official position at the time.

6.  1976 Hostess Denny Doyle.  Doyle was a huge pickup down the stretch in 1975 though he did have a bit of a hiccup on the basepaths in the World Series.

7.  1973 Topps Phil Gagliano.  I really have nothing to say about Gagliano.

8.  1969 Globe Imprints Reggie Smith.  I have argued before and I will argue again: Smith belongs in the Hall of Fame.

9.  1969 Globe Imprints Jim Lonborg.  Boston's first Cy Young Award Winner.  Unfortunately his Major League career was mostly downhill after that.

10.  1969 Topps Jerry Stephenson.  Stephenson was supposed to be a huge star, but he never really developed.

11.  1972 Topps Rogelio Moret.  Moret had a couple of huge seasons on the Red Sox staff in 1973 and 1975, splitting time as a starter and a reliever.

12.  1972 Topps Bobby Bolin.  I don't know much about Bolin either.

13.  1969 Topps Joe Lahoud/John Thibdeau.  Lahoud lasted a few years trying to break through the Red Sox outfield but was shipped off to Milwaukee in the Billy Conigliaro/George Scott trade that brought back Tommy Harper and Marty Pattin, among others.  Thibdeau never made it.

14.  1972 Topps Rico Petrocelli.  Petrocelli once held the AL record for home runs by a shortstop (40), but lost in that is the fact that he was a terrific defensive player.

15.  1972 Topps Carl Yastrzemski IA.  I liked these In Action cards.  I think Doug Griffin is the only one I still need.

16.  1968 Topps Tony Conigliaro.  This card is from the year after his tragic beaning that would eventually lead to the end of his career.

17.  1967 Topps Rico Petrocelli.  This is just a terrific-looking vintage card.  It is too bad Petrocelli is nearly forgotten by fans these days.

18.  1967 Topps George Scott.  Nice Boomer here with the All Star Rookie trophy.

19.  1961 Topps Don Gile.  Mark pays close attention to my wantlist, knowing that I want vintage Red Sox catchers.  Gile is another one, joining the Russ Nixon from earlier.

20.  1965 Topps Embossed Frank Malzone.  Another forgotten star, Malzone was a terrific defensive third-baseman who had some nice offensive seasons as well.

21.  1968 Topps Jim Lonborg LL.  Lonborg lead the AL in strikeouts in his award-winning season.

22.  1968 Topps Carl Yastrzemski CL.  Another nice Yaz card.

23.  1979 Kellogg's Dwight Evans.  I loved the Kellogg's cards.  Wish they would have continued.

24.  1972 Kellogg's Reggie Smith.  Another terrific card of Smith.

25.  1968 Topps Booklet Rico Petrocelli.  This is kind of an interesting item, a little mini comic book.

26.  1960 Topps Pete Runnels.  Runnels won two batting titles for the Red Sox, and might have won one more had Ted Williams not won it on the last day of the season.

So yes, another terrific package from the always reliable Mark Hoyle.  Thanks Mark!

Parallel Madness

I was visiting the in-laws and my parents in my hometown over the weekend and actually had the time to visit the local card shop.  Despite the fact that my visits are becoming more and more rare, the owner still puts aside Red Sox cards for me.  He no longer saves every single auto or relic, but he still saves the parallels and base.  And thus, I picked these up:

1.  2013 Topps Blue Sparkle Joel Hanrahan.  One of many bad trades for closers that Boston has made recently.  Hanrahan was inconsistent for the first two weeks and then had to get Tommy John surgery.

2.  2013 Topps Blue Sparkle Felix Doubront.  I am disappointed by how things worked out with Doubront.  I was really excited to see him develop and he just could not take the next step forward.

3.  2013 Topps Archives Day Glo Brock Holt.  Holt has been the team MVP this season.

4.  2013 Topps Update Emerald Jake Peavy.  Last year's big pickup at the trade deadline (for Jose Iglesias and others) was sent to the Giants recently for a couple of young arms.

5.  2013 Topps Update Emerald Dustin Pedroia AS.  Pedroia is having a bit of a down season, just like the rest of the team.

6.  2013 Topps Update Emerald Matt Thornton.  Thornton was recently traded from the Yankees despite having a very good season.

7.  2013 Topps Update Emerald Mike Carp.  Carp was DFA'd last week.  Another loss from last season's World Series winning team.

8.  2013 Topps Update Gold Clay Buchholz AS.  Whenever I see Buchholz's name as the starting pitcher, I cringe.  Just no idea what to expect.

9.  2013 Topps Update Gold Junichi Tazawa.  He has become a bit homer-happy lately, which has been very frustrating.

More Bowman Platinum

I bought another three-pack package yesterday and again pulled one card.  Not bad.

1.  2014 Bowman Platinum Prospects Matt Barnes.  Barnes has been struggling this year and has been passed by some other pitching prospects, but he may still have a bright future.

Waiting Til Next Year for the Red Sox

While Boston has been toiling in last place this year, it is important to remember that they just won the World Series last year.  It is not so bad to be a Red Sox fan.  The Cubs on the other hand...

Which brings me to my post.  I received a surprise package from P-Town Tom of Waiting 'til Next Year.

First of all, the note.  I love it, especially the mention of how much of a player Wendell Rijo looks like.  And yes I will give the oblong card a good home.

1.  1993 Upper Deck BAT Tri-Folder Joe Wood/Tris Speaker.  I am somewhat familiar with these cards.  I have one for Cecil Cooper in my Red Sox collection.  These cards were released in a joint effort by the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) which was a program developed to help former Major League players adapt to life in the real world, deal with drug problems, and a variety of other issues.  This card features two huge stars from the 1912 World Championship team.

2.  2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Wendell Rijo.  Unfortunately I had this one already, but I wanted to show off the entire package.

Thanks Tom!  I owe you some Cubs.

Bowman Platinum Pack

I bought one of the three-packs of 2014 Bowman Platinum yesterday with three purple parallels.  Not much to show off other than this one:

1.  2014 Bowman Platinum Chrome Prospects Purple Garin Cecchini.  Next in line for third base if Will Middlebrooks struggles is Garin Cecchini.  He gets on base and he hits the ball hard.  He did play briefly earlier this season and impressed.

Tough Day Improved a Little

Boston traded a lot of players away today and throughout the week.  The only really exciting player they received was Yoenis Cespedes.  It is a clear sign that they do not intend to try to work it out this year and just build for next season.

I got a trade package that helps out a little bit with the frustration of losing so many beloved players (well mostly Jon Lester anyway).

1.  2014 Prizm Chasing the Hall David Ortiz.  Is Ortiz a Hall of Famer?  Very possibly.  He has continued to hit well, well into his late 30's.  He has 25 home runs this year even though his other numbers are way down.

2.  2014 Prizm Top of the Order Shane Victorino.  I honestly love Prizm.  I just wish they would get an MLB license.  They have the best inserts this year, hands down.

3.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Jake Peavy.  The first casualty of the fire sale was traded to the Giants for Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree.

4.  2013 Bowman Draft Dual Draftees Trey Ball/Jon Denney.  Boston may have an early first-round draft pick next year too now.

5.  2013 Prizm Draft Picks Mookie Betts.  Bring him back up.  Let the kids play out the season.

I No Longer Recognize this Team

OUT:
Jake Peavy
Felix Doubront
Jon Lester
Jonny Gomes
John Lackey
Andrew Miller
Stephen Drew

IN:
Yoenis Cespedes
Allen Craig
Joe Kelly
Kelly Johnson
Several minor leaguers

What happened to the Red Sox this year?

Jake Peavy Traded to Giants

Link.

Jake Peavy has pitched reasonably well at times, though he has only one win to show for it.  Felix Doubront or Brandon Workman probably move into the rotation.  Boston received Heath Hembree and Edwin Escobar from the Giants in the trade which is actually kind of a nice return.

More A&G

I bought a blaster of A&G yesterday because I have been having some decent luck with the Red Sox in that.  That continued in this blaster:

1.  2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Koji Uehara.  It is very nice to see so many Uehara cards this year.  That was to be expected since he performed so well last year.  Uehara is the player I really do not want to see traded, except for maybe Jon Lester.

2.  2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini A&G Dustin Pedroia.  Nice to get a decent parallel mini for the Red Sox.  Pedroia is a player that I have managed to get some decent cards of out of packs.

A&G Pack and a Trade

It was not a big day for my Red Sox collection, but any additions are usually appreciated.  The first thing was another rack pack of A&G which resulted in one base card.  I am generally getting a few more cards out of packs than I was earlier in the year, but they are still all base cards.  The other two were from a trade that were basically throw-ins to the Sandy Alomar Jr. cards that I am showing on my other blog.  But one of them completed the 2014 Bowman Prospects set and the other was a nice card of a 2007 World Series hero.

1.  2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Will Middlebrooks.  He is heating up in Pawtucket and may see a return soon.

2.  2014 Bowman Prospects Manuel Margot.  A Top 10 prospect in Boston's system, Margot has great speed and looks to be a decent leadoff hitter.

3.  1998 Topps Co-Signers Silver Blue Mike Lowell.  I really liked these cards when they were out, though I definitely prefer the dual player cards.  Still, nice to add an interesting parallel of the World Series MVP in 2007.

Some Pack Breaks

I had the night to myself Friday as the wife went away to Kansas on an errand.  So I went out and picked up some stuff: the new Goatwhore CD, the Triptykon vinyl, a rack pack of A&G, and a blaster of Archives.  Luckily I had some decent Red Sox luck, though they were all base:

1.  2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Mike Napoli.  Must have been a picture taken early in 2013.  Note the lack of beard.

2.  2014 Topps Archives Mike Napoli.  Yep, two Napolis in a row.  He has been hot at the plate lately too.

3.  2014 Topps Archives Xander Bogaerts.  I have been a getting a bunch of Xanders lately.  You will not hear me complain.

4.  2014 Topps Archives Jonny Gomes.  I love this card.  Gomes has been so much fun to watch in his time in Boston.  Too bad it is likely coming to a close soon.

Nice 2014 Trade

I have not been getting too many trades done lately.  No real explanation for that, I have no idea what is going on.  So I am way behind on getting 2014 Red Sox cards.  Luckily this trade changed that quite a bit:

1.  2014 Bowman Homestate/International Mike Napoli.  What a glorious beard on Napoli here.

2.  2014 Bowman Homestate/International John Lackey.  I wish there was a Red Sox player from Nebraska in this set.  Get the Nebraska flag on there.  I could be wrong but I think Alex Gordon, Connor Gillaspie, and Joba Chamberlain are the only Nebraska natives in the Major Leagues right now.

3.  2014 Bowman Blue Daniel Nava.  Nava is starting to come around and hit like he did last year.

4.  2014 Bowman Chrome Top 100 Xander Bogaerts.  He might be coming around again too.  He just hit a home run earlier tonight.

5.  2014 Bowman Prospects Trey Ball.  The highest drafted player since Trot Nixon for the Red Sox.  His minor league numbers are a little rough right now.

6.  2014 Bowman Prospects Wendell Rijo.  Boston has a ton of good prospects coming up.  This is another one.

7.  2014 Topps John Lackey.  Lackey has some nice numbers this year.  The question is whether he will be traded or not since he has a favorable contract next year.

8.  2014 Topps Felix Doubront.  What is with Topps and horizontal shots for Doubront?  He has had a card in the regular Topps set each of the last three years and all of them have been horizontal.  Strange.

9.  2014 Topps Jackie Bradley Jr.  Another hitter who is starting to come around.

10.  2014 Bowman Shane Victorino.  He will be back from the DL soon, hopefully.

11.  2014 Bowman Jonny Gomes.  I expect him to be traded as well.  Kind of sad as he has become a leader on the team, kind of like Kevin Millar was.

12.  2014 Bowman Mike Napoli.  But at least he isn't going anywhere for awhile.

13.  2014 Bowman Koji Uehara.  Of all the players mentioned in trade rumors, this one would bother me the most.  Boston has proven how difficult it is to acquire a reliable closer the last few years.  Koji will be 40 next year, but who would they get to replace him?

14.  2014 Bowman Daniel Nava.

15.  2014 Bowman Will Middlebrooks.  Will he ever be the player he was in 2012 again?

16.  2014 Topps Future is Now Xander Bogaerts.  Nice insert of the new star.

17.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Framed Blue Jonny Gomes.

Pedro Tek

I have been on a search for all of the patterns of the 1998 Topps Tek Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.  Recently I bought a lot of about 35 Tek singles which contained one Alomar that I needed.  Also in that lot were these two Pedro Martinez cards.  I once seriously considered chasing all of the Nomar Garciaparra cards from the set, but that was before I was on Ebay.  I got as far as three cards.  Since then I have picked up one more.  Pedro, on the other hand, I did not get until just recently.  I now have three patterns for him.

Blaster Breaks

Recently I went a little bit nuts on blasters.  I picked up three.  I have not had the best luck with packs this year.  I have not been getting many Red Sox in packs at all.  I would be a little bit more lucky with this binge.

1.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue David Ortiz.  Nice shot of Ortiz here.  He might be making contact, something that has not happened nearly often enough this year.

2.  2014 Topps Saberstars Shane Victorino.  Victorino has been almost a complete bust this year.  He has barely played and been bad when he has played.

3.  2014 Topps Koji Uehara.  One of the few bright spots for Boston this year.  He'll probably be traded.

4.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Daniel Nava.  Seen celebrating here, something that has happened very little this year.

5.  2014 Topps Opening Day Clay Buchholz.  He has shown some signs of pitching better since returning from the DL.

6.  2014 Topps Archives Ted Williams.  The Splendid Splinter played on plenty of bad Red Sox teams in his career.  He would fit in well this year.

7.  2014 Topps Archives 1987 All Star David Ortiz.  Boston only has one All Star this season, and it's Jon Lester, not David Ortiz.

8.  2014 Topps Archives Will Middlebrooks.  I am not sure he fits into Boston's future plans at all at this point.  Just a huge disappointment since his rookie season.