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.

Mookie and the Oddballs

Dibs on the band name.

1.  2014 Bowman Prospects Mookie Betts.  Let the countdown to his call-up begin.

2.  1989 Broder Baseball's Finest Stars Roger Clemens.  Nice mullet Rocket.

3.  1989 Broder Golden Superstars Roger Clemens.

4.  1989 Baseball's Finest Stars Wade Boggs.

5.  1989 Baseball's Finest Stars Wade Boggs.  I get the impression there are billions of these things out there.

Zippy-Zapped Again

One of my favorite bloggers to trade with is Zippy Zappy of Cervin' Up Cards.  I recently sent him a Hiroki Kuroda card, so he sent me one of his customized packs in response.

1.  2011 Playoff Contenders Draft Ticket Kendall Perkins.  Perkins is finally starting to put it together, of course he is 22 and in Single A still so he should be getting it by now.

2.  2011 Topps Minors Reymond Fuentes.  Fuentes was Boston's first round draft pick in 2009 and was traded to San Diego in the Adrian Gonzalez trade.  He has made it to the Majors briefly in 2013.

3.  2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Green Jason Varitek.  Unfortunately I already had this one.

4.  2011 Topps Minors Stolmy Pimentel.  Pimentel was traded to Pittsburgh in the Joel Hanrahan trade and has made it to the Majors as well.

5.  2008 Elite Extra Edition Chris Hernandez.  Unfortunately I already had this one as well.  Hernandez has been a capable relief arm in Pawtucket and could get a call-up to Boston soon.

Thanks Kenny!

Xander Mailday

He's been struggling lately but Xander Bogaerts is one of the few players who have been exciting to watch for Boston this season.  He will turn things around with his bat soon I would imagine.  He has had these issues each year in the minor leagues as well.  Recently I have worked out a couple of trades to bring in a couple of nice Xanders.

1.  2014 Donruss Rookies Xander Bogaerts.  The insert set from 2014 Donruss features a design similar to the 1988 set, which was not one of my favorite Donruss designs personally.

2.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Red Xander Bogaerts.  I had to give up a little bit to get this one, but I think it is well worth it.  Nice photography on this one.

Oddball Mailday and Some Topps Series 2

I love getting oddballs.  There is just something that draws me to the cards that are not in the mainstream.  My music tastes are the same, being a metal-head.  I love food issues most of all.  I mostly missed the days where there were cards in a bunch of food products, I had the occasional Tombstone or cereal card.  But those days were mostly over by the time I was collecting.

Recently I found a member on the forums who had recently bought a huge box of oddball cards.  I asked for a list of Red Sox (and Sandy Alomars) and picked and chose what I wanted.  He had a bunch of the Pepsi cards from 1990 and 1991 which are Red Sox-only sets that I have been chasing for awhile.  They are hard to find and the Carlos Quintana was my #2 most sought after card.  Here we go:

1.  1991 Pepsi Danny Darwin.  I have mentioned before that Darwin had an incredible, underrated season in 1993.  He had the best year on the team that year, a year in which Boston had Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, Andre Dawson, and John Valentin.

2.  1991 Pepsi Ellis Burks.  Burks was an early favorite after his big 1990 season, but he was disappointing in 1991 and 1992.

3.  1991 Pepsi Jack Clark.  Clark was signed in 1991 to be a big power hitter for the Red Sox as a right-handed power bat.  He did lead the team in home runs and RBIs that year but his numbers were not what was expected and he was terrible in 1992.

4.  1991 Pepsi Carlos Quintana.  And I need a new card on my Top 10.  I love the action shot here too.  Quintana was a favorite of mine early on.

5.  1991 Pepsi Jeff Reardon.  One of the earliest Red Sox career highlights I remember was Jeff Reardon setting the saves record in 1991 when he saved his 342nd game, passing Rollie Fingers.  He did not hold the record long and he has passed by a number of people since then, so many that 342 looks quaint now, but it was a pretty big deal at the time.

6.  1991 Pepsi Jody Reed.  A great action shot of a pretty decent player.  Reed was another underrated, valuable performer in the early 1990's.

7.  1991 Pepsi Luis Rivera.  I have no idea how Rivera kept his job for so long.  He was the starting shortstop for four seasons.  He could not hit, despite having a little bit of power, and he wasn't an elite fielder.  The best I can figure is that Boston could not bring in anyone to replace him.

8.  1991 Pepsi Matt Young.  This was a huge free agent bust for Boston.  He even pitched a no hitter and lost, though it was later ruled not a no hitter because he did not go the full nine innings.

9.  1991 AAMER Sports Rookie Sensation Phil Plantier.  I have no idea what this card is.  Plantier was one of the single most-hyped players I remember in those days.  Unfortunately he did not develop in Boston then was traded in a horrible trade to the Padres for Jose Melendez where he did have a good year in 1993.

10.  2004 MLB Showdown Manny Ramirez.  I don't really get a lot of Manny cards these days.  I have a ton of them already and I am a bit disappointed with the PED issue.  But I feel like he was never really a big focus anyway.  I just never really responded well to him for some reason.

11.  2004 MLB Showdown Trot Nixon.  Nixon honestly did not live up to what he was supposed to be, but he was still a very good player for a few years.  Injuries and the inability to hit left-handers did him in.  But it was his gritty style of play caught on for years.

12.  2004 MLB Showdown Byung-Hyun Kim.  I liked his delivery more than him.  Kim kind of struggled a bit during his time with Boston and then was traded to Colorado for Charles Johnson who was promptly released.

13.  2004 MLB Showdown Johnny Damon.  At one point there was some talk about Damon being a borderline Hall of Famer.  I really do not see it.  He had some nice years, but I don't think he was ever one of the best players in the league.

14.  1990 Pepsi Lee Smith.  Smith was the first reliever to pass Jeff Reardon, and they were once teammates for a little while.  His record stood for a little while.

15.  1990 Pepsi Rich Gedman.  Gedman's time in Boston in 1990 was also limited as he had been injury-plagued and bad for a few years and had been replaced by Tony Pena with the former first round draft pick John Marzano also ready.

16.  1990 Fleer Box Bottom Mike Greenwell.  Gator was another favorite player early on.  His great 1988 season was unfortunately overshadowed by Jose Canseco's 40/40 season.

17.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Dwight Evans.  I still think Evans belongs in the Hall of Fame.  I can't believe he was not even on the Veteran's Ballot last year.

18.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Jim Rice.  The last player to make it into the Hall of Fame with the Red Sox, he will likely be joined by Pedro Martinez next year.

19.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Reid Nichols.  Nichols was a decent fourth outfielder for a few years.  Yep, that's exciting.

20.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Steve Crawford.  Crawford was a decent reliever for a few years.

21.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Bob Stanley.  In 1983, Stanley set a Red Sox record with 33 saves which lasted until Reardon saved 40 in 1991.

22.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Mark Clear.  Clear was another good reliever who paired with Stanley to have great seasons in 1982.

23.  1982 Brigham's Coca Cola Mike Torrez.  Torrez gave up the infamous homer to Bucky Bleepin' Dent in the 1978 one-game playoff.  He was never quite as good after that.

24.  1989 Score Superstars Ellis Burks.  I think this was a boxed set only release.  I could be wrong.

25.  1988 Drake's Big Hitters Dwight Evans.  I don't even know what Drake's was.  It may have been a regional thing we did not get in Nebraska.  But I have a bunch of the cards.

26.  1986 Drake's Big Hitters Bill Buckner.  Unfortunately Buckner is more remembered for his error than for his quality career.  In 1985 he hit .299 with 16 home runs and 110 RBIs for instance.

27.  1986 Drake's Big Hitters Dwight Evans.  Another Dewey card.

28.  1986 Drake's Big Hitters Jim Rice.  And another Rice.

29.  1989 J.J. Nissen Mike Greenwell.  I have no idea where this card came from either.

Finally, I bought my first blaster of 2014 Topps Series 2.  I got a few new Red Sox, but I have continued to be unlucky with inserts and parallels.  Just some base cards.

30.  2014 Topps Stephen Drew.  Nice to see an actual shot of Drew in a non-photoshopped Red Sox uniform.

31.  2014 Topps Ryan Dempster.  Dempster decided to take this year off for reasons I am not clear on.

32.  2014 Topps Daniel Nava.  Nice photo.  Nava is unfortunately not having a good year.  The part of Daniel Nava 2013 is currently being played by Brock Holt.

I Can't See Koji

It's because he's camouflaged:

1.  2014 Panini Prizm Camo Refractor Koji Uehara.  I got this in a one for one trade for a Brewers camo refractor.   I personally much prefer the Koji.

Mookie Mailday

One of the brightest prospects in baseball right now is Boston's Mookie Betts.  He has been on fire for the last couple of seasons.  Luckily card companies have started to notice.  I got this one recently in a trade:

2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Blue Refractor Mookie Betts.  This is now my third Mookie Betts card, with another one on the way soon.  Betts could get his call-up later this season, particularly if the outfield keeps underperforming.

A Babe, a Petey, and a Cecchini

I really like the Topps trophy cards but they are very hard to come by for me.  I have not been wanting to spend much money lately, and I rarely have enough in trade to entice people that have them.  But when I saw this one, I knew I had to try for it:

1.  2012 Topps Babe Ruth Commemorative Rings Babe Ruth.  I can not tell if the picture is photoshopped or not, I don't really care.  This is a terrific looking card and just my second Red Sox trophy card.

I picked up another Prizm blaster which got me one card, and then I received a one-card trade package here:

2.  2014 Panini Prizm Pedro Martinez.  Pedro is starting to show up quite a bit again lately.

3.  2014 Bowman Chrome Top 100 Garin Cecchini.  You may have missed that he made his Major League debut on Sunday and doubled, then was sent back down to the minors for Stephen Drew to be activated.

R.I.P. Zim

Don Zimmer was the Red Sox manager from 1976 through 1980.  While he was not the most successful of managers in that time, he was certainly memorable.  He of course had some problems with certain players on the Red Sox team, most notably Bill Lee and Ferguson Jenkins.  Zimmer came back and was a coach for the Red Sox in 1992.  I remember him mostly as a Yankees bench coach, in particular the incident with Pedro Martinez in 2003.  Unfortunately, Zimmer died yesterday.  He was an interesting character and baseball will miss him.

R.I.P. Don Zimmer.

Two Nice Packages

I received two very nice packages today.  In the first one, I picked up a number of nice inserts and parallels from a variety of years:

1.  2004 Leaf Exhibits 1947-66 Printed in USA Signature Second Edition Nomar Garciaparra.  Figuring out this set requires a ton of work.  You have to look at every single detail to work it out.  This is my second Nomar from this set.

2.  2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Black Dustin Pedroia.  He is not having his best season so far this year.  Still a fantastic defensive second baseman though.

3.  2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Black Clay Buchholz.  Speaking of not having his best season...  That no hitter seems like a long time ago.

4.  2000 Pacific Prism Slider Silver John Valentin.  This Prism set is one of my favorites.  I have all of the variations for Jason Varitek already but very few for any other player.

5.  1998 Bowman International John Valentin.  Valentin was one of my favorite players in the mid to late 90's.  Unfortunately his career derailed quickly.

6.  1996 Score Titanic Taters Mo Vaughn.  I love 1990's inserts and Mo Vaughn had a bunch of good ones.

7.  1997 Pinnacle Shades Mo Vaughn.  This does not show well in the scan unfortunately but it is likely my favorite of the Red Sox cards I received today.

8.  1996 Pinnacle 1st Rate Mo Vaughn.  Another nice Vaughn card here.

The next package consisted of 2014 cards:

9.  2014 Topps Red Hot Foil Jonny Gomes.  I have said it before and I will say it again: I love this shot.

10.  2014 Topps Target Red Jake Peavy.  Hopefully his last start is a sign of things to come.

11.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mike Napoli SP.  The offense desperately needs him back.

12.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Debut All Stars David Ortiz.  A shot of him in an All Star Game jersey.  Ortiz has been an All Star almost every year since 2004.

13.  2014 Topps Gyspy Queen N174 Wade Boggs.  My first favorite Red Sox player.

14.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Dealing Aces Pedro Martinez.  Pedro and Nomar are starting to show up in a number of sets this year.  Pedro will be a Hall of Famer next year (hopefully).

Prizm Blaster and Some Trades

A few things in today: a Prizm blaster, and a couple of decent trades:

1.  2014 Prizm Xander Bogaerts RC.  I bought a Prizm blaster after comparing the Red Sox cards available in Prizm versus Archives, figuring my chances would be better with Prizm.  Well, not many cards, but I did get this great Xander Bogaerts card.

2.  1998 Sports Illustrated Dennis Eckersley.  One of the trade packages I received contained two Eck cards from his second trip to Boston.  This one is a good shot of his mullet.

3.  1998 Online Gold Winners Dennis Eckersley.  This is a parallel from the awesome Online set.  I loved that set and wish someone would do something similar again.

4.  2007 Trade Up Jason Varitek.  I am happy about this card.  Someone on one of the forums picked up a board game which had these cards.  This was one of the cards available and I found some of his player collection needs.  I had never heard of this before.

5.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Variation Ted Williams.  Another Gypsy Queen trade since I have had terrible luck with those packs.

6.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Sepia John Lackey.  This came with the Williams.  A nice action shot really, and low-numbered as well.

Another Successful Bowman Blaster

I have had reasonably good luck with Bowman so far this year.  I still need a bunch of stuff, including all of the mini refractors, but packs have been pretty good to me.  This was my second blaster and it gave me the most Red Sox I have gotten in a blaster this year, which is kind of sad.

1.  2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Wendell Rijo.  Rijo emerged last year.  He is young yet, but may have a bright future.

2.  2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Trey Ball.  The highest draft pick Boston has had since 1994 (Trot Nixon).  Ball has not gotten off to the best start since becoming a professional but his stuff is there.

3.  2014 Bowman Jon Lester.  A recycled shot of Lester that also appeared on his Topps card.  I really wish Topps would work on this.

4.  2014 Bowman Prospects Ty Buttrey.  Buttrey has been improving and moving up the ladder on the prospects lists.

5.  2014 Bowman David Ortiz.  What group of Red Sox cards would be complete without the Large Father?