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.
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.
1. The first card is the Golden Mirror parallel. Every card in the set has a Golden Mirror parallel that features a different photo on the front. This takes the place of the limited photo variations.
2. This is the Purple parallel, a retail-only parallel.
3. This is the 2022 Black parallel. I was a little surprised I did not have this already. I missed on an auction for it at one point, then a new auction came up the next day.
Up today are a couple more TCDB trades. Just some randomness for the day.
The first deal featured a number of A&G minis:
Of particular interest in this scan is the Xander Bogaerts blue parallel from Topps UK. I don't think there is a Topps UK set any more, but I suppose I could be wrong. I like the green parallel of Alex Verdugo from last year's Archives set. The Ted Williams is from the Chrome A&G set.
This package was primarily some random base cards I needed to complete team sets. The Nomar Garciaparra was an All Star subset card. Derek Lowe came from 2003 Topps Opening Day.
So, not the most exciting of mailday posts, but I need to get caught up.
Connor Wong had a big game today. He had four hits in four at-bats with two home runs and three RBIs. We will see if he gets a Topps Now card tomorrow.
Anyway, here are a bunch of the 2024 Topps parallels. The first one is the True Photo variation. These are not serial-numbered, so I am not sure how rare they are. The second is the Holiday Rabbits parallel, serial-numbered to 50. The third is the Independence Day, serial-numbered to 76. And the fourth is the black parallel, numbered to 73.
Today's post is some rando stuff that I've gotten in recently, along with a blaster break.
Up first is a two-card TCDB trade with some boxed oddball cards from the 1980's:
1. Wade Boggs. Unfortunately, I was not collecting at the height of the oddball craze in the 1980's when you could walk into Rite-Aid and pick up a special box of cards. So, I still have to work to find some of these things.
2. Mike Greenwell. Greenwell was once one of the brightest young stars in the game and looked like a superstar for years to come. After 1988 though he just sort of settled into being a good, occasionally very good, player. He still hit .303 for his career, which is often overlooked.
Up next is a blaster of 2024 Topps:
1. Masataka Yoshida. Yoshida started off the season a little slowly, but has started getting it going in recent days.
2. Ceddanne Rafaela. Rafaela signed an extension shockingly. His defense has been terrific, but there have been some growing pains offensively. He's a bit of a free swinger, which is a bit problematic. We will see where that leads. He will likely settle in at shortstop for this season.
3. Kenley Jansen. He has had a couple of rough outings but seems to be stabilizing. I still think he is going to get traded.
1. Keith Foulke. This was a one-card deal that got me a jersey relic of Boston's closer for the 2004 season. That season he was 5-3 with a 2.17 ERA, 79 strikeouts against 15 walks in 83 innings, and saving 32 games. Unfortunately, he was never again a reliable closer, but he made a big impact in 2004.
1. Trevor Story. Unfortunately, one of my big predictions for the year will not come true. Story suffered a season-ending shoulder injury a couple weeks ago. I really thought he was going to be healthy this season and turn in a 20/20, Gold Glove season.
2. Manny Ramirez. Ramirez is still playing professional baseball in Asia and just hit a home run the other day. He says he is not officially retired.
3. Bobby Dalbec. One of my more negative predictions was that Dalbec would be released by the Red Sox. That hasn't happened yet, but considering he has just one hit in 32 plate appearances with 18 strikeouts, it probably is not far off.
4. J.D. Martinez. Martinez had a bounceback season last year with the Dodgers but has yet to play for the Mets this season.
5. Alex Verdugo. I expect his tenure with the Yankees to be short. I just do not see him enjoying the much more strict clubhouse culture of the Yankees. He's not playing great right now either.
McCarty was a member of the 2004 World Champion Red Sox, hitting .258/.327/.404 with four home runs in 89 games as a bench player and even had a 2.45 ERA in 3.2 innings with four strikeouts. He was a top prospect for the Twins in the early 1990's but just never seemed to find his way into regular playing time. He also played with the Giants, Mariners, Royals, Devil Rays and A's. He spent his last three seasons with the Red Sox from 2003 to 2005. I always liked McCarty and he was a subject of my Unknown Heroes series.
The next couple of packages were a couple of the 2024 Topps parallel cards. This is the Orange Crackle Foil and the Aqua parallels. Wong has started the year off fairly well. As of today, he is hitting .342/.333/.605 with three home runs and eight RBIs. For awhile there it looked like Reese McGuire was going to overtake Wong for playing time, but that has changed this week. Wong had a really bad game defensively last week, but seems to have come back around.
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.
I am way behind again. I haven't been posting much because work is busy. I will try to eventually catch back up.
Up first is a Zippy-Zapping:
This is a TTM auto of former Red Sox prospect Cole Brannen. Brannen was Boston's second-round pick in the 2017 draft, the one in which current starter Tanner Houck was the team's first-round choice. Brannen made it to High-A ball, but never hit higher than .231 and never developed any power. It just did not work out for him and he was released in Spring of 2022.
Thanks for the card Kenny!
I do this occasionally. Actually, I'm not even sure if I can say that. I know I have done it before. Maybe a couple times. Anyway, here is the Red Sox Opening Day Roster for 2024 along with some predictions. A lot of my predictions are somewhat positive. I really do think this team has some good, young talent. This is a year to determine what it is that they have and supplement it going forward. I do not think this team will contend, but they will win some games. I do think they will be active during the trading period, hopefully bringing in young pitching.
POSITION: Starting Pitcher, Outfielder
WHY IS HE HERE?: Arguably the most famous baseball player of all time. Ruth started his career in Boston as a starting pitcher, but gradually was moved to the outfield. He had a record of 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA in 1,190.1 innings with 483 strikeouts. He had his best season in 1916 when he was 23-12 with a league-leading 1.75 ERA. In his only full season as a position player for the Red Sox in 1919 he set a then-record with 29 home runs and led the league in runs (103), RBIs (113) and twice led in home runs.
WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?: Absolutely.
ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?: The only better choices are already in the set.
WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?: Once again, of course.
ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?: Guys like David Ortiz and Mookie Betts are probably among the more popular players since this set came out. And those players absolutely would be in the set.
Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right.
Howie Storie is another one of those ultra-obscure players to play for the Red Sox in 1932. Storie actually played parts of two seasons for the Red Sox, but that was for a total of 12 Major League games. During that time, he did not make a single error and he caught one of the two attempted base stealers on him.
Storie was just 20 years old when he made his Major League debut with the Red Sox in 1930. That year, he appeared in six games, accumulating 20 plate appearances. He had two hits and three walks against two strikeouts and scored two runs. That gave him a line of .118/.250/.118.
He spent most of the 1932 season in the minors, appearing in 34 games with a line of .227/.227/.351. Of his 22 hits, four were doubles and four were triples. He made it into another six games in the Majors, but had just eight plate appearances, mostly early in the season. He had three hits and had a line of .375/.375/.375.
Storie played in 13 games in the minors in 1933 and hit just .167. He was released at some point in the season, and that was it for his career.
POSITION: Starting Pitcher
WHY IS HE HERE?: Dobson was a consistent and reliable starting pitcher for the team during the late 1940's and was an All Star in 1948 (16-10, 3.56). He won 106 games with the Red Sox which is tenth in team history. He had a record of 106-72 with a 3.57 ERA in Boston.
WOULD I PUT HIM IN IN 2001?: Probably not. I was a little surprised by Dobson's inclusion in the set. Even though he was seventh in career wins in team history at the time the set came out, he was never really dominant.
ANY BETTER CHOICES IN 2001?: Well, just looking at the wins leaders, Bob Stanley does not appear in the set and he had more wins than Dobson. Ellis Kinder is also not in the set and he had some huge seasons for Boston. Tom Brewer, Ernie Shore and Rube Foster also deserve consideration.
WOULD I PUT HIM IN NOW?: Not unless it's a huge set.
ANY BETTER CHOICES NOW?: Among starting pitchers since 2001 that are not present in the set are Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello and Chris Sale.
Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right.
Spognardi played second, third and shortstop for the Red Sox. In his 41 plate appearances, he accumulated a surprisingly successful .294/.400/.324 line with nine runs scored, a double, an RBI and six walks. Despite that, he played just a handful of games in the minors the next two seasons and never made it back to the Majors.
According to his biography on SABR, Spognardi was just using baseball to help pay some of his medical school tuition. He became a doctor after his playing career was over.
Keeping this thing going. Let's get into this.
This was just a one-card trade for Hanley Ramirez. That's right, that's Hanley, not Manny. I believe I have talked about this before, Hanley was the first prospect I really collected from the Red Sox. I got in on the ground floor, grabbing his very first minor league card as soon as it came out. Then in 2003 when he started getting Major League cards, I grabbed a lot of them. As such, I have a rather impressive amount of his first year cards, including an autographed X-fractor and a printing plate. I probably could have made some decent money had I sold my cards in the first few years of his Major League career when he was one of the most exciting players in the game. Unfortunately, Ramirez was traded after he made just two at-bats in Boston before he was traded to the Marlins in the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell deal. Ramirez did come back to Boston in 2015 and had a really good year in 2016.
1. Jarren Duran. As I am typing this I just picked up Duran for my fantasy team. Hopefully he can build on his season from last year.
2. Alex Verdugo. This is a nice-looking Verdugo card.
3. Enrique Hernandez. Hey, the border of this card matches Hernandez's socks.
4. Bobby Dalbec. Dalbec is probably at the turning point in his Boston career. With C.J. Cron on hand now, it becomes less likely that Dalbec will stick around.
1. Nick Pivetta. Pivetta is in the running for Opening Day starter. He is not my first pick, I would go with Brayan Bello. Pivetta is a reliable starter though and fun to watch.
2. Trevor Story. I am predicting a 20/20 bounceback season for Story this year. He looks healthy and has been playing well this Spring.
3. Jackie Bradley Jr. It looks like JBJ has retired. He finishes with a line of .225/.303/.381 with 109 home runs, 449 RBIs and 69 stolen bases. His most impressive stat is his 10.3 career dWAR.
4. Manny Ramirez. This is one of my favorite insert sets of recent years, particularly the non-Chrome cards where they are actually die-cut.
5. Johnny Damon. It is sort of odd looking over Damon's career that he was only an All Star twice. And both of those came during his time with Boston. That's right, never with Kansas City and never with the Yankees.
6. Cecil Cooper. Cooper spent six seasons with the Red Sox and hit .283/.324/.447 with 40 home runs. He was then traded to the Brewers in the deal that brought back George Scott and Bernie Carbo and got a lot more playing time and blossomed.
7. Kyle Schwarber. It looks like the pitcher Boston gave up in the Schwarber deal stalled out. Aldo Ramirez looked like a decent prospect in 2021, but struggled after the deal and hasn't pitched since. I am not sure what happened.
1. Hirokazu Sawamura. Sawamura had a pretty good ERA during his two seasons in Boston, but his FIP was a less-than-impressive 4.59 and his release becomes a little more clear. I still liked him though and was disappointed when he was simply released.
2. Jonathan Arauz. A Rule 5 pick by Boston prior to the 2020 season, Arauz hit .204/.280/.320 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 59 games played as a utility infielder. He has played with the Orioles and Mets since, but has never hit much.
3. Xander Bogaerts.
4. Rafael Devers. Here's another City Connect uniform card.
5. Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for next season.
1. Michael Chavis.
2. Rafael Devers.
3. Hirokazu Sawamura.
4. Tanner Houck. Houck looks like a good bet to make the starting rotation this season, giving Boston three home-grown starters for the first time in a very long time.
5. Chris Sale. Sale and Houck are almost mirror-images of each other on the mound.
6. Rafael Devers.
7. Mookie Betts. Betts has a lot of really cool cards that I missed out on.
8. Jarren Duran.
