Season in Review: 2024

The Red Sox improved slightly in 2024, going 81-81.  It was the first non-losing season since 2021, but it could have been much better if not for a post-All Star Break slide.  The team was built around a young core who simply seemed to wear down as the season went on.  Injuries took a huge toll on the team, which certainly didn't help, and some of the players brought in, failed to make an impact  

FIVE FAVORITE PLAYERS

RAFAEL DEVERS

Devers put together another fantastic season at the plate.  It is still hard to believe this was the last full season of him in Boston.  He was an All Star for the third time as he hit .272/.354/.516 and led the team with 28 home runs and 83 RBIs.  He was among the league leaders in on-base percentage, slugging and doubles (34).  He continued to have a difficult time defensively at third base, but his hitting made up for it.  

JARREN DURAN

2024 was the year of Jarren Duran for the Red Sox.  The speedy outfielder played in 160 games (and would have played in all 162 if not for a brief suspension which I won't get into).  He led the team with 8.7 bWAR and hit .285/.342/.492 with 21 home runs, 75 RBIs and 34 stolen bases.  He led the league in doubles (48) and triples (14) while notching 191 hits and 111 runs scored.  He was an All Star for the first time, winning MVP honors and finished eighth in the MVP race.

TANNER HOUCK

Boston's third All Star in 2024 was former first-round pick Houck, who was electrifying in the first half of the season.  Unfortunately, he was not able to sustain that success throughout the season.  Houck led the league in shutouts and had a record of 9-10 with a team-leading 3.12 ERA.  In 178.2 innings pitched, he struck out 154 batters while walking just 48.  His home runs allowed per nine innings also led the league.  

CONNOR WONG

Despite some significant defensive struggles, Wong had a very nice season in 2024.  He stumbled down the stretch as the workload behind the plate wore him down, but he ended up the season with a slash line of .280/.333/.425, not bad numbers for a catcher.  He also hit 13 home runs, drove in 52 runs and stole eight bases.  He was among the league leaders in fielding percentage, runners caught stealing and assists.  It did look like he could be a starter for a long time to come.

BRAYAN BELLO

Bello came into the season looking like a breakthrough candidate, but just could not seem to get on track.  He seemed to struggle with his command at times and would get frustrated.  Despite that, he led the team in wins (14-8 record).  His ERA was high (4.49), but he struck out 153 batters in 162.1 innings and walked 64.  He seemed to get better down the stretch and built on that going into 2025.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

KENLEY JANSEN

The closer was the oldest regular player on the team at 36 years old, but still had some life left in his arm.  He continued to build on his potential Hall of Fame career, going 4-2 with a 3.29 ERA in 54 games pitched.  In 54.2 innings, he struck out 62 batters while walking 20 and notched 27 saves.  Jansen had some minor injuries and shut down toward the end of the season when it was clear the Red Sox were not going to be in the postseason, which angered some.

KUTTER CRAWFORD

The third of three starters to be developed by the Red Sox to start 30 or more games in 2024, which is the first time that has happened in a very long time, Crawford led the league in losses (9-16 record), but actually had a decent season.  He also led the league in games started (33) and had a 4.36 ERA, throwing 183.2 innings while striking out a team high 175 and walking 51.  He also led the team with a 1.122 WHIP.

NICK PIVETTA

Pivetta always felt like a pitcher close to a breakout season.  Even though it did not happen in 2024, he still put up some impressive numbers.  He did not lead the team in strikeouts, but he did lead in strikeouts per nine innings as he punched out 172 in just 145.2 innings pitched and also only walked 31 batters.  He had a record of 6-12 and had a 4.14 ERA.  Unfortunately, this was his last season in Boston and he finally had that breakout season this year in San Diego.

FAVORITE ACQUISITION

 TYLER O'NEILL

The Cardinals make a lot of silly trades, and this was no different as they sent O'Neill to Boston for Nick Robertson and Victor Santos, neither of whom did anything for St. Louis.  O'Neill crushed 31 home runs in 2024 and had a line of .241/.336/.511.  Injuries plagued him, but he found Fenway to his liking.  He didn't stay in Boston as the team had too many outfielders, but he became another One-Year Wonder right-fielder.  His biggest moment was homering on Opening Day for the fifth straight season.

FAVORITE MID-SEASON ACQUISITION

DANNY JANSEN

There is not really much to choose from in this category.  Jansen was acquired in order spell Connor Wong behind the plate as well as for his ability to hit lefties.  The Red Sox gave up several prospects that would have needed protection from the Rule 5 Draft.  Unfortunately, Jansen hit just .188/.323/.300  with three home runs and six RBIs in 30 games.  His biggest moment was appearing in a game that had been suspended by rain a couple months earlier against his old team, in which he had been in the lineup, making him the first player to appear for both teams in the same game.

FAVORITE ROOKIES

WILYER ABREU

Picking a favorite rookie was a much bigger competition.  Abreu wins on the strength of the fact that he was the only one of these three players to receive Rookie of the Year consideration (he finished sixth, but should have been higher).  Abreu, acquired in the Christian Vazquez trade, appeared in 132 games and hit .253/.322/.459 with 15 home runs and 58 RBIs.  He also stole eight bases and hit 33 doubles.  Abreu won the Gold Glove as well.  

CEDDANNE RAFAELA

A slump in the second half dropped Rafaela from consideration for the Rookie of the Year vote.  He basically split the season between shortstop (82 games) and center field (87 games), while also appearing at second base, third base and right field. He was terrific in center, but did not do quite as well at shortstop, which kept him from winning the multi-position Gold Glove.  He hit .246/.274/.390 with 15 home runs, 75 RBIs and 19 stolen bases.  He also had 23 doubles and five triples and 134 hits (fourth on the team).  

DAVID HAMILTON

Hamilton was the big prospect acquired in the deal that sent Hunter Renfroe to the Brewers and returned Jackie Bradley Jr. to Boston.  He started the 2024 season very rough and struggled mightily at shortstop.  He started playing much better once he was moved to second base and ended up second on the team in stolen bases (33), which would have been more had he not gone down with an injury late in the season.  Hamilton hit .248/.303/.395 with eight home runs and 33 RBIs.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS

TREVOR STORY

It was yet another injury-plagued season for Story in 2024.  He suffered a dislocated shoulder diving for a ground ball early in the season and only appeared in 26 games.  He had yet to appear in 100 games in the first three seasons of his Red Sox tenure at this point.  Story hit .255/.340/.394 with two home runs, ten RBIs and six stolen bases.  So, he hit well when he was on the field, that just was not often enough.

TRISTON CASAS

Casas also had a season marred by injury as a strained rib limited him to just 63 games played.  He was impressive at the plate when he was healthy.  He hit .241/.337/.462 with 13 home runs and 32 RBIs in his second season.  His biggest moment was a three-homer game late in the season.  Casas's health has become a real concern with penciling his name into the lineup going forward.

VAUGHN GRISSOM

Grissom was supposed to be the second-baseman in 2024, but injuries ended up limiting him to 31 games played.  He was bad when he was in the lineup, hitting just .190/.246/.219 with just three extra base hits (all doubles), six RBIs and two stolen bases.  As bad as all that is, the fact that he was the entire package the Red Sox received for Chris Sale made it that much worse as Sale had a return-to-form and finally won a Cy Young Award.

Topps Now: August 1, 2025

The biggest story for the Red Sox this season has been the emergence of Roman Anthony.  He looks like the real deal.  He was the top prospect in the game coming into the season.  The last time the Red Sox had the top prospect in the game was probably Yoan Moncada, and that really didn't work out.  Anthony was the second round pick of the Red Sox in 2022 out of high school and is already a regular in the Majors.

On August 1 in a game against the Astros at Fenway, Anthony had his first walkoff hit.  The score was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the tenth after a great start by Cooper Criswell (who needs a card).  Boston's only run scored off of a sac fly in the seventh.  In the tenth inning, Wilyer Abreu started at second base as the ghost runner, then moved to third on a ground ball by Ceddanne Rafaela on which Houston failed to record an out.  Anthony then came up and smoked a single to deep center field that would have been a double at least had it not scored the winning run.

Anthony is currently on the IL and the offense has sputtered.  Hopefully he will be back soon.  I am looking forward to a full year out of him.

Wongs and Rafaelas

The next two maildays consisted entirely of cards of Connor Wong and Ceddanne Rafaela.  Yes, I am still collecting Wong, as long as he is still on the team.  My enthusiasm for the collection has waned a bit, but every once in awhile, I grab a few, and recently I have grabbed a few decent ones.  As for Rafaela, he remains the primary focus of my collection right now, but I am not looking to try to grab every single card.  He has a lot of stuff that has gotten past the point I am comfortable spending.  

So, on the first day, I received the above cards.  The Wong is the Aqua Refractor from Topps Chrome.  The Donruss card of Rafaela is the Red parallels and is serial-numbered to 275.

On the second day, I got in quite a few more cards.  The Wong card is the Lightboard Logo parallel.  I grabbed last year's Rafaela and decided I liked this parallel quite a bit, so I figured if I could get the Wong, I would.  The Rafaelas are primarily a few parallels that I just grabbed randomly.  The last card though is the third card from the lot that I lamented missing out on the day of my jury trial.  It took awhile to get in.

Nothing too exciting today, just some progress with Rafaela and Wong.

Even the Non-Rafaela Posts Have Rafaelas in Them

I was supposed to have a jury trial last week, but an extremely stupid thing happened and so it got moved.  After cooling down for a few days, I have a pile of cards that need to be shown.  I am mostly caught up, so I might be able to start doing some non-mailday posts in the near future.  But it will take a couple days to catch up on the pile first.

Payton Tolle was the Red Sox's second-round pick just last year and made his Major League debut a couple weeks ago.  He is the team's top pitching prospect.  He had a great debut, but has struggled a bit since then.  I expect him to spend most of next season in the minors to get more seasoning and build up some secondary pitches.  He has a great fastball though.

The next trade will take up the next two scans, and is one of my favorite trades I have made in recent weeks:

1.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  This is another base card that took me awhile to find.  There were three Rafaela cards in this trade, which is enough for second-most of any player.  

2.  Kenley Jansen.  Jansen has an outside shot at the Hall of Fame.  He spent two years with the Red Sox and was an All Star in 2023.  

3.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Here is the second Rafaela.  He was the primary reason to start this trade.

4.  Wilyer Abreu.  This trade will feature four cards of Abreu, driving him up to 14 cards in my collection, still very low for a player of his status on the team, but it is looking much better.

5.  Carlos Narvaez.  The Red Sox catcher has slowed down down the stretch, but Connor Wong is heating up, so it will work out.

6.  Jhostynxon Garcia.  Nicknamed "The Password" due to the incomprehensible spelling of his first name.  Garcia is another potential outfielder for next season.  Or trade bait.  Who knows?

7.  Jhostynxon Garcia.  These are my first two cards of him.

9.  Wilyer Abreu.  Here is the second card.

10.  Tyler O'Neill.  The yellow parallel of O'Neill.  He has just eight home runs for the Orioles in 45 games played.  Injuries have taken their toll on his career.

11.  Walker Buehler.  Unfortunately, this was one of those free agent deals that just did not work out.  Buehler pitched in 23 games with Boston and was 7-7 with a 5.45 ERA in 112.1 innings pitched.  He struck out 84 and walked 55.  Just not good.  He was released and caught on with the Phillies.  This is a short print card.

12.  Kutter Crawford.  Another short print.  Crawford will be in the mix to start next season.

13.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  The third Rafaela.

14.  Wilyer Abreu.  The third Abreu.

15.  Tony Perez.  A pretty cool parallel of the Hall of Famer who spent four seasons toward the end of his career in Boston.  In 1980, he hit 25 home runs and drove in 105, both leading the team.  He was 38 and it was his last big offensive season.

16.  Wilyer Abreu.  The final Abreu card.

17.  Alex Bregman.  I don't think he is quite living up to his salary.  I think he will be back in Boston next season, I don't see him opting out of his existing contract unless Boston is able to re-work his contract into a longer-term deal with a lower annual salary.   

That's it for today.  

A Big Rafaela Post, Including a Major Relic

This is a post covering several days worth of maildays.  All Rafaela cards.  I was a little annoyed on Sunday.  Saturday night, Rafaela leaped and stole a home run from an Arizona Diamondbacks player.  Later in the same game, Blaze Alexander of the Diamondbacks also stole a home run from Alex Bregman.  Alexander got a Topps Now card, but Rafaela didn't.

Quite a bit here in this scan.  The 1/1 Pre-Production Proof is a little annoying.  First of all, it's not really on any kind of card stock, it is more of a piece of flimsy foil.  Secondly, it was only after receiving it that I figured out these cards are not listed on the TCDB.  So, my count on that page is not accurate.  Apparently there are issues with Leaf providing an accurate checklist, so they don't list any of these.  So, even though it is my first 1/1 of Rafaela, it doesn't really feel like it.

I tried valiantly to get the Flagship Blue in a trade, but couldn't get a response from the other party.  The Bowman card in the middle is the Retro Logo Foil, and looks much nicer in person.  The bottom row came in one lot together.

A couple weeks ago, I had a jury trial and missed bidding on an auction that had three nice Rafaela cards in it that I wanted.  I ended up buying them separately, but spent more than I would have had to had I been able to get the lot.  The first card in this scan and the second card in the second row were two of the three cards.  As of today, I am still waiting on the third card.  I like the Prizm autograph at the end of the scan too.  I might have to track down some of the parallels.

Here's something interesting at the top of this scan.  A dual relic of Rafaela with Rafael Devers.  Sort of like Devers passing the torch to Rafaela as my favorite player.  I really like the Prizm card in this scan as well.  I have said before that Prizm makes some of the best parallel sets.  It's a shame Panini doesn't have a Major League license, and at this point, can't even make active players anymore.

Closing things out today is one of the biggest items in my collection to date.  This is a game-used (maybe) fielding glove card.  I kind of wanted to grab this since defense is still Rafaela's top tool.  He's fast and can hit for power, but defense is still what carries him.  

Several TCDB Trades

I was doing well for awhile, able to post stuff every day.  Then, the jury trials started hitting.  I've got about a month before the next one, so I will get caught back up again.

Today, I am showing off a number of TCDB trade packages that all arrived at the same time.

1.  Jarren Duran.  I still think he will be traded this offseason.  Something has to give in the outfield.  They cannot go into next season with Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Roman Anthony and Jhostynxon Garcia.  They just can't.  Duran makes the most sense to trade, particularly in light of his down season this year.  I like the guy, but it just doesn't make sense to keep him.

2.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  He is in a deep slump, but occasionally wakes up to get a huge hit.  You can probably guess which trades I initiated by his presence.

3.  Aroldis Chapman.  I am not a Chapman fan.  I was not a big fan of his signing.  But, when the ERA is under 1.00 and the WHIP is under 0.75, it is just too hard to not root for the guy.  Chapman is having one of the greatest seasons of his potential Hall of Fame career, if not his best season.  

4.  Luis Guerrero.  Guerrero has great stuff and velocity, but has absolutely no idea where the ball is going.  He could be a potential future closer, but he has some work to do.

1.  John Wyatt.  Hey, some vintage in this trade.  Wyatt was Boston's "closer" in the Impossible Dream season.  I put it in quotes because the closer role as we know it today didn't really exist.  Wyatt notched 20 saves though and had a record of 10-7 with a 2.60 ERA.  He was acquired in a deal with the Kansas City A's along with Jose Tartabull for Jim Gosger, Guido Grilli and Ken Sanders.

2.  Mike Andrews.  Andrews was the second-baseman for the 1967 Red Sox and was an All Star in 1969.  He later was involved in controversy when he made a few errors in the 1973 World Series for the A's and owner Charlie Finley tried to release him in the middle of the Series.

3.  Josh Beckett.  If pitchers never hit again in the Majors, Josh Beckett then is the last Red Sox pitcher to hit a home run.

4.  Xander Bogaerts.  I just like this insert set.  I have several Yankees on my tradelist, so it is nice to add a Red Sox player.

5.  Jarren Duran.  This shot was taken as Duran rounded the bases after his All Star Game home run off of Hunter Greene that led to him being named the All Star Game MVP.

6.  Ted Williams.  I always enjoy adding cards of Teddy Ballgame.

7.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Technically, this trade was not initiated by me.  But the other party was offering something I really didn't want much, so I countered.  The fact he had a Rafaela I needed was just the icing on the cake for me.

8.  Garrett Whitlock.  Whitlock is a guy that doesn't get a lot of cardboard.  That may change with the terrific season he is having.  Hopefully Boston has learned to stop messing around with him and just leave him in a setup role.

1.  Garrett Crochet.  Crochet has fallen off the pace for the AL Cy Young Award, which is disappointing, but he has still had a fantastic first season.  He may yet win one in the future.

2.  Wilyer Abreu.  I love this shot.  Abreu has been underrepresented in my collection for a long time.  I worked on a couple of trades to increase his status.  This trade was one of them.

3.  Jason Varitek.  I am finally getting a few Varitek cards again.  I love this shot too.  Stadium Club is so awesome.

4.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Again, you can tell this was one I initiated.

5.  Wilyer Abreu.  This gets me to ten cards finally.

6.  Jason Varitek.  I was supposed to get the Chrome card in this trade, this is the Black Foil, but I am not complaining.

1.  David Hamilton.  Hamilton just stole his 20th base of the season, joining Jarren Duran and Trevor Story as players having 20 or more stolen bases on the season.  This is only the second time since 1915 the Red Sox have had three players steal 20 or more bases (2008: Coco Crisp, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia).  If Rafaela steals one more base, they will have four.

2.  Justin Slaten.  This is the card that started this trade.  I originally wanted a Rafaela as well, but the other party didn't want to trade it for the stuff I had for him.  Slaten is one of the better Rule 5 picks in Red Sox history.  Garrett Whitlock is still far and away the best though.

3.  Connor Wong.  The guy did have a Wong card I needed.  I haven't gotten much from his appearance in Topps Chrome yet.

4.  Brandon Walter.  I discussed Walter recently.  Weird to get another card of him so quickly.

5.  Triston Casas.  Boston desperately needs power next season.  Hopefully Casas can stay healthy for once.

6.  Chris Murphy.  It's probably a rule that Murphy and Walter have to appear in the same transactions.

1.  Masataka Yoshida.  I do like this card.  I wasn't wild about this trade initially, but this is a pretty cool card.  I just wish he would hit.  

2.  Trevor Story.  What a season Story is having.  He is already at 20/20 for the season and looks like a potential Gold Glover.  He is 27 for 27 in stolen bases.  He still has seven home runs and three stolen bases to go to get to 30/30.  I don't think that will happen.  The 30 stolen bases probably, but I think he will come up short on the home runs.

3.  Connor Wong.  Another Wong.  I did not initiate this trade.  I think it had something else in it instead of the Wong, but I don't recall specifically.  

That's it for today.  I have a few more posts to try to catch up.  

Green Rafaela Day

There is going to be a lot of green in this post today, four out of the five new Rafaela cards are various shades of green.  

So yeah, four out of the five cards are green.  That was not intentional, it just sort of happened.  The Stadium Club Chrome Green Refractor is probably my favorite, but the two Donruss cards look so much better in person.  The Prizm Scope card is numbered to just 75 and is actually the third card from this set to make it into my Red Sox collection.

So, short post today.  The one tomorrow will be quite a bit longer.

Heritage Trade

One of the better trades I have made lately brought me a bunch of Heritage singles that I needed for my team sets.  Heritage is one of the better sets for player selection and I usually like to get the team set, and try hard for the short prints.  For whatever reason, the last couple years I haven't been great about getting many cards.  This trade helped make up some of the holes.  The first scan will be from 2024, the second from 2025.

1.  Brayan Bello.  One of the players in this scan that is still with the team, Bello is having a bit of a breakout season this year.  He has become a certified Yankee killer and his ERA is currently below 3.00.  He is an extreme groundball pitcher, so he doesn't rack up the strikeouts, but he has been very impressive this year.

2.  Kenley Jansen.  It is strange that Boston has brought in three of the greatest closers in the last twenty years.  Jansen had his moments with Boston and was an All Star in 2023.  He picked up 56 saves over his two years in Boston.

3.  Tyler O'Neill.  O'Neill had a very good season in Boston, even if it was shortened by injury.  He crushed 31 home runs, his second-highest total of his career, and played good defense.  The Red Sox did not keep him around and he took a big deal with the Orioles, that is not working out.

4.  Chris Murphy.  Notably, both Jim Rice and Fred Lynn had their rookie cards in 1975 Topps as part of four-player rookie cards.  Murphy will likely not be as impressive, but he has had some decent stints as a lefty reliever.

5.  Kutter Crawford.  Crawford looked like a potential breakout candidate, but has been injured all season.

6.  Naoyuki Uwasawa.  This is now my third card of Uwasawa, one more than he has games pitched in the Majors.

7.  Brandon Walter.  It's pretty easy to confuse Walter with Chris Murphy, both were lefty relievers around the same time with Boston.  Walter though has turned into a decent starter with the Astros this season.

8.  Danny Jansen.  I've covered this event a couple of times, so I don't have to do it again.  Jansen is now playing with the Brewers.

9.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  This is not a Ceddanne-free post, but he's not the focal point.

10.  Nick Sogard.  Sogard has gotten a lot of cards this year for a guy who is a AAAA utility player.  He can do some decent things, but he is no danger of becoming a regular Major Leaguer.

11.  Rob Refsnyder.  One of the great lefty mashers in the league today, Refsnyder has found a home in Boston.

12.  Jarren Duran.  The most interesting question going into the offseason is how Boston handles the outfield.  I spoke at length about this in my post about the Rafael Devers trade.  Boston still has at least four outfielders going into next season with Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Roman Anthony.  They have to make a trade and Duran seems like the most likely to go, with Abreu a slight second.

13.  Connor Wong.  Yep, got a Wong here too.  Wong is starting to hit better, still not much power though.

14.  Kenley Jansen.  No relation to Danny.  Obviously.

15.  Tris Speaker.  Speaker is still arguably the greatest center fielder in team history and the first example of the team not being able to keep its stars.

A Pile of Rafaelas

It seems like we will be alternating posts between Ceddanne Rafaela and other players for the time being.  I am feeling more comfortable with my numbers, so things will probably slow a little on the acquisition of Rafaela cards.  Plus, his struggles since the All Star Break have been frustrating.  He is a streaky player, but this cold streak has been pretty bad.  He did homer late in the game the other night against Baltimore which took the lead and eventually won the game, so his clutch ability has been unaffected.

Most of these are pretty low-end parallels, but there is still some fun stuff here.  The more interesting ones are the Silver Pack card from last year's Topps set (second row, left), the Aqua Lava Refractor from 2022 Bowman Chrome Draft (second row, middle), and the Aqua parallel from last year's Update (third row, right).

The top row of this scan all came in a lot.  I still try to grab lots as much as I possibly can, but it is becoming less and less common as I add more cards.  The card in the middle of the third row is an interesting one.  Topps has been making over-sized cards to be on the top of hobby boxes lately and those cards are generally different than the base cards.  I don't love over-sized cards and rarely get them purposely.  Last year, Topps made standard-size Companion Cards for the over-sized cards, and that is what this one was.  There's also a couple of Sky Blue Bowman parallels.

Two Very Small Trades

Long week this week.  I had a jury trial take up half the week and trying to catch up afterwards.  This is going to be a very quick post, showing off two trades that I made that produced three cards.  It won't be the most exciting, but I show every new card.

It may be a small trade, but I really like this one.  

1.  Roman Anthony.  I added another Roman Anthony card, my eighth.  He is the real deal.  I have been more and more impressed with him all the time.  Especially now that the power has started to show.  I love the fact that he is signed for the next several years.  

2.  Masataka Yoshida.  This is my first relic card of Yoshida, so I am definitely happy to be adding it.  Unfortunately, I am predicting his time in Boston is over at the end of this year.  It has been a very bad year for him and I just do not think the team is going to have much use for a left-handed DH that cannot really hit that well.  I think he has run out of time.  Maybe if he goes on a hot stretch through the rest of the season, but I am not sure that will happen.

1.  Kutter Crawford.  I had big hopes for Crawford coming into the season, but he is going to miss the entire season due to injury.  He will be in the mix for next season.

Three Days of Rafaela

Not much to say here.  The last three mail days have all been Ceddanne Rafaela cards as I rocket up the TCDB rankings.  As I am writing this post, I am in second place and within striking distance of first.  In fact, there are enough cards of him that I am still waiting to receive that will put me in first place.

DAY 1:

The first day I received just two cards.  The Brooklyn Collection card is a very nice-looking card, a bit thick for my tastes though.  And then the other card is the Gold Refractor for this year's Chrome Future Stars card.

DAY 2:

The second day brought in a Panini Prizm parallel (sets that I will be grabbing more of in the future) and the Chrome Purple Refractor from last year's Heritage set.  I like this set a lot, because I loved the 1975 Topps set, but Rafaela's card is a bit on the boring side.

DAY 3:

The third day was the big haul.  This is what launched me into second place in the TCDB rankings.  The first two cards are more Panini Prizm parallels.  The Donruss card is the Orange Laser, and I love these cards too.  The fifth card is the Chrome Image Variation.  This has the refractor look, but I think that is the way the base image is supposed to be.  Then, two more Chrome cards that came in a lot, including the Negative Refractor and the Purple Speckle Refractor of the Rookie Autograph card.

And so, I am positioning myself to have more Ceddanne Rafaela cards than anyone else on TCDB.  And very soon, I probably will.  The question is whether I will be able to hold that position.  Currently, I am in first place for Tzu-Wei Lin, Connor Wong and Sandy Alomar, Jr.  The Alomar surprises me more than anything.  

More TCDB Trades

I have been doing quite a few trades lately.  This post will show a couple small ones, five cards each.

The original version of this trade featured a refractor of a former prospect named Tony Granadillo.  I decided to counter the offer and put in that Jose Canseco card.  I just didn't have a ton of interest in a prospect card of a guy who never made the Majors.  The Ted Williams is a favorite for obvious reasons and I am two cards closer to the 2025 Topps team set.

Nice collection of players here.  We have David Ortiz, who I am considering elevating to my second-largest player (which would require about 150 cards, doable, but a big project), Babe Ruth and Marcelo Mayer.  Then there are two guys who were traded at trading deadlines.  Craig Hansen was a first-round pick who never reached his potential and was traded to Pittsburgh as part of the Manny Ramirez-Jason Bay trade.  Niko Kavadas was one of several players sent away at last year's deadline.  Granted a lot of those players would have been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, but they really didn't get much value for them.  Kavadas, along with Ryan Zeferjahn and Matthew Lugo were sent to the Angels for Luis Garcia, who had an 8.22 ERA in 15 games.  Kavadas hit four home runs last year in 30 games.  Boston also sent Eddinson Paulino, Cutter Coffey and Gilberto Batista for Danny Jansen who hit just .188/.323/.300.  Not great. 

The Next Round of Rafaelas

We are still going on this for now.  It's fun being in the early days of a new player collection, even if I am not intending to pursue this for the long term and certainly not to the extent that I have collected guys like Jason Varitek, Tzu-Wei Lin and Connor Wong.  That being said, there are quite a few cards coming in.

There are a couple of cards to highlight here.  The Big League card is apparently a Wrapper Redemption, which is something I would have liked some more information about.  The entire second row came in one lot, which was pretty cool.  The first is the Triple Threads Jumbo Relic and I enjoy this card because I always like getting cards with the yellow City Connect uniforms (I am still hoping Connor Wong gets one at some point).  Then the second is a refractor and the third is the Tier One base.  The final card is the Blue Prizm from 2023 Select.

One of the cooler items I have picked up so far is this item which is a patch from the same yellow City Connect and an autograph.  This is the orange variation and is serial-numbered to 25.  

That's it for now.

Topps Now: July 12, 2025

July 12, 2025

It is sort of odd to think about, but Garrett Crochet was not a starting pitcher when he came up to the Majors.  Just like another former White Sox lefty ace the Red Sox acquired in an offseason trade for four major prospects.  Crochet did not start his first Major League game until 2024 and suddenly he was one of the top starting pitchers in the game.  Because of that, he had never thrown a complete game until July 12 of this year.  In a 1-0 victory, Crochet went the distance, giving up just three hits and striking out nine Rays hitters.  Carlos Narvaez supplied the offense, driving in Roman Anthony for the only run of the game in the fourth inning.

The bonus cards for today are from a small TCDB trade.  This will be a Ceddanne Rafaela-free post.  All three cards are pink parallels from last year's Archives set, one I need to go back to and get the team set.  I also still need to finish off Heritage.

I feel like I talk more about Vaughn Grissom than he actually produces for the Red Sox.  He is still banished to the minors.  At this point, they need to just trade him so he can get another shot somewhere.  I don't know what he has done to deserve to be in the doghouse like this, but he probably deserves a shot somewhere.  Bello is one of my favorite current players and I love getting cards of him, and of course, I can never turn down the franchise icon. 

Moving Forward

I am getting to the point that I am just days behind when I am getting these cards in.  It should only be a few more posts before I am fully caught up.  So, let's keep moving.

Up first is another batch of Rafaela cards.  The top card is my favorite, an Allen & Ginter In Action card.  Rafaela should win a Gold Glove this year.  I don't know if he will, but he should.  Then, there is a Bowman Platinum autograph, the black version of the City to City insert and a couple of Diamante parallels that came together.

Up next is a quick two-card TCDB trade:

1.  Kristian Campbell.  Campbell broke camp with the team for Opening Day and was one of the team's top prospects coming into the year.  He started off well, but cooled and was sent to the minors for more seasoning.  He is hitting well again and could make it back to the Majors by the end of the season.

2.  Richard Fitts.  Fitts was acquired in the deal that sent Alex Verdugo to the Yankees.  He has made 14 starts in the his Major League career to this point and is 1-5 with a 3.79 ERA.  He has some work to do to become a dependable starter, but the talent is there.  

Anyway, back to the Rafaelas:

Some mid-range cards here.  The top two cards were picked up in a lot.  There were some other duplicates in the lot as well.  The Big League autograph is the Orange parallel and is serial-numbered to 25.  I love the Aqua parallel of the 1989 insert.  The Bowman in the second row is the Green Shimmer Refractor and was more expensive than I expected.  The relic shows Rafaela on what must have been Memorial Day, based on the hat.

Here is my first patch card.  I assume this is from the City Connect jerseys based on the blue number.  It would have been better if it had some of the yellow on it as well.

I have never seen one of these before.  This is the Lightboard Logo Refractor.  I have no idea how rare these are, but I thought it was pretty cool so I grabbed it.  I may have to grab one for Connor Wong as well.

And closing things out with some more Rafaelas.  And a cameo from Wilyer Abreu.  The first card on the bottom row is from Topps Dynamic Duals and is the Amethyst parallel.  Ceddanne Rafaela takes up most of the card, but the player in the follow-through swing is Abreu.  This is just my eighth Wilyer Abreu card.  I have begun trying to target him a bit in trades, with less than great results.  The other card is another Exotic parallel, this is the Giraffe parallel.