Blind Trade

I have been flying low on the trade market recently.  I cannot remember the last time that I made a post on my trade page on Facebook.  If I have made a trade over the last few months it's strictly been with a few people whom I had already traded with before.  This last week I tried something a little new in regards to trading: A blind trade.

I know that collectors often send each other packages and return packages back to each with considerations for the original package.  This is not my style, but I am willing to try something out at least once.  I have always been very specific about what I am looking for and what I am willing to part with in my collection.  So, this trade was a big step for me to let go of control, accept what came in the mail, and send back what the collector collects.

I received four cards, three current Cardinals, and one former Cardinal.  Here's what I got:

2008 UD Documentary Kyle McClellan Autograph 

This is my former Cardinal, but still a really cool card.  McClellan played for the 2011 World Series Championship Cardinals team.  In fact, he started 17 games for the team and won 12 games.  McClellan ran into the wall later in the season and was not active on the post season roster, but was a vital part of the regular season team.  McClellan also pitched for the Cardinals in 2012, but had some arm problems and was not tendered a contract.  He was signed by the Rangers and appeared in a few games for the team last season, but was injured again.  Always cool to get a new autograph of a Cardinals player on a World Series team.

2013 Topps Green Emerald Matt Holliday 

I actually picked up two green emerald parallels in this trade and have picked up several of these throughout the year.  These cards are the best parallel cards that Topps has put out in recent memory.  Love the looks of the card and think they are very sharp.  I also picked up the Allen Craig card below.

2013 Topps Emerald Green Allen Craig 

The card below is my favorite in the trade package I received.  If you have not been watching the baseball playoffs then they have missed out on Cardinals prospect Carlos Martinez pitching the set up role for the team.  Martinez started in the minors, but the Cardinals have been using him in the relief role late in the season and during the playoffs.

2013 Bowman Blue Mini Carlos Martinez 

This card is from the 2013 Bowman set and is apart of the awesome line of minis.  I have really enjoyed some of the mini cards Topps put out this year.  I have the regular Martinez mini card, but this blue parallel is serial numbered out of 250.  Really sweet card.  

One half of the blind trade is done, so I have spent a little bit of time this weekend putting together a package of Pirates, Big Hurts, and other cards.  Hope the other half of this trade enjoys.  

My Top 50 On Cardboard-#31 Randy Johnson

My Baseball Card Top 50
#31
Randy Johnson 

1989 Fleer Randy Johnson RC Blackout Variation 

One of my favorite baseball card rookies from the 80s.  The Randy Johnson Fleer rookie might fall short of his Upper Deck card in some regards, but it's a really cool card in so many ways.  First, I love the powder blue Expos uniforms.  One of the best 80s uniforms by far.  Throw in the fact that Fleer did a terrible job of editing their set and you've got yourself a winner.  This card originally looked something like this:

1989 Fleer Randy Johnson Marlboro Variation 

The original version of Johnson's card featured a Marlboro cigarettes ad over his right shoulder which prompted Fleer to put out a second version of this card with the sign black out.  Similar to the Billy Ripken card from the same set, but having DickFace written on your bat knob has gotten that card more attention than the rookie card of a Hall of Famer.  Go figure.


Hobby Impact-
Johnson has not had the hobby impact you would think given his level of performance on the field.  Then again, I think sometimes fans and collectors do not always given the Big Unit his proper due there either.  Johnson's career started in the late eighties with the Montreal Expos and the wax was of the junk variety.  There are only a few Johnson rookie cards on the market, but there are plenty of copies of all of them to go around.  The 1989 Fleer card is probably my favorite, but you cannot go wrong by picking up a copy of his 1989 Upper Deck or Topps Traded cards either.  The Upper Deck card features him as an Expo, but the Topps Traded card was one of his first as a Mariner after being traded for Mark Langston.

His card prices reflect the fact that he was an elite player and a Hall of Fame talent some of the time.  His autographs are definitely on the price side, but other Johnson chase cards, inserts, and parallels are not necessarily always really expensive.  Don't get me wrong, find a copy of a parallel from a really popular set and you are going to pay, but there are plenty that I feel go for much less than they should.

Johnson has a really nice autograph and has always been a really good signer.  Autographs of the tall left-hander are fairly easy to come across, but you should expect to pay a good price from a copy of one of his John Hancock's.  Usually collectors should expect to spend at least $50 to find a nice copy of this Hall of Famer's signature.

1998 Donruss Signature Randy Johnson Autograph 

Johnson's later cards as a Diamondback, the second time around, Yankee, and Giants are often outright bargains.  You can find some really nice cards of him for next to nothing.  Worth checking out once in awhile on Ebay.

On The Field Impact-
I saw Johnson a few times in person.  I also saw Maddux and Clemens.  I would rate Johnson ahead of both pitchers and probably rank him as the best pitcher that I've seen in person.  During his late 90s run with the Astros and Diamondbacks he was dominate.  Dominate and intimidating.  I remember going to a Cardinals game late in 1998 while he was pitching for the Astros.  Honestly, I went to the game hoping for some Big Mac magic, but saw some incredible pitching from Randy Johnson instead.  He threw hard the entire game and the Cardinals, who had a good offensive team that season with Ron Gant hitting seventh, never had a chance.

Beyond personal observations, Randy Johnson has the overall career numbers to back up the fact that he was among the greatest starting pitchers to ever play the game.  JAWS, rates him as the ninth best starting pitcher just ahead of Maddux, but behind Clemens and Seaver in terms of modern pitchers.  His career WAR is slightly lower than Maddux, but his ERA+ is slightly higher.  Overall, Maddux has more wins, but Johnson did not play for a dominate Braves team like Maddux.  Johnson easily has more strikeouts than Maddux and also has more than Roger Clemens.

Honestly, if Roger Clemens had not gone through the hoop-la of throwing his trainer and wife under the bus after his career I would probably rate him ahead of Randy Johnson, but Clemens is an idiot.

Johnson also did a lot winning award wise during his career picking up a World Series co-MVP in 2001, five Cy Young Awards, and will likely be hanging out in Cooperstown for his induction ceremony shortly.  Here's a quick look at his 19 strikeout effort against the A's in 1997.



Favorite Card-
Randy Johnson is one of my favorite follows on Twitter.  Kind of cool to follow Johnson's second career as a photographer.  He does some cool work and has lots of good pics.  I think this card fits him very well.

1996 Upper Deck Randy Johnson VJ Lovero Collection

2013 Topps Update Bob Tewksbury Autograph

The World Series has put a series dent into my blogging this week, but I have spent a little bit of time on the eve of tonight's important game 6 showdown between the Red Sox and Cardinals to catch up with my writing.  A bunch of packages, cards, and topics to sort through for my upcoming posts, I sticking with simple for the first of two for the day.  I wrote a post last week about the insanity that Topps has created in their third installment of the Topps Update set with the over use of variations.  Needless to say, I have been a little bit slow in picking up cards from the set.  However, the Topps Update set is one of those annual sets that always seems to end up in my collection.  I am just being really lazy about picking up my pieces for the set.  You should check out the Brent and Becca store on Ebay.  Great case breakers with good deals on complete sets.  Topps Update done in a few clicks of the mouse button.  What about the inserts and whatnot?

Unfortunately Topps did not put any cool die cut cards into the insert set, the manu-cards are some goofy league leader/career leader cards, which leaves few options for the inserts.  I am sure that I will add some in the coming weeks and will post when I finally get around to it, but I am not busting down any doors to add many things beyond the base set.  Which leads me to a card I was actually happy to add to my collection from the Topps Update set....

2013 Topps Update Bob Tewksbury Autograph 

This is Tewksbury's second Topps autograph of the card calendar year, with the other autograph issue coming out from the Topps Archives set.  This Chasing History insert celebrates the rarely recognized walk per nine innings ratio that Tewksbury held in the 1992 season pitching for the Cardinals.

Tewksbury, or Tewks, pitched for the Cardinals during the Joe Torre era during the early 1990s.  He was easily the best pitcher on the team for several years.  While many Cardinals fans are quick to point out that this part of the team's history was a low point for the franchise, some of the pitching performances out of Tewksbury would have been stellar and more recognizable on better teams.  At first glance, his statistics look rather pedestrian.  His first two seasons with the Birds on the Bat were basically .500 with fewer than 100 strikeouts while starting almost 60 games.  That means that Tewksbury missed few bats and did little to help the team win many of his starts.

However, the 1992 season was one of the greatest exhibits in control pitching during the last 20 years.  Tewksbury raked up 16-5 record during that season with a 2.16 ERA, but more impressive was the fact that he only walked 20 batters in more than 230 innings pitched that season.  Tewksbury's BB/9 ratio that inning came in at 0.773 which puts him amongst the lowest ratios of all times.  He also almost match his 1992 ratio during the 1993 season when his final number came in at 0.842.  Both numbers rank amongst the 100 lowest BB/9 in the history of the game and since World War II only three players have posted a lower number (Cliff Lee in 2010, Carlos Silva 2005, and Brett Saberhagen 1994).

Overall, I really enjoy enjoy seeing cards of cool players like Tewksbury who might have flown under the radar, but had a good following during their career.  Topps did a great job to give him a few cards this year and really cool that they recognized his incredible walk ratio despite the fact that the record has been broken a few times since he set it in 1992.

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard-#32 The Two Sport Star

At some point in the late 80s the baseball world became intrigued with the two sport star.  There had been many players over the years who had dabbled in second sports, but the 80s saw the first athletes who tried to take on two different professional sports full-time.  Early examples of two-sport stars in baseball included Duke basketball star Dick Groat, Michigan State football player Kirk Gibson, San Diego State basketball player Tony Gwynn, and Dave Winfield who was drafted into the NBA and NFL.  While these players dabbled in sports outside of baseball, none of them made their second sport much of a career.  Enter Bo Jackson.  

1987 Topps Bo Jackson 

Hobby Impact-

Within a span of six years, three big two-sport stars popped who crossed the line between Major League Baseball and the National Football League.  Jackson was the most talented of the trio and was seen as an All-Star/All-Pro caliber player in both the NFL and MLB.  I think the highlight that best defined Bo Jackson was his lead off home run in the 1989 All-Star game.  

The All-Star game home run catapulted Jackson's fame as a two-sport star and also brought attention to another rising two-sport star breaking into Major League baseball with the Yankees.  Deion Sanders was a great football player.  He was never really that great at baseball, but at the peak of his career in baseball he was at least average.  Deion was a little bit more flamboyant than Bo Jackson.  Where are the videos of the touchdown dance?  Silly NFL.  Link to (S)cam Newton doing the dance.  

1990 Leaf Deion Sanders

Sanders was also the longest running of the two-sport stars, but he took several seasons off from baseball along the way basically missing out on three years of his career.  While Bo Jackson had a career ending football injury that also limited his baseball abilities, Sanders always seemed a little bit lost on the baseball field.  

The last of the three two-sport stars from my time in collecting is outfielder/safety Brian Jordan.  BJ was not in the majors while he was a professional football player and the Cardinals paid Jordan a 1.7 million dollar bonus in 1992 to quit the Falcons and only play baseball.  Many point to the Bo Jackson injury as a precautionary tale with the two-sport players and the Cardinals obviously wanted to protect their investment in Jordan.  

1992 Topps Traded Brian Jordan 

Since the Cardinals bought out Brian Jordan out of playing football there have not been any active Major League Baseball players moonlighting in another sport.  While several players like Todd Helton, Seth Smith, or Darin Erstad have been good college football players, they are often given the choice by the teams owning their rights to either quit baseball or quit football.  Rickey Williams, of NFL fame, was a minor leaguer in the Phillies organization, but gave up baseball after the Saints drafted him out of the University of Texas.  Others like Chad Hutchinson, Brandon Weeden, and Drew Henson started off in one league and then changed their minds.  

Basically, all of these players are pretty collectable.  There are plenty of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders collectors floating around and the other multi-sport athletes have their moments too.  I had a Brandon Weeden Bowman Autograph in my collection for several years.  He was kind of a nobody, but got hot going back to college at Okie State.  Autograph card sold.  Thank you.  

On the Field-

Jackson had the greatest impact of the big three two-sport stars when he was healthy and on the field.  At the height of his playing career he was an All-Star caliber player for the Royals made plays that baseball fans ha never seen.  My favorite beyond the All-Star game home run was the running catch he made...

I am not quite sure what Deion's highlight as a baseball player would be.  He did play for the Braves in the early 90s and did pop up in a few important games, but really had very little impact on any of the games.  Living in St. Louis I got to see Deion several times and the only thing about Deion that sticks out in my mind was him wearing his socks up for the 1997 season for Jackie Robinson.  Nice gesture.  

Really, Jordan ended up having the greatest impact of the trio.  By greatest impact I mean that Jordan was an above average player for a good portion of his playing career.  In fact, as a Cardinals fan I am not sure the team would have made it to the National League Championship series without his help.  Jordan a clutch home run against Padres closer Trevor Hoffman to close out the NLDS against the Padres and was the real run producer of that team before the picked up Mark McGwire the next season.  

Jordan also played a longer time than Jackson and Sanders putting together a 15 year career.  His career OPS+ of 105 does not look that great, but his last three season were all in the 60s.  His career OPS is jut slightly below .800 with his last three seasons been consistently in the .630s.  Baseball-Reference has is comparable batter in the latter stages of his career as Raul Ibanez, but then his last three years he turns into Melvin Mora.  In other words, Jordan just hung around a little too long. 

Jordan's real importance to the game though was that he was the first two-sport player to have a line drawn in the sand, which still seems to exist today.  You can football, you can play baseball, but you cannot play both at the same time.  

Favorite Card- 

A 90s classic.  

1990 Score Bo Jackson 

The Finest of the Finest

One of the best sets during the time I have spent collecting was the initial 1993 Topps Finest set.  To this day, the set is very popular and the refractor set cards are still one of the great chase sets floating around.  If you have a favorite 90s players, tracking down a copy of their 1993 Topps Finest Refractor is an item that should be on every collectors bucket list.  

1993 Topps Finest Refractor Egardo Alfonzo

If you do not have a favorite player from the 90s, it's okay, you can still pick some of these great cards off on the cheap.  While stars from the set generally push triple digits, sometimes you can sneak through a minor star like Edgardo Alfonzo for a fraction of that cost.  

The popularity of 1993 Finest set, paired with the set's 20th anniversay, prompted Topps to include an insert set based on the 1993 base set.  The cards sell similar to the originals on Ebay.  Base cards from the 2013 Topps Finest 1993 Reprint set can sell for a few dollars with the refractors, numbered to 25, selling for considerable more money.  

I have not picked up a refractor yet, but have picked up a few of the cards from the Rays and Cardinals to add to my collection.  Topps did a fabulous job of recreating these cards and I am hoping to assemble the complete set of Cardinals and Rays over the next few weeks.  Maybe a vlog post.  Without further ado...The 2013 Topps Finest 1993 Reprint Rays and Cardinals...

2013 Topps Finest 1993 Reprint David Price 

2013 Topps Finest 1993 Reprint Adam Wainwright

2013 Topps Finest 1993 Reprint Yadier Molina 

2013 Topps Finest 1993 Reprint Matt Holliday 

My Baseball Card Top 50-#33 Ryne Sandberg

My Baseball Card Top 50
#33
Ryne Sandberg

1983 Fleer Ryne Sandberg

The 1983 Fleer set started my collection out 30 years ago.  While the 1983 sets have 3 big rookies (Boggs, Sandberg, Gwynn) the Fleer Sandberg and Topps Gwynn always stood head and shoulders above the other cards in that group.  Mainly because of uniforms.  We'll get into the Gwynn later in the countdown, but for now the Sandberg.  I never saw the Cubs wear the powder blue pinstripes in person, but I have a good number of cards with them in these unis.  Very distinct and one of my favorite 70s/80s road blue uniforms.  This card is the best Sandberg rookie card.  The 1983 Donruss Sandberg also features him in this uniform, but it's a still picture and not an action shot.

Hobby Impact-
Cubs fans have had many different quality players to collect over the years.  I know some of my Cardinals readers will disagree with that statement, but over the thirty years that I have collected baseball cards there was always someone worth collecting on the Cubs.  That statement is not true for all teams at all times over that time frame.  The one constant for Cubs fans throughout the entire time period has been the presence of Sandberg cards.  Sandberg retired in the late 90s after a good 15 year run with the Cubs, but the end of his career seemed to blend rather well with the advent of the Legends and Fan-Favorites types of sets.  The trend resulted in a basic continuous thirty year stream of Sandberg cards.

While Sandberg's rookie cards might only hover around $5 many of his other good inserts, low print runs, and autographs are popular and good sellers on the secondary market.  The most common Sandberg autographs often sell for a minimum of $30 and short printed, or premium set cards will often sell for considerably more than that, often landing anywhere between $50 and well into the hundreds.  Sandberg was in many of the early large print run autograph sets, like Donruss Signature, but that has not weighed down the value of his autographs too much.

While Sandberg still signs plenty of autographs, they are often spread out throughout the card calendar and appear in several different products.  The resulting effecting produces a large quantity of Sandberg cards, but low print numbers of each card.  For example, Sandberg has recently signed for both the Topps Tribute and Topps Five Star sets.  Both are high end and both feature multiple Sandberg autographs.  In Tribute, the highest print run of any Sandberg autograph starts at 31 and goes south from there.  In Five Star, Sandberg has one autograph with a print run of 55 and another with 106 copies.  Low totals, high prices.

As a Cardinals fan, I appreciated the player Sandberg was for the rival Cubs and do own an autograph of the Hall of Fame second baseman.  I kept mine simple though and just found a copy of his Donruss Signature Millennium Marks Autograph.  Easy card to find with a reasonable price tag.

1997 Donruss Signature Ryne Sandberg Autograph

On The Field-
The JAWS rating system has Sandberg as the 9th best second baseman in baseball history.  Sandberg has already been elected to the Hall of Fame and deservedly so.  In fact, all of the players rated higher than Sandberg, minus Bobby Grich, have all been inducted to the Hall.  One of the biggest surpises in check the JAWS list for second baseman was finding Sandberg only behind Joe Morgan in terms of rankings for modern players at the position.  Meaning the Cubs Hall of Famer rated higher than Roberto Alomar, Biggio, Robinson Cano, and Jeff Kent.

While Sandberg's OPS+ for his career is only 114 and his OPS is below .800, there are several factors which boosted Ryno's Hall of Fame credentials.  First, Sandberg was a great second baseman at his peak, but the end of career came quickly and was rather sharp.  Rather than hanging on and compiling numbers, Sandberg just walked away and retired.  At the peak of his career Sandberg's OPS+ was regularly in the 130-140 range.  His last three years in the league his totals were 83, 97, and 83. Remember with OPS+ the number 100 represents an average player.

Also factor in that Sandberg WAR was also hurt by the end of his career.  At the peak of his career in the early 90s/late 80s he was often among the league leaders in the stat which is remarkable for a middle infielder, let alone one during the small ball era.  In 1989 Sandberg's WAR was 4th in the NL, in 1990 he finished first, and also in 1991.

Sandberg was also a force on defense landing eight Gold Gloves and finishing in the Top 10 for defensive WAR five times during his career.  Rhino also ranks in the Top 10 all-time for second baseman in assists and fielding percentage.

If you have twenty minutes you can watch the above video and check out the epic battle between Sandberg and Willie McGee.  Epic.  and I hate that word.  Willie McGee hit two home runs, he ended up missing the cycle because he did not get a single, and went 4 for 6 with 6 RBIs.  Sandberg did better  going 5 for 6 with 7 RBIs with two home runs.  One of the home runs was a game tying home run off of Hall of Fame Reliever Bruce Sutter and the other was a game tying home run after the Cardinals scored two in the top of the 10th.  Not too shabby.  

Favorite Card-

Sandberg was the Rhino.  Do you know another card with a picture of Sandberg and a rhino?  

1998 Skybox Metal Universe Ryne Sandberg 

Video Vlog: 2013 Topps Finest Base Set and Autographs