A Dodger...on this blog?

The summer months should be about having fun, watching baseball and having time to enjoy my hobbies...but that isn't the case for me...at least that last part. Work has kept me so busy these last few months that it's been hard to escape from reality for a bit to enjoy any of my hobbies, let alone baseball cards. While I have been working in the background on a few sets and such, I haven't picked up many singles lately. One card I scored for a pretty good price (in my opinion) was this blue parallel of the Dodgers' Alex Wood from 2016 Topps Tribute.

This Charlotte kid misses the other Charlotte kid. I cringed when I heard the trade announcement that was shipping Alex out to the west coast. However now that Olivera has been traded and the Braves essentially have Matt Kemp in left field it lessens the pain...a little.

I have a few autos of Alex as a rookie and even though he has a simple autograph, he's one of those players that I will still buy cards of even though he's not an Atlanta Brave any longer. I liked the clean design of Tribute this year and finding the blue parallel of a Dodgers player just seemed to make sense for to pick up.

It's hard to keep up with a team on the other side of the country, but I know Alex has struggled some since being traded. I don't recall watching him pitch since he left, but I do hope he continues to show what he is capable of in the near future...even if it is with the Dodgers!

The Last Baseball Post

The baseball season is over...well at least for my Braves. Even though I'll be tuning in this evening for the one game playoff between the Cubs and Pirates, and possibly watching the Cardinals some...I'm done with baseball for 2015.

What a sad season it was for Braves fans too. I guess I should have known it was going to be a tough year with a lot of players being shipped off during the off season and even the day before the season started (the bullpen misses you Kimbrel!).

From a baseball card perspective by buying dropped off tremendously. Not sure if it's a combination of being burnt out a little, busy work schedule or a combination of both. I only bought 2 hobby boxes all year long. While I did buy a handful of packs here and there of various Topps products, I was only actively going after building two sets, Gypsy Queen and Allen & Ginter. Even that mission has kinda fallen to the wayside.

All is not lost though. I still have a few random packs to share and Football season is upon us my as of this post my Carolina Panthers are 4-0! Going forward I anticipate most of my posts to be football oriented. While I know that means I'll alienate some readers, it's what I'm passionate about right now...well that and toys of course (see my other blog, Random Toy Reviews).

Before I make that transition to the pigskin, here are a few cards that I picked up that I don't think I ever got around to sharing.

I miss hosting group breaks, yet I know I have way too little time now to try to do that again. Also because of my lack of time to blog like I used to, I find myself reading other blogs and getting in on group breaks like in the past. However a month or so ago I jumped on one of those group breaks by bidding on the Braves on eBay. I grabbed my team in a 2015 Topps Chrome half case break. Didn't wind up with anything too exciting, but I'm glad to add these cards of Folty to the collection.

The Donruss Elite cards really do nothing for me, but I ran across this RC of Folty for $.50 shipped so I figured, why not?

This Chrome Refractor came from the aforementioned group break. The GQ Mini Relic was a early cheap score off eBay. Usually I buy a lot of Freddie's cards, but with my dwindling buying and his stint on the DL this season I guess I just lost some of my Freddie mojo.

Ah, Evan Gattis. I usually don't buy a lot of cards of former Braves players, but how could I not pick up this card? I really miss "El Olso Blanco", though AJ Pierzynski made the loss of Evan a little easier to swallow. One of the best things about this card was it's cost, just under $5 shipped!

Long time readers know that Tim Hudson is my guy and I've got a pretty decent collection of his cards. This makes finding non-super premium cards of his hard to find, yet someone I had missed picking up this 2004 Leather & Lumber game used spikes card. 

I think this card of Minor is an Xfractor, but Topps quite putting the parallel name on the back of Chrome cards so I really have no idea. I think I got the auto in a trade with a reader here, but then again I'm so unorganized right now I can't recall if it was a trade or an outright purchase. I do know that the Braves could have used Minor's arm in the lineup this season.

The lone new Simba card is another Refractor from the group break I participated in. Maybe I should have rotated this image horizontal?

Freedie Freeman spent a good bit of time on the DL this season, unusual for him, however that created opportunities for others to step up. Long time AAA Gwinnett player, Joey Terdoslavich, got a chance to show the fans in Atlanta what he is capable of doing. I picked up this nice wooden RC of his from Panini's surprisingly nice set, America's Pastime. 

And finally we're to Alex Wood. My hometown guy who was traded away to the Dodgers earlier this season in a trade that would bring Hector Olivera to Atlanta. I gotta admit, this one hurt. I can see wy the team made the trade, but it doesn't soften the blow any. This is about the time I think I hung it all up. I haven't looked for any new Alex Wood cards. I've only seen him in a Dodgers uniform once. He's a guy I'll probably continue to collect, but man does it suck that he sports the LA blue now.

Well that's about it. I think I have a pack or two of baseball cards I may spotlight on a Pack Break post, or I may see if A Pack To Be Named Later is in need. It wasn't a horrible baseball season for me, but it wasn't the most ideal for me either. However I'm a true Braves fan and I'm not giving up...on the team, on collecting or on the blog. It's just time for me to move the spotlight over to the Carolina Panthers and root them on to their 2nd Super Bowl appearance!

Farewell Alex Wood

So the rumored trade in the works with the Los Angeles Dodgers finally went down today, according to the MLB At Bat app notification that just came through on my phone. This one was a hard pill for me to swallow. I liked Alex Wood. I made him one of my guys to collect early on forward.

Alex is from my hometown of Charlotte, NC. The only other MLB player I can remember that played high school ball here in town was the White Sox's Ray Durham. When Ray was playing I had just started collecting cards and I only knew how to be a set collector...if that makes sense. I didn't realize people collected their favorite team or player or for other reasons outside of completing the base set of cards.

   

What was fun about collecting Alex Wood's cards was that I got to see him grow as a pitcher. I got to watch this young, skinny kid come in from the bullpen after being called up from AAA Gwinnett. I got to watch him battle for a spot in the starting rotation. I witnessed his progress as a major league pitcher and hone his knuckle curve ball. Yes, this is one of those trades, at least for me, is tough to accept.

   

However I'm not Braves General Manager John Hart. I don't claim and never have claimed to know what it takes to run a professional baseball team. I'm putting my faith in the GM that he is making the right move for the future of this team. It's been hard seeing so many fan favorite Braves leave the team this year and during the offseason. Jason Heyward, Evan Gattis, Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrell and even Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe last week. 

The Braves weren't supposed to be good this year...and they aren't. However they aren't bottom of their division either. I can still see promise in this team. They've amassed a good bit of young pitching and have some young international flavor in the farm system I know they are relying on in the future.

However the Braves gave up 5 players today in exchange for basically one, Dodgers prospect 3B Hector Olivera. I need to do a quick Google search on this guy to see what all the buzz is about. Or maybe the nightowl or one of my other Dodgers buddies can give me the 411 on this guy. Looks like the team is also getting LHP Paco Rodriguez and a minor league pitcher by the name of Zach Bird and a 2016 competitive balance draft pick (#34 overall).

   

On the back end the Braves also gave up Bronson Arroyo, Jim Johnson, Luis Avilan and top prospect Jose Peraza. To be honest I don't mind losing these guys, even Peraza. I think the acquisition of Jace Peterson from the Padres helped make Peraza a little more expendable, that and Peraza's on the field performance this season. I don't think Bronson has even suited up for the Braves due to injury and Jim Johnson and Avilan have been horrible out of the bullpen.

From a collecting perspective I'll probably still pick up Wood's cards because I think he's a great young guy with lots of potential...I just wish he would've been traded to a club that isn't on the west coast as it'll make it harder for me to follow his career now. Brandon Beachy signed w/ the Dodgers some time ago and I really haven't heard much of him either with him being out west.

Thank you Alex for your time you spent in Atlanta. I know I'm not the only fan that is sad to see you go, but I wish you all the success in the world...unless your team is playing the Braves...and even then I still may secret root for you a little. Just a little.

Today's post features 1 (struggling) Brave and 2 guys I wish were still Braves

The 2015 baseball season, both on the field and in cardboard for the Braves has been interesting. On the field, the team got off to a red hot 6-1 start, before running into problems with both starting pitching and the bullpen.

On the cardboard front, many of the early 2015 cards feature players that aren't even Braves as of the start of the season. This is in large part because of the many late off season trades the club made. However I still try to acquire new Braves cardboard when I can and here are a few of my latest acquisitions.

The smattering of colored parallels for Gypsy Queen has begun. I was able to snag this Gold parallel of Alex Wood's mini (#05/99) for around $3 shipped.

While I miss seeing Heyward in a Braves uni patrolling left field, his replacement (Nick Markakis) has done an admiral job at filling his shoes. What I don't get is why so many of Heyward's inserts still feature him as a Brave when he's a Cardinal in the base set?

I've actually been trying to pick up this 2014 Panini Immaculate Collection card of Hudson for several months now...but the price was always more than I wanted to pay. However this low serial numbered card (45/49) finally became mine for just a few bucks last week. Like Heyward, this one has him as a Braves player too.

So I may have gone a little crazy w/ 2015 Donruss

In my last post I shared the contents of a retail value pack of 2015 Donruss I picked up from my local Target store. I was enamored by the cards and inserts so much that I sought out what eBay had to offer in the area of Braves singles. Well as you'll see below I may have gone a little crazy with some purchases, but I scored them all for a song if you ask me.

Opening Day always gets me excited, however this year I'd be at the beach camping. I missed the first two Braves games against the fish in Miami, however I stayed glue to my phone trying to get updates on each game...that is when I had a connection!

Of course the wind was taken out of my sail Sunday night when I saw the news that Craig Kimbrel was traded to the San Diego Padres. My expectations for this season were already a little uneasy at best with the shake up new GM, John Hart has made. However I've tried to stay as optimistic as possible and none the less was please to see them Braves take down the Marlins in games 1 and 2.

I got home last night in time to watch the 3rd and final game in the series and wow, what fun it is to be watching baseball again. This just makes new card acquisitions that much more fun. I'll leave you with some images of my new 2015 Donruss pick ups, in the mean time I'm off to learn more about some of these new faces on the Braves that have impressed me early in the season.

Freddie is now the veteran on the team and has a lot of pressure on him as such. For many reasons I've gravitated to collecting more and more of his cards and these two sub-theme cards are great additions.

I always liked the old Production Line serially numbered inserts. Card looks way better in hand than the scan appears. Card has that rainbow "refractor" like look and is serially numbered to his .461 Slugging Percentage, 434/461.

Alex Wood is the other Brave that I've picked up the pace in collecting. I hate I missed his start in game 2 on Tuesday evening, but I'm looking forward to watching this young pitcher continue to grow and mature. I've already picked up the blue version of this beautiful auto so now to keep my eyes open for the red version numbered to /49.

Speaking of the red Signature Series autos, check out this Ron Gant! I'm glad older players were inserted into the checklist of this great looking insert set. Numbered 42/49, this card only set me back $3 believe it or not.

While labeled a member of the Astros, I could pass up this $2 auto of the young ace we picked in the Evan Gattis deal. This is one time where not having the logos on the cards doesn't hurt!

Lastly we have the former Brave, El Oso Blanco aka Evan Gattis. I hated to see this guy exit the club, but I can understand the move. I'm not sure his value would have gotten any higher and Christian Bethancourt was just waiting in the wings to show his stuff. Nice card design and for a change it's nice to get a small swatch of bat over jersey. B.J. Melvin Upton is in the same set, but unless someone sends it to me in a trade I'm not bothering with it.

Maybe I didn't go too crazy, but the initial offerings on eBay were pretty good and not many bidders either. I may have paid $15 total for these? And thanks to eBay Bucks none of that money spent actually came out of my PayPal account!

Pack Break: 2015 Donruss Value Pack

Panini has yet again revived the Donruss brand for the 2015 baseball season. If you remember I hosted one of my Affordable Group Breaks featuring 2014 Donruss. I enjoyed the break and the product, despite my disappearance from this very blog shortly there after!

While grabbing my first few packs of 2015 Topps Opening Day from Target earlier in the week, a value pack of 2015 Donruss caught my eye. New wax always makes me curious to the point where I'll buy one pack of just about anything to see what it's like.

The value packs boast 30 cards for only $4.99 (retail). In typical Panini fashion, there are tons of inserts and different levels of said inserts. Some inserts have been carried over from last year, such as Season/Career Stat Line. New to this years set includes many designs from past Donruss products. Painted Diamond Kings return along with other new stuff. Overall, non-base cards fall 1:5 packs.

I think I prefer this year's design over last year's just a little. Cards have a nice UV coating on the backs too. Don't remember if 2014 sported glossy backs or not. Granted the lack of a full MLBP license does suck, most of the images look decent enough. Freedie, Tony and Ryne are all in mid swing so you can't see where the team name on the jersey would be anyways. Same for Julio, however the lack of the team logo on his hat is painfully obvious.

Take the Braves for example. The base cards for the team start with #49 Alex Wood. Then #50 Freddie Freeman. Card #51 is Jason Heyward...now with the St. Louis Cardinals. #52 Justin Upton...now with the San Diego Padres. #53 gets things back in order with Julio Teheran. Small gripe, but still a gripe none the less.

Diamond Kings make their return with painted images. We also get an All-Time Diamond Kings set featuring retired greats. I think these look fantastic and I'm glad to have pulled the Iron Man himself. Some previous designs are paid tribute such as Studio, Elite, The Rookies and even Preferred. 

The Studio card of Jorge Soler looks decent enough, but I get more of a Pinnacle vibe than I do Studio. Perhaps if the card had a mauve boarder and the image was more posed.

I never cared for Elite so not much for me to say here. Still has the foil front.

The Rookies look pretty good. I even lucked out and got one of the serially numbered parallels of the same dude in the same pack! 031/106. Any Philly fans reading this that want it?

Now let me tell you about Donruss Preferred. I absolutely loved the inaugural release. From the metal tins the cards came in to the overall design and creativity (at the time) of the inserts. 

Even the autographed cards have a very familiar look. Check out this awesome blue serially numbered card of Alex Wood that just came in the mail. 

Does that design ring any bells? Leaf Signature Series? Yup. Who didn't like that set back in the 90's. I've already got a red serially numbered Ron Gant from this set in the mail and I'm trying to track down the non-numbered versions of both Gant and Wood. Love 'em...even if they are still sticker autos.

Overall it appears that 2015 Donruss is a solid double for Panini. I love the different Donruss brands represented in the set as it gives it some much need diversity. I've already crafted my want list with the few cards I'm looking for. The rest of the commons from this pack that weren't shown, plus the inserts have already been added to the Trade List so please make sure to check out those links in the right side bar if you're interested. Remember, if you see something you want and don't have anything I want please still let me know. My trades don't always have to be 1:1!

Pack Break: 2015 Topps Heritage

I found myself at the local Walmart the other day picking up some shipping boxes...business has been good lately in my eBay store...and before I checked out I had to see if they had Heritage on the shelves yet. There were a few blaster boxes and a few value packs. I opted for the value pack as I don't plan on doing much with this set outside of cherry picking a few Braves cards.

Like any savvy card collector would do, I peered through the back of each pack to get an idea of at least one card in the pack. The next to the last pack on hanging there on the peg contained a card of my hometown native and Atlanta Braves rising star, Alex Wood.

Overall the cards looks nice, but Heritage just isn't my cup of tea. All of these cards are available minus the Alex Wood of course.

Latest additions to Sucktember's Atlanta Braves collection

As much as it pains me to watch my Atlanta Braves recently, I still manage to find myself with new cards of the various players.

I picked up this really beautiful 2012 Leaf auto of Alex Wood. This guy continues to impress me, but man he just can't seem to catch a break as the offense continues to let him down with their lack of run support.

   

   

Freddie just celebrated his 25th birthday and while he remains one of my favorite Braves players, his bat has gone silent...just like everyone else's on the team. Talk about a rough time for a team in general to be slumping. Yup, Sucktember is here again for my Braves.

Tossed in a new John Smoltz and Jeff Francoeur for good measure.

Annual trip to Turner Field

Last weekend my wife and I drove down to Atlanta, GA for our annual Atlanta Braves trip.  I'd love to get down there to catch more than one game per season, but for now I'll just have to savor every minute.  The thing about Atlanta that can be trick is the weather, or the heat & humidity more specifically.  If I'm going to be sitting outside in Atlanta for 4 or so hours I'd rather it be in the Spring or in the Fall.  Going to a game in early August I knew would be a gamble, but the promo for last Friday night at the field was Zombie Night!

Initially my wife and I planned to buy the special Zombie Night ticket package.  This include being turned into a zombie by special make-up artists, an on field zombie walk plus an exclusive t-shirt and some other swag.  We ended up opting to buy tickets via Stub Hub to save some money, however it was still a blast to see so many undead fans at the field.

We opted to sit in right center field.  Last year we sat there and loved the view, plus it was fun listening to all the rednecks and drunk fans in our section heckle the right fielder (last year it was Hunter Pence).  We got tickets on row 13, which oddly enough is the front row.  Sitting right there at the wall is a lot of fun, plus we are right beside the Braves' bullpen so we can see Eddie Perez, bullpen coach (and one of the U.S.'s newest citizens!).  We also have a good view of when Craig Kimbrel comes running out of the gates to take the mound when called upon.  The Braves took on the Oakland Athletics on Friday, August 15th.  Initially I was excited to see Yoenis Cespedes play, then he was traded to the Red Sox at the trading deadline.  I really wasn't all that familiar w/ many of the A's players, but it was still fun listening to the fans heckle Josh Reddick...calling him JJ (Reddick of Duke basketball fame) and busting Coco Crisp's chops at his fielding blunders.

The view from our seats

Of course on of the things about sitting in the outfield is the chance of catching a home run ball.  There were 4 homers in the game, but all of them were to center or left center field.  Bummer.  At least I was pretty close to a few pop flies that Jason Heyward caught.  The Braves roughed up the starting pitcher, Sonny Gray, winning the game 7-2.  Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, Freddie Freeman and Phil Gosselin all hit homers.  Gosselin's was the first of his career.

I wasn't aware of the starting pitcher until I checked my phone on the way down I-85.  When I saw it was Charlotte, NC native Alex Wood taking the mound, well that just made the day even better.  Wood pitched 6 strong innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, while striking out 1 and walking 3.  Not the best numbers, but he won his 9th game of the year.  The only drawback to the big lead was not getting to see Kimbrel pitch in the 9th.  Oh well, I'll take a win over watching Kimbrel any day, especially with the way the Braves had been playing coming into the series with the A's.

Every game of the A's series had a different theme.  Saturday's theme celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Boston Braves World Series Championship.  Everything at the field had a throwback look, including the players uniforms and even the scoreboard on the jumbotron!  Peanuts and Cracker Jacks were a quarter, hot dogs were a buck.  I would have loved to stay another day for the game, especially since the Braves won again.  Sunday's theme was Father Daughter day.  I can't wait for my girls to get a little older when I can bring them with me to a ballgame.

The Braves ended up sweeping the 1st place A's that weekend.  My wife and I had a great time, but like all good things the weekend had to come to an end.  I hope to get back to Atlanta soon as the Braves only have a few years left to play at Turner Field before the team moves out to a new facility in neighboring Cobb County.

Catching up w/ scanning some "new" cards

The problem with card collecting is it can easily snowball on you if you don't stay up to date.  Seeing that I've been away from actively blogging and cards in general, I've got a huge catalog of cards to scan and put into my own databases.  These cards aren't necessarily new, but I've yet to share them prior to today.  I've got cards for my Tim Hudson and Brandon Beachy PCs, Atlanta Braves, a few Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Bobcats plus a few NC State basketball autos to round everything out.