Player of the Week 1

     It has been a very interesting week for baseball. A quick recap of what I've got: Craig Kimbrel was slated to start the Orioles' game on Tuesday, but it ended up being Cole Irvin instead. The Angels have announced that they will be calling up 20-year old prospect Caden Dana, who had a 2.52 ERA with AA Rocket City. Garrett Crochet made a four-pitch start with absolutely zero injuries. Travis Jankowski made a ridiculous home run robbery on Wednesday to save a Rangers W. A few guys have been on tears this week, including Matt Olson and Pete Crow-Armstrong, just to name a couple. 

    But no, this week's Player of the Week has to be this guy: 

    After James Wood was called up earlier in the season by the Nationals, Dylan Crews finally got his chance this week. The 22-year old second overall pick in the 2023 draft (and teammate of Paul Skenes at LSU) hit a combined .270/.342/.451 in 100 games in both AA and AAA this year before finally getting the call on Tuesday. In his debut the same day, the rookie went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. He kinda took off after that (although we have to take that with a grain of salt; he's only played in four games). In those four games, Crews is batting 5-for-16 (.313) with two doubles, two home runs, three runs, three RBI and a steal. 

    I absolutely love Dylan Crews. I've liked him even since before he was drafted and was quietly begging the Nats to bring him up. Now that he has, I hope he can become an everyday superstar, and maybe get traded to the Rangers in time (🤣). 

    That's about all I got for this week's Player of the Week. I'm not gonna lie, I honestly didn't really think Crews was going to be called up any time soon, and was starting to get pessimistic about the call even this year. But the Nationals could use a few young talents in the outfield. Might I add that their outfield has wheels? With the addition of the rookie trio of James Wood, Jacob Young and now Dylan Crews, we may need to be careful of accidents, because boy, are those guys gonna be flying. I honestly think that this Nationals outfield has a lot of young talent that could be very good in the near future.

    I hope y'all enjoyed this first Player of the Week post and that y'all have a great weekend. Thanks for reading, and happy collecting!

A Pocket Full of Poseys

     Buster Posey was kind of the name of the Giants from 2010 all the way through his last season in 2021. He was an extremely talented ball player, and this fact showed across his entire career. He'll be on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2026, and I must ask these questions; should he get in, will he get in, and when will he get in? (A spoiler; most of the time, my cards and photos are gonna be off by a year or two.) 

     

Posey's last base card, as shown on my blog bat-around post

    Gerald Dempsey 'Buster' Posey III debuted in 2009 after an amazing minor league stint in which he batted .327 in 125 games. In '09, Posey batted .118 in 17 at-bats. He was shipped back to the minors for a brief while. 

    Down at the farm in 2010, Posey needed just 47 games (.349/.442/.552 slash line) to gain another look at the big-league level. He took off. In his 108-game rookie campaign, the Buster belted 18 home runs and batted .305, not only winning the Rookie of the Year award, but also helping the Giants to their first World Series victory ever in San Francisco. The hot 23-year old catcher batted cleanup in the postseason and thrived (.288 batting average in the 2010 postseason).

    2011 was an interesting, and rather painful season for Buster. He played in only 45 games this year. In the twelfth inning in a game against the Marlins, Scott Cousins slid into Posey and both fractured his fibula and tore some ligaments in the catcher's ankle. The footage of this is a bit painful to watch in itself. Of course, Posey was out for the rest of the season, and the Giants would miss out on the postseason. Posey's injury did merit a rule change however, commonly known as the Buster Posey rule. You can find MLB's definition of the rule here, but in short, a baserunner can't go out of his way to run into the catcher, or collide with a catcher when the runner could have slid to avoid said collision. A violation of the rule results in the runner being out and a dead ball. Definitely a good rule. I'm sure plenty of injuries to both catcher and baserunner have been spared due to the rule change.

    Posey was back in 2012, and I think it's an understatement to say that there was some uncertainty with the 25-year old backstop. He was a rising superstar coming off a potentially career-devastating injury. But he seemed to be fine. Posey raked in 2012, winning the batting title at a .336 mark, belting 24 homers, driving in 103, and leading the Giants to their second World Series title in three years. Buster won the MVP award, getting 422 vote points and a 94% share of the vote. He also made his first of seven All-Star appearances and won a Silver Slugger award. 

    They say 13 is bad luck. Posey only hit 15 home runs in 2013 and drove in a respectable 72, but not the 103 of the year before. He couldn't complain too much though; he batted .294 and was an All-Star again, playing in as many games as he did the year before. It was bad luck for his team though, as they fell to 76-86 after winning it all the year before.

    2014 was a great year for Buster. Not only did he manage 147 games (just one off of the two last seasons), but he put up the second-best offensive year of his career. Posey slashed .311/.364/.490 with 22 bombs and 89 RBI. This landed Posey another Silver Slugger award, and he finished sixth in MVP voting, as the Giants would go on to win another World Series; three in five years. 

    2015 was another great year for the catcher who had quickly become the face of the franchise. He batted .318 with 19 home runs, winning another Silver Slugger and finishing ninth in the MVP voting. He was an All-Star for the third time in his career. He only struck out 52 times in 150 games this year; good for an 8.4% strikeout rate. Buster never struck out much, but this is getting ridiculous!

    2016 showed another All-Star season. Buster batted .288 with 14 homers and 80 RBIs. He stole a career-high six bases that year and also came home with the Gold Glove. The Giants would make the postseason for the last time until 2021 this year. Now something about my cards; the Bunt 16 Posey card is one of my favorite cards in my whole collection, hence the reason I threw off the cycle of one card followed by one photo. I wanted the card to match with the year, you know, for sentimental reasons.

    Posey made his third straight All-Star appearance and fifth career appearance in 2017. He batted a monster .320, though he only hit 12 home runs in 140 games. Nonetheless, his impressive .320/.400/.462 slash line was enough to get him his fourth Silver Slugger award. He tied his career in high in steals with 6 too.

    The Giants catcher was an All-Star yet again in 2018, though he only played in 105 games. He had a solid, though not very Posey-like campaign in which he slashed .284/.359/.382 with just 5 home runs and 41 RBIs. 

    2019 saw me starting fantasy baseball. And let me say that I had minimal baseball knowledge (let's just say that I drafted Dylan Cozens in the third round, if y'all even know who he is). But I did draft Posey first overall. Heck, he was my favorite player, what can I say? Posey legitimately struggled in 2019 though, slashing just .257/.320/.368 with 7 home runs. He missed out on the All-Star Game and his team missed out on the playoffs. 

    Man, I just love Buster. Posey opted out of the 2020 season. He and his wife had just adopted premature twin girls and didn't want to take a risk with both the health concerns of the nation and the babies. It's really a wonderful instance of getting your priorities straight. 

    Alas, Buster's last season was in 2021. I drafted him first overall again for his last year. He did not disappoint whatsoever. In fact, he over-achieved. After taking the year off, Posey only started about two-thirds of the games in 2021, playing 113 overall. He batted .304 with 18 home runs and a .304/.390/.499 slash line. This season won Posey his seventh All-Star Game appearance and a fifth Silver Slugger award. The Giants were the best team in the MLB, with a record of 107-55 on the year. Though they would bow out in the NLDS, it was still a very amazing end to a very amazing career, an career which pained me to see an end. Ever since I paid attention to baseball and really gathered what it was, Posey was there performing for me. He was really the only player I knew for so long.

    In the last game he ever played in the big-leagues, Game 5 of the NLDS, Posey would do this on a 3-0 count:

    This home run would give the Giants a 2-0 lead over their rivals, which they could not keep. Made me go berserk at the time though, so that was cool.

    In my eyes, Posey is a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer. Considering he is my all-time favorite player I may have a little bit of bias. Both his offense and defense certainly seem worthy of the Hall, but the only problem is that his career was so short. Posey played only twelve seasons, including the 17 AB year in 2009.

    In 1371 regular season games, the catcher racked up 1500 hits, 158 home runs, 729 RBI, and a .302/.372/.460 slash line. He has a very nice resume of awards helping his case, including 7 All-Star selections, 5 Silver Slugger Awards, 3 World Series championships, a Rookie of the Year Award, an MVP award, and a Gold Glove. This doesn't even count his two Comeback Player of the Year Awards (2012 and 2021), his 2012 Hank Aaron Award, his two Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards (2015 and 2016) and his 2019 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award.

    All of these awards are nice, and could help him in his Hall-of-Fame case, as well as the rule change named after him, which may be a big factor in his chances. But what do y'all think? Buster will be on his first Hall-of-Fame ballot in December of 2026. I would personally vote him in, although it's not up to me, and short careers don't tend to bode too well with the sports writers. All I can do is hope and wait.

    But while I'm waiting, y'all have a good one and happy collecting! (I had so many more cards of him that I could not find for this post. I think I posted at least one of the others before though)

    Adieu Buster Posey, adieu.

Player of the Week

     Hi y'all. 

    This has been an eventful week for me....... although not really. But on the way to a friend's house, I came up with a new idea for the blog.

    Now of course I have my cards that I can post on the blog. But I thought this new idea would be a nice addition to the blog. But my plan won't go on for very long.....

    Readers of the blog have probably noticed that I will quite often just randomly post on players; those guys who come to mind. Examples of this are Jung Hoo Lee and Masyn Winn. And then Evan Carter, obviously.

    So I've decided that each Saturday for the rest of the MLB season, I will come out with a post on my personal 'Player of the Week.' 

    Now my player of the week won't necessarily be the best player in the MLB for that week, but the player that draws my attention for that particular week. Coming into next Saturday, I'll only have five weeks left in the whole season to work with, so there will naturally only be five of my players of the week. 

    I may or may not choose a player twice; it depends on who draws my attention. Based on my usual baseball-ish whims, I can guess that Tarik Skubal, Jackson Merrill and Brenton Doyle will all be chosen at least once, but we'll see. The psychology of it; now I'll definitely pick them....

    Well, I hope this is a good idea. If not, well then I won't be doing it for too long, so the suffering will be limited. Meanwhile, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

Some More Good Finds at the Antique Store

    I went back to that antique store. Like I said, they usually have some really good stuff there, but overpriced really good stuff. 

   

    But this particular day I found some decently priced autographs from a gentleman who's been collecting autos for a long time. 

    The first such autograph I acquired is actually an Andre Thornton sticker, though I don't dare to peel it off! Thornton played from 1973-1987 as a DH and first baseman for three different teams, though he spent most of his time with the Cleveland Indians. He hit 253 home runs and had an OPS of .811 across his 14 years of big league time. I got this one for $2.

    I really like the Crush soda card. Bill Fahey's career consisted of only 934 at-bats, and he hit .241 in that span. Bill is the father of another former big-leaguer in Brandon Fahey. This auto cost me $4.

    This card comes from the 1994 Topps Archives 1954 set. It already had a synthetic autograph on it, so poor Ned had to sign in an awkward place on the top left side of the card. Although it looks like there's something on his hat, that was just due to the lighting of the picture. The card is actually in very good condition. Ned Garver had a successful 14-year career in which he won 129 games and pitched to a 3.73 ERA. He lost 157 games, but this is due to him playing on some pretty horrible teams. In fact, only twice across a 14-year tenure did the pitcher play on a team with a winning record. In 1951 with the Saint Louis Browns, Garver finished second in MVP voting, getting 20 of the team's 52 wins. This auto was $6.

    This card is from the '91 Topps Archives 1953 set. The autograph was very nice and pronounced, which I appreciate. Now I'm sure we all know who Marty Marion is; Mr. Shortstop, The Octopus; he won the MVP award in 1944. After a very good major league career, he shifted over to the role of manager from 1951-1956. This one was by far the most expensive at $12, but still a good price, in my opinion.

    So I ended up spending $26 (including tax, even though it was at an antique store) for the four autographs. I was very happy with the purchase. After all, it's not every day you find a Marty Marion auto. I was never really huge on collecting autographs before hitting this antique store because they're all so expensive. But for the most part, the autos here are priced pretty well.

Y'all have a great Wednesday, and happy collecting!

Those Spoils from Trading Card Day

     Alright, I get it; Topps Trading Card Day was almost a week ago. But I was really busy, so I haven't gotten around to posting all the lovely cards that I got from that day. Here we are now, better late than never. 

    Luckily, there was a participating card store roughly twenty-five minutes away from my house. This was the first Trading Card Day I ever took part in, so it was definitely exciting. I spent only $16 across the whole day, but that was enough for me to get a lot of good stuff. All these cards I got for either a quarter or a dollar apiece; although I can't remember which exact ones cost what.

    I do remember that these chrome ones were $1 apiece. The solid design of the cards caught my eyes right away, and I picked them out of their box right away. I think the color scheme is great, and they're both VERY shiny, which I just love.

    I'm a huge fan of the Panini Prizm design from 2021. I'm glad that the camera that I used pictured the design of the card really well. Unfortunately, due to a few injuries Matt McLain has yet to make his season debut in 2024, after an electric 2023 performance in which he batted .290 in 89 games.

    I also grabbed this McLain card. I like the other one better.

    I think I've already made the point that I love Riley Greene, so it was awesome to find his 2024 Future Stars card. Riley's having an awesome year, slashing .264/.357/.485 with 17 homers in 101 games. Unfortunately, he's stuck on the IL right now, but should be back in action shortly.

    Got some more nice Chrome to show y'all. I think the pattern in the background of the card is great, and the photo shows Paul Goldschmidt in that unforgettable batting stance.

    Next I grabbed a few Braves. I just liked the look of the top card, though I'm not really sure why. AJ Smith-Shawver is one of my favorite pitchers, so it was great to find his rookie card. Smith-Shawver has only made one appearance in the Bigs this year, going 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Right now he's in the minors waiting for another opportunity.

    Grabbed a few more 2024 cards. I thought I had the deGrom card, but I added this one just to make sure. And I was right; I did have that card. I also realize that I had the Corbin Carroll card too. But I did get Westy's rookie card, as well as the last base card that will be made of Miguel Cabrera, so not a waste at all.

    I grabbed a few of the youngsters I like too. The action shot on Brandon Pfaadt's card is great. Pfaadt has been good this year for the D-Backs (6-6, 3.92 ERA, wish he were on a better team), and PCA has been....interesting. He's batting .205 but is 22-for-22 on stolen base attempts, so I guess he's been good in that regard.

    I was almost out of the store when I took one last look through the boxes and found these cards. I really like the 2024 Bowman design from the Austin Riley card. The Topps Barrels Acuna card caught my eye, just as a cool-looking card that cost a quarter. The back of the card is interesting. I'm not really sure how necessary a stat 'Barrels' is (batted balls with a launch angle and exit velocity that generally would produce 1 .500+ batting average and 1.500+ slugging percentage), but Acuna had 86 of 'em in 2023, which led the league.

    This was a neat card. I've never seen a Topps Gallery baseball card before (shows just how young I am at the hobby, I guess), so it was a nice pickup. 

    I apologize for the horrible slanting on the pictures. I've never taken card pictures on a phone before, and it didn't turn out the way I would have liked. Anyway, pink, chrome, Bednar; I think this was a pretty good decision. I think the pink border compliments the feats of Bednar's 2023 campaign well; a flashy pitcher, grabbing a league-tying 39 saves with just a 2.00 ERA. He has not been so hot this season, with 20 saves and a 5.77 ERA, and also an injury partway through the year. Hopefully he can get back to his old dominant self soon.

    Moving on to the two packs that I got; a 12-card 2024 Topps Series Two pack (not sure if there's a particular name for that), and 2024 Bowman. I'm not gonna lie, there are two areas with this card store that I complain about. The autographs they sell are very overpriced, as well as their contemporary card packs. These two cost me $9 for a grand total of 2 22 cards. 

    Unfortunately, the Topps pack didn't turn out too great. No great cards here. At least none of them were dupes though, and will find a place in the 2024 binder.

    Though the Topps pack wasn't too hot, the Bowman one was very good:

    I got some big rookies in this pack; Evan Carter, Jung Hoo Lee, Zack Gelof; none of whom are panning out to their potential in this 2024 campaign. 

    James Wood has already made his debut in Washington after slashing .353/.463/.595 in 52 games with AAA Rochester. He's currently batting .262 in 33 games with the Nats.
    Douglas Glod is a nineteen-year-old infielder in the Braves system. He is currently struggling in Rookie Ball, though he shows some potential.

I also got this 36-year old pack for only 50 cents.

    That's all the purchasing that I did. However, I got some more goodies from the store for Topps Trading Card Day.

    I got the promotional cards that the store was handing out for free:

    I must say, Topps did a brilliant job on the cards. I design is excellent, and the players chosen were very good. But I do need to ask; for all those who participated in Trading Card Day, were your packs the same as this one? I saw others with the same exact cards, so I was just wondering.

    The store manager said he was feeling generous, so he gave me some more free cards. Don't you just love small businesses?

    I don't pay attention to college football, so I have no idea who these guys are, but it was a nice gift from the manager.

    I also got a special card for spending more than $10 on Topps products. I got to choose between Shohei Ohtani and Elly de la Cruz...

    

    To sum up this whole post in one sentence, it was a great experience and I got some fantastic new cards. As always, than you for reading, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

Happy Topps Trading Card Day!

     Happy Topps Trading Card Day to all you collectors out there! Not just because it's morning, but because I'm super busy today, I have not yet gotten the goods from my local card shop. I believe that'll be the second item on the agenda in a packed day. But I will not forget to post on my spoils from the day, maybe tomorrow or the day after.

    I hope y'all get a chance to go to your card store and get the special Topps cards. This has been advertised on the Rangers broadcast for the last month. My team always looks out for me, making sure I don't miss out on free cards. 

    Have a great day, and a great weekend. Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight, got to go for the tasks of the day. Thanks for reading!