Brandon Pfaadt in 200 Words

     I first heard about Brandon Pfaadt right about as he was starting his major league career. The right-handed pitcher was born on October 15th, 1998, in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Bellarmine University in Louisville, where he pitched both as a starter and bullpen arm. Pfaadt was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 5th round of the 2020 MLB June Amateur Draft. He spent three seasons in the minor leagues, where he acquired a 25-16 record, 3.58 ERA, and 447 strikeouts in 359 1/3 innings. Arguably his best skill, his command, has carried over into the majors, as he walks just 2.2 batters per every nine innings thrown. Pfaadt got the call to the Diamondbacks in 2023, but had a very shaky first year, pitching to a 5.72 ERA. However, he has shown considerable improvement in 2024 and so far in 2025. One thing about Pfaadt that I admire is his strong faith. He has been seen reading out of his Bible before starts. Pfaadt's game plan is to work as hard as he can and trust God, letting His plan fall into action. I hope to see a long and successful career out of this kid.  

Cards From Karsal

     My good friend Karsal sent me a PWE. Karsal's blog, Collecting This 'n' That, had a giveaway, and I was the recipient of three great cards. Without further ado, here they are:

    Freddie appears to be doing a Dodger hit celebration. All the different celebrations used by teams these days intrigue me. Most of them seem to rotate celebrations multiple times every season. 

        I like the design of the Bowman Platinum cards of 2023. I'm not entirely sure why; they have a rating of 5.7 on the TCDB.
    Interestingly, the back of the card says that the WAR totals are provided by Baseball Reference. It's probably for the better since different people have different ways of calculating the stat so that it's never always the same as another person. 

    I've always taken an interest in Vaughn Grissom, and this card catches my eye immediately. It looks amazing in person; my picture really doesn't do it justice. 
    The 24-year old Grissom is still with the Red Sox, in Triple-A, where he is currently wrecking the minors. It's almost unfortunate that the Red Sox have such a good middle infield, because it might a while for Grissom to blossom in the Bigs again. I hope to see him soon. He has so much talent.

    Thank you Karsal for the great new additions to my collection! Be sure to check out Collecting This 'n' That if you haven't yet. The blog has been around since December of last year, and is a very good read.

    Thanks for checking out Don Cardwell! Have a great week, and happy collecting!

A Look Into Some of my Ridiculous Player Nicknames

   I call players by a lot of different names when communicating with friends. When you get hyped about a game, you don't have time to say a guy's full name, especially something such as Jurrangelo Cijntje. Heck, I don't even know how to pronounce that.

    Thus, I've given a number of baseball players nicknames, mostly plays on their last names. Here I'll be showing off six of my most-used player nicknames thus far in 2025. 

Tarik Skubal: Ubals

    I think I've called him Ubals on a Don Cardwell post before. This is the most common of the nicknames I've used.

Chris Sale: Saleboat

    I should probably mention that the vast majority of my nicknames are for pitchers. I don't know why, but that's the way it is.

Kristian Campbell: Camby

    Camby's been so impressive thus far that he's already gained a nickname. 

Justin Steele: Steelio

    I just randomly called him Steelio one day. Pretty sure he got smashed in that start.

Jacob deGrom: Deggy, Degasaurus

    He's got two. deGrom's name is far too good to not have any nicknames

Porter Hodge: HodgePodge

    He had a clutch hold for my fantasy team yesterday, so I gave him the nickname on the spot.

    There's a brief look into a few of the things I call players I like. This post was fun and fast to make, and hopefully before too long I can pull out one with cards (I've gotten a few PWEs that need to get posted on). Meanwhile, thanks for reading the blog, have a great week, and happy collecting!

Slowing Down

     If you were a reader of this blog at the turn of 2024, you may remember that in my New Year's post I talked of posting less. Then, out of the gates the posts kept coming. I was set to crank out 130 or so posts after February.

    But then things slowed. I haven't hit the LCS in a good month or so, and life in general just got busier. It's been over two weeks since I've posted on acquisitions; which is not to say that I have no posting material right now. Just too little time to sit down and write it.

    I'm afraid that things are just getting busier and busier, and keeping up with my daily responsibilities is becoming challenging. And so the blog and the hobby have taken a lot of the neglect. And things may stay that way for a while. 

    Of course I'll still be posting, that's not a question. My posts may be a bit fewer and farther between, but I'll be sure to continue posting steadily on the blog; at least once or twice a month, until I get some more free time. Like I said, I have plenty of posting material, and will soon get down to writing those posts and sending them off into the world periodically.

    I have some packages to send out to a couple folks, and I apologize for my delays. It's slipped my mind until recently. I'll be sure to hit the card store and get those sent out to y'all. Who knows, I'll probably come away with a post or two worth of cards as well.

    I just wanted to give y'all some explanation for my lack of posting as of late. It hasn't been months since the last post, so I know this shouldn't be any surprise, but it's time to get something out there anyway, and express my desire to give y'all a heads-up on my limited posting. This my also help me with the resolution of better quality of posts. I'm not trying to make a bunch of lame excuses. I haven't been as motivated to post lately as well.

    Before I sign off for the day, I'd like to comment on the immense improvement of the Rangers, who are now first in the AL West. Well of course, it's only been a week into the season, but I gotta find a bright spot in baseball somewhere. Heaven knows how long we'll hold down the fort. Honestly, I may have a few Texas Rangers posts mixed in with card-blogging posts in the future to make posting easier.

'Slow Down' by Chasper