I Still Have Faith in Evan Carter!

    Just over a week ago I went to my local card shop. I first found them for Topps Trading Card Day, but have grown to really like the store. They go extra-heavy on Rangers cards and memorabilia, which I guess makes sense, but still have a lot of variety otherwise.

    This trip landed me five new cards to add to my collection. It may have been more, but I was pretty busy that day and could only stop by for about fifteen minutes.

    This card caught my eye immediately. The prospect brother of Ronald Acuna Jr, from his days as a Ranger. He was traded straight up last season for Max Scherzer. Can't say we can complain since we won it all, but this was definitely an expensive trade. I really like the design on the thick Bowman Invicta insert. The whole background looks really cool, though not on a baseball field. 

    Luisangel has made his MLB debut this season at the age of 22. The shortstop has two hits in seven big-league at-bats. Congrats to him for making the big club.

    And here's the guy we traded him for! Funny, I didn't even notice that until now. I feel kinda dumb.

    Anyway, I really like the X-Fractor card, and didn't even notice that at first. It was shiny. Grab it, think about it later. Due to injury, Mad Max has only made 9 starts in 2024, and has been rather unimpressive at 2-4 with an ERA of 3.95. He is apparently not considering retirement, so we'll see how his age 40 season goes.

    I picked up another refractor in the form of Sky Blue Mitch Keller. The 2018 card is numbered 187/402, which I found interesting but also rather random. Nonetheless, a sharp-looking card and a great design. 

    I was lucky enough to find these three cards in the $1 boxes at the store. It comes as a surprise that I was able to get them for so little, but I'm not complaining. After these cards, it gets a bit expensive though.

    I picked this one up for five dollars. The blue sharpie autograph looks beautiful. Englert is currently throwing for the Detroit Tigers in the minors after having a 5.40 ERA in 12 appearances with the team. His numbers on the farms look good this year (3.15 ERA, 11.6 K/9), so I would not be surprised to see him make an impact for the team's bullpen come 2025.

    And now for the gem of the whole trip to the store. I found this one, and wasn't going to buy it, but I guess my fear of missing out got the best of me. No regrets.

    The Grade-10 Evan Carter Pre-Rookie Card! Both buying graded cards and getting your cards graded are so expensive that I haven't really thought of doing/buying them. Believe it or not, this is by far the most expensive baseball card I've ever bought, at $45. Why I spent that much? Well, I guess I have faith in the man still. The GM does too. "...He's a huge part of our future," says general manager Chris Young. I expect Carter to become a superstar in the next coming seasons.

    My Evan Carter collection is quietly growing, though I still don't have many of his cards. Hopefully I'll get more and build this mini-collection. Right now the only decent single-player collections I own are my humble Buster Posey and Cal Ripken Jr. collections, but I expect that I'll end up getting myself a nice collection of Carter cards in the future. I have a good start thus far (and I still love that 2024 base card!).

    That sums up my latest card store trip. All in all it cost me $53, which I would normally consider a lot for one day, but for the cards I got I'd say it was worth it, though I probably won't make a card purchase that big again for a while.

    So, there you have it. Y'all have a great week, and happy collecting. Good morning, good afternoon and goodnight!

To be Posted on July 27

     Today is pitching great Max Scherzer's birthday. Today, Mad Max turns forty and is officially old; just kidding (though for a major leaguer....)

    Scherzer was drafted 11th overall in the 2006 June Amateur Draft by the Diamondbacks. He would debut with Arizona two years later and post a 3.05 ERA in just over 56 innings.

    In 2010 Scherzer moved over to the Tigers. He pitched five years in Detroit, accumulating an 82-35 record and 3.52 ERA. He won the Cy Young award in 2013, and his team came up just short in winning the World Series in 2012. 

    Max Scherzer signed in free agency with the Washington Nationals in January of 2015. He would go on to play 6 2/3 seasons with Washington, in that time grabbing 92 wins and an ERA of 2.80. He won back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2016 and 2017, and his first World Series ring in 2019, helping the Nats to their first ever Fall Classic victory.

    At the trade deadline in 2021, Scherzer was shipped off to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where in 11 regular season starts, Max went 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA. In the 2021 NLDS, he acquired his first-ever save, striking out Giants' Wilmer Flores on an atrocious call to end the game.

    Max signed in free agency with the Mets for the 2022 season. He pitched the full season there, going 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA in 23 starts. He was 37 at the time.

    Max had a 4.01 ERA in 19 starts before being traded to the Rangers in 2023 for Luisangel Acuna (brother of Ronald Acuna Jr). He would go on to win a second World Series and help Texas to their first championship in 60+ years of existence. So far in 2024, Mad Max has a 2-3 record and 3.57 ERA in seven starts.

    There is talk of Scherzer being traded yet again this season with the struggles of the Rangers. We'll see soon enough.

   

   Fun fact, did you know that this 2024 Topps Max Scherzer card is an error card? See for yourself:

    It says Max was acquired by the Rangers from a trade with the Rangers. Subtle mistake.

    So happy birthday Max Scherzer! And congrats, for on his last start Scherzer struck out career batter 3400. He is now tenth all time on the K list. 

    And as for all of you, thanks for reading, have a great weekend and happy collecting!

    

    P.S. And Max has two different colored eyes. His right eye is blue and his left brown. I'm sure you've noticed this, but it's interesting nonetheless. And broadcasters love mentioning it too.

The Big Pitcher Post, Part 2

     Okay now. Time to finish my week-long post about my favorite pitcher cards. I realize that it's probably boring to just take pictures of my cards and make you look at them with no good and interesting commentary, so we'll give this a shot. Let's start with my favorite pitcher of all time. 

    Guess who this is? Jacob deGrom is my favorite pitcher ever. He has a high-octane fastball that touches 100 MPH, with filthy off-speed, and he doesn't walk people. But he's hurt all the time, which means I almost never get to see him pitch. When he is healthy though, deGrom pitches to a 84-57 record and 2.53 ERA. Hopefully he'll be able to pitch the last half of the 2024 season for my favorite team, the Rangers.        

    It's funny, I got this card and some others (Bob Locker and John Morris included) when I went to Cooperstown to see the Hall of Fame. The owner of a batting cage saw me and my four brothers and gave us a fat stack of baseball cards. And lo and behold, I was able to get this one and many others not mentioned here.

    This card is very interesting because Corey Kluber pitched one game and one inning for the Rangers his entire career, and I have the card of him on the team. It's interesting, and I thought it was worth sharing. Besides that characteristic, it's just a boring old 2020 Topps card.

    And this is just a regular boring old 2020 Topps card. But I have practically the whole 2023 Rangers starting staff. 

    This 2010 Topps 206 Zack Greinke card came taped to the top of one of those card boxes at the card store. But it's neat. He looks so youthful, unlike the Greinke that we see pitching now. Well, he should hit 3000 K's this coming season.

    Again, I really like these 2007 Topps cards. And the card on the right; apparently Weaver isn't scared to shake off his catcher, so that's nice I guess. Until he shakes him off and gives up a 450 foot home run...

    Again with these glorious 2007 Topps cards, and this one features should-be Hall-of-Famer Curt Schilling. I wonder who I could trick into thinking that's a real autograph... 

And the Fleer is okay too, although I don't like the Fleer cards as much.

    This is a nice 2007 Topps Chrome card of Pedro Martinez. The Hall-of-Famer is often considered the best pitcher of all time. Sporting 3154 strikeouts and a 2.93 ERA while pitching in Fenway, it's possible. Not sure, but possible.

    You may be wondering what the deal with this card is. He's in the middle of his follow-through, but his face is zoomed in. That's because this Topps Decade Greats Best of the '40s Hal Newhouser is a lenticular card; the images change when you tilt them a certain way. I had no idea what the name for the imaging was until I looked it up. I tried to get the other two images as best as possible, so here they are:

    And finally, my Sidelines cards:

    If you want to know who these are, the top left is Randy Johnson (Photographer), the top right is Tom Glavine (Hockey Player), the mid left is Orel Hershiser (Golfer), the mid right is John Wetteland (Musician), and the bottom we have seen before on Shall we Dance? He is Jim Gott, the Karate black belt.

    That will finish the Big Pitcher Post. I'm sorry if this whole thing was slightly boring. I'll try to make my posts more interesting, but I wanted to show my favorite cards of pitchers. Thank you for reading.