Yes!

That's me tomorrow.  Well, that's not a picture of me specifically, but you get the idea.  I'll be on a plane tomorrow.

And where am I going?

Spring Training!

We'll be seeing the Angels play on Thursday and Friday, and the A's on Wednesday (my buddy is an A's fan).  And who knows, those are all day games, so we might see some random games at night too.

So this blog doesn't always have a reason for going dark for a week, but this week it actually will have a reason.

Angels from Brad

I got a package the other day from Brad over at the aptly name Brad's Blog.  I had sent off some extra red foil parallels and I guess he wanted to say thanks. (If anybody wants/needs any red foil, let me know and I'll see what I have)

Brad sent me a bunch of Angels, so let's look at some highlights.

Chromy-ness!  Ariel Pena made it to AAA in 2011, then was included as one of the three players sent to Milwaukee for the Zack Greinke rental in 2012.  He still hasn't made the majors. 

Here's some ill-advised contracts.  One from 2007 and one more recent.  I knew the Pujols deal would be a problem for the last 5 years of the contract, but I didn't realize he would break down so quickly.  He's still an above average productive ML hitter.  But he's not $25 million a year anymore.

Who doesn't like Heritage and Gypsy Queen?  Although, without the blogosphere, I'd never have any GQ myself.  I hear this year's Heritage is out now?  1966 isn't as universally well loved as 1965, but I think I might go get myself some.

To∙ny Gw∙nn

I wanted to do a quick post today.  I bought a hanger box of 2015 today.  And this was easily the highlight for me.

I've always been a big Tony Gwynn fan.  He was never an Angel obviously, but I pulled his rookie card out of packs of Donruss and Fleer.  So I bought the Topps version almost 30 years ago, and I've had a Gwynn PC ever since. This is a good looking card.  I'm not sure what the concept is behind ar∙che∙types, but whatever.  I'm guessing the image has been used a number of times, because it looks very familiar.  But it captures a young Gwynn pretty well. 

Another I like about the card is on the back.

Topps referenced Gwynn's famous "5.5 hole".  Perfect.

But notice the top left corner of the back.  The hanger box was full of dinged corners.  Nice QC there Topps.  While I'm complaining, I got 64 base cards and 36 of them were dupes.  I've got barely half the set, and I'm already at the point of diminishing returns.  I have nice stack of dupes though, so if anybody needs something specific...

Mailer Prospect Report

I spent a lot of time complaining about the collation in 2014 Topps.  Too much time.  I had hopes that this year things would be different.

I was wrong.

I bought a rack pack of 2015 base a couple of days ago.  Before I opened the pack, I had roughly 1/3 of the set.  I got more dupes than new cards.  That ain't right.  <sigh>

In other news.....

Are there any cards better than unexpected cards?  I got an envelope from P-town Tom with cards from the 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks set in it (I had to look it up).  Let's see what draft picks I got.

Alex Yarbrough was drafted by the Angels in 2012.  He made it to AA last year.  His batting line looks roughly similar to Howie Kendrick's.  The Sporting News has him ranked as the Angels' 7th ranked prospect heading into this season.  Maybe he'll be the Halo second sacker in 2016.

Kaleb Cowart was the Angels' first round pick in 2010.  He's been stuck in AA the last 2 seasons hitting in the .220s.  TSN has him ranked 9th for the Angels.

Zach Borenstein was drafted by the Angels in 2011.  He got his first taste of  AA and AAA last year.  Then was traded to the Diamondbacks in July in the deal for Joe Thatcher.  Then spent more time at both AA and AAA.  He didn't make TSN's list for the Diamondbacks, but he probably would have for the Angels who have literally the worst farm system in baseball.

These are the type of cards I could never get for myself.  Which is why the blogosphere is so great.  And there was one other card in the package.

Mike Trout was drafted by the Angels in 2009.  He made it to the majors at the end of 2011.  He hasn't really done much since then.  One thing he has done though... be the best player in baseball in each of the three years.


Thanks Tom.

Coincidence?

So I went in to Big Blue to grab a couple of things......

I think all of us in one way or another end up shopping for cards at the big box stores.  You ever take notice of where the card aisle is situated in the box stores?

The Big Blue I will typically go into to buy groceries has its card aisle on a register aisle that is never in use except for the busiest Christmas shopping days.  But its cards aisle is pretty sad.  I don't think they even have 2015 base yet.  And they never have marked down past years' product.

The Big Blue I was in today has its cad aisle on a register that is typically in use.  So you can't sit there and shop the aisle.  There's somebody standing there having their groceries rang up.  Its a decent card aisle, but I don't like the store itself.  Its busier, and I like the shoppers there even less the shoppers in other Big Blues.

There's a Bullseye store on the way home from work.  Their card aisle is away from any register, although well in view of the registers, I assume so the aisle can be watched.  And its a nice wide aisle.  Its pretty well stocked, but again, no marked down past years' products.

Anyway, I got rung up on the card aisle today and threw a box of cards in the order (the 72 card box, whatever you call that one).

I got 7 dupes.  I know I seem to harp on dupe-age, but I don't remember this much from when I was a kid.  Then again, maybe it was there and I just don't remember it.

I noticed something interesting

Hey, which blogger is doing the Horizontal Frankenset?

Small world

So I have a very casual relationship with Listia.  I usually have a couple of credits floating around, so I bid them all on random auctions, get outbid, and repeat.

A couple of weeks ago I did a quick survey and got a bunch of credits.  Then i did another one and got a bunch more.  I managed to win some 1975 Topps and some Dallas Cowboys.

This auction in particular was interesting.  As a Cowboy fan, I've always been a huge Emmitt fan.  When he was playing he was overshadowed personality-wise by Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman, but that was something I could relate to.  So Smith is my only real football player collection.

But that wasn't what made it interesting.  When I went to transfer credits to the seller, I recognized the avatar in an instant.

I had just won an auction from Tom over at The Angels, In Order.  Half the time, reading Tom's blog is like looking at my want list.  He gets all the best Angels cards.

But in true blogosphere fashion, he sent more than just the card I won.

Aikman might have been much less showy than Irvin also, but I don't think there was any doubt on any player's mind who the team leader was.  Aikman wasn't expected to be Dan Marino or Peyton Manning, but he led the team and was maybe the most accurate thrower of all time.

But he didn't stop there.

Nope, I haven't gotten sick of these things yet.  Love 'em.

Thanks Tom.