New Members of the Family in Two Forms

 

When you are a fan of a team, and especially a team collector, sometimes it seems you get to know so much about players that they seem almost like part of the family.  Of course this is obviously a one way notion since none of these people have a clue who I am, but let's go with it anyway.  The point is that when new players debut for your team, it is somewhat like welcoming new members to the family.  Some will be short term guys, kind of like the cousins that you haven't seen in 30 years or so and probably wouldn't even recognize out of family context.  Others will be familiar faces that will be a part of your life for potentially many years.  I introduced the Opening Day Rockies here. 

 

With that in mind let's introduce the five new members of the Rockies fraternity that debuted for the team after Opening Day.  They are Rockies #599 - #603 in the history of the franchise.

 

#599 Alan Trejo

Trejo was the first addition to the Rockies roster this season.  His contract was selected when the hot hitting Chris Owings went down to injury.  Trejo was picked in the 16th round in the 2017 draft and has not been in the Rockies top 30 prospects ever.  He is likely to not be much more than a utility infielder, but one never knows. 

#600 Justin Lawrence

Lawrence actually was supposed to debut in 2019 or 2020, but he was caught an 80 game PED suspension while in the minors.  Current Rockies prospect Colton Welker was just suspended for the exact same drug, so I have a feeling that someone in the organization is about make some big news after they get caught.  Chosen in the 12th round in 2015, Lawrence has never been a top prospect, but he has hung around the bottom of the Rockies top 30 for several years.  He was #27 in 2017, #16 in 2018, #18 in 2019, and was unranked in 2020 before jumping back up to #30 in 2021.  He seems like the type of relief pitcher that will consistently be on the shuttle between Denver and AAA Albuquerque for a couple of years.

#601 Matt Adams

Adams is the first newcomer that already had MLB experience having experience with the Cardinals, Braves, and Nationals before latching on with the Rockies.  Oddly he had two separate stints with each of those three teams before 2021.  He is best known from his Cardinals years though and was a member of the same Topps Rookie All Star Team as Nolan Arenado in 2013.  I don't anticipate Adams having a long run in Colorado and it is doubtful he will ever get a real card with the team. 

#602 Lucas Gilbreath

Gilbreath actually had a chance to be Rockie #600 as he was called up as the 27th man in an early season doubleheader, but he did not play in either game and was sent back down for another 2 weeks.  He was brought back up to take a spot on the roster when Antonio Senzatela went on the IL.  Gilbreath was picked in the 7th round of the 2017 draft and made his debut in the Rockies top prospect rankings in 2021 at #26.  He might be another reliever like Lawrence that will get a lot of frequent flyer miles between AAA and MLB.

#603 Connor Joe

"Reverse Name" Joe is the most recent Rockies debut.  I made the card of him as a third baseman, but he will probably see more time at first base until the Rockies realize that Josh Fuentes is not a major league quality player.  Joe has bounced around several organizations since being drafted by the Pirates in 2014.  Joe was actually selected with the very first traded MLB draft pick.  The Marlins traded the Compensation Round A pick #39 to the Pirates for reliever Bryan Morris.  The length of Joe's stay will likely depend on whether C.J. Cron's injury will require an IL stint.  

I mentioned the two forms in the title.  The second form is my actual family.  I have mentioned my dogs off and on for the past couple of months, but I haven't showed them off yet. I have had a few of you asking about them, so I figured I would show off each of their "rookie cards" along with the newcomer Rockies. Each of the dogs has a Rockies related name, so it really does fit well here.

Dante

Dante is my long term pet.  I have had him since March 2017.  He is obviously named for Dante Bichette, although I frequently use the nickname Bubby for him.  He is a beagle mixed with some large breed, probably a Rottweiler, but just a guess.  He was found on the railroad tracks by a neighbor of my uncle that worked for the railroad.  They kept him on their backyard a while, but they had small kids and he was a little too rough with the kids.  He wasn't mean, just really playful and very strong for his size.  We had our ups and downs and he transitioned from a big backyard to being a full time indoor dog with me, but I love him to death.

Francis

This is my "mama dog."  She is named after former Rockies starter Jeff Francis and I usually call her Franny.  I am not 100% sure, but I think she is part Husky and part Yorkie.  She was a stray wandering the neighborhood for a couple weeks right before Christmas 2020.  As I walked Dante, I notice they played well together, so I took her in.  The timing was either really poor or just perfect because she went into heat two weeks later.  I brought her in for that purpose, but I was hoping it wouldn't happen until the summer.  But the love came early.  I absolutely love this photo as you can see 5 of the 6 pups pretty easy (the 6th is the black swatch behind her back).  Her panting was also caught perfectly so it appeared she was giving a big toothy grin for the camera.

Blake

Blake is my female pup.  She is named after the Blake Street Bombers.  She obviously takes after her daddy, although she does have Franny's long skinny legs.  She is kind of shy, but when you get her going she is pretty active.  Of the 6 pups, she was by far the least active and that is the main reason I kept her.  When she was smaller, I thought she was a Husky because she was just black and white.  Although in the last couple of weeks the brown has shown up a lot more.  The poor little thing has an umbilical hernia, which developed because basically the belly button didn't close up fully.  It is not life threatening and doesn't seem to bother her, but it kind of scares me nonetheless.  There is a chance it will fix itself, but she may need a minor surgery in a few months.

 

Bomber

Bomber is my male puppy and the first born.  He is named after the Blake Street Bombers as well.  I was planning on naming him Helton, but I wanted their names to pair together and she didn't seem like a Todd.  Although since his middle name is Lynn, I could have gone that route.  But I digress.  He is another that I though would have the husky look except with the obvious blonde hair.  But as he has grown he has started to get the terrier head of his mother, just a lot bigger.  He was without a doubt the pick of the litter for me.  He is a sweet dog, but he has a bit of a biting problem right now.  I take the blame because he was the last of the 6 pups to get teeth and I let him gum my fingers.  Now he tries to do the same thing only his teeth have joined the party.  He has some issues that we need to work through, but overall he is a great little dog. 

 

Here is the whole family together.  I tried to get all four of them to look forward, but three was the best I could do.  Blake and Dante usually pair up to play and Franny and Bomber pair up.  Strangely the two boys and the two girls rarely play with each other.  Regardless, I love my little family.  Although I will NEVER refer to them as "fur babies."  I hate that term.  

Thanx for reading.

Sunday PWE Trade Bait #12

Hey guys.  I have been a bad blogger in the past few weeks.  I skipped last Sunday's post.  I missed finishing Friday's Rating the Rookie Cups post.  And those are really the only two regular days that I post at all.  I will try to do better.  I am planning on doing a "catch up week" this week with several posts showcasing all the great cards sent to me by readers and fellow bloggers over the past month and a half.  I promise I have not forgotten any of you, I am so backed up that I am doing my best to not get overwhelmed.  I am hoping that a "catch up week" will relieve my back log and let me get back to normal posts and possibly even add a third regular posting day.  One can only dream.

Anyway, let's get back to what Sundays are supposed to be.  Trading cards.  Well it is what Sunday is supposed to be for me.  Others may have different definitions of what Sunday is supposed to be.  But for me it is all about cards.  Let's get down to business.

As always, I will trade for Rockies, Topps rookie cup cards, 86 Topps homages, the few remaining 2011 Topps Opening Day blues that I need for my master set, 2005 Topps Rookie Cup rainbows that I need, 2020 Donruss rainbows that I need, or the various insert sets I am currently putting together.  The links are working for 6 of those 7, and the other will be done shortly, but for now you can simply ask if I need it.

If you just simply don't have anything I need, don't worry about it.  We can still trade.  I will happily accept serial numbered cards from teams I am in short supply of at the moment.  All I ask is that you include an extra 1 or 2 just to take care of the stamp I will need to trade them later.  

 These are current teams I am comparatively low on trade stuff.

Detroit, Washington/Montreal, Pittsburgh, Texas, Houston

Previous Sunday PWE Trade Baits

Week #1    Week #2   Week #3   Week #4   Week #5   Week #6   Week #7   Week #8   Week #9   

Week #10   Week #11   W

 

Claim away.

 

 

 

2005 Upper Deck/Portraits Scrapbook Moments B.J. Upton /250 - 2005 Donruss/Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros Red Melvin Mora /700 - 2015 Panini/Donruss Stat Line Career Dalton Pompey /302

2017 Panini/Donruss Gray Border Jackie Bradley /199 - 2016 Bowman Purple Masahiro Tanaka /250 - 2018 Topps Gold Carlos Carrasco /2018

2020 Topps/Gypsy Queen Indigo Dawel Lugo /250 - 2017 Bowman Purple Matt Strahm /250

2015 Topps/Chrome Purple Refractors Micah Johnson /250 - 2005 Topps/Rookie Cup Red Ivan Rodriguez /499 - 2002 Fleer/Box Score Luis Ugueto /2950

2015 Bowman/Prospects Purple Tyler DeLoach /250 - 2015 Bowman/Prospects Chrome Green Refractors Rio Ruiz /99 - 2006 Upper Deck/Ovation Gold Rich Harden /499

2016 Panini/Elite Extra Edition Austen Williams /999 - 2009 Upper Deck/Piece of History Box Score Memories Turquoise Jeff Francoeur /99 - 2019 Topps Gold J.D. Davis /2019

2018 Bowman/Prospects Chrome Refractors Aqua Shimmer James Nelson /125 - 2014 Panini/Prizm PDP Prizms Purple Malik Collymore /149

2015 Panini/Elite Extra Edition Aspirations Die Cut Antonio Santillan /200 - 2020 Panini/Elite Extra Edition Aspirations Green Ji-Hwan Bae /499 - 2016 Panini/Donruss Optic Prizms Orange Jonathan Lucroy /199

2017 Bowman/Prospects Chrome Gold Refractors Mark Zagunis /50 - 2009 Upper Deck/Icons Icons Stephen Drew /999 - 2015 Bowman/Prospects Silver Kyle Lloyd /499

2018 Bowman Blue Brandon Crawford /150 - 2012 Topps Gold Tim Federowicz /2012 - 2020 Panini/Donruss American Pride Cole Wilcox (w/Max Scherzer) /999

2002 Bowman/Chrome Refractors Mike Hampton /500 - 2010 Topps Gold Troy Tulowitzki /2010 - 2014 Topps/Update Gold Boone Logan /2014

 

Cards with new homes.

2016 Topps Gold Tommy Milone /2016 - 2016 Panini/Donruss Optic Masters of the Game Blue Steve Carlton /149 -

 

As always, place a claim on any card that you'd like in the comments section or you can email me directly at hiflew AT yahoo DOT com and we can talk trade.

 

Thanx for reading.

New Idea: Chain Mail - Feedback needed

 

 

Hey guys.  I missed my regular Sunday appointment here due to basic sluggishness.  But while I didn't really have the energy to type out a post, my brain was still working on an idea that I figured I would try to get feedback on.  This idea actually goes back a long time to a swap between myself and Tom from the recently retired (hopefully not permanently) blog The Angels in Order.  He sent me a 1000 count long box full of glorious randomness that I fully enjoyed sifting through.  It was one of the better trades I have had and to be honest I don't even remember all the cards I ended up keeping.  But I do remember the enjoyment of going through random cards.  Which brings me to my idea.

For some reason I was sitting in my recliner and remembered being 16 years old and falling for an old school snail mail chain letter scam.  For those of you that have no idea what that is, it was basically a pyramid scheme where you sent $1 to six names on a list and then sent 200 copies of the chain letter to new people with your name added to the bottom of the list with the #1 name removed and everyone else bumped up.  At the time, I thought it was a can't miss way of making money.  Oh how sad I was.  In reality, the only people that made any money was the company that I bought the 200 names and addresses from for like $50 and the Post Office.  I mailed all 200 letters including the stamps which set me back another $25 or so.  In short, I never received even a single dollar bill in the mail.  I don't regret doing it.  In all it was about a $100 investment that taught me a lot about swindles and legal con men.  That lesson was worth $100.  

 

The reason I told those two stories was that they inspired me to a trade idea.  I call it Chain Mail.  The idea is to get a list of six willing participants along with one flat rate box and fill it with cards that don't fit into my collection.  Then I would send however many cards I can safely fit into that box (preferably in smaller boxes to prevent damage) to the first name on the list.  That person would look through the cards, hopefully have a lot of fun, and take whatever he or she wants.  Then that person would replace all the cards they took with cards from their own trade box and ship to the #2 name on the list.  Then that person would repeat the process.  Then the 3rd person, then 4th, all the way to the last person on the list.  The last person on the list would also take what they wanted and refill the box from their trade stuff and ship it back to the original mailer.  My thought is that six people (counting the original mailer) would be the perfect number because it would probably take about six weeks from start to finish. From there I now have questions.

Do you guys like this idea?  Do you think it would actually work?  Do you think it would be a fun experiment?  Is six the best number in your opinion?  Would you want to participate?  How much money would it take for you go out in public wearing the question mark suit and bow tie combo?  

I realize it would take a lot of trust in the rest of the people on the list, especially for the original mailer.  This is why I would suggest not sending anything other than cards you wouldn't really miss. But I have faith that the blogging community is still trustworthy enough to pull something like this off.  You might get some cards for your collection.  You might get ideas and starter stacks for new sets to tackle.  You might get rid of some cards that are cool, but you don't have a trade partner for.  I shouldn't have said that because I now feel the original mailer will end up with about 1000 Miami Marlins cards.  But hey it could still be fun.

Let me know your thoughts because I think could be a lot of fun.

Thanx for reading.

Rating the Rookie Cups 2.0 - 1991

 

 

 

Good evening all.  Once again I am just minutes into Saturday with my Rating the Rookie Cups post.  This week the problem was viral.  Not the physical virus, but the computer kind.  It wasn't a serious problem, but it cost me a few hours today and gave me a headache and basically made me not want to look at my computer a lot.  I took a power nap and I am rocking once again.  Yes, I did just say that I was rocking.  I'm old.

Helping to prove that I am old, this week I am showcasing a team that was rookie during my freshman year in high school 30 years ago, the 1990 Topps Rookie All Star Team.  Since I have rebooted this series, this is the first team I reviewed in the original go around.  It was fun looking back at my work from almost a decade ago, but it also showed how much I was really just guessing back then.  

The team features one of the instances of a rookie getting a cup card and being traded in the same season.  Felix Jose was traded from Oakland to St. Louis in exchange for longtime Cardinals hero Willie McGee.  It's not a common occurrence, but did happen as recently as 2020 with Nick Anderson who split the season between the Marlins and Rays.

As far as the set goes, Night Owl (in his civilian identity of Gregory Gay) wrote a piece for Beckett recently about this set that I can't even hope to top.  Just a fantastic write up on the set.  Although I gotta say that the commenters on the article really leave a lot to be desired.  I can honestly say that Topps was not on my radar in 1991.  I was a Score fan and spent the last real year of my teenage collecting almost buying Score.  I still love 1991 Score, but I do wish I had given Topps a little more love too.

Let's take a look at the 1990 Topps Rookie All Star Team.

 

 

Sandy Alomar - C - Indians- Season Rank (9 of 61) - Career Rank (16 of 61)

Hal Morris - 1B - Reds - Season Rank (25 of 61) - Career Rank (25 of 61)

Delino DeShields - 2B - Expos - Season Rank (16 of 61) - Career Rank (14 of 61)

 

Robin Ventura - 3B - White Sox - Season Rank (38 of 61) - Career Rank (10 of 61)

 

Jeff Huson - SS - Rangers - Season Rank (42 of 61) - Career Rank (46 of 60)

 

Felix Jose - OF - Cardinals - Season Rank (150 of 184) - Career Rank (120 of 184)

Dave Justice - OF - Braves - Season Rank (38 of 184) - Career Rank (38 of 184)

Larry Walker - OF - Expos - Season Rank (99 of 184) - Career Rank (2 of 184)

Kevin Appier - RHP - Royals - Season Rank (24 of 50) - Career Rank (10 of 50)

Scott Radinsky - LHP (RP) - White Sox - Season Rank (33 of 34) - Career Rank (17 of 34)

WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA

Here are the players I feel should have made the team.  This is based solely on rookie years stats and is a straight up "battle of the stats" with my opinion not factoring into the decision.  I give a chance to all rookies from that season that either played in 100 games, started 15 games, or had at least 10 saves.  If there happen to be less than 2 rookies that meet those qualifications at a position, then I will just compare the top two that don't meet parameters.  In this case, and all cases before 2011, I am retroactively adding a relief pitcher spot to the team which as I mentioned above means moving Scott Radinsky to the reliever category and adding a LH starter to the team. 

Catcher - Todd Zeile - Cardinals

There were three candidates for catcher in 1990 and they were all fairly strong.  The three were AL ROY Sandy Alomar of the Indians, Todd Zeile of the Cardinals, and Greg Olson of the Braves.  It ended up being a dead heat between future Rockies teammates Alomar and Zeile through my first tiebreaker, so I had to go with the final tiebreaker of who scored better against the third guy and Zeile ended up winning.  Although the case could easily be made for standing pat with Alomar, I am sticking with my formula and going with Zeile.

First Base - Carlos Quintana - Red Sox

First base was arguably the deepest position in 1990.  There were 4 qualifiers along with 2 "buzz worthy" rookies that fell short of the 100 game level that I included anyway.  They included Hal Morris of the Reds, Carlos Quintana of the Red Sox, Phil Stephenson of the Padres.  John Olerud of the Blue Jays was mostly a DH, but he is included here since I don't have a DH spot and he played some 1B.  The other two notables were future HOFer Frank Thomas of the White Sox and one year wonder Kevin Maas of the Yankees.  A lot of close battles, but all were defeated by Quintana who really just played the most games.

Second Base - Delino DeShields - Expos

If first base was the deepest, second base was by far the shallowest.  There were only two challengers at second base, Delino DeShields of the Expos and Mark Lemke of the Braves.  Lemke would become somewhat of a folk hero in Atlanta, but his rookie year was noticeably worse than DeShields who held his spot.

Third Base - Robin Ventura - White Sox

There were four candidates for the third base position, Robin Ventura of the White Sox, Jim Leyritz of the Yankees, Carlos Baerga of the Indians, and Travis Fryman of the Tigers.  Ventura did not have a great rookie year, but he was the only one that played a full season and won the spot relatively easily.

Shortstop - Eric Yelding - Astros

Shortstop was another position that was a bit shy on challengers.  There were two solid contenders in Eric Yelding of the Astros and Jeff Huson of the Rangers and I picked up a third in Edgar Diaz of the Brewers when I lowered the bar to 81 games.  In the end, the speedy Yelding took the spot over the defensively minded Huson.

Outfield - Dave Justice - Braves, Larry Walker - Expos, Felix Jose - Cardinals

The outfield in 1990 was not a particularly deep class either.  There were only 5 players over the 100 game limit, so I lowered the bar to 81 to pick up a full complement of 9.  Justice and Walker were clearly the top two guys.  Among those considered for the third spot were Eric Anthony of the Astros, Darryl Hamilton of the Brewers, Marquis Grissom of the Expos, and Glenallen Hill of the Blue Jays.  It came down to a tight three way battle between Felix Jose of the Cardinals, Greg Vaughn of the Brewers, and Jack Daugherty of the Rangers with Jose holding his spot.

RH Starter - Kevin Appier - Royals

As usual, there were a lot of contenders for the right handed starter spot.  1990 was especially strong with 4 rookies with double digits in victories.  Kevin Appier held off strong challenges from Kevin Tapani of the Twins, John Burkett of the Giants, Ben McDonald of the Orioles, and Mike Harkey of the Cubs.

LH Starter - Randy Tomlin - Pirates

There were very few left handed starters in 1990.  There were only 2 that met the 15 start requirement, so I had to lower the bar to 11 starts to pick up enough competition.  Among those considered were Chris Nabholz of the Expos, Steve Avery of the Braves, and Tigers teammates Steve Searcy and Brian DuBois.  It came down to the only full year starter in Pat Combs of the Phillies and a late season call up in Randy Tomlin of the Pirates.  In this case, the half season proved to be better than the full.

Relief Pitcher - Steve Frey - Expos

There were a handful of candidates for the relief pitcher spot including Topps's LHP choice Scott Radinsky of the White Sox.  I lowered the bar to 7 saves and got a tightly packed group of relievers including Jeff Gray of the Red Sox, Kent Mercker of the Braves, Stan Belinda of the Pirates, and the Expos trio of Steve Frey, Bill Sampen, and Scott Ruskin.  It was a very close battle with Frey winning over close runner up Belinda.

 

HOW'D TOPPS DO?

100% - Perfect, 80-90% - Great, 60-70% - Good, 40-50% - Poor, < 40% - Utter Failure

GOOD

Topps did okay here.  They only got 6/10 according to my system, but catcher could have easily gone either way, so I am not really counting that against them.  First base was a case of a very high batting average winning out.  Shortstop was possibly a case of them considering Eric Yelding an outfielder instead of a shortstop since he played both positions.  But it was still a bad call.  The one choice they made that has absolutely no defense is Scott Radinsky.  I was never been a big fan of choosing relievers over starters unless the reliever was particularly great.  That was not Radinsky in 1990.  Just a bad call.  But I don't really have a leg to stand on, because I only got 7/10 correct on my original picks before I started using my stat system.  Proving it really isn't easy to make these picks, even years after the fact.

Final Thoughts on the Team

Strongest Team Members (rookie) - Sandy Alomar, Dave Justice, Delino DeShields

 
Strongest Team Members (career) - Larry Walker, Robin Ventura, Kevin Appier

 
Weakest Team Members (rookie) - Felix Jose, Scott Radinsky, Jeff Huson

 
Weakest Team Members (career) - Jeff Huson, Felix Jose, Scott Radinsky

 
Rockies on the team (Present and future) - 2 (Alomar, Walker) (Although Huson is the color guy on Rockies games now)

 
Best Card (IMHO) - Robin Ventura (Alomar and Appier are both really good, but I gotta go with the great throwback jersey here)

 
Worst Card (IMHO) - Hal Morris (not a bad shot, but zoomed in way too much)

This team is definitely solid with Larry Walker taking the #2 outfield spot on the all time career Rookie Cup team.  Walker is the only Hall of Famer, but there were several other very good underrated careers in Justice, Appier, Alomar, DeShields, and Ventura.  For career, I would probably this team right about the middle of the pack.  For rookie season, I might put it just a bit below average.  There were no really bad rookie years, but there were also no really good ones either.  Just a fairly average set of rookies that produced a few really great careers.

 

 

NEXT WEEK'S PREVIEW

The 2013 team pictured on 2014 Topps cards.

Thanx for reading.