Mets Triple Threads Unity Completed (Two Versions)

I know it has been a while, but I am sparked to post again by a couple of posts by fellow bloggers, one over at Crinkly Wrappers and to a lesser extent the series of posts over at Tomahawk Chopping.

I am still here!  There have been a few reasons for the lack of posts, one of the big ones being that I no longer have a working scanner to scan my cards.  I know many of you know how annoying that can be.  Also, though since I don't partake of the high end stuff much I have not gotten too many cards in the last few months.

However, while it took me several months, I did finally complete a Triple Threads Unity three card set depicting Citi Field in the background.  I'm not sure why the Triple Threads Unity "gimmick" sparked my interest, but it did.  Anyone else get dragged into completing a unity of their own?

Here are my results (I know they aren't a perfect color match, but hey I'll take it)

Version 1: Thole, Reyes, Niese

Version 2: Santana, Reyes, Niese

I'm a fan, I like the way they look next to one another, especially in my binder.

So, anyway, I am still here and interested in Mets cards, and am quite excited about the start of the 2012 baseball card season despite the fact that I am not thrilled with the flagship set's design.  But, hey, maybe it'll grow on me.

Finally, I am kind of interested in putting together a Cubs unity set.  I already have the right most card, and am looking for a center and left most card.  Or if anyone has another center Met to trade, I'd be interested in that as well since Reyes is now gone.  If anyone has some to trade, let me know.

Rain Out Theater: World Series Edition

I've been away for a while taking care of my new baby boy and already doing my best to raise him a Mets fan despite living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago (the Mets won the first game I had him watch with me against the Cubs).

Well, I decided yesterday since there was not going to be any baseball on I'd stop at the local card shop and see if I could add anything interesting to the 2011 baseball card collection I am working on for my son.

I found two cool adds.

First, is this Ike Davis Allen and Ginter relic.  I've mentioned before that the Allen and Ginter relics are my favorite, and I went into the card shop hoping they would have this one for cheap and they did!

Davis was far exceeding my expectations in 2011 before his collision with David Wright.  I am hoping desperately that the ankle injury he suffered is not something that lingers throughout his career and stops what Mets fans are hoping is a stellar homegrown player from staying on the field and productive.

The second 2011 Met card I picked up was this 2011 Triple Threads numbered to 75 of catcher Josh Thole.

Now most of the Mets sources I've read indicate that Thole had a disappointing season, and I too admit that I had higher hopes for him.  However, he did show a bit of promise.  I think he is worth starting again next season.  I don't expect McCann numbers from him, but I think he can be as good as Jason Kendall was in his prime.  His upside comes from the potential for a high batting average (.280 against Righties last year) and OBP (.349 against righties).  Now obviously he'd have to improve on last year's numbers, but those numbers are a good start and his K/BB ratio is solid.  The big question is whether a platoon is necessary with him, and it might be (though he only has 74 MLB ABs against in his career so it is hard to say).  However, the Mets also have youngster Mike Nickeas that could offer that right handed complimentary hitter to Thole.  Anyway, I picked this up because I still have hopes for Thole and did not think his 2011 season was that terrible.  Plus, maybe the lefty friendly new dimensions at Citi Field next year net him another HR or two and he is only 24.

Glavine Dual Relic - Pitchers and Game Used Bats?

So as I was browsing through my local card shop I found this nice looking card: a 2004 Diamond Kings Tom Glavine Dual Relic numbered 12/100.  Between the low numbering, the awesome design, and dual relics I decided to pick it up.

Now, I have always found game used bat cards of pitchers to be a bit odd, but Glavine did have a reputation for being a better than average hitter for a pitcher.  His career OPS was .454, he hit one homerun in his career, and had 90 RBIs.  However, it is hard to tell from those numbers how good he was compared to other pitchers.

This is where those new statistics become a bit more useful.  I am going to use oWAR: Offensive Wins Above Replacement.  This statistic is supposed to measure the number of wins above or below average this player contributed to his team offensively. Glavine totaled 5 over his 22 year career (all in the NL).  Compare that a terrible hitter like Al Lieter who compiled -2.4 over 10 years in the NL.  For a more modern example look at Cole Hamels who has .2 in his five year career which would extend to .88 if he played seventeen more years.

The moral is, that Glavine was a decent hitter for a pitcher, but he was no Babe Ruth or Carlos Zambrano (the later of which already has 4.6 in 10 years).

Two Cool Dual Relics

So I stopped by my local card shop yesterday afternoon and I picked up a bunch of game used cards of various players I like or did like before they retired including Randy Johnson, Tony Gwynn, Justin Verlander, another David Wright and the two cards below.

Both are from the 2009 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts insert set called Generations Dual Memorabilia.  I have always found those Dual Memorabilia cards to be hit or miss depending on whether the two players depicted together made sense and were both players I liked or at least respected.

First, is this Chase Utley and Joe Morgan card.  Though Morgan might not be the best announcer in the world, he is a Hall of Fame second baseman.  His Stolen Base numbers are great and he got caught less than once in four tries.  Utley, if he continue to be productive and play at Citizen's Bank for the next five years, will also have hall of fame numbers.  So this pairing made sense to me.

Next, Jose Reyes and Tim Raines.  The pairing here has to do with the two players' stolen base prowess.  Raines got caught less than once every five and a half tries and had over 808 steals in his career.  He is a boarder line hall of famer and, as a bonus, is depicted in his expos uni.  Reyes, if he can stay healthy and develop the power he has shown at times could end up being an infielder's version of Raines.

Anyway, I liked these two and I'd be interested to know what you think of them.  The Utley and Morgan card might even be up for trade, but only in the right deal for something interesting and/or 2011 related.

Shelliebee Rocks... Pun Intended

For those of you who don't know Shelliebee is a Rockies fan with a great card blog.  Check it out if you have not already.  So she and I completed a trade about a month ago in which I sent her a Dexter Fowler auto and a bunch of Rockies for a bunch of Mets that I collect.  It worked out for both of us. 

Then, she broke a box of Topps Chrome and pulled an Ike Davis refractor.

I have been looking for any Ike Davis cards I can get my hands
on, so I was very grateful when she sent it my way.

However, the generosity did not end there, she also sent me a bunch of other Mets that she pulled including a David Wright Xfractor. I did not even know there was a difference but the Xfractor has the checkerboard look and the Ike Davis does not and looks like a normal Chrome to me other than the word refractor next to the number on the back of the card.

When she told me she was sending me this jewel I was overjoyed.

 

Not just a David Wright relic card, of which I had none, but my favorite brand of relic card (A&G) and a blue piece of jersey (Met blue being my favorite color).  Seriously, I could have hardly asked for a better card!

So thank you Shelliebee, and I will be sending some cards your way though nothing as cool as these gems unfortunately.

Two Gems from the Card Show

For those of you in Northern IL today is your last chance to visit the card show I went to on Friady at the Hawthorne mall in Vernon Hills IL. I really wanted to post on two of the other cards I got there Friday.

The first is a 2007 Topps Sterling Base David Wright to go along with my White Suede Boarder version:


This looks more like traditional leather than suede and is numbered to 250 rather than 50 like the suede. Either way it looks nice next to the white suede one in my binder. I know the boxes are insanely expensive, but I like the base cards.

Second, is this game used Piazza bat card:

I really like the game used bat cards that are burned with extra embellishments. This may actually be the most intricate of those types of game used bat cards that I've seen. Both the shape and the design of the bat piece are pretty cool. While I am no Rangers or Astros fan, I would think this insert would look even cooler for those teams player considering the star design.

Hopefully Santana can win the match up of the lefties today. Let's go Mets!

How quickly a box can turn

It is funny how one's feelings about a box can change from disappointment to excitement in the span of two packs, but that is what happened with my box of 2002 Topps Gallery. My last post was about my first hit of the box. Well, today with only 7 packs left I opened a much larger hit of as likable a player.
Now clearly Gwynn does not have the following that Griffey Jr. does, but I have always preferred the high batting average (and now high on base percentage) players to the big HR guys (see my appreciation of John Olerud and Edgardo Alfonzo). As a kid I used to separate cards that would go in my binder from those that would be filed away in a box by batting average: below .300 and the player went to the box, above .300 and the player had a shot at the binder. Gwynn, of course, was the best of a generation when it came to batting average and contact.

The use of the bat as a palette is kind of interesting, I'm not sure how I feel about it. However, I really like the painting of Gwynn, so this is a keeper. Considering the fact that the odds of pulling one of these was 1:169 packs and that other players in the sub-set included Jaun Gonzalez and Jose Conseco I think I did pretty well. Actually, even the autographs in this set weren't that great with Lance Berkman as the best non-yankee of the group.

This also happens to be the first game used bat card I have pulled from a pack, so I will be holding onto it for that reason as well.

Awesome, now I can open the remaining six packs without any expectation and wait for my box of 2008 UD Masterpieces which I will be breaking in its entirety as part of my Opening Day festivities.

New School Trade With Another Met Fan

This time my thanks go out Anthony over at Mike Pelfrey Collectibles for a several non-Met game used cards. I sent him some Met game used stuff to which I was less attached.

First, a former Met coupled with my current Ryan Howard alternative, Prince Fielder (the scans came out awkwardly, but the cards themselves are in perfect condition).



Eddie Murray played two seasons with the Mets in the early 90s and his numbers were solid. Now the Mets were far from a spectacular team those years, but Murray still managed around 100 RBIs each year. Though the second year with the Mets was much better than the first and he was supposedly not great in the public relations department, I remember being happy with the years he put up with the Mets. As for Prince Fielder, though I was never a huge Cecil Fielder fan (especially after he went to the Yankees), I really like Fielder. I think there are several reasons for this. First, he and Howard are in the same discussion when it comes to elite NL first basemen after Pujols and I think that Fielder is better in large part because of the vast difference in strikeouts and contact rates. It is nice to have a non-Howard option after Pujols who, though he is great, I have just never been enamored with. It is always nice to get a dual jersey card of two players that one likes, and maybe Prince will join Murray in the 500 HR club making their pairing even more meaningful. Just another reason to root for Fielder over Howard then I guess.




While the first card at least had a Met connection, the second might just be confusing. I mean, how many people outside of Toronto and Cincinnati even know Encarnacion? Well, he helped me in my NL only fantasy leagues a couple of times, so there is a start. I also always kind of wanted an All-Star game used relic for some odd reason. What really sealed the deal, though, is that when I went to the Dominican Republic one of our tour guides saw me wearing a Reds hat (yes, I have a Reds hat, for some reason I've liked the Reds the past two years and will again this year). So he asks me if I know of a player named Edwin Encarnacion, and I say "Of course." So, my guide goes onto explain how he used to live two blocks away from Encarnacion's house (presumably before he was signed). All that and the fact that this card depicts Encarnacion wearing the DR flag made this a must acquire for me.

And just to bring this full circle back to the Mets, I did see a winter league game while in the DR in which Fernando Martinez played (his team ended up winning the Caribbean World Series this year).

So to sum things up for those keeping track thanks to Anthony I got to take a trip from Murray to Fielder to Encarnacion to Fernando Martinez.

Finally, here's hoping, for my and Anthony's sake, that Pelfry goes out and has a break out season.

First Completed Trade

Courtesy of BA Benny I got my first package of trade material in the mail today. He was very generous with me, especially considering the fact that we are both Met fans. I got some great game used cards and other Mets singles in return for the vast majority of my yankee collection including the one game-used card I have ever pulled (of course it would be a Bernie Williams card) and all my Jeters and Posadas. Thank you for taking them off my hands and sending me back some NL New York cards! I even got an Edgardo Alfonzo card that I did not already have.

First, my favorite game used from the bunch, a Turkey Red Pedro Jersey card. Yes, I am posting back-to-back Pedro game used cards, but I have always enjoyed Turkey Red and I love the texture on this card (which you can see from the scan) in addition to a black uniform piece that will compliment the white ones from the last post. I was looking at the statistics from Pedro's first season with the Mets, on the back of a Topps Opening Day card from the trade, and I had forgotten how good Pedro was that year: a 0.95 WHIP and almost 9K/9. That was one of the best years in Pedro's career.

My favorite completely cardboard card was the David Wright on the right. I like the return to classic card designs that the industry decided on several years ago. The bright colors on this card are awesome and contrast nicely with the black and white photo.

So thanks again BA Benny! I will let you know when I get some more Yankee cards worth trading.

I should be getting several other packages in the mail this week from trades and ebay, so I have some fun stuff to look forward to.