My Fantasy Baseball Team (1 of 2)

I have joined 2 Fantasy baseball leagues this year. Both of which I have now been in for several years! It's nice to see the same people back again year after year. Builds up some good competition. In this league, it's rotisserie with some non traditional categories.

Hitting:

Runs, RBIs, Stolen Bases, OBP and SLG. Notice no Avg and no HR's.

Pitching:

Total Bases, ERA, K/9, H/9, BB/9

No Saves and there is a 1000 inning cap.

I decided to go unorthodox and picked no full time relievers in the draft.

Also, this league is a keeper league. You can keep up to 4 and any person you keep is your first round pick, 2nd round pick etc.

I decided to keep 4 this year. Robinson Cano, Adrian Beltre, Jose Fernandez and Michael Brantley.

My Team is as follows:

After the top 4 that I had kept.. I drafted Adam Wainwright (63rd), Victor Martinez (68th), Hisashi Iwakuma (89th), James Shields (94th), Mark Trumbo (115th), Ben Revere (120th), Salvador Perez (141st), Starlin Castro (146th), Lance Lynn (167th), Gregory Polanco (172nd), Jered Weaver (193rd), Javier Baez (198th), Matt Cain(219th), Marlon Byrd (224th), Tanner Roark (245th) and Jose Quintana(250th)

This draft was tough with 13 people in it. No idea if my strategy of no relivers will work. I figure I have starters I can drop if necessary. I already dropped Baez and picked up Carlos Beltran. At this time gotta play a bit of wait and see but that spot is definitely fluid.

I really wanted to have Wainwright and Lester. Missed Lester by one pick so I settled for V-Mart and took Kuma with the next pick. 

Have one more draft tonight, completely different format and head to head.

What do you guys think? All criticisms or advice is welcome.

Obligatory picture..

Go Phillies!

Trade with Coot Veal and the Veal Tones!

I recently completed another trade with my friend Dhoff from Coot Veal and The Veal Tones! He posted up a bunch of trade bait and a few things caught my eye. He mentioned he was in the market for an I-Rod autograph and I happened to be able to find a nice one the next day at the Philly Card show! I was pleased that I found it and got it from one of the dealers that I like. Mr Dhoff more then sent his fair share in return!

Check out all the goodies!

 

The Klesko autograph is quite nostalgic. Back in 1995(I was ten) I pulled this card: (disclaimer, not my auction) Ryan Klesko It was the greatest day ever. My brother and I ran around the house like we hit the lottery! A one per case auto! Unbelievable, we're rich! I believe the card is currently in my dad's basement. Once I have more space I plan on getting those cards rescued. I like the design of the Hitting Machines relic. I have this Thome and the Frank Thomas from the same set. 

 

A few new Ryan Howards. A few new Frank Thomas's (now over 700 unique wooo!) and some cool Archives Reserves cards. I like those shiny reprints, they look good.

 

Oh Just a 1954 Bowman Robin Roberts ho hum. I have not attempted this team set yet for the Phillies so I'm pretty happy to start it this way! I now have 2 cards from this total set. Robin Roberts and Mickey Mantle, not bad. The Scott Rolen is a nice on-card auto. I will always wonder how his career would have turned out if he decided to stay on with the Phillies. They got pretty good after he left. 

Here's some more vintage and some numbered cards. I really like the card in the middle. Very sharp!

Thanks for reading and thanks for the trade.

Stay tuned for my first fantasy baseball team of the season. Draft went well I think, we'll see!

A Whole bunch of Mail! and other musings

I haven't been as active this year but thats due to life and stuff. All good things though! Working hard and enjoying things. I am excited for the baseball season. We plan on getting down to Baltimore (Camden Yards) and checking out the Nationals stadium for the first time too. (Not sure if that sentence made sense, but to clarify I have been to Camden but not to Nats Park). Of course, I have been to Citizens Bank many times and I'm sure I will go this year despite the team. There's really no buzz this year at all. Everyone just expects them to be in last. I am an optimist so who knows maybe they'll learn to hit and surprise some people.. everyone's 0-0 right now!

I received some mail this past few weeks from some people:

A "Brad" centric PWE from Weston at Fantastic Catch. I actually needed the two Phillies cards for the PC so that worked out. I wish Brad Peacock had a more fearsome last name.. like Brad Jackhammer or something cool! Oh well can't win them all.

These 9 cards were from my friend Zach over at Underdog Card Collector! He's a big Padres guy and likes to flip his Phillies to me, so whats not to like. The Padres should actually be fun to watch this year. They made a ton of moves this off season and could turn some heads this year. Who really knows but I like the attitude that they are trying to win. Bold moves. Also, thanks for the Heritage Howard, I wasn't planning on buying any packs so quite happy to receive that in the mail!

 This last card came from Red Sox Fan in Nebraska He shockingly, collects Red Sox. I sent him a purple parallel and he sent me a rainbow parallel! Parallel's all over the place. Despite the no logo it is a sharp looking card!

Thanks for the cards everyone and Thanks for reading! I think I responded or sent my part of whatever trade we agreed upon. Please let me know if I forgot someone, haven't been super organized lately!

Box Bottoms!

I recently came across these old box bottoms. Although I am personally older then these box bottoms and they are not considered vintage by any means.. so I'll say I came across these young box bottoms!

1989 Fleer! Great set (which I do own). So many Billy Ripken errors and Randy Johnson errors and Griffey rookies of course! Nothing like a box bottom with the Big Cat and Will the Thrill representin'!

 

Tom Lasorda looking good these days (go check youtube if you don't know what I'm talking about, he raps its great). Doc and Rickey stealing bases. Fred Lynn winning MVPs and ROY's at the same time, he was Ichiro before Ichiro!

This is the hall of fame box bottom! WOW! Rice, Ripken, Ryan and Ryne! This will be on ebay 1,000,000 Buy it Now! Don't wait!

Does everyone else cut out their box bottom cards?

Thanks for reading!

I've been Zippy Zapped!

I recently completed my first trade with Zippy Zappy. He is collecting the retail parallels and I sent him a whole bunch of the Toys R Us purples. (I hope he has already got them since I sent last week) He sent me some cool stuff that I'm not able to get on my own. Japanese cards!

 

These are the fronts. 100 Yen is not that much money so thankfully it didn't cost a fortune!

Check out the backs. All the fine print is in Japanese! Very cool pieces to add to the collection.

This Bowman Chrome J-Roll was just a throw in.. numbered out of 25! Awesome card to just suddenly get. I have a few nice J-Roll cards but not nearly enough!

Thanks for the cards, can't wait for the next trade!

Philly Show Part 2!

Hope everyone enjoyed the mostly vintage portion. I updated my Phillies binder so once I get around to scanning it I will show off some cool old cards! There was some other stuff purchased at the card show.

There's a Bruce Rondon auto. Thats for trade! The rest of these cards were from a dime box! I like exclamation points! I think it's a rule, if you see a Griffey for a dime, you have to buy it. It's written in the 3rd amendment. (I may or may not have made that up)

Also, there was a box break action. My wife purchased a Jumbo box cause of the near guarantee of a base set! Good news, she did get a base set.

Also hit some other stuff..

 

Got the 3 promised hits. Starling Marte Auto, Hisashi Iwakuma relic and Tanner Roask Future Stars super thick card. Not bad. The Trevor Bauer is of the black variety numbered out of 64.

This was probably the nicest card in the box. The Gallery of Greats are super nice inserts and this one is numbered out of 99!

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the coming of spring.. until Game of Thrones.. then Winter is coming!

Philly Show Recap Part 1 (of 2 maybe 3)

Let's just ignore NFL free agency for a minute. I'm an Eagles fan.. and I don't know what to think. Seems kinda crazy to trade for so many players coming off serious knee injuries. I thought only the Sixers liked injured players.

Regardless, the card show was its usual fun. There is always much to see that is way out of my price range and some stuff way overpriced and some stuff that I feel is fair so I buy it. A metaphor for life as it were. I didn't scan everything because I made a post office run today and sent out 5 packages! If you were expecting cards from me I hope that I sent them to you! And if you don't get cards in a normal amount of USPS time and I owe you please let me know!

The Hunt's auction people had 2 1952 Mantle's graded 5. I'll never tire of seeing them up close. They are poetry on cardboard. I was unable to locate the elusive Frank Thomas No Name on Front. I have only seen it once in person. I did not have the 1K on me at that time to buy it though. Maybe one day I will get it! Junior Junkie knocked off an unbelievable card (for those that don't know a Mantle/Griffey dual auto from 1994 Upper Deck) so maybe one day I can get my proverbial white whale. (I've had quite a few 'white whales' that I currently own) I'm a collector at heart. My Wife always makes fun of me if we pull something good, I tell her how much I could sell it for.. then I immediately tell her that we're keeping it! I work for money, I collect cards for fun! Thankfully she enjoys pack opening and sorting and random oddball cards as well!

I did well on vintage:

 

Lots of Richie Allen! The 1962's in this scan are both high numbers. They are a pain in the neck to find. I wasn't counting the league leader cards as part of the team set but it is pretty cool to get a card with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays on it!

Took a nice big chunk out of 1967 as well! I love Bob Uecker from Major League.. 'just a bit outside'. Also, was able to knock off 1965 Topps (not pictured). I will scan 1969 topps soon. One dude sold me the whole team set at a reasonable price. Well it was missing one card but I actually picked that card up about 10 minutes earlier, so great timing!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more modern cards in the next post!

2015 Ryan Howard Parallels!

I got one biggie in the past week! Anytime a 1/1 is posted and its not an insane price I am interested! (Sometimes interested even if the price is insane!) I have been beaten out of the Silver framed card about 4 times now, so if anyone has one please let me know, I will trade or buy!

The Printing plate!

 

I do like the detail on the plate, its not just a big blob. One day I will complete a printing plate set and then print a million cards for myself so I can swim in them ala Scrooge McDuck. 

 

The gold parallels look good this year too. Spring training has started and all of Philly Sports Talk radio is talking about the Eagles. Maybe the Phillies will do the whole 1993 thing and end up in the World Series. I'm a positive person. 

I didn't get this Purple Parallel in the 19 or 20 packs I opened from Toys R Us. I was able to snag it for .99 cents though!

I went to the Philly Show yesterday with my wife. It was a good time. Lots of expensive stuff thats out of my price range, but we were able to put a dent in some wants and needs.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the show recap!

Another Snow Forecast.. so lets show some Gold!

I'm not really sure how the title matches, but I like non sequitur as much as the next person. My wife bought me a blaster of the new Topps Series 1 so we could open some packs and get the Manu Relic. Was hoping for the Ryan Howard but usually the checklist is strong so no big deal...

Didn't get the Howard but did get a popular football/baseball player

Prime time:

 

I personally was not a Sanders fan since I do not like the Cowboys or the Yankees. This one is for trade if anyone wants it. They are fairly thick cards and pretty well done for fake relics.

I was able to pick the Howard off ebay anyway for cheap. Love the people who try and be first to market and are late so the price already dropped.

Hope everyone in the Northeast survives the next impending snow storm. Hopefully it just goes away quickly. I want Spring and baseball!

Thanks for reading!

A Continuation of the 2014 Chrome Rainbow!

I wasn't planning on chasing all the printing plates.. but how can I say no! I am more then happy to pick up the last 3 but one at a time!

Rainbows are pretty..

I do like that you can see the picture pretty clearly in the plate. The reverse negative look works.

Any excuse to show a rainbow! Also if you happen to know where the other plates are, I'm interested!

Can't exclude the patch card!

I do like the design of these cards. If I had a bigger card budget I'd love to chase a set of these each year. That would be visually appealing.

Happy March, may the winter go away soon!

Thanks for reading!