The Infield

Two post in one week! Blogger may melt down due to this flurry of activity from me. But I am starved for Red Sox now that the season is over. From reading other blogs I seem to be just the opposite of everyone else because I tend to buy more cards after the season is over than during it. I have to get a Sox fix somehow…

On to the infield off-season projections/want list:

Catcher – It is a no brainer who is going to catch next year. Martinez will catch almost every game and rightfully so. The big question here is Varitek. His contract has a two-way option. The team can option him back for a year at 5 Million or he can option himself back at 3 million. I can’t see any way that Theo takes him back at 5 Million. I really don’t see Tek getting 3 million anywhere else so I think it will boil down to how much he wants to play. Take the 3 million to sit on the bench or sign for less to start somewhere else. Personally I hope he retires and they put him in as the bullpen coach.

1st Base – Our first baseman is awesome, great hitter and Gold Glover. I really expected a MVP type of season out of him this year. Unless the Sox trade for Adrian Gonzalez I see him staying at first and moving to 3rd when Lowell needs a break. Why mess with a good thing.

2nd – Pedrioa didn’t have the MVP season of a year ago but no complaints about him either. He is defiantly on of the elite 2nd baseman in baseball.

Shortstop – No matter what we do I am betting that Theo gets it wrong. I would be happy to stick with Alex Gonzalez. He has a great glove and actually hit pretty good this year. I have absolutely no faith in Jed Lowrie. He doesn’t seem durable enough to last a whole season. He looks like a backup to me. There are some Free Agent and trade options out there. Tejada is available. He may be a little pricey but he can hit better than any other free agent SS. Would he take a pay cut to make a run at a title?? If Seattle doesn’t pick up his option I wouldn’t mind seeing Jack Wilson here either. He has sick defense. I’m not into fielding stats but just from watching him I know he is a bad ass in the field. Then there is a rumor that we may get Hanley Ramirez back in a trade. I would love it but it won’t happen.

3rd – I really like Lowell. He is an old school, down and dirty player. Problem is he isn’t only old school he is old. (for a ballplayer) A-Rod had the same injury that Lowell had and he only took off the beginning of the season and never had another problem. Mike limped around on it all year and took tons of days off. This is another glaring hole with not much out there to fill it. Maybe Youkilis should move over from 1st and we just replace the first baseman. Because outside of Blalock and Tejada…

Next up will be the pitching staff.

The End

Well this is it.



The end of the season for the Sox.



I figure a few people opened this expecting the end of the blog. I'm not quiting I just don't usually have enough ambition to post anything. OK, back to the Sox...



Only way the season could have ended in more disappointment is if we wouldn't have made the playoffs at all. I never would have guessed that we would get swept by the Angels. One good thing about the Red Sox is that I know there is no such thing as rebuilding, only reloading. So lets take a look at what bullets need replaced. Most would start with the infield but our most glaring question mark is in the outfield so I am starting there:



Left Fielder - This is the most obvious question this off-season, will Theo resign Bay? He seems to fit in great and put up a great OPS but had a sub par avg for an outfielder on this team. There are a few free agents out there that may be just as good a fit. The most obvious one is Abreau. I wouldn't mind seeing him in LF for a few years. He has a great bat moderate speed and although is fielding is less than stellar it isn't really that bad. Holliday is another option. I'm not sure who is better though Bay or Holliday, almost a toss up to me. But Holliday is represented by Boras so... The dark horses could be Matsui or Vlad. Both are horrific outfielders but could cover the ground in front of the monster no problem. One last option, how about Damon? He isn't the player he once was but he isn't bad either. His girly arm wouldn't be so obvious in our left field either.

Center field - Jacoby isn't going anywhere.

Right field - Has there ever been a more boring player in baseball than JD? He does get on base though. I don't think he is worth that huge contract but he is what he is. He does have a great arm though.

Backups - I don't want Baldelli. Why have a backup that can't ever play? I doubt Gathright stays around either. I like his speed (I bet he is faster than Jacoby) but the guy can't hit, period.

That is it for now. I'll knock out the infield sometime before spring training. Yes it is that hard to make myself post something now-a-days...

A Giant Trade

The playoffs are not going very well, so I am rewinding to a month ago when the Red Sox could score more than one run in two games. That is right it is overdue trade post time.

Over a month ago I made a trade with A Giant Blog. I sent him some 1960 Topps Giants and he sent me some much needed 1961 Topps.

I like the 1961 Topps but I don't. I like the design, white border yellow highlighted red letters, and the colored team name background. (although I don't understand the color selection) I like all that stuff but the posed pictures,not so much. It is kind of letdown after what I consider the best Topps design of all time. Regardless of all that I have to have them all and there are getting close to 50 years old. I'm always happy to get 50 year old cards.

See these team name backgrounds make sense, red for Red Sox. The green above - no sense at all. This isn't all that I got in the trade, I also got a handful of newer stuff.

Thanks for the trade...

Thanks to the Bearded One

I'm finally posting a recent trade on time. I got these cards less than a week ago. That is pretty good for me. Bad news is I have about 4 more trades that I need to post about and it may not happen any time soon.

Anyway all these cards came from Greg, better known as Beardy of Beardy's Baseball Blog. You know the Ginter Cuff guy.

First off is some Obak cards. They look great, in a scan not as well in person. I do like the backgrounds though. These are nice but just not as good as Ginter or Goodwin. Either way I got two HOFers and a rookie.

Next up is the centerpiece of the trade.

This is my only Oriz auto. And even though I can't quite make out his name in his autograph Topps says it is legit so I must believe. I'm not one to talk though because you can't read my signature either.

Thanks Beardy I have some more cards headed your way already.

A Trade with White Sox Cards

I recently completed my second trade with White Sox Cards. I never did get around to posting about the first trade. Mostly because there wasn't a Red Sox card in the bunch because he really traded with my son who is a White Sox fan like himself. I really should have posted it but my son had already sorted the cards into his collection by the time I got around to it. This time however I did some trading of my own with him. He sent me 100 Red Sox cards for 100 White Sox cards and then threw in about 50 White Sox cards in for my son to boot. Now I'm not posting the White Sox cards because they just became Christmas presents so if you really want to see some White Sox cards go here. The best thing about this trade is out of the 100 Red Sox cards I needed every single one of them. Man I love those kind of packages.

My package was filled with a bunch of my favorite players from times past and one Ortiz. That is a very artistic Boggs which is surprising from such an early set. I love the purple Burks. I have considered being a Burks player collector but haven't because I know I'll end up with a bunch of him in a White Sox jersey. This Bowmans Best is one good looking card. Bowmans Best is defiantly something Topps should bring back.

I know it is kind of hard to believe I need so many cards from the late 80s. These at least are not your commen cards. A John McNamara 1987 All-Star Card. After receiving this I decided that the All Star cards and Glossy Send in cards need to go in my album with the team set. (my Red Sox monster box is full and I have to either have 2 Red Sox monster boxes or get more in albums) Sportflicks is my favorite set from the 80s and Dewy is one of the best from the 80s. That Armas is an oddball card and I love oddball stuff. It is a Boardwalk and Baseball, a set I never even heard of.

I got a small hand full of O-Pee-Chee in the package which is great because I don't really have any. When I say any I mean ANY. The 2008 O-Pee-Chee were the only ones I had in my collection until these and they don't count. At least to me they don't count. I like them but when I think of O-Pee-Chee I think Topps French. Kind of hard to believe that I can have more than a monster box of Red Sox with none of them being doubles and not one being and O-Pee-Chee card.

Thanks again for the great Red Sox cards. As always I'll be saving White Sox cards for you. Well the doubles anyway.

Need Help Identifying Cards

I stopped at Centerfield Sports in Springfield, MO and picked up a bunch of cards. The owner is a really nice guy and he had just bought a vintage collection the day before I got there. I walked away with over 100 new Red Sox between 1949 and 1973. I even accidentally ended up with a 1940 Playball that I thought was a Red Sox because the buy had a B on his hat but it turned out to be a Brave, if you consider the Bees Braves. He also had a box of oddball stuff. Out of it I picked a Fisk Kellogs card and a handful of 87 Tiffany plus these two cards. Problem is I don't know what they are. Luckily I know there are some real knowledgeable bloggers out there that will help me out.


First one is this Fisk. This is a really awesome card. It isn't a full sized card. It is slightly bigger than a Kellogs but not as big as a regular card. The design reminds me of a vintage football set but I can't remember which one it is. Whatever it is I really like it.

Here is the back. It says 1973 Visual Panographics at the bottom so maybe that is what the set is called. My guess is someone will identify it by morning.

Next oddball is a wierd Clemens. It says Playball on the back but I don't think that is what it really is. My guess is some kind of cut out card from an 80s price guide. Whatever this thing is it was a precursor to throwback cards and actually looks really good. I would even rate it better than Goudey. I think at some point Dayf had a write-up about one of these, or maybe even this card, long ago but I don't have enough ambition to scour his old posts looking for it even though I know I would come across some great posts I missed in the past.

Need Help with non card related question

Sorry this has absolutely nothing to do with cards but I know there are some aspiring photographers out there.

My wife wants an SLR for Christmas but I don't know a dang thing about them. What is best a Nikon, an EOS, or a Cannon? I figure most of the price of the EOS and Canon is in the name; can anyone help?