A Cool Package from "My Life in the Sports Card Hobby"

At some point in early November, I received a comment on one of my blog posts from an unfamiliar name to me saying that the commenter, a Yankees fan of all things, wanted to send me some cards. Frankie was kind enough to stick with me during my periods of busyness and not having much time for email, and he was even kind enough to make sure that my cards went out even though he had surgery in November and spent time in the hospital where he lives over Thanksgiving.

Seriously, that's crazy.

What's crazier is the fact that Frankie is a middle schooler! His blog, "My Life In the Sports Card Hobby" is a paean to all things Yankees, and Frankie collects Reggie Jackson, Pete Rose, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Aaron Boone, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Hideki Matsui, and Bernie Williams.  Sounds like he has about 10,000 cards a year to try to get.

At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised at the great cards that showed up from Frankie because, quite honestly, I haven't sent him anything yet.  But I will be soon.

Here's what he sent to me.

First off, it's an unfortunate fact that most sets just don't have a lot of Brewers in them. Well, it's actually fortunate, because it saves me money. But, it's unfortunate because a lot of collectors just don't have as many cards to send my way.  Frankie had three:

This 2013 Bowman Chrome mini orange parallel of prospect Michael Reed is serial numbered 8 of 15. Reed just turned 22 in November, and his 2014 season showed that he has a little bit of work to do to hit for power, but that his speed is decent and his batting eye is excellent. At High-A Brevard County in the Florida State League, he slashed .255/.396/.378 -- striking out 79 times and walking 78 times in 457 plate appearances. 

The second Brewer that Frankie sent to me isn't quite as exciting as a SN15 card of a pretty good prospect. It's an autograph from 2009 Upper Deck's 2008 Season Documentary of Hernan Iribarren. Upper Deck had to try to get that photo (probably a spring training remnant, to be fair) as Iribarren played in 12 games in 2008 for Milwaukee, coming to bat 15 times. Since his last appearance in the major leagues in 2009, Iribarren has bounced around in Triple-A from Nashville (Milwaukee) to Oklahoma City (Texas) to Colorado Springs (Colorado) to, in 2014, Louisville (Cincinnati).  Things were desperate either for Iribarren, for Louisville, or both this past year, since Iribarren took the mound in 6 games (walking 1, striking out no one, and giving up just one hit in 5 innings).

The final Brewer card from Frankie was of a guy who needs to get moving to have a major league career as anything more than a fourth outfielder -- Michael Ratterree. Okay, it might be an exaggeration to say that, but he's going to be 24 at the start of the 2015 season, and he's played a total of 7 games above the Midwest League in his minor league career. He's a low-average three-true-outcomes-type player who has not quite developed enough power quite yet -- 19 homers in 567 plate appearances in 2014.

The rest of the cards that Frankie sent to me are available to whomever would like them. They aren't Brewers, but there are a number of nice cards.

Serial Numbered 19 of 75

Number 304 of 999

466 of 999, in case you can't make that out. And it's Carl Crawford as a Ray

Thank you very much, Frankie, for the excellent Brewers and the excellent trade bait. And to everyone who has not checked out his blog, take a read and help a younger collector out!