Breaking Donruss

Probably about a week and a half ago, I got an envelope in the mail from Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown.  It was an interesting envelope. I mean, I sort of wish that he had sent the envelope earlier so I could have taken advantage of this great deal!

It's not like I was anywhere near Louisville to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum, but seeing the art of Warner Bros. Cartoons at the Museum might have spurred me on to find a reason to head that way.

The envelope Gavin sent included nothing but Donruss 2014 cards. In honor of that, I got out my plagiaristic artistic skills and made a banner just for this post:

It's "Breaking Donruss", live here on Off Hiatus.

Gavin knows I'm a team collector -- though he couldn't have known that everyone in the blogosphere who opened Donruss was sending them to me -- so he sent me two Ryan Brauns:

The card isn't a bad-looking one for being an unlicensed card. I am starting to wonder if MLB and its constituent teams threatened Panini with litigation if Panini were to be so bold as to use the proper jersey/pant color combinations. I've complained in the past about how the Hometown Heroes set from last year put uniforms on the Brewers that did not look anything remotely like anything Milwaukee has ever worn.

Now these colors, at least, appear to be one of the alternate combinations that the Brewers wore this year.  But, why are all the cards in those colors?

Okay, enough analysis of uniforms.  Here are the other four cards that Gavin sent:

Davis has proven the eyes of the scouts wrong so far in his career -- those scouts who said that he wouldn't hit enough to be a major leaguer. In fairness, he's awful at getting on base and/or taking a walk. His OBP is .299. Ugh.

Then again, that's pretty much the story of the Brewers offense this year. The only guys who play regularly who have an OBP over .340 are Diamond King Carlos Gomez (.355), catcher Jonathan Lucroy (.369), and Rickie Weeks (.351). 

One final "word of defense" though -- the league OBP this year is just .312, and the team OBP is .310. So, it's a pretty close to league average team in that regard.  

Finally, I've talked a lot here about whether the Brewers will pick up the option for Yovani Gallardo for next year. Well, according to Jon Heyman, that's a done deal -- and to most observers, it's not a surprise. I guess it's been so long since I pondered such thing that Milwaukee spending any money seems to surprise me.

Many thanks, Gavin, for these great cards. I needed a couple of them, and anytime I can add more to my Brewers I appreciate it.

Another Cracking Package

The English use the word "cracking" to mean, as Merriam-Webster puts it, "Very good or impressive." So, for example, one of my favorite sources for news on European soccer is Football365.com; in 2009, they had a list at the end of the 2008/2009 season called "Top Ten Cracking Games of Season..." to discuss the best, more entertaining games. 

That's the context in which this post is titled. It also doesn't hurt that the package came from Julie at A Cracked Bat. Julie's just getting her feet underneath her here in the blogosphere, but she and I have swapped envelopes twice already.  This post -- which, for everyone who sees my normal posts and switches off saying "TL;DR" -- will be mercifully short on words and long on cards. 

The only words I'll say more are "Thank you Thank you Thank you!" to Julie, because these cards were great.  Thanks again and thanks for reading.

Thanks again, Julie!

Broken Record Day...eBay and trade...

It's not fair to my acquisitions today to say that it's just another day with a trade and an eBay purchase, but that's what came in the mail today.

First, the purchase.  I am hopeful that the Brewers have solidified their shortstop position by trading for Jean Segura.  Yes, he was an all-star last year, but his second trip through the league was not exactly a resounding success.  So, I'm concerned that I may be chasing cards for a guy that won't make it past year four with the Brewers.  That said, this 2014 Topps Tribute card -- signed on card -- is very pink.  And I really like it:

It is serial number 4 of 45, so at least there is some scarcity as well.  I got it for a decent price too.

The other envelope to find its way to me today came from Staten Island.  In response to my Turkey Red post, prolific trader Zippy Zappy of Cervin' Up Cards reached out to me and offered me a trade for a few of those cards.  Two of the items he offered to me were items that -- no surprise -- I had never heard of but about which ZZ is very knowledgeable and quick to explain: the Japanese Topps Sega Gen cards used to play a baseball video game in Japan.  I read up on them and, after some initial reticence which was satisfied and then some by the available resources on the internet, I agreed to the trade.

I'm very glad I did.  ZZ sent me two of those Sega cards -- Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun, both of which will find their ways into my newly being organized collections for each:

Despite appearances, the corners on these cards are intentionally rounded for inserting into the game console in the arcades.  And these cards are just cool.  Really cool.

But ZZ wasn't done there.  I also got a mid-1980s Topps Traded set surprise in the guise of later pitching coach Ray Burris:

Also making an appearance in his 2013 Topps camouflage bordered card numbered 72/99 is former Brewer and current Royal Norichika Aoki:

Nori is just happy to be shown where home plate is, I think.

Aoki was traded to Kansas City due to the late season emergence of another Brewers outfielder whose name reminded me of the 1980s movie Krush Groove -- of course, I'm talking about Khris Davis -- whose 2011 autographed Bowman caught the ferry off Staten Island:

All in all, I have to admit that I was blown away by the generosity shown once again by a fellow card blogger.  In my short time here as a blogger making trades, I am  overwhelmed consistently by the outpouring of fun, interesting cards in return for a few items that I have.  

I'm still feeling very disorganized and unorganized in my collecting at this point, and I don't know you guys well enough to know what to send to each of you.  I'm getting there, though.  I hope that you all continue offering me trades, and I'll do the same.  And, I am also starting to get a handle on things enough to see when people need what I have -- so I'm going to try to mail stuff out to people unsolicited as well. 

Thanks to all of you for a great first month back in card collecting -- here's to many more years of fun.