A Welcome PWE from Bru

We all have times in our lives where we just don't have time for ourselves. That's where I've been the past year. Many nights after work, it was all I could do just to stay awake long enough so I wouldn't wake up at 3 AM. 

Yet, I also could have made time for cards from time to time. I just didn't have it in me. I didn't feel like spending time and money on every new card to come around the corner from Topps or Panini or anyone else. 

The same thing happened with blogging. I was having more fun -- and it took less energy -- to spout out a one-liner on Twitter or get into a deep discussion with the guys doing season sets like Matt Prigge and Marc Brubaker and Nick Vossbrink about how they went about selecting photos, making the cards, getting them printed (or not), etc. It was a lot of fun checking out Mark Hoyle's daily 4:30 AM post of some crazy rare and extremely cool Boston Red Sox item.

The great thing is that it still is fun to do all those things. 

But I guess I missed blogging a bit. I missed finding random songs on YouTube to put into posts. I missed Meeting the Brewers. 

So I came back now. As I told some folks on Twitter, I'm back to write when I feel like it about what I feel like writing about. 

Sometimes, though, it will be just a good old-fashioned "Look what I got in the Mail today" post -- like today.

Today, I got mail from Bru at Remember the Astrodome -- who himself has gotten busy with other things in life now. He'd built up a few cards that he said he wanted to send me, so let's roll them out!

Let's start with the flying hair of Josh Hader. Hader went from being the prospect lefty who came over with Domingo Santana, Adrian Hauser, and Brett Phillips from the Astros in exchange for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers (I think the Brewers won that trade -- that's a gut instinct though) to being *THE* guy out of the bullpen who teams have to plan for on a regular basis. I like how the Brewers use him in many respects, though I'd rather have Knebel in the 9th and move Hader around some.

P.S. Josh Hader's entrance music, according to this 2019 Bowman card, is "Renegade" by Styx. Yes, I must post this classic rock saw.

I think that songs been on classic rock radio since I was in middle school. 

Next up is Jacob Barnes from the 2018 Heritage High Numbers. Due to the fact that Barnes has been scuffling some during this first month of the year and due to him having one minor league option year left, I have a feeling that Barnes will be on the San Antonio Shuttle pretty regularly once the Brewers get Jimmy Nelson back to as good as he'll get sometime late this month or in June. He's been walking too many guys so far this year, but he's a solid bullpen arm.

Speaking of the San Antonio Shuttle and also from the 2018 Heritage High Numbers, here's Jacob Nottingham. He was the return for Khris Davis. The thinking at the time was that a catching prospect is worth much more than a ragarm outfielder with suboptimal on-base skills. 

It was probably the right move in many respects because if Davis is still in Milwaukee, does the team still go after Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich?

We're still waiting for Nottingham to emerge, though. He is still 24, but he has to hit more than he has in Triple-A to prove he belongs in the majors. Here's hoping he develops this year with Yasmani Grandal and Manny Piña in front of him and can be a big leaguer next year.

A throwback here. It feels like so long ago that Jonathan Villar was with the Brewers. It feels like so long ago that Honus Bonus thought people would buy cards of guys in black and white and without logos and try to play fantasy baseball online with them.

At least Villar had one big year for Milwaukee. Of course, Jonathan Schoop was a massive bust last year down the stretch, but it was worth a try to see if he could be the answer at second for a year as we wait patiently for Keston Hiura.

Bru sent me two 2019 Orlando Arcia cards. 2018 was a year to forget for Arcia, whose batting was such a black hole that his defensive contributions were cancelled out in the whole WAR equation on Baseball Reference. He's doing a little better this year in two respects. First, he's already hit more homeruns this year in a month (129 PA) than he did last year over 119 games (366 PA) -- 4 to 3. He's also walking at a better clip -- 9 walks in those 129 PA versus just 15 all year last year. 

He's still not great at the plate, but at least he's not an embarrassing negative.

I was hoping that Chase Anderson can help stabilize the rotation, but then he went out and had his callouses on his middle pitching finger -- you know, the one you use to throw a curveball -- bust open. Anderson is a serviceable 4th/5th/6th starter so long as he can keep the ball in the park or limit how many people are on base when he gives up his standard HR every 6-7 innings. 

Brent Suter is quickly becoming one of my favorite players on the Brewers. It's too bad he had to have Tommy John surgery last year. He's becoming a favorite for a couple of reasons. First, he's smart -- a Harvard grad who actually played baseball there I'm told and did not use that as an excuse to get in the backdoor through parental bribes. Second, the guy is a glue guy. He keeps guys loose, brings guys together, makes people laugh -- the team is better with him around.

Plus, he follows me on Twitter. 

When Christian Yelich was traded to Milwaukee last year, I knew he would have a good year. His swing seemed tailor made for Miller Park's cozier dimensions than the Miami Mausoleum, and all indications were that he was a good "makeup" guy -- someone who would fit in with teammates. That was a big part of why I said I was going to collect his cards. 

I had no idea he would become the MVP and turn into the monster he has become. I'm excited to see how good he can become in Milwaukee. He's still only 27 years old this year, after all, which might be his peak but it could be a peak that is sustainable for three or four more years easily. He's signed through 2021 at a reasonable salary ($9.75 million this year, $12.5MM in 2020, $14MM in 2021) with a team option in 2022 at $15 million. 

Many thanks go out to Bru for the cards. Bru, just stick with us on Twitter. We'll be around when you get time again. 

Christmas in July, Celebrated in September

Back nearly two months ago, my Gator loving friend John from Johnny's Trading Spot sent out a ton of packages to people around the card-collecting world to celebrate "Christmas in July." I was one of the recipients of one of those packages, and I now am here to celebrate the autumnal equinox with Christmas. It's just over 90 shopping days until Christmas, after all.

Just proving that it really was Christmas in July. John sent a massive package of cards, so I'm going to share some of them. In the past with cards from John, I've written them up with everything from a comparison to the local cougar lounge (Johnny's Hideaway) to comparisons to old cars to music drawn from John's blog.

How about I just show the cards and talk about them?

Let's start with Orlando Arcia's coin from 2017 Topps Archives. I like the coins from the original issue back in 1987 through 1990, which themselves were throwbacks to the 1971 coins, which themselves were throwbacks to the original 1964 coins. Each and every one of those issues is a great oddball that needs those cardboard and plastic cases to be able to display them properly.

Arcia has improved greatly this year. He might be a cornerstone. His OBP has improved this year, though he has not hit for as much power in the second half as he did in the first half (which was driven by his excellent June). He obviously needs to continue developing, though he seems to have the right attitude and his fielding is already among the best in the league.

Next up, we have some 2003 Fleer Hardball discs. I'm pretty sure this set was created by a Fleer card designer who wondered to himself or herself what those MSA discs would have looked like if MSA issued 200 of them and had licensing and had parallels. The answer: not bad, but oddballs should be kept as oddballs for a reason. Weird shapes and sizes of cards are best kept in small doses for fear of overdose.

Parallels? Really? Come on. I mean, it's cool if it was a "parallel" that was exactly the same except for the fact that, instead of "Fleer Hardball," the disc said, "Donruss Superstars" and another said "Upper Deck Dandies" and another said "Topps Lemons" or something like that.

According to Baseball Card Pedia, 1997 Pinnacle Inside came "inside one of 24 collectible player soup cans."

If that happened today, I'd have the same look on my face as Dave Nilsson has on his face on this card.

I have not paid any attention to what Panini has been doing this year in cards. Should I?

Based on this card, I'm thinking I'm okay with being a collecting version of Joe Barry Carroll a/k/a Joe Barely Cares when it comes to Panini. I'll pick up Diamond Kings and the like at card shows if I see them cheap. Otherwise, I'm not going out of my way to find them.

As for Ray, 2016's #1 pick for the Brewers struggled in the Carolina League this year, hitting just .238/.311/.367 in 503 plate appearances with 7 HR and 24 SB in 34 attempts. He struck out too much too. That said, he still is his toolsy self...we'll see what happens.

Out of these two cards, let's talk about Kevin Barker. He made it to Milwaukee at the age of 23 in 1999 and performed decently in 127 plate appearances -- .282/.331/.385. In 2000, he hit similarly -- .220/.352/.330. But, in their infinite wisdom in 1999, the Brewers played Mark Loretta and Sean Barry instead of Barker and, then, traded for Richie Sexson in 2000. That led to his eventual trade to San Diego in spring training in 2002 (where he got 7 games and 20 plate appearances). From there, he bounced around yearly -- to Detroit, to Florida, to Philadelphia, to Toronto (where he got into 12 games with 18 plate appearances) for two years, to Cincinnati (29 games, 36 plate appearances in 2009). 

I mean, he grinded out 323 plate appearances across 11 years with four teams. There's something to be said for that sticktoitiveness.

These test proof cards that Panini put out last year are just plain awful. Other than photo comparison, I couldn't tell you from this scan that this is Orlando Arcia. Combine a single color with no logos and discolored uniforms, and you have what should otherwise be thrown away except for that serial number and the hint of it showing a baseball player on it.

UGH.

It wouldn't be Christmas without 1995 Fleer. It really wouldn't. It's like the bow on the present. The star on the tree. The asbestos substituting for snow on the tree.

No, really.

Pure, white, fireproof asbestos snow. 

It's weird packaging for baseball cards, but I'm not surprised that Fleer used it in 1995.

John -- many thanks for the great cards. I hope that your home and your family are all safe after Irma.

Cards from Night Owl

I had a slow day at work yesterday. It wasn't because I did not have anything to do, but it was just one of those days common before a long weekend when I have mentally declared myself on a break. Despite the desire to leave the office pretty much at any point after 10 AM (having arrived at 7 AM), I ended up staying until 3 PM. 

Because I had no desire to work, I ended up doing a little project that I've been meaning to do for quite some time: catalog all the songs that I've posted here. I mean, what good is a collector if he or she can't handle another spreadsheet to catalog a collection?  

The results of my work surprised me somewhat -- I didn't think that I had posted 16 different songs twice, for instance. In total and to date, I've posted a total of 766 different songs, including 22 different songs by Pearl Jam, 6 different songs by REM (including posting "So. Central Rain" twice), and 7 different songs by Weird Al Yankovic (inflated by a theme post...what can I say?). 

Shockingly, though, I've only posted 3 songs by one of my favorite bands of all time -- a favorite that I share with the man who sent me the cards in today's post. That band is U2, and that notable collector with good taste in music is Night Owl. Now, Night Owl has led me before to an all-Foghat post, but today's U2 post is definitely going to top that one. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite U2 songs and some Brewers cards.

"Sunday Bloody Sunday"

I could relate to what Night Owl was talking about with how good the album War is on his post about "The Last Beloved Set of the Masses" comparing 1987 Topps to music in the 1980s. To be fair, I could relate to the whole post, but it was especially true about War. I was an isolated kid in the country 35 miles from downtown Milwaukee -- which, in the era before the internet, might as well have been somewhere in the middle of Montana. So, I was a little late to the U2 bandwagon, but I still caught it before U2 got huge in 1987.

It took participation in high school debate starting in 1986 and interaction with a whole different group of people to open my eyes to all the good things the city had to offer. If I think more deeply about it, I probably would not have become a lawyer without debate, and, going even deeper, I probably would not have joined debate had I not accidentally put my foot through a window playing baseball behind my house a week after my grandmother passed away in 1986. I would have been playing football instead -- badly, mind you, because, even in the 1980s, a 175-pound offensive lineman was destined for backup duty at best.

At any rate, one of those eye-openers was meeting people whose musical tastes were different from mine. A teammate of mine introduced me to The Dead Kennedys and The Dead Milkmen, while another introduced me to Depeche Mode and U2. I'm grateful to both of them for those introductions.

Speaking of introductions (and 1987 Topps, which our friendly neighborhood monopoly is beating so hard into the ground that they are trying to make sure none of us ever wax nostalgic about it again), Orlando Arcia is quickly growing in my estimation as a player whom I may decide to make a player collection. 

The thing about my player collections at this point is that I am trying to stay away from that early commitment mistake that occurred with Jean Segura. Looking at their batting eyes in particular, there is a distinct possibility that that could happen. At the same time, that minimizes the mental aspect of Segura probably needing to get out of Milwaukee so he could stop being reminded of his young son's death in mid-2014. 

So, while I have my eye on Arcia as a possibility, I continue to focus on looking long term. When the position player with the second-most tenure on the Brewers team behind Ryan Braun is Domingo Santana -- who made his Brewers debut on August 21, 2015 -- you can see why I'm hesitant to jump in feet first. There are still a lot of players to sort through, to develop, and see what impact they make on the team's history. I mean, I'd have left Jimmy Nelson for dead last year, and look what he's doing this year.

"Pride (In the Name of Love)"

It's probably a bit of a cliche to say that the two songs I've listed so far are my favorite U2 songs. Yet, these songs hold up -- much better, it must be said, than Bono's massive mullet in the video for this song. A song about the impact that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made on America and the world has nearly as much relevance today as it did thirty years ago. 

Arguably, his message of nonviolent protest in the face of injustice should be even more important today with how fractured American society has become thanks to highly publicized Neo-Nazi demonstrations being met by alleged anti-fascists looking for violence. Who knows what those two groups really are trying to do -- if they are true believers or if they are lost souls who will grow out of their violent ways or what have you -- but Dr. King's message is to meet these protests on both sides with civil disobedience. . . . Let me stop there, because I didn't come here to try to solve our current situations, and you probably didn't come here to read about my thoughts on it, so I'll get back to the cards now.

Night Owl cleaned out some Allen & Ginter minis that he had stored up in his upstate New York baseball-card bunker. Everyone from Prince Fielder to Corey Hart to K-Rod to Segura to Mike Cameron was included. 

Mike Cameron's 20-year-old son Daz was in the news recently for being a part of the bounty that the Detroit Tigers extracted from Houston in exchange for Justin Verlander. Daz has spent parts of the last two seasons in the Midwest League, which sounds like he's stalled except for the fact that, again, he's just 20 years old. He's likely to hit High-A Lakeland next year in the Florida State League. He apparently has a defensive profile like his father -- meaning that Daz is one hell of a good centerfielder.

"A Sort of Homecoming"

Okay, so here's where I stray from the "big" songs to one of U2's slightly lesser known songs. Because I couldn't always afford the complete cassette tapes, I bought U2's Wide Awake In America, which included four songs: "Bad" and this song live and two B-sides of "The Three Sunrises" and "Loves Come Tumbling." 

This song is the perfect album-opener, which is its place on The Unforgettable Fire. It starts softly and slowly, only to build to something akin to a church praise song -- loud, happy, joyful -- and then resolves itself at the end with talk of "coming home" in a decrescendo, slowing to a stop. Much of U2's music has interpretations that could be put in the context of Christianity. That, itself, is an important backstory in the band's history, and it is one that many Christian websites glom onto -- with, for example, a countdown of U2's "top 10 faith-fuelled songs." This song didn't make the cut for that list, but it could be read that way.

This card gets written up by itself because it was the one and only Milwaukee Brewers card in the 2016 Topps Holiday card set. 

Bunch of snowflakes.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

In my high school days, this song really hit me as a search for more meaning in life. You know how you are as a teenager -- everything in life is on the table and the idea of being the one person to make a huge difference in the world is not as remote as it becomes later in life. As a 15-year-old when the album came out, it made me happy that even Bono hadn't figured out what his search in life was going to yield.

It's a catchy song, too.

Stadium Club cards sort of remind me of this song in some respects. I really like the product. I really like the photos. Even the fact that more than just a couple of Brewers made the setlist makes me like it. Yet, while it is a good set, I am still looking for something to grab me, to shake me and make me say, "Yes, this is it. This is the modern set of cards that I have been waiting to collect." While I like Stadium Club, it's still not what I've been looking for.

"One"

This very well may be my favorite song -- single song -- of all time. When I first heard it on Achtung Baby!, it grabbed me immediately. Again, I'm a guy who loves lyrics. This song is such a great breakup song, but in an introspective way. The internal questions that everyone goes through when a relationship seem to come spilling out in this song. Match it with the building guitar line from Edge and the light touch on the drums, and it just seems like a perfectly constructed song to me.

On the other hand, Topps Opening Day is far from being a perfectly constructed set. Any number of improvements could be made to it to make it a far more collectable set. I know I talk about it frequently, but if this is the set intended for kids to collect, then make the set one that kids in every major league city will want to collect. Not every kid is an Aaron Judge fan. Not every kid is a Bryce Harper fan. Some kids are Twins fans or Brewers fans. I've even heard rumors that there are 12 kids that are Rays fans. 

If the intent for this set is to be one to draw in the youngsters, then make it draw in the youngsters and not say to them, "we'd care about you if you were a Yankees fan or a Cubs fan."

"Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own"

The one song beyond U2's true heyday that grabbed me by the heartstrings and made me listen is this one. If you're a U2 fan, you know that this song was written by Bono in the wake of his dad's death. Just listening to it with that little bit of context makes it far more personal. Literally, the song makes me tear up if I haven't heard it in a long time because I can put myself into the position Bono sings about with respect to family members who have passed away. 

It's a beautiful song.

To close on a lighter note, here are some of the extra 1975 Topps buybacks that Night Owl received in his quest to build a buyback set from 1975. I can envision that the Robin Yount and George Brett rookie cards will be very difficult to find.

The weird thing is that I don't listen to U2 now all that much. I loved this band 30 years ago -- still know all the words to every song on War, The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Rattle And Hum, and Achtung Baby! -- so why don't I listen to them more? To be honest, I wore myself out on them. I have listened to War on cassette and later on CD enough times to number into the thousands. Same goes for the other CDs/tapes of those other albums. Plus, U2's foray into electronica with Zooropa and all that stuff kind of lost me for a while. I really did not like that album, even though it's eminently more listenable today than it was at the time.

Nonetheless, the fact that one of my favorite albums of all time is now 30 years old is a bit frightening in a mortality sort of way. 

Night Owl, thanks for the great cards.

One More Post from eBay

As many of you know, I decided to start a second blog to indulge myself in a bit of cataloging and, at the same time, in a bit of history and oddball love. My new blog, "Collecting the 1980s: Remembering the Oddballs from the Best Decade in Cards," focuses on the fun, offbeat, and forgotten cards from the 1980s. Of course I call it the best decade in cards because that is when I was a kid and cards are always best when you're a kid. I'd sure appreciate it if you would stop over there and read some of those posts and comment.

All that said, I'm trying not to neglect this blog more than I have already. I mean, my purchases are still focused on the Brewers as are my (dwindling) trades with other people. But y'all know how it is sometimes -- you need a little bit of extra spice in your life. That change or twist to keep things exciting and interesting. That's what the new blog is, really -- a new twist for me to keep writing about things I enjoy while paying little attention to new issues other than to note them for future checklists. 

So, I still surf on eBay looking for deals. Sometimes, it is just for a Topps Now card -- to pay $5.99 for a card that Topps would charge me $9.99 to get. I'm not super excited about that "deal" -- I mean, it's still one card for $6 -- but it's better than a $10 card. Other times, I can find the random lots that have cards I need. Today's post is one of those times. 

Powered by the prog-rock timeline at Strawberry Bricks, let's dig in.

Strawberry Bricks calls itself "a record guide to music of the progressive era of rock music." As is the case with a lot of genres of music, the timeline for prog rock starts with the Beatles -- here, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is incredible to think about all the different genres of rock music that the Beatles influenced. Everything from the prog rock of Pink Floyd and Yes to the grunge sound of Nirvana (Kurt Cobain was heavily influenced by the Beatles) to the blatant worshipfulness of 90s Britpop from Oasis is descended directly from the Beatles. And that is just a quick run.

This song, "A Day In The Life," has been called the 28th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone and, then, in a list of just Beatles songs, it was called the best song by Rolling Stone. I'm not sure how that is squared other than different writers at different times looking at different things. 

 

One of the impetuses for buying this lot were the Prince Fielder cards that I needed for my Fielder collection. Other than the one of him signing autographs -- which I think goes into my team set -- all of these were needed for the Prince book. As you might be able to see, the 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History parallels are both serial numbered -- the blue one is 184/299 and the gold one is 48/50 -- and so is the 2009 Upper Deck Icons Future Foundations, which is numbered 750/999. 

Last year, I posted some Braves cards accompanied by jazz. One of the songs I included was "Blue Rondo à la Turk" by Dave Brubeck. The Nice, a London band from 1967 formed by Keith Emerson (later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer), performed this prog-rock cover of the song and titled it simply "Rondo." 

Emerson is the keyboardist here -- as he always has been in his other bands prior to his death on March 11, 2016 -- but rather than using all kinds of different types of keyboards as he did later in ELP, he focused almost exclusively on using a Hammond organ. No less a music luminary than John Peel was an early champion of The Nice and infamously referred to ELP as "a waste of talent and electricity."

I'm hoping that these three guys don't end up as wastes of talent and electricity. There are troubling signs for each, however.

Gilbert Lara -- a die-cut card from the 2014 Elite Extra Edition set serial numbered to 200 -- does not turn 20 years old until October 20 of this year. He moved up to full-season Wisconsin this year and has struggled -- 7 BB and 73 Ks in 210 plate appearances, slash of .189/.219/.269 is not good even when you are 2 years younger than the average age in the league. Fangraphs has Lara rated as a 40 Future Value player and notes that "the quality of his at-bats is resoundingly poor, he looks tense and uncomfortable in the box, gets visibly frustrated when he struggles, and hasn't tapped into his considerable raw power in games, even in the hitter-friendly Pioneer League." Not good.

Nathan Kirby was drafted in the second round in 2015 out of the University of Virginia. Prior to that college season, he was seen as a potential top-10 talent. Injuries (strained lat) cost him much of that 2015 season, and he slid into the second round where the Brewers selected him #40 overall. He went to Single-A Wisconsin, threw 12-2/3 innings, and was promptly sidelined by a torn ulnar collateral ligament leading directly to Tommy John surgery. This year, he came back in spring training only to suffer from ulnar neuritis -- leading to ulnar nerve transposition surgery which will keep him out to at least the end of this month. He'll be 24 next year and really needs to do something as a pro pitcher next year.

Braden Webb was an oddball of sorts himself. He graduated high school in 2014 and had Tommy John surgery even before he graduated. Despite being old for his high school class -- he turned 19 prior to graduating high school -- he sat out and stayed out of college entirely in 2015 before enrolling for one season with the South Carolina Gamecocks. Due to his age, he was draft eligible after that season, and the Brewers picked him in the third round of the 2016 draft. As was the case for Webb in college, he is struggling with his control at Single-A Wisconsin this year -- walking 5 men every 9 innings. 

One thing you can count on from prog rock are super long, overly indulgent (at times) songs which seem to go on and on and on. Often, that is not a bad thing. This is especially true when the men (and in prog rock, it is almost entirely men) who are playing are virtuoso in their playing ability. 

This song, "Bare Wires Suite," is by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and comprised the entire first side of the album called Bare Wires. Embedded within this suite are seven individual songs: "Bare Wires," "Where Did I Belong," "I Started Walking," "Open Up A New Door," "Fire," "I Know Now," and "Look In The Mirror." Unlike some of the other prog rock here, there is a bluesy feel to this song. You can hear the blues chord changes flying by in each of the songs by listening to the bass line, the rhythm guitar, and, at times, the keyboards. Any jazz band member will tell you that the bass line is literally the most important sound within that jazz ensemble -- along with the drums -- because it sets tempo and key. Everything else from there is icing on the cake.

Before this season began, I expressed some concern that Arcia had the potential to turn into Rey Ordoñez 2.0 due to the significant questions about his ability to hit at the major league level. All indications from scouts were that Arcia would be a plus-plus fielder -- and that has definitely been the case. As it stands currently, he leads the NL in total zone runs, range factor per nine innings, double plays turned, assists, and putouts at short. Yes, he's committed 11 errors, but that happens when you get to a ton of balls.

The question was going to be his bat. This concern was highlighted after his .219/.273/.358 slash line last year (an OPS+ of just 66). Thankfully, he has improved significantly this year. He hit a low-water mark on May 17 with an 0-for-4 performance against the Padres that left his slash line at .208/.261/.352 (eerily similar to 2016). Since that game and over the past 7 weeks, Arcia has hit .356/.388/.494 with four homers and four steals. 

Sure, he's not walking a ton (10 walks in 170 plate appearances) and his contact hasn't been great (30 Ks) but he has been hitting 8th for much of that time, meaning that walks generally do not come into play with the pitcher hitting behind him. That burst has put him just about right at being an average NL hitter. With his glove, that makes him a very valuable player. 

And all of this has been done before he turns 23 years old on August 4. If he can stay at being a league average hitter for his whole career and fields as well as he has, he could quite literally end up being more Ozzie Smith 2.0 (career OPS+: 87) than Rey Ordoñez. I'm not making him a PC yet -- I'm still feeling a bit burned by Jean Segura's hacktastic ways -- but he will be soon enough if his development continues.

Before the band added Phil Collins and lost Peter Gabriel, Genesis was very much a prog rock band instead of singing pop songs like "Sussudio." The song "The Silent Sun" was Genesis's first-ever single from its first album, From Genesis to Revelation, and it was released in 1968. The album was not released until March of 1969 even though the single was released on February 22, 1968. 

If you listen to this short song -- it's only a little over 2 minutes long -- you will hear nothing that sounds either like anything Genesis or Peter Gabriel released in the 1980s. It's very much a piece of its time in the late 1960s.

And finally: lots of Ryan Braun. The fact that much of this lot is Braun-focused is appropriate since it seems nearly every set by every card issuer these days includes Braun and maybe Arcia and that's about it. Somehow, I'd missed that Topps issued Gold Label again last year -- it must have been an online exclusive or something -- so this lot helped me by getting me the parallel/variations of the "Class 2 and Class 3." There's also a 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Silver parallel serial numbered to 399 in there as well along with one of what is Panini's best set every year -- Diamond Kings from 2017. I'd still prefer hatless players from Panini rather than no-logo, but at least there isn't a fake autograph on it.

All of these cards fit well into my collection either for team sets or for my player collections. The great thing about this purchase was that I got a total of 38 different Brewers cards, including a couple of relics, a few autographs, and several serial numbered cards, for just $7.12 total with shipping included. Basically, that's less than 50 cents a card. For what I got, that seems like a good deal to me.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you want to trade.