Blowing it Up

With the Brewers being godawful terrible right from the get-go this year, it was only a matter of time before the team made some trades. I've talked about it here before -- this iteration of the Milwaukee Brewers had to be blown up.

It started last week with the return of Aramis Ramirez to the Pirates for what qualifies as a lottery ticket.

#Pirates, #Brewers have now announced trade sending Aramis Ramirez to Pittsburgh. Read more: http://t.co/52bBMot4y2 pic.twitter.com/eiKJlQc1Zf

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) July 23, 2015

In that trade, the Brewers received Yhonathan Barrios, a 23-year-old Columbian who started his baseball life as an infielder. He's in Triple-A, has a live arm, but has the typical problem that position players who transition to pitching have -- his fastball is straight and hitters don't really miss it all that much (K/9 in high-A in 2014 was 5.4, Double-A in 2014 and 2015 was 4.2, and Triple-A in 2015 was 5.2).  

The Brewers assigned him to Double-A Biloxi.  Barrios probably is not a prospect -- I mean, how many minor league closers really are prospects?  But, the Brewers probably need to find out quickly what he can do since he will be subject to the Rule 5 Draft if the Brewers don't put him on their 40-man roster.

Then, yesterday, there was this drama:

ICYMI: Carlos Gomez said goodbye, Wilmer Flores wept, but there was no #Brewers-Mets trade http://t.co/etOdGFmGKV pic.twitter.com/ZrsUk3hhcl

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 30, 2015

We learned a couple of things yesterday. First, we learned that Terry Collins didn't mind completely embarrassing one of his players during a very emotional time. I don't care if the trade never was consummated. The fact that Flores was that emotional and the fact that Collins did absolutely nothing to help the guy out before pinch hitting for him in the ninth inning shows me that Collins doesn't care about his players.

We also learned that the Mets were willing to lie to every news outlet in America when they said that they nixed the trade because of Gomez's adductor and hip muscles. Hell, their reasons kept changing, but the story that seems to have emerged -- and was more plausible than a health issue -- was that the Mets asked the Brewers to pick up part of Gomez's 2016 salary and the Brewers refused. Considering that Gomez is on a team-friendly deal for next year, I can't blame the Brewers for refusing.  

Then, tonight, as I sat down to write this post, this happened:

OF Carlos Gomez, RHP Mike Fiers, International Slot 76 to Hou for OF Brett Phillips, OF Domingo Santana, LHP Josh Hader & RHP Adrian Houser.

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2015

At first, I didn't know what to think, mainly due to my lack of knowledge about the Astros system.  Who are these guys?

Adrian Houser was the Astros second round pick in 2011 out of high school in Oklahoma. He's a 22-year-old who has not shown much at Double-A this year in the Texas League. He's the one guy who isn't universally on prospect lists, but MLB.com listed him as #21 in the Astros organization as of mid-season.

Josh Hader is now in his third organization in three years. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2011, and the Astros picked him up as part of trading Bud Norris to the O's in 2013. Hader was the Astros Minor League pitcher of the year in 2014 after an excellent year in the California League (and a taste of Double-A) at the age of 20.  He's been very good in Double-A in the Texas League this year, and he'll join the rest of the Brewers top prospects in Biloxi (as will Houser and Phillips).  MLB.com put him as the 14th best Astros prospect as of mid-season.

Domingo Santana is the most advanced of the four prospects in that he is at Triple-A and will be assigned by Milwaukee to Colorado Springs. In Fresno, he was hitting .320/.426/.582 with 16 HRs, 48 BBs, 91 Ks in 326 plate appearances.  It's his second season at Triple-A. He looked terribly overmatched last year when the Astros brought him up for a cup of coffee in September -- as in, 0-for-17 with 14 strikeouts overmatched.  This year, in 14 games, he hit .256/.310/.462 in 42 plate appearances (but, again, a lot of Ks and not many BBs -- 2 BB, 17 Ks).  Coming in to the season, he was rated as the #71 Prospect in baseball by MLB.com (he dropped to #87 at mid-season), and as of mid-season he was the #7 prospect in Houston's system.

Finally, there is Brett Maverick Phillips.  No kidding. That's his name. It should surprise no one to hear that Brett Maverick was born and raised in Seminole, Florida. He was drafted out of high school in the sixth round in 2012 by the Astros, and he was considered untouchable until the Brewers were willing to put Mike Fiers into the deal.  He's an outfielder who has been raking at the plate over the past two years -- .310/.375/.529 last year in the Midwest League and California League and .320/.377/.548 in the California League and the Double-A Texas League this year. He was rated as the Astros 2nd best prospect at mid-season behind Alex Bregman and ahead of Mark Appel and as the 39th best prospect overall.

For me, there's a little bit of sadness, of course, in having one of the guys I really tried to collect in Carlos Gomez getting traded. At this point, though, I'm okay with it. I mean, he does have Scott Boras as his agent. So, that means that he would have never re-signed with Milwaukee after his contract expired at the end of next season. He'll be 31 when he starts the season in 2017, so you have to think he'll be looking for a very rich 5- to 7-year deal -- probably with the Yankees or Cardinals just to piss me off.

So, thanks, Carlos, it's been great collecting your cards.

Maybe I should start a Maverick collection.

Fantastic Mail Day

I've made trades through Twitter before. I've won Twitter contests before. I try to follow as many of you as I can find on Twitter as well. On occasion, I'll even post a snarky remark on Twitter directed at Topps, or Harold Reynolds, or some other deserving-of-snark target. 

I have even had people reach out to me to get my address to mail me something through Twitter.  That's what happened a few days back to me when Weston from Fantastic Catch sent me a DM (that's a "Direct Message" for those of you less technically inclined...yes, that was snark/sarcasm) to get my address.  

I tend not to follow too many baseball players on Twitter though. Simply put, most of them are pretty boring to follow. Still, perhaps I should look into following a few of them...maybe the guys whose cards Weston sent?

First, let me get the guys who I just can't find on Twitter out of the way. For any of these guys, if you happen to know their Twitter handle, please let me know and I'll fix this.

Matt Cline

Cline was an All-Star at Brevard County in 2010, but he was 24 in High-A and coming off a lost 2009 season. He crashed and burned at Huntsville in 2012 (after a none-too-impressive 2011), and that was it for him in minor league baseball.

Richie Sexson

Y'all know who he is. Sexson has been out of baseball since 2008, making nearly $69 million between 1998 and 2008 for his troubles. I am older than Richie Sexson by 3 years and 2 days, and I have not made $69 million for my troubles. 

Not yet.

But, I hear you have to buy a lottery ticket to win the lottery. So that probably won't change anytime soon.

Geoff Jenkins

I am surprised by these guys who are, essentially, my contemporaries who apparently view Twitter or computers with such contempt or fear.  But hey, he's on LinkedIn!

Taylor Green

Wow.  This is going badly at this point. I can't find any of these guys on Twitter.  Green made it to the majors for 78 at bats split between 2011 and 2012. He tore a labrum in his left hip in 2013, had surgery, and hasn't been back up in the majors. He's still at it though -- he's at Double-A Biloxi currently.  I predict he'll end up managing the Brewers in 2024.

WAIT -- I really did find some guys!

Like Erik Komatsu (@KomoBeatz)

Komatsu was another High-A All-Star in 2010 at Brevard County. The Brewers traded him to the Washington Nationals in 2011 for Jerry Hairston as a trade deadline pickup. He then got selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Cardinals that Decement. The Cardinals tried to send him down, but the Twins selected him off waivers.  Between the Twins and Cardinals in 2012, he played 30 games in the Major Leagues.  He moved around a bunch last year -- released by Washington, signed and released by the Angels, and then signed and released by the Brewers. 

He's playing in the independent Atlantic League this year, and he fashions himself as a Music Producer.  His latest Twitter post is a mix of stadium announcers saying "now batting" with a Beyonce song. It's actually decent.

Dustin DeMuth (@_doubled16)

DeMuth played college baseball with Kyle Schwarber at Indiana. Schwarber is with the Cubs; DeMuth is in the Midwest League with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He's hitting pretty well there. But, that's the difference between a first round pick and a fifth round pick, I suppose.

Thomas Keeling (@Thomas_Keeling)

Keeling is a 27-year-old pitcher who ended up in the Braves system in 2013, washed out, played in independent league ball in 2014, and does not appear to be playing this year. Perhaps it was telling that he repeated at Helena in Rookie League ball in 2010 and 2011. His last tweet was complaining to Southwest Airlines about something.

Haven't we all been there before...

Troy Stokes (@Troy_Stokes15)

Stokes is a very active tweeter. Over his three years on Twitter, he's Tweeted in excess of 14,000 times. I hope he's working on his education, though -- he's not highly thought of in prospect circles and did not make MLB's top 30 prospects in the Brewers system as of midseason.

Hunter Morris (@HunterMorris15)

A little bit of Hunter Morris jersey there for you. He's now in the Pittsburgh organization, and his Twitter home page has just two words that only my wife could love: War Eagle.

Bleh.

Carlos Gomez (@C_Gomez27)

When you have over 72,500 followers, I think you qualify for the little blue "verified" check mark. Granted, Topps may think you're Khris Davis, but that's a little thing.  Gomez tweets pretty regularly in what can only be called Spanglish.

I hope he stays with the team at least through the offseason. The Brewers should trade him, but I tend to think that the return will be more if the team waits.

Prince Fielder (@RealPFielder28)

The best card in the envelope -- the black 2009 Topps Update serial numbered to just 58 -- came from the least interesting Twitter follow of the group. Prince has nearly 150,000 followers. He's shared a grand total of 74 Tweets...and of those, I think about 1/3 to 1/2 include corporate sponsor-type stuff like shout-outs to T-Mobile and Sponge Bob.

I think that's why I follow bloggers instead of baseballers.

Like Weston (@cardscrush99).

Weston, thank you very much for the great cards and the excuse to troll through Twitter for a few minutes!

A Grab Bag of and from Peoria

P-Town Tom -- named for his hometown of Peoria and proprietor of the Cubs blog Waiting 'til Next Year -- has become a regular trading partner of mine over the past few months. Recently, an envelope arrived from Tom with the following note inside:

With such hospitality coming from Peoria, I felt like the best way to showcase the cards that Tom sent to me would be to highlight some of Peoria's main attractions and things to do according to TripAdvisor (and others).

#10: Jukebox Comedy Club

Comedy legend Richard Pryor was born in Peoria in what can only be described as dire circumstances -- growing up in his grandmother's brothel where his mother was a prostitute.  Wow -- it's already edgier than I thought in Peoria.

At any rate, with that comedic background, it seemed appropriate to highlight Peoria's comedy club where, on April 2 through April 4, Saturday Night Live legend Tim Meadows will be playing. 

Now, what does this have to do with any cards?  

Bernie Brewer makes me smile, even if I think it's an atrocity that he no longer slides into a foaming-over mug of beer to release balloons when a home run is hit.  Remember kids: beer makes people happy.

And, this Topps Heritage Minor Leagues card of Orlando Arcia should put a smile on anyone's face.  Just a 19-year-old kid having fun playing a game and getting paid well to do it.  He even had a pretty good season at Brevard County last year -- for a kid over 3-1/2 years younger than the average Florida State League player, he slashed at .289/.346/.392. He's got a better glove at second than at short (in limited playing time, mind you), but he's got some development time to go.

#9: Riverfront Museum
The Riverfront Museum is basically the history museum for Peoria.  People mentioned Beanie Babies and Pez dispensers being on display as well as a room dedicated to the IHSA -- the Illinois High School Association -- which coordinates and regulates high school competitions in the state.

Were there cards appropriate for a museum? Of course:

These Panini Classics certainly would like someday to be considered as museum-worthy.  I needed these for either player collections or my team collections, so they went into my own version of the museum -- my Brewers binders (still a work in progress).

#8 Luthy Botanical Garden

The first TripAdvisor comment is that this is a beautiful place -- a "beautiful oasis of beautiful plants and flowers in the middle of a not so beautiful urban area and park."

Some people just can't be pleased.

But, to be fair, Tom sent just the cards that fit that description:

These wrapper redemption blue slate cards are just awesome looking cards.  Considering the mundane design they arose from, I consider them the collecting equivalent of that can't-be-pleased-completely commentator.

#5 Forest Park

One reviewer called this the "Best Kept Secret in Peoria." Be careful, though -- no dogs allowed!

For many years in the 1980s and early 1990s, Paul Molitor was among the best kept secrets in baseball. Other than playing in the World Series with the Blue Jays in 1993 and winning the World Series MVP, Molitor was known probably only for his 39-game hitting streak in 1987.  Injured often with Milwaukee, he blossomed later in his career once teams recognized his best position was hitting four times a game and watching the rest of the proceedings from the bench. 

I wonder if he'll bring up the end of that 39-game hitting streak when Boston plays Minnesota this year.  After all, Red Sox manager John Farrell was the pitcher who shut down Molitor in the 40th game.

#4: O'Brien Field -- a/k/a Dozer Park
The home of minor league baseball in Peoria, Dozer Park -- thank you corporate sponsor Caterpillar -- is the home of both the Bradley Braves and the Peoria Chiefs.  The Chiefs are the Cardinals Single-A affiliate in the Midwest League.  

Of course, now's the time to highlight the other "prospect" cards in the package:

David Goforth played against Peoria in 2012 as a member of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

Clint Coulter played in the Midwest League for 33 games at the age of 19 in 2013, then played the whole season there last year, slashing .287/.410/.520.  His biggest problem to development is that he will not stay as a catcher -- he played right field in the instructional league, there's talk of him moving to third base as well, and he actually spent half a year as a DH in 2014.  His bat can support the moves, so the hope is that his glove won't hold him back.  Indeed, he might push Ryan Braun to first base in a year or two.

Now, for two guys who may play in Peoria this year or next:

Diaz has played in short-season ball the past two years.  He doesn't have much pop, but he does walk a reasonable amount. He almost certainly will find himself in Appleton for the summer with the Timber Rattlers, and, as a result and health willing, he'll see if he can hit at the Dozer.

Here's a guy that got a lot of people excited last year.  The Brewers handed Lara a $3.2 million signing bonus -- at the age of sixteen -- last year.  In his favor, he's 6'3" tall and 180 pounds -- so he'll grow up some.  He played shortstop in the Dominican, but he'll almost certainly end up at a corner (whether infield or outfield).  Lara probably won't see Peoria and the Midwest League for another couple of years.

#3  Spirit of Peoria Boat Tours

When I travel, I am a sucker for getting on a boat tour.  I've done boat tours and ferries in London, Paris, Chicago, Dubai, Newport (in Rhode Island, where we went sailing on America's Cup-class yachts), Milwaukee, Tarifa/Tangier, and Naples, Florida (and maybe other places that I'm forgetting right now). 

I'm also something of a sucker for 1990s inserts.  The Brewers sucked so badly in the 1990s that the number of inserts to chase is low. Getting some, though, was really cool.

#1 Caterpillar Visitors Center

I have to admit -- I was a little surprised by this selection, but only just a little.  Caterpillar is headquartered in Peoria, and as Caterpillar goes, so goes the city.  So, the city's big dog company has a great visitors center that highlights the company's history and the people who worked there.  

What better #1 than this surprise:

Unlicensed? Yes. I didn't even know that this card existed before it popped up in the cards Tom sent.  But the Carlos Gomez Black Friday card is undeniably the big dog here.

Tom, thanks again for the package, and I hope you enjoy the cards that I sent out to you earlier this week.

The Other Half of the Cracked Bat

After yesterday's celebratory post, it's time to get back to the nitty gritty for me as a baseball card blogger -- talking about and posting cards that another person was generous enough to send my way.  As I mentioned Sunday, Julie from A Cracked Bat showed her true colors and giving spirit in sending me a 100-card box through the mail packed with Brewers. 

Today's cards are the ones that don't fall into one of my player collections. Julie does a great job of sending cards I need, so now I just have to make sure I've kept my spreadsheets up to date!

Let's see what's here and if there is any inspiration that comes to me for these cards.

And it begins.  This one deserves its own song, I think. I mean, doesn't a plain blue swatch of an event-worn workout jersey deserve that? 

Well, according to the Popsugar website, the second best workout song for 2014 is a song that I really do enjoy a great deal:

In fact, I've probably posted it here before. It's that catchy to me.  Maybe it's because I've actually been to Pompeii...

Back on task now.  

Two minis and a shiny Chrome Nyjer Morgan.  I'm not sure really what led Michael Baumann on Grantland to write this tall tale called "The Legend of Tony Plush", but it's enough to get Morgan featured here.  

Carlos Lee was a strange addition in many ways for the Brewers. They sent Scott Podsednik to the White Sox for Lee and hoped to sign Lee to a longer term contract in the 2006 season. Now, getting rid of Podsednik was a great move -- scrap heap waiver fodder traded for Carlos Lee? Yes please.  But, then the Brewers couldn't sign Lee to an extension. So, they traded Lee to the Rangers for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench, and Laynce Nix. And, for the right to get two outfielders who sucked but whom Doug Melvin knew, the Brewers not only sent Lee away, but also some minor leaguer named Nelson Cruz. 

Yes, the guy who led the AL in homers last year.

Okay, I understand that not every trade works out, but even then I thought that was a bad trade.  

Time to move on.

Finally, Julie sent me the Brewers future.  The 2014 draft in its early returns appears to be a good one for the Brewers. Medeiros is a high school pitcher out of Hawaii who was the first-round pick because he could be signed below slot and other slot money could go to others. In fairness, he was a legitimate first round pick -- a mid-90s fastball and his slider was called by one website as having the potential to be the best breaking ball in the 2014 draft.

Keeping his slot number low allowed the Brewers to take a shot in the second round with the 50th pick on a guy that is just a pure athlete -- Monte Harrison. He gave up a scholarship to play football at Nebraska to sign with Milwaukee. I hope Harrison can keep up his batting eye that he showed off in rookie ball in Arizona last summer -- a .402 OBP (.261 AVG) along with 32 steals in 34 attempts is really impressive for a guy who may appear at first to be really toolsy and not necessarily the equivalent of a gym rat in baseball. I'd love to see Harrison move up reasonably quickly and keep up the OBP. He has time, certainly, but he could be a star.
  
Jacob Gatewood actually was a higher draft pick than Monte Harrison -- he was 41st overall, technically still a first rounder. Where Harrison shone in Arizona, Gatewood struggled -- 13 BB and 71 Ks in 222 plate appearances, .206/.249/.279 slash line. Gatewood is a huge guy to be playing shortstop -- 6'5" tall at short? really? -- so I have to think he needs to hit more and will shift to third or first to move up. We'll see.

Troy Stokes was another high schooler drafted by the Brewers in 2014 -- in the fourth round of the draft. He was more of a poor man's Harrison in many respects -- good OBP (.363), 19 steals in 22 attempts, not a lot of pop in Arizona. Here's hoping he keeps that up and keeps developing.

Finally, Dustin DeMuth was the Brewers 5th round pick out of Indiana University. Chalk this pick up somewhat to saving some slot money again, because DeMuth was a college senior and out of eligibility. He hit very well in the Pioneer League in Helena -- as a college player should -- but then struggled in a short cameo in the Midwest League. He's 23 years old already, so I would expect him to be promoted reasonably aggressively if he shows that he can handle the Midwest League in the first half of the year.

All of these cards came from the Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects set that came out in the fall. While I'm not a prospector along the lines of Zippy Zappy, I do like to keep up with the Brewers farm system. Considering how bereft the team's minor league system is of talent at this point -- literally the only guy in the Brewers system to make any of the prospect lists as of late was Orlando Arcia with Tyrone Taylor a close second -- there is a lot of hope that the 2014 Draft helped restock the cupboards a bit (along with the Gallardo trade).

Julie sent me a bunch of other cards as well that I needed, but these were the highlights. Many thanks to you, Julie, for the great package.

Card Show Purchases: Minding the Gaps

As I mentioned on Monday, I bought a lot of cards at last weekend's card show. It's taken me all week to post all of the cards I bought, and that's even with breaking them into pretty large groups. Today's post is the final one from the show.

It's sort of an Island of Misfit Brewers, I suppose -- guys whose cards I believed that I needed for my team sets. I haven't sorted through these yet to see if I really needed them or not.  Fingers crossed.

So, here are those Misfit toys.

Jimmy Nelson

Nelson is an interesting pitcher, even if he is someone who might wear rolls of toilet paper attached to a Tide detergent box on his head to football games. 

His K/BB ratio this year is good -- 2.89 -- and he is under 1.0 HR/9 innings. Both of these are good indicators that he might be a useful pitcher -- or better -- going forward.  The good news on one level is that Nelson tends to need a year of adjustment to master the level at which he is pitching. 

And, if Nelson fails at that, perhaps I'll have trade bait to send to Jay Barker Fan. "Roll Tide!"

Aramis Ramirez

Ramirez is an interesting player. Some view him as a potential Hall of Famer.  I personally do not; his contemporaries Chipper Jones, Adrian Beltre, and Scott Rolen have far better cases for enshrinement than Aramis does; when you have that many guys at your same position who played at the same time ahead of you, I just don't see it for him. 

Norichika Aoki

Aoki came over to the US after 8 very successful seasons with the Yakult Swallows in Japan (.329/.402/.454 slash line). He picked right up from there with Milwaukee in 2012 and hit entirely consistently with his Japanese numbers for two years. But, Khris Davis's emergence seemed to make Aoki surplus to requirements. Plus, with Aoki turning 32 in January of this year, it seemed to make sense to trade him away for a bullpen arm in Will Smith.

Whether Ron Roenicke knows what to do with Will Smith's arm in the bullpen other than try to make it fall off -- he has pitched literally in 1 of every 2 Brewer games -- is another question.

The Prospects

Are these guys Prospects? 

1.  Roache has yet to hit higher than .248 in Single-A since being drafted in the 1st round of the 2012 draft out of Georgia Southern. You can have all the tools in the world, but a college player should do better in either the Midwest League or the Florida State League than that. At this point, not a prospect. A better pick at that point in the draft? Alex Wood from the University of Georgia was selected in the second round -- 60 picks later -- by the Braves.

2.  Alfredo Rodriguez was drafted twice by Milwaukee out of the University of Maryland -- in the 32nd round in 2011 and in the 17th round in 2012. He's been old for his league at every stop, he finished the 2014 season in the Florida State League at the age of 24, and he ended up playing 40 of his 82 games as the Brevard County designated hitter. When you're the DH in High-A ball at 24 years old for an NL team and you hit .255/.341/.319, you're not a prospect. You're organizational fodder.  

3.  Rogers got a September call-up this year. He's not much of a prospect to be honest -- he's a bit too old for that at age 26 -- but he only reached Triple-A this year. He's huge (6'6" tall, 245 pounds) but his best season featured just 22 homers (last year at Double-A). He could be a decent role player/platoon player at first and as an emergency outfielder -- sort of a cheaper (though as of yet unproven) version of Mark Reynolds without striking out once every three at-bats. Not a prospect but now a major leaguer.

4.  Ratterree was a 10th round pick in 2013 out of Rice after his senior year of college. He's 23 and hit .235/.350/.452 in the Midwest League. He has some pop, but he also has trouble making contact. If that's the case at the lower levels, his power needs to develop quickly. Borderline Prospect, but only because the Brewers' system is not filled with great prospects. He needs to be in Double-A next season and hit well there to have a chance at a career.

5.  Gibbard is already out of the Milwaukee system after seasons in rookie ball and Single-A in which his ERA was not below 5.27. The reason his ERA was that high was simple -- he gives up so many hits that it appears he is pitching batting practice. He had signed with the Normal CornBelters presented by Illinois Corn Farmers in the Frontier League in January of 2014, and, from there, the Rockies bought his contract. Not a prospect with a Capital N.

6.  McFarland has spent the last two seasons in the Midwest League. He hit far better this year than last, but his batting eye is not good at all -- in each of his three seasons, he has walked between 22 and 24 times and struck out between 79 and 90 times. He's still young, but he will have to show a lot next year to move up higher than the Florida State League. At best, he's a borderline prospect based on his ability to make good contact when he does hit the ball.

Richie Sexson

Sexson spent four seasons in Milwaukee, and they were four of his best years. He came to Milwaukee when the Brewers were in full-sell mode in 2000, and he was traded away after the 2003 season to the Diamondbacks at just about the point in time that he was about to become very expensive (just as the Mariners, which paid him $50 million for four seasons; during that fourth season, the Mariners cut Sexson and his $15.5 million salary).

He just was not a long-enough term Brewer for me to get too attached.

Other Random Brewers
Because otherwise, this post will never end.

Add caption

Like I said, I could keep writing and writing about each of these guys, but this post would turn into two posts.

In all, I think I picked up something around 150 to 200 cards total at the card show last weekend and spent about $100. In light of all the cards I got -- including the hits, the stars, the vintage, the parallels, and the Hall of Famers -- I think that was a pretty good haul over all.  

Now, it's time to start worrying about Georgia's game against South Carolina today.