Watching Another PC Guy Get Traded

Last year, the Brewers were very disappointing right out of the box. That wasn't the plan for 2015; the team was trying to compete. When things did not shake out well, the club started trading pieces away -- first Aramis Ramirez (for Yhonathan Barrios, who, unfortunately, will miss this year due to a shoulder injury), and then one of my current-player PCs, Carlos Gomez.

In the offseason that followed, David Stearns -- who, I am reminded, was three years away from being born when the Brewers went to the World Series -- started trading off everything and anything he could. Jean Segura was one of the casualties, and his trade out of Milwaukee led me to discontinue his PC. It felt like a personal failure.

Today's trades, though, were much more inevitable. 

Lucroy received his current contract on the heels of his 2010 rookie season, signing a five-year, $11 million extension with a $5.25 million club option for 2017 before the 2011 season. Lucroy had hit well at every stop on his way up to the major leagues, except for his short 21-game stay in Triple-A in 2010. The team wanted to build around the young catcher.

Lucroy liked Milwaukee too. While he was born and raised in the Orlando area, Lucroy went to college at Louisiana-Lafayette and really felt at home with the smaller-city feel. After the 2014 season, Lucroy's agent approached the team to try to work out a new contract extension -- a deal that would have made him a Brewer "for the rest of (his) career." Rather than jump at the opportunity to sign the 28-year-old to a second extension, however, the team instead was lukewarm at best about the idea.

Early in the 2015 season, the Brewers looked almost prescient. Lucroy started off terribly -- 6 hits in his first 51 plate appearances -- and then he hit the DL after he took a ball off his foot and broke his toe. As things fell apart for him hitting-wise last year thanks to injuries and, then, the team fell apart, he starting expressing his displeasure with the situation.

In 2015, he appeared on a Milwaukee radio show and criticized the organization greatly for its failure to make impact picks in the first round of drafts since 2005. In fairness, he had a point -- starting in 2005 (Ryan Braun), the team's first round picks either were traded away -- Matt LaPorta, Jake Odorizzi, and Brett Lawrie -- or made little to no impact in the major leagues. Indeed, only two more players of the 19 the team had selected in the first round to that point (Jeremy Jeffress and Taylor Jungmann) have made the major leagues.

Lucroy also made another good point: he just wanted to play for a winning team, whether in Milwaukee or elsewhere. Over this past winter -- after it was made clear as to the team's direction -- Lucroy again did not demand a trade but he made his position clear: "I want to win and I don't see us winning in the foreseeable future. I want to go to a World Series. That's what all players want. Rebuilding is not a lot of fun for any veteran guy."

David Stearns held out for a lot. He viewed Lucroy as one of his top trade chits -- rightfully so with his contract being what it is. In the end, the haul for Lucroy was good and the machinations of having made a trade with Cleveland, having Lucroy veto it, and then turning around and making another trade in a package with a pitcher with a Texas-based team sounds a lot like the PC guy who headed out of town in July of 2015.

In return for Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress from Texas, the Brewers will be getting a player to be named later -- an intriguing fact since PTBNL might very well mean "guy drafted in 2016." We'll see, but that player will likely be icing on the cake. The main player the Brewers received was #21 overall prospect (according to MLB Pipeline) Lewis Brinson. Brinson is 22 and has been working on his batting eye and approach. He is a speed-power prospect -- a legitimate 30/30 threat -- and he is learning how to play centerfield. 

The other prospect the Brewers received from the Rangers was pitcher Luis Ortiz. He's on the DL right now with a strained groin, but he's a 20-year-old in Double-A. He can use the time off. MLB Pipeline ranks him the #63 prospect overall and says that he has the stuff already to profile as a possible #2 starter (with the usual asterisk regarding staying healthy).

The Brewers also traded the Fresh Prince, Will Smith, to the Giants just days after hundreds of Brewers fans bought 90s throwback Will Smith shirts. As a result of that trade, the Brewers picked up yet another top #100 prospect -- Giants 2015 First Round pick Phil Bickford. Bickford was drafted in the first round twice -- first by Toronto in 2013 out of high school and then in 2015 by the Giants. The report on Bickford is that he has electric stuff -- 98 MPH fastball in particular -- but that he has trouble with repeating his arm slot and can lapse into overthrowing.

In the end, as much as I could hope against hope that the Brewers would take a right turn and announce a contract extension, I know that this is the right move for the team. Lucroy deserves the opportunity to win and to go to a team in a location that he had approved contractually through his limited no-trade clause. 

I'll keep collecting Lucroy's cards from his time with the Brewers as a player collection, just as I did for Carlos Gomez and Yovani Gallardo and Rickie Weeks. I hope, though, that Lucroy wins and wins a lot now.

And who knows -- maybe David Stearns can find a taker for that last guy on the team that is an active PC for me? Perhaps the Marlins will come calling for a hometown guy with a longer contract that looks decent right now so that they can plug him in at first base. All we need is, say, Braxton Garrett. I mean -- isn't that a win-win for everyone?

I think it would be.

P-Town Tom's Music

P-Town Tom is a blog world legend when it comes to sending out cards. He's so prolific in sending out cards that I literally had to go back through the posts of cards I've received from him (Here's 1 2 3 4 and 5) to make sure I hadn't used Tom's own profile to mine music for the cards I've gotten from him.

Thankfully, I had not. Also thankfully, I pretty much like the bands Tom feels comfortable enough to share. Indeed, one of those bands is actually a local Atlanta band. So, with no further ado, let's get to the cards and the music!

O.A.R.

O.A.R. is probably my least favorite band on Tom's list. I haven't heard much by one of the other bands, but I've just never been much of an O.A.R. fan. It's a bit too overly emotional -- and not in that emo-style like Bloc Party either. I should like them more, though -- I mean, the band has a saxophonist, after all. 

That said, I did pick the one song by O.A.R. that I distinctly recall hearing on whatever alternative music source that I was listening to back in 2006 -- probably XM Radio's Ethel, if I had to guess. It's all very yearning. I want the overly attractive couple in the video to stop fighting. Maybe that would stop all the weird mold from growing everywhere. I could hope. It just hurts to watch that happen.



Yes, I was kidding about all that earnestness I was feeling. Fleer, though, was not kidding about its emotion-laden set called, appropriately enough, Emotion-XL in 1996. 

I have to argue with this premise, however, in that neither Attack nor Studying nor Towering is actually an emotion. Attack is an action or a noun, but I have never felt "Attack".  Under attack, maybe...but never just "Attack." 

I mean, when is the last time you asked someone, "How do you feel today?" and they responded, "Oh, I'm Attack." Or, even, "I'm Towering today. How about you?" Same goes for studying -- it's something you do, not feel.

Grammarman, to the rescue!

Night Terrors of 1927

Here's the other band I've really never listened to on Tom's list. Now, I've heard of the band's guitarist's previous band (Rilo Kiley), and I've heard of their collaborators Tegan and Sara, but not too much from this band. The collaboration with Tegan and Sara, called "When You Were Mine," is pretty good, though the lead singer sounds a bit like Brandon Flowers of the Killers to me.

I didn't expect to get certified autographs of a Texas Ranger from Tom. He sent these two cards to me in the wake of the Brewers claiming Ramirez off waivers from the Cubs on May 31, 2016. I got this package from Tom the next week. Then, the day after I scanned the cards in and got them into my scan folder, Ramirez was claimed off waivers from the Brewers by the Twins. 

I guess I should pass these along to a Twins collector.

In his Brewer career -- and unless he comes back at some point in the future -- Ramirez threw 1-2/3 innings, allowing 2 hits -- both home runs -- while striking out three. In other words, I have more Neil Ramirez certified autographs than he had innings with Milwaukee. Cool!

Manchester Orchestra

Here's that local Atlanta band that is in Tom's favorite band list. The once-powerful alternative radio station in Atlanta, 99X, played this band all the time back in 2008 and 2009. 99X broke Collective Soul and Butch Walker (and his band, Marvelous 3) back in the 1990s, but with alternative music and radio generally waning in the past decade, 99X fell on hard times.

Thankfully, Manchester Orchestra has found a fairly decent audience worldwide. But, they are about as Mancunian as I am -- both of us like a lot of Manchester's music (and I like Manchester United, though that fact could be a fight-starter amongst Mancunians split between the Red of United and the Blue of Citeh er, City).

Speaking of Red, here's current lefty setup pitcher Will Smith -- who is also, mind you, a Georgian (originally from Newnan). Will came over to the Brewers in exchange for Nori Aoki in the 2013 off-season. Considering the work that Smith has put in since (3.10 ERA in 139-1/3 innings with 58 walks and 184 strikeouts), just imagine how good the Royals bullpen would have been last year having added that arm to the mix. Yikes.

For what it's worth, Smith is in red here because he was drafted by the Angels in 2008 out of community college before being traded with Sean O'Sullivan for Alberto Callaspo.

Imagine Dragons

I might have mentioned before here, and maybe I haven't. But, Imagine Dragons consistently puts out very catchy, lyrically interesting songs. This one, "Radioactive", "Demons," "I Bet My Life" -- all of them get stuck in my head with frightening regularity. This particular video having been "inspired" but an artist is particularly intriguing as well. Clearly a surrealist painter.  

Clearly.

Strangely, the lead singer, Dan Reynolds, looks like Blake Shelton to me.

Nathan Kirby does not look like Blake Shelton, but I'd guess that the Midlothian, Virginia, native sounds a lot more like Blake Shelton than Nevada native Reynolds does. 

Of course, Reynolds didn't have to go through Tommy John Surgery to be able to sing for Imagine Dragons. Kirby, however, blew out his elbow after just five appearances with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. His rehab is going well. 

I have mixed feelings about him at this point, since he gave his ulnar collateral ligament to his college baseball team's cause.  That baseball team was the Virginia Cavaliers, and Kirby helped beat my Vanderbilt Commodores in the 2015 College World Series by throwing the final two innings of the third and final game of that World Series.

Still, I hope he ends up healthy and helping the Brewers soon. It's the least he could do in my selfish little world. 

Thankfully, Tom isn't nearly as selfish as I am and sent me this great package of cards. Rest assured, Tom, that I have many, many Conlon cards that will be coming your way.

Andy Makes Time to Send Me Cardboard

Hobbies take time. Whether your hobby is flying an airplane, reading, building models, racing cars, or collecting baseball cards, one must have some leisure time to engage in the hobby. After all, the very definition of a hobby is "a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time."

Driving that point home is the new blog from Andy, a gentleman I have interacted with on Twitter, who named his blog "Ain't Nobody Got Time For Cardboard." Andy collected at the height of the junk wax era -- 1988 to 1992 -- so dumping Cubs on him from times other than that should be a thrill for folks like, well, me. So many Cubs collectors who blog are pretty well full up on 1980s cardboard, so putting a package together for Andy this past weekend was a true joy for me.

Anyway, Andy beat me to the punch in getting enough time to send out cards. I will highlight the ones that caught my eye.

Minor League Madness

Sid Roberson pitched at the University of North Florida. He spent 26 games, including 13 starts, with the Brewers in 1995 and then never pitched in the major leagues again. Sid had a 5.76 ERA and a 6.22 FIP, walking 37 and striking out 40 in 84-1/3 innings. Being a small man -- only 5'9" tall and 170 pounds -- apparently took a toll on him, as he had to have two rotator cuff surgeries. He's now working at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida in Jacksonville (where UNF is located) as the Director of Major and National Accounts -- a position he's had since 2011.

Archer never made it to the Majors, topping out in Triple-A in 1995 and 1996. Bo Rosny at Baseball Cards Come to Life said that Archer was, in 2012, a sales rep for Western State Design.

Boze also reached the big leagues in just one season -- 1996 -- at the age of 25. He got knocked around to the tune of 7.79 ERA/6.88 FIP and a WHIP of 2.227 thanks to 47 hits and 25 walks (against 19 strikeouts) in just 32-1/3 innings. In 2001, he actually pitched in the Alaska Summer League in one game while spending the summer working as a pipefitter for VECO near Anchorage. It appears that he also has the distinction of being the first Alaska-raised player to make the major leagues; while he was born in Arizona, he was raised in Kenai, Alaska.

Stickers!

Yes, stickers. One of PC member Carlos Gomez, and then three of the sort-of Wacky Package stickers. I am guessing that those Wacky-Package-wannabes probably had to be scaled back dramatically to make sure that they weren't offensive or disgusting. After all, Topps probably would like to renew its exclusive license with MLB, and having a Brewers logo with some dude puking from drinking too much Milwaukee's Best or getting food poisoning from a bad oyster being shucked probably wouldn't help that process.

Heritage

It's the second day in a row that Scooter Gennett's half-smile, half-sneer stares out at everybody. Of the rest of the guys on these cards, Ariel Pena pitched on opening day, faced 11 hitters, and allowed 5 runs (including 3 homers) and was promptly designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Colorado Springs. 

Nevin Ashley got 12 games in last year in September, but he's not a prospect. He turns 32 this year, and he's actually in the New York Mets system now. So, it appears that card appearance for him is really meant to troll me and my continued pointing out of the fact that Topps forgets that there are teams other than the New York teams. 

Segura obviously was traded. 

Will Smith is on the disabled list after spraining his lateral collateral ligament taking off his shoes in spring training. No kidding. He's rehabbing right now to determine if he can avoid surgery. Before that happened, he was slated to share closing duties with Jeremy Jeffress.

Great Player Collection Cards

What a great group of cards to go into my various PCs!

It was great to add that Yount card in particular, because it allows me to vent for just a moment about what Panini does incredibly wrong with Donruss. I don't think Panini gets it. 

If they want Donruss to be their version of Heritage or Archives, then they need to work more at getting the design correct. The 1982 set did not have that massive "D" in the corner. In fact, I don't think any Donruss product did.  The year is way too large too -- so large as to be obnoxious and intrusive. Further, does Panini have to destroy the uniform colors now in an effort to avoid being sued for trademark infringement? Frankly, that Brewers uniform looks more like the 1978 Cubs:

Than it does any version of the Milwaukee uniforms:

Does Panini have to turn all the yellow to blue? Really? If so, then just stop making the cards that have guys in full jerseys. Get head shots, get home jerseys, but don't destroy the away blues the way that that 1982 wannabe card does.

Okay. Back to happiness. How about a song that I hear in my head every time I see Andy's blog's name?

Andy, thank you for the great cards you sent my way -- and especially for the opportunity to get that whole dissertation about Panini's unwarranted destruction of the Brewers' uniforms of my youth off my chest!