Hoping For a Turnaround

For the Boston Red Sox and their fans, the last 2 weeks have been rocky, to say the least. Going into last night's walk-off win over the Blue Jays, the Sox were just 3-9, an unimaginable departure from the team that won the World Series barely 5 months ago.

Although I haven't been able to watch the Red Sox as much as I'd like, I'm certain that their frustrating start to the 2019 season stems from their poor starting pitching. In fact, Boston's pitching is 3rd worst in all of Baseball at 6.32, and I figure that their starter's ERA is even worse.

Thankfully, Boston begins a 3-game series tonight against the Orioles whose 6.50 ERA is even worse than the Red Sox's. I'm also very pleased to announce that I'll be making my first trip to Fenway Park this year to watch the final game of the series this Sunday.

Hopefully, 2018 postseason hero David Price will help Boston finally bounce back from an unexpectedly rough start to this season. As for the other games, E-Rod is on the mound tonight with Rick Porcello getting the nod for Saturday's game at 1:05 PM.

I'm hoping that Thursday night's thrilling victory over the Toronto Blue Jays will inspire the batters and pitchers alike to step up their game. As the defending World Series Champions, every team is gunning for the Boston Red Sox, meaning Boston simply has to be that much better than their competition.

In a way, it was fitting that my most recent package from the team collectors arrived in the mail today. I'm finally in a place to pay more attention to the Red Sox, and I'm stoked to see them in person for the first time this year on Sunday. 

I believe this is the 3rd trade that I've completed with the team collectors, and every package that I've received thus far has been full of surprises. Autographs, relics, numbered cards, and even complete team sets have all been featured in past packages. 

Needless to say, I was thrilled when these cards arrived in the mail earlier today.

Seriously, it's impossible for me to lose faith in this team so early into the season, even if they've lost over 2 times more than they've won. 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts, although struggling with his batting average, has driven in numerous decisive runs. Similarly, Rafael Devers was responsible for Boston's victory last night with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th inning.

With dozens of Baseball card sets to collect, it's becoming increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the different releases and add those respective cards to my player collections. 

Case and point; I didn't have a single one of these cards before they came in the mail today. That Devers rookie, in particular, is the highlight of the group.

Regardless of how Garciaparra left Boston following his many years of success in Beantown, I've always been a fairly avid Nomar collector. This player collection reached gold tier status not too long ago and is currently at 112 total cards.

While the Nomar insert is more reminiscent of the late 90s and early 2000s, the Mookie Betts Isometrics card from Topps Stadium Club has more of a modern approach. 

While I understand the concept behind the insert set, I don't see how stats like runs scored and stolen bases require analytics as is conveyed through the name of the cards.

By all accounts, any package that I receive from the team collectors is extremely beneficial for my Red Sox collection. However, this trade, in particular, helped boost my Rafael Devers PC with 2 major cards. The 1st was the '83 rookie card from 2018 Topps; the 2nd is a Bowman prospect card from 2017.

According to people in the know, Devers is poised for a breakout season in 2019 following an injury-plagued first full MLB season. I've been collecting Devers for roughly 1 year now, and I have plans to purchase an autograph of his in hopes that the 22-year old will rise to the occasion in 2019.

Before we had all the refractors and insert parallels of today, the Topps Gold cards from the 1990s were one of the only options before all these other different cards were introduced. I believe I've talked about this before, but I'm not sure whether these cards inspired the gold parallels from Topps Flagship sets today.

Some of Topps Gold cards, like those from '92 and '93, are more noticeable than the ones from '94. Speaking of 1994, the Mike Greenwell card will be heading directly to the respective player collection. All the others will be added to one of my Red Sox team collection binders.

Flashforward to modern times; we have new gold parallels, serial numbered out of the year that the set is from, base refractors, and a ton of different chrome parallels from the highly-desired Topps Chrome set. As is the case with every team collectors package, a wide variety of parallels and refractors were included. 

It's pretty surreal to see the J.D. Drew Topps Chrome card and realize that the 2009 Topps Flagship design is exactly 10 years old. I suppose I still haven't completely realized that Joe Kelly is no longer a member of the Boston Red Sox. Though he had some poor performances in Boston, Kelly was an intricate part of the 2018 team's success.

Slowly yet surely, Dustin Pedroia appears to be finding his footing once again for the Red Sox after missing basically the entire 2018 season with a knee injury. At the same time, my player collection of the 2008 AL MVP award winner is approaching 100 cards, thanks to the new Pedroia cards that came with my 3rd team collectors package.

Die-cut and, specifically, 3D cards, are among some of my favorite oddball-style cards to collect. I wish that Kellogg's would partner with Topps to produce 3D cards in cereal boxes once more. Not only would they see a rise in sales, but MLB could boost their fanbase among children who might take an interest in the sport.

Plus, I'm dying to see 3D cards produced once more. These Opening Day Stars inserts are from 2014, meaning it's been too long without new 3D cards being produced.

For a split second, I thought I was seeing double when I searched through one of the stacks and saw 2 Kevin Youkilis cards from 2008 Bowman. However, it didn't take long for me to see that I had received not 1 but 2 serial numbered parallels from this set.

The first, light blue, is numbered out of 500 copies while the second, orange, is out of 250. Kevin Youkilis is among the guys whose player collections I don't get the chance to add cards to all that often. Because of that, any cards, especially serial numbered parallels, are definitely welcome. 

After all, I'll always have an opportunity to acquire new cards of Ichiro or Greg Maddux, but players like Cliff Floyd and Kevin Youkilis are an entirely different story.

With only Donruss, Fleer, Topps, and Upper Deck making up most of the Baseball cards produced this century, we've lost something that used to make Baseball card collecting incredible; oddballs. Granted, they still exist, but only in the form of some wacky parallel or, a set like 2003 Fleer Hardball.

There have been a couple attempts at Baseball-shaped cards, but Fleer pulled it off the best with this 2003 set. In fact, these cards weren't limited to merely a base set, for Fleer crafted relic cards featuring the same sort of design.

Out of the countless different cards that I've traded for with the always-generous team collectors, I would have to rate this Nomar Garciaparra relic card as one of my favorites. Featuring a design quite akin to the Hardball base set, this game-worn memorabilia card is one of the coolest takes on a relic card that I've ever seen.

In fact, it's cards like this that inspire me to continue collecting bat and jersey relic cards even if they've died down tremendously in popularity. There were some incredibly creative takes on relic cards over the years, and a lot of them are available nowadays for very short money.

Here's to another fabulous package from the team collectors and, hopefully, a turnaround for the Boston Red Sox.

Team Collectors; Round 2

If you saw my team collector's package post, you know that I recently joined an online group dedicated to boosting one's team collection. An opening for a Tier II Red Sox collector caught my attention in early January and within 2 weeks, I had my first ever team collector's package in-hand.

I've developed a routine of sorts as to how often I send out packages to be matched with an equal number of Red Sox cards in the mail. It's been about a month since my last package from the team collector's arrived in the mail, so it's looking like this will be a once a month type of thing in terms of how often I receive these packages.

While I've been collecting Red Sox cards for as long as I can remember, I've always focused my attention on adding to my player collections of certain players rather than focusing on Red Sox cards as a whole. 

Therefore, while I've amassed large player collection totals of guys like Wade Boggs and Manny Ramirez, I haven't dedicated resources towards improving my entire Red Sox collection as a whole. Through the team collectors, I'm able to change that.

Even though I haven't quite figured out how I plan on organizing my Red Sox team collection, joining this group back in January was a major step towards boosting my entire Red Sox card collection. 

The next step for me in this unfamiliar process is to develop a method or organizing these cards and create an online inventory. But first, I'll do a recap of what my 2nd team collectors trade package had in store for me. 

2015 Topps Archives may just be my favorite set of the product's history simply because of the phenomenal products featured in the checklist. 1957, 1976, and 1983 Topps are all featured in this edition of Topps Archives, and through exciting photographs and top-notch recreation of past sets, Topps was extraordinarily successful with the '15 Archives product.

The Hanley Ramirez card is a double, but the rest of these are new, likely because this set was released before I began buying retail and hobby boxes at the level that I do now. It's hard to fault this set, especially when it provides me with a new Mookie Betts card for my collection.

Even though I purchased 2 blaster boxes of 2018 Topps Big League, many of the cards throughout the 400-card checklist evaded me, including each and every one of these Red Sox cards that feature absolutely fabulous photography, especially for a low-end set. 

Though it's a tough call, I have to give Mookie the nod once again for a fabulous action shot of the reigning AL MVP making a stellar catch in right field. It's also nice to see Bradley Jr. and E-Rod in this set since Topps neglects to feature these 2 in some of their other products.

Though I've seen a few Honus Bonus cards on other blogs and YouTube channels, the Tier I Red Sox team collector provided me with my very first cards from the set, cards that are also intended to be utilized in a game of sorts. 

The glossy cards feature codes that can be scratched off on the back of each card. I suppose since these cards are from 2018, that they can no longer be used. However, if Honus Bonus returns in 2019, I could participate in this contest of sorts.

In addition to Bogaerts and Wright, I was sent a Honus Bonus card of Craig Kimbrel which will go directly into the Kimbrel Collection. By now, thanks to the 2-3 cards I received of the 2017 AL reliever of the year in this specific package, my Craig Kimbrel PC total has surpassed 120 total cards with absolutely zero duplicates.

Oh yeah, there were also a ton of parallels thrown in this package, one of my favorite types of Baseball cards to collect. Currently, when it comes to Baseball card collecting, the sheer number of different parallels is starting to get out of hand, but there's something to be said about parallel cards when done right.

Although they're some of my favorite cards to collect, because of all the different available parallel cards, I'm struggling to figure out what to do with all my Red Sox team collection cards, in particular, the parallels.

Once I figure out the proper way to organize my Red Sox team collection, I can see myself becoming a more active team collector than I currently am. Player collections, like Porcello and Martinez, will likely take priority, but any doubles or cards of non-PC guys will be welcomed into my team collection alongside cards like the Josh Reddick and John Valentin shown above.

Other than the Christmas tradition of purchasing a box of Bowman's Best, I don't usually go for too many prospect-based products simply because they don't pique my interest like they do for others. 

However, I'll gladly trade most cards from any other team in order to add to my Red Sox team collection, especially for cards as eye-catching as the Talent Pipeline insert card from last year, featuring one minor leaguer from each level of the Red Sox organization.

It doesn't matter how high or how low the numbering is, serial numbered cards are always welcome in my collection, especially if they're parallels as well, the perfect combination for a Baseball card. These 2 cards, in particular, are numbered out of 1,350 and 1,959 respectively and both feature key members of the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox team.

The 2nd team collectors package also granted me a gold refractor from Bowman Chrome, numbered out of 50, just like the first time. The last package featured Kevin Youkilis while trade #2 delivered with it a gold refractor rookie of former star reliever Daniel Bard, a parallel that appears far more orange than gold when scanned.

Both packages have also included Red Sox autographs, 3 of them to be exact. While they don't feature big name players, I'm not looking for nor am I expecting the biggest name when it comes to these autographs. Last time, I received Will Middlebrooks and Mike Napoli and was very satisfied, especially since I hadn't sent any autographs out with that trade package.

This time, the highlight of the 3 autographs was a Ryan Lavarnway auto from Bowman Sterling, an incredibly high-end set. Lavarnway is a name I recognize from the early 2010s Red Sox teams while I never knew Kelly Shoppach played in Boston, and Keury de la Cruz is not a name I'm familiar with at all.

But that's alright because when I receive a package from the team collectors, I'm looking for different cards than, say when I'm at a Baseball card show.

As far as my team collection goes, I'm looking for as many cards as possible that I don't have in my collection yet. As for the name, that comes second fiddle. 

After all, it is called a team collection for a reason.