Joe Maddon is GENIUS!!!! /// THANX Adam!!!

Here is a quick, one card post of my newest card in the Carlos Pena section of the Rays Stars binder... It comes courtesy of one of my oldest blogging "friends", Adam E from the Thoughts and Sox blog and thanks to him I now have this super rad, super shiny, low numbered (35/99) refractor of the Tampa Bay Rays' Gold Glove, hard slugging LEAD OFF hitter!!!

From 2010 Topps Finest (a fancy, high end product that I have NEVER ripped before) comes this SWEET refractor of Carlos Pena. Pena, who has been a first round draft pick, a Gold Glove first baseman, an All Star, a Silver Slugger, a homerun king, a Comeback Player of the Year - a dude with over 1000 career hits and half of them going for extra bases... A dude who dumped 264 balls into the right field bleachers, a prototypical cleanup hitter whose only flaw is those 1349 times he has whiffed...

A dude who has swiped 26 bases in 12 seasons (about 2 a year), a dude who has batted 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th when he isn't in the cleanup spot, a dude who has become the Rays LEADOFF hitter the past two games, a job he had yet to perform in 12 seasons in the Majors... A dude who has got on base in those 2 games and has helped his team win and has made his manager Joe Maddon look like a genius!

Pena doesn't have much speed and he strikes out ALOT and he has historically been one of the Rays top run producers - 3 good reasons for him to NOT be a leadoff hitter, but simple things like that don't sway Joe Maddon... Looking deeper you notice that Pena is second in the AL with 31 walks, he leads the AL with 6 hit by pitches, he is 7th in the AL with 72 times on base and he has a .364 OBP. Those aint bad numbers for a leadoff guy, but more importantly, since finding himself in that role, his bat is waking up and his team is winning, so I am def not complaining!

Thanks so much for the super shiny awesome card Adam! A great surprise, a great card - y'all know I love refractors!!! I would write more, but I need to be at work in 3 hours or so and I haven't gone to bed yet... That is how much I love this hobby, ha!

Thanks also to everyone who has responded and offered to help me out with 2012 Heritage! Pending delivery I am now better than 80% complete and the first 45 pages or so in the binder are getting nice and full... I still need a ton of short prints and a good handful of basecards, so feel free to check out my needs list and help a troll out...

Go Rays! Go to bed (to me) troll out (cold).