Not all great pitchers have great records, just ask Jarrod Washburn (5-6, 3.08) of the Seattle Mariners. It seems that unless he throws a complete game, he can’t buy a win. He missed the All Star team even though he is fifth in the American League in ERA. Cliff Lee (4-9, 3.47) of Cleveland is in the same boat. Last night in Saint Pete, there was a match-up of two guys who fall into that category. Coming into the game Dallas Braden of Oakland was 6-7, despite having the 6th best ERA in the AL with 3.13. Matt Garza was 6-6 despite being in the top 15 in the league in ERA all year. One of these guys had to come out with a win.
Last night, that guy was Dallas Braden. Garza took the loss, his seventh of the year. He had a shutout going into the 7th inning, striking out 7 (to give him 95, good for 9th in the AL) with Tampa Bay leading 2-0. With one out and one on he served up a home run to reserve outfielder Rajai Davis. He issued another hit before being lifted in favor of Randy Choate. Choate, the left-handed specialist, came in to face Adam Kennedy who hit a fastball out to give the A’s a 4-2 lead. Garza, who was responsible for the runner on first, saw his ERA fall to 3.73, still good enough for 17th in the league. It was a turn back the clock night at the Trop, since the Rays have only existed since 1998, they couldn’t turn the clock back too far. The Rays became the Devil Rays
(wearing 1998 jerseys-Ben Zobrist shown in an AP photo) and they played like it, at least the bullpen did. Dan Wheeler, who was a Devil Ray from ’99-’01, Grant Balfour and Randy Choate combined to give up 4 runs in an inning and a third. The final score was Oakland 7, Tampa Bay 2, thus ending the Rays winning streak and killing Garza’s chance at a winning record. That’s just the way this season has gone for Garza so far this year.
In an amazing attempt at segue to discuss my 2009 Heritage set’s progress, with the Garza card shown here…
Thanks to 4 awesome bloggers and some help from Frank from Ryan’s Sportscards, my local hobby shop, my ’09 set is 72% complete. The base card portion is getting close, but I am still 60 cards away on the short prints. After spending over $1,000.00 in each of the last two years on Heritage cards and still not finishing the sets, I decided this year I would purchase no more than 65 packs (about $200.) and call for help from the blogging community. Quite a few of you have answered the call. Most recently help has come from Adam of Thoughts and Sox, Justin from Is This a Wasteland? No its Tampa Bay Sports (awesome blog title by the way!), Chris from Nachos Grande and my buddy Ed from Roll out the Barrel. Four fine blogs, four very helpful bloggers. Like I said, with their help, I am 72 percent of the way there. What else do I need? Well, I am glad you asked, the list is right here: 35,38,74,79,91,96,102,105,106,111,127,128,131,154,155,156,162,172,193,198,206,207,208,212,
218,221,226,242,250,251,252,263,268,282,299,300,307,314,316,318,321,324,332,337,338,351,
367,369,372,376,381,395,396,402,412,425,426,427,428,429,430,431,432, 433,434,435,436,437,438,439,440,441,442,443,444,445,446,447,450,451,452,453,456,
457,459,460,461,462,463,465,466,467,468,469,471,473,474,475,476,477,478,479,480,
481,482,483,484,485,486,487, 488,489,491,492,493,494,496,497,499 and 500.
(this list has been updated, 7/13/09)
I know everybody is completely obsessed with Allen & Ginter right about now, but if there are any other Heritage collectors out there, please help a blogger out! The goal is to finish the set before the 2009 World Series. I have a couple hundred doubles to trade and I still have thousands of the last 2 years. I have a few chromes and refractors, too. My pack count is at 46, so I can still pick up a few more, but I see myself making too big a dent in it alone. My email addy is bacontowne at yahoooooo, so drop me a line please!
Go Rays!!! Troll out.
1.Oh, I never got to recap Jeff Nieman’s amazing performance the other night. He pitched his second shutout of the year (tying him with Zack Greinke for League lead), raising his record to 8-4 with a 3.73 ERA. Not too shabby for a number 5 starter who barely made the rotation.
2. Also, hats off to Dallas Braden, way too good a pitcher for a losing record, 7-7 looks better than 6-7.
I think that Delmon Young will be a great player someday, but that trade is one of the best in Rays history and paid immediate dividends. Garza was 11-9 with a 3.70 ERA in 30 starts for the Rays. He tied for the league lead with 2 shutouts and was third in the AL with 3 complete games. He dazzled on the national stage in the 2008 ALCS. Against Boston Garza was awesome! He was 2-0 in 2 starts with a 1.38 ERA. He pitched 13 innings and struck out 14 and was award the ALCS MVP honors. Like Bartlett, Garza has many certified autos available during his days as a prospect with the Twins, but not too many Rays autos. This is my favorite. After 2 months of being outbid at the final second I finally won this one and I love it! This is my third Rays auto from Goodwin’s and I hope to get them all. 
Incidentally, Garza started this season red hot. He has cooled down a bit, but is still holding onto a very respectable 7-4 record with a 3.50 ERA and a shot at making his first All Star appearance this year. I expect to see Price and Niemann on the staff, but it would be amazing if Garza makes it, too. I love this game and I love this hobby! Thanks for reading! Go Rays! Troll out.
It features Matt Garza who just might be the Rays opening day starter this year. 
Speaking of opening day starters… 
Here is the gold version of Rays starting third baseman Evan Longoria and probably 3rd or 4th starter David Price. I have had great luck getting gold cards from 2009. I haven’t updated my list, but I think I have 21 out of 35. The other super bonus non-2010 card he sent was this Brian Roberts serial numbered rookie. 
I posted it along with some other Orioles cards on my other blog, 
Here is one Orioles related card that Brian sent that I didn’t post over there. It is from 2010 Topps though. 
It shows Frank Robinson, the American League MVP, World Series MVP and Triple Crown Winner in 1966. Thanks so much for the great cards 
I love it! I can’t WAIT for spring training to commence! You can look forward to more 
I have sweet foil cards of them. Not too bad considering that I haven’t ripped ANY Goodwin’s at all… Anyway, here is the cloudy Kazmir 
and if anyone has Carl Crawford or Evan Longoria to spare, send em my way! These two Aki minis came from Democratic Roadkill. He knows how much I love the Rays speedy second baseman. 
I think I have shown these minis before, so how about a shot of the back of the card? 
He didn’t stop with the minis though, he added along a Goodwin’s full sized card for good measure. 
I do like the look of these cards. It is weird to me because that is a really old picture of Aki used in the rendering and the background, although cool and old timey, just doesn’t make sense for a player who plays in a dome. Anyway, Aki Rules and these are fancy and cool looking cards. Speaking of fancy-Duane added in a 4th Goodwin’s Aki card in the package! This one is from the memorabilia series and has a sweet gray swatch in the shape of an M on the front. I guess that the M stands for memorabilia? 
It obviously doesn’t stand for Aki or Rays, maybe TaMpa Bay? I don’t know, but I like it! I am terribly nervous that the Rays are not going to resign Iwamura, which would be tragic. He was a huge part of their rebuilding effort and their success in 2008. He is unmatched defensively at both 2nd and 3rd base, he’s just too valuable an asset to let slip away and I know the Dodgers, Marlins and Mariners are all seriously interested and so are their fans. I can’t go a whole post without including a Carl Crawford card and I do LOVE these Carolina blue Bowman’s! 
This is a 2009, card #149 and is serial numbered 437/500. Okay, I am going to show one last card from Duane for now. I still haven’t unveiled the surprise he sent in the last package and no one has guessed what it was, here is the hint again. 
With all these awesome cards I am showing, you would think these are it, but it actually gets even better! I had horrible luck with 2009 Allen Ginter. I had fun putting together the set, but I bought way too many blasters and didn’t pull many relics at all. I didn’t even realize that BJ had a relic in there, but here it is! 
I really liked his base card this year with the yellow background, but it is very cool that they had a totally new pose for this relic. Thanks so much Duane, your kindness is mind-blowing!
It is one of those cards where it says he is on the Tampa Bay Rays, but shows him in a Twins uniform. I really don’t care much for those, but I was still excited to add a Garza relic to the old collection. I know have relics of three of their current starting five (Shields, Niemann and now Garza) which means I will be on the lookout for David Price, Wade Davis and/or Andy Sonnanstine. Anyway, Garza isn’t my favorite Ray on the team. I think it’s because of all of the spitting. I don’t care for that. He had a rough year this season in the win loss department, but actually pitched really well. His ERA was 3.95 (16th in AL) and his 189 strikeouts were good for 9th in the League, but his 8-12 just didn’t look too good. He did much better on turf this year (7-5) than he did on grass (1-7) and after the All Star break he didn’t have too many decisions, but was 2-5 when he did. He’s like BJ Upton though, you know he’s capable, you just wait for it. 
Last year Garza was the ALCS MVP and was untouchable against Boston. He was 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in that Series and he Ked 25 Sox in 25 innings. I hope come Opening Day that the 2008 version of Matt Garza shows up to play. If that Garza is out there, I could almost excuse the spitting… Okay, that is all for now. I still have a number of things from DR that I still need to post and I probably have more from RotB, too. As often as I trade with both of these guys, I could conceivably have something in my mailbox tomorrow from either one of them. I will end this post with a little begging… If anyone has Aki cards from this year’s Goodwin’s Champions that I didn’t list here, I want them! I want to be an Aki completist for that set cuz I am so close. Also, my Carl Crawford list is up and is up to date. I seriously thought I was at 200 different cards of him, but unless I have card gnomes stealing them while I sleep, I only ever actually had 129. Much of what I am missing is base cards, so help a Troll out! The list is here: 
I promise to catch up on new acquisitions one of these days. I still have some really awesome stuff to post from JDs Wild, My Past Time and Cobb and Halladay, plus more from Democratic Roadkill, plus my take on the World Series and a profile of young Wade Davis, so stay tuned! Thanks again ED and DUANE, you guys ROCK!!! Oh, and if you wondering about the card on the top of the post, that falls into the category of a wishlist card...Go Rays! Troll out.
After receiving an awesome and unexpected package from Madding of Cards on Cards fame on Friday (post to come) along with 2 TTMs, there were three more packages today. One of them came courtesy of the Mojo Hand. Mojo chases the same products as the Troll and chases one of the same players-the super awesome Cat Osterman, but we were somehow able to pull off a trade anyway. There were 4 very awesome cards in that package, but 3 are going to be trade bait with one card going straight to the Rays display case. The trade bait cards are of Rickie Weeks, Fausto Carmona and this 2003 Upper Deck Team USA jersey card of Conor Jackson. 
Jackson had a breakout year in 2008 for the D-Backs, batting .300 with 12 homers and 75 runs batted in. He has been on the disabled list since May of this year suffering from Valley Fever which gives him a combination of symptoms similar to pneumonia, chronic fatigue syndrome and the flu. He will participate in the D-Backs fall instructional league program starting on Monday to ready for the 2010 season. The gem of the trade is a 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Pick Rookie Autograph Refractor (wow that’s a long title) card of Durham Bulls catcher John Jaso. 
The card is #BCP264 and is both a certified autographed card (serial #270/500) and an uber-shiny refractor. John has spent 7 seasons in the Rays system since they picked him in the 12th round of the 2003 draft. During that time Jaso has a minor league career average of .290 with 57 homeruns and 329 RBIs. He is rated as the Rays number 1 organizational catching prospect. It is really awesome that the card arrived today because today (September 18th) is Jaso’s 26th birthday. Happy Birthday John!!! That isn’t all John Jaso has been celebrating this week either. On Thursday night his team, the Durham Bulls defeated the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 3-2 in twelve innings to win the Governors Cup and International League (AAA) Championship. The game-winning hit (in the top of the 12th) was a double off of Jaso’s bat, which scored Elliot Johnson to give the Bulls the lead. With that win, they won their league’s crown, but they have one more series to determine the best AAA team in baseball. Beginning on Tuesday night, the Durham Bulls will travel to Oklahoma City to meet the Memphis Red Birds (PCL Champs) to compete for the AAA National Championship. The game will be televised on ESPN2 (the Deuce!) and will begin at 6 PM (Eastern). I will be watching to see Jaso, Desmond Jennings, Elliot Johnson, Matt Joyce, Justin Ruggiano 
and the rest of the Bulls kick some Redbird booty! The feathers will be flying, no doubt! Thanks to the Mojo Hand for the very awesome cards! If anyone out there should pull any Cat Osterman cards, contact Mojo first. If he already has the cards, send ‘em my way! On a different note, I didn’t make it out to the Trop tonight as I had hoped. My empty bank account got in the way again, but it didn’t stop the Rays! They won their 3rd game in a row (longest streak in a month) as Matt Garza (on Matt Garza figurine night) outdueled Ricky Romero (now 12-9) beating the Blue Jays 4-0. Garza lasted over 7 innings, striking out 10 and allowing just 3 hits, all singles. In fact, there wasn’t a single extra base hit in the game and after the Rays 4-run first inning; both pitchers put up zeros the rest of the game. Garza improved his record to 8-10 with a 3.80 ERA and 177 strikeouts. Since joining the Rays, Garza is 6-2/0.81 ERA versus the Jays. 
Three of his 8 wins this year have been against Toronto. The Jays and Rays conclude their series tomorrow (Sunday) with Roy Halladay facing David Price at the Trop. The Rays welcome the Mariners to Florida for a two-game series beginning on Tuesday. The Rays will be heading to Texas for a three-game series beginning on Friday. Switching gears back to cards and what was in my mailbox this weekend… There were a (Troll record) 17 autographed cards in the mailbox this weekend. The other two trade packages came from Wicked Ortega of South Florida and Jeff (another Rays fan!) of Largo, Florida. These were two of the best packages I think I have ever got (gets better every day!) and I will post them on Monday and Tuesday. There was also a pair of TTM autos, including the 5th card for my Ginter autograph quest, this one from Legendary player and Coach Frank Evans. 
I also stopped at my parents storage (Mom found an old box of my stuff) and I picked up a bunch of goodies that I thought for gone forever including a box of letters (correspondence from former White Sox players) from my 1999 book. Some notes from my interview with Johnny Sain and an autographed poster that he gave me,
a ’87 Topps Traded set and a very OLD box of Necco Wafers. 
Treasures. Till next time, Happy Birthday John Jaso! Thanks for trading with the Troll! Go Bulls! Go Rays! Troll out.
