Another Mailday and Chase Headley Discussion

Kevin Kouzmanoff was a real favorite of mine. His defense was underappreciated, his hitting was powerful but untimely. As much as I liked him, and I've heard he's great to the fans, his on-base skills were horrendous, and he had a real penchant for hitting into double plays or striking out with runners in scoring position at key points of the game. For these reasons, while I was sad to see him go, I was pleased that 3B was now open for Chase Headley to give it a try. Chase was the Padres #1 prospect a few years back, but I always thought that was more due to the putrid Padres farm system rather than Chase being that outstanding. When he got called, the sports talk stations were hyping it up to be a turning point. In reality, Chase has been a solid but unspectacular player. Here's hoping that a switch to 3B, his natural position, will help his production at the plate.

With Kouz gone, it seems like Chase is the defacto Padre for the card manufacturers to use for the token Padres relic or auto in their sets. Especially since Adrian has blown up and I assume gotten more expensive, it seems like Topps and Upper Deck are concentrating on using Chase, and maybe Heath Bell. At least I know they'll be on the team for a while.

I picked up this 2010 Upper Deck Signature Sensations for a total of $3 on eBay including shipping. It's a sticker auto, but it blends in better than a lot of other Upper Deck sticker autos. Sadly, after looking at some checklists for upcoming Topps sets, this might be the last auto for a while from a bonafide, everyday Padre. Topps has deemed Luis Durango and Cesar Ramos as the token Padres rookies to use in their insert sets. Last year it was Will Venable, Matt Antonelli and later on, Everth Cabrera. Couldn't they have at least picked one of the Padres with actual potential like Jaff Decker or Mat Latos? Ugh. Oh well, here is the new Headley auto!

Spring Training TTM

I am a big TTM'er. I love getting autographs back in the mail. I've had tons of success with the Allen and Ginter non-sports figures. I love my Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell and Joey Chestnut autographs. I've had less success with my baseball players (thanks David Eckstein, Phil Nevin, Chase Headley, Wade Leblanc and Matt Antonelli for ignoring my letters!!!) For the first time, I'm trying to send to Spring Training hoping for better results. I sent out ten packages last week to time it with the reporting dates. Packages went out to:

David Eckstein
Scott Hairston
Nick Hundley
Tony Gwynn Jr.
Trevor Hoffman
Mariano Rivera
Andy Ashby
Andy Benes
Ed Whitson
Trevor Cahill

I also am planning on getting packages to Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard and Kyle Blanks. Maybe new Padre Aaron Cunningham.

I'll keep the blog up to date with what comes back!

Card Show Sunday

I hadn't been to the Shoff Promotions card show in Tysons Corner, VA in probably 4 months. I finally made it out, hoping to grab some 2010 cards, as well as various bargains I found. I'd say it was a great success:

First off, they are practically giving away the 2010 Upper Deck jersey cards. It might be because they are so bland looking, it might be because you get so many per box, who knows. But I got both of these for 5 bucks total. On another note, I'm sad that Kevin Kouzmanoff got traded because he was one of the few Padres I could count on being included in sets, especially as a jersey or auto hit. Hopefully someone can pick up the slack once Adrian Gonzalez gets traded (assuming...).

Next...

















































































I scored these cards out of a huge pile of game used/autographs that were going for $2.50 a piece, or 5 for 10 dollars. Considering these would go for that price PLUS shipping on eBay, I jumped at the opportunity to clean him out of Padres. It's sad to see Trevor Hoffman with another team name, but at least he is wearing the camos. Plus I scored a nice Hall of Famer jersey in Gaylord Perry. I'd kill for the 2003 Finest Gaylord Perry that Beardy pulled. I've failed so many times on eBay to get this at a decent price and would love to have it as it's one of the few that pays homage to his years as a Cy Young award winning Padre.

I also picked up a slew of random Padres singles out of the 2010 sets, as well as some lingering 2009 ones. I did pick up Latos, Everth, and Blanks rookies out of the nice looking Exquisite set.

I'll also mention that the show owner announces door prizes every few hours. He called out a winner who didn't run up to him fast enough so he pulled another one - mine. We both got up to him about the same time. He was nice enough to write us both 10 dollar gift certificates since we both got called. Very nice of him. I obviously turned that $10 into cards. I'd pretty much cleaned out the show of Padres hits. I was stumped as to what I should spend it on. Then I saw this:















None other than Nails! The now destitute, piece of trash that is living in his car, but who created the finest looking dip stain on the Veterans Stadium turf that ever there will be. Not really sure why I opted for this, but it is definitely up for trade.

That's about it for this show. We did get a coupon for a new comic/card store in the Northern Virginia area which we hit up on the way home. I'll post about what I got in the next few days.

Restarting the Blog

So I follow probably 20 baseball card related blogs on my RSS reader. I feel like such a lurker. But at the same time, I'm so jealous of all the bloggers and their community. I'm also jealous that they basically have a "storefront" to post about what they've acquired, and to set up trades. Because trading is really the most fun part of collecting: making others happy with your unwanted scraps, receiving cards that others felt were important to you.

And so, after the first aborted attempt at a San Diego Padres related baseball card blog (Ugh, Padres...), I've renamed the blog San Diego Cardres to more reflect the focus on the cards.

Clearly, I collect Padres cards. But I'm a collector in general. I love set collecting. There is no collecting related feeling better than finally completing a set, short prints and all. I'm hoping this blog helps me in those endeavors as it will open a lot of new possible trading partners.

There will be more frequent posting hopefully, and hopefully more traffic from fellow baseball card bloggers and collectors. I am always open to trading, just let me know.

Break up the Padres!

So after suffering through some roller coaster performances this year, with the Padres going on 10 game winning streaks then losing 20 out of 25, I'm ready for anything. What a great series they just had with the Reds, sweeping them and showing off their young talent for the future. Mat Latos was awesome throwing 7 innings of one hit ball, showing a sharp fastball that he is not afraid to throw. His secondary pitches could use a bit more command, but that fastball gives him some wiggle room. I've also been very happy with Kyle Blanks' performance. He looks effortless when he pounds a ball 430 feet, it's like he isn't swinging hard. It is very similar to how Adrian Gonzalez's home run swings, just very smooth, effortless, but with some incredible load.

Hopefully they can keep this going through this weekend's series against the Brewers. Excited to see Trevor again also. With these deals I'm hearing rumors on with A-Gon and Heath Bell (my current favorite Padre), I've got to say I think they need to take them. Getting basically the entire Red Sox minor league top 5 list is a haul that you can't say no to. You stick Bucholz and maybe Masterson into the 2010 Padres rotation and you've got something strong. Lars Anderson can be trade bait or maybe even play himself into 1B and keep Blanks in the OF. I'd really like to see a 3B get acquired. Headley isn't going to cut it, I'm now convinced. Kouz is great but the team seems intent on dealing him or replacing him at some point. I wish the Padres could pick up Josh Fields cheap from the White Sox and see if he can revitalize his once bright career here.

Padres in town to get crushed by the Nationals! UGH!

I had the joy of going to Nationals Park on Friday to watch a rare Padres victory against, as we've learned by the end of the series, the vastly superior Washington Nationals. It was the first time I've been able to go early to a game and catch batting practice. Luckily, with Padres fans being so sparse around these parts, it was relatively easy to meet the players. Jake Peavy, Heath Bell, David Eckstein and Mat Latos in particular were very accessible. Peavy spent about 10 minutes meeting fans. I was lucky enough to get this:

Mat Latos, who was starting that night, was also friendly, although he told us that he "doesn't do pictures". He does do autographs though. Check out this crappy autograph I got on a too-glossy card:













Anyways, the Padres totally destroyed the Nationals. The Nationals blundered their way to 4 errors, and it felt great that the last 7 games I've seen the Padres play in DC, they've won. Unfortunately they got smoked Saturday, and despite a heroic Kyle Blanks bomb, lost in extra innings to... awful Austin Kearns.

Thanks to all the Padres that were nice enough to chat with fans and sign autographs (Peavy, Latos, Brian Giles (who was looking awfully tan), David Eckstein, Will Venable, Mike Adams, Heath Bell, Chase Headley, and saw Kouz signing for some servicemen).

Here are some more photos of the pregame:

Welcome To My Misery

I am a lifelong Padres fan. It has been hard. I've been suffering for the majority of my life as a result. Obviously, there have been moments of glory. 1998 was great. Until we got to the World Series and got swept. A string of NL West championships in the past few years was nice except we kept getting owned in the 1st round of the playoffs. Regardless, I still watch as many games as I can on MLB.TV and in person at Nationals Park (local stadium). Then I get depressed and crawl into a ball after our putrid middle relief blows another game. Or when Josh Geer gives up 4 bombs in 4 innings. Whatever, a fan is a fan. I'll say Ugh, Padres, and then I'll be right back in front of the screen watching the next night's game. A real glutton for punishment.

More recently, I've gotten really back into baseball card collecting, which will be the focus of this blog. Obviously I love collecting Padres cards, and it's nice being on the East Coast where no one cares about the Padres and Padres can be picked up cheap. I am also super into set collecting, am active on Sports Card Forum, and read as many baseball card blogs on my Google Reader as possible. I love the community of bloggers that support each other and look forward to joining in. Too bad I'm too late to take part in Gint-A-Cuffs!

Hopefully you find plenty of value in this blog, or at least enough to check periodically or add me to your RSS reader. Look forward to talking with many of you!