Where are they now....

Over a year ago I was all about Topps Finest. The first box I pulled contained the coveted Jay Bruce Redemption. Over the course of time I pulled plenty of other nice stuff. A lot of the autographs were of minor league dudes. So since a year has passed, I'm going to see what they are doing.

Sam Fuld.

Drafted by the Cubbies.

Last year at this time: Playing in AAA hitting .222.310/.317/.627.
Currently: Still at AAA (Iowa) and hitting .286/.358/.399/.758 in 283 AB's. 16 XBH with 0 homers. For some reason I love guys who do not hit homers. He's walked 10 more times than he's K'd (32/22 split) and has 20 SB's only being caught 5 times.

Outlook:
He's currently on the Cubbies 40-Man, so a September call-up is most likely in the future. Although he'll really have to impress Lou come September due to him being 28. The rest of Iowa's OF is really awesome. Brad Snyder, So Taguchi, Jason Dubois, and a guy named John-Ford Griffin. Not really sure where Fuld ranks in terms of prospects for the Cubs, but I'd imagine that it's not very high and he'd end up being a bench guy.

Jonathan Meloan.


Last Year: Meloan was starting for the Dodgers AAA club. His numbers were 50 IP with a 4.14 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP (47K/27BB). He was later dealt to Cleveland in the Casey Blake deal.
Currently: I haven't even looked at his stats in Columbus until right now. I was going to write about how his numbers were much closer to his 2007 numbers (2.03 ERA, 91K's in 66.2 IP), but no. I wish he was putting up something to that stat line. Instead he has a bulky 5.65 ERA in 43 IP. In this time he's gotten 35 K's. Glad to know that the Tribe isn't the only team with bullpen woes. Our AAA club is bad too. Wonderful.

Outlook:
Meloan will probably make it up here sooner or later. I'd assume if things keep going the way they are going, Meloan will get a chance to shine at least by September, especially since the Indians are trying to do anything necessary to keep our heads above water. Who knows maybe Meloan will baffle hitters up here with the Tribe and we'll have a solid cog in the bullpen to round out the rest of this frustrating year.

The National. One month away. Unlike the past year's I cannot gurantee that I'll be able to go to it, which sucks. Looking over the list of autographs it's pretty solid, except for Eric Crouch. Why is he going to be here? What does he even do anymore? I guess Cleveland is the ideal market for Eric to come sign at, whatever.

Organizing more cards, I found my redemptions from 2008 Finest, which I think I still have a few days to redeem, I gotta get on that. I know Jay Bruce is one of the cards I'm owed, but I doubt I'll be able to get that card redeemed after the hype of Bruce. Although he is only hitting around the mid .200's.

I was in Chicago over the weekend to see the Tribe. Friday and Sunday games. This team is turning into the Browns in that they can cleverly find ways to blow games. Usually it ends up with the bullpen. Last night I watched Cliff Lee pitch for the second time in a week and if I were him I'd be so frustrated with the bullpen. I wonder how these guys don't rip each other's heads off after losses. Team is turning into the late 80's early 90's Indians, it's getting ugly. 14 games under. Yikes.

So over the last month my computer has slowly been going downhill. Last week it finally gave into a huge virus/trojan and is currently being looked at by the Geek Squad. So any posts I've been wanting to make haven't happened due to this.

So in the last week I've done this:

Opened a box of 2002 MLB Pennant Run that I've had in my posession for over 2 years. Got a bunch of nice cards I've already had that I'll throw on Ebay. Got a few others that I really needed to finish building the set.

Went to Chicago to see the Tribe play against the Cubbies. Love going to Wrigley. Don't like seeing the Indians being the worst team in baseball, literally. The Nationals are not this bad. Records may indicate otherwise, but I don't buy it.

Found two auto'd baseballs my dad has upstairs. One being Ron Guidry. The other is Hank Aaron. Unreal. He's got so much old stuff it's insane and I plan on going through and cataloging it eventually this year to help see if I can finish sets for him.

Otherwise, I'm still not buying any cards. I'd love to bust a box of stuff but with the spending on $300+ on my PC fix, I cannot do that. I do plan on hitting up the National this year and have a fun competition with my friend on who can find the best garbage relic/auto card.

161 Million Euros

That's $232 Million Dollars. A hefty sum especially in the current economic climate. If you were given that amount, what would you do with it?

How about spend it in a matter of a few days on two soccer players? No, well then you wouldn't fit in at Real Madrid. This lot just dropped that cash on pure world class players Kaka (Brazilian formerly with AC Milan) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugese formerly with Manchester United). While these two are easily in the best Top 5 in the world right now, it's just absurd how much money was spent.

The best part, Madrid are still trying to get other players. Galacticos Round Two.

FIFA 2010 is going to be unplayable online this year, everyone will be Real while I'm still playing with Spurs.

First post in nearly 3 months. What's good in the card world, if anything at all?

I pulled a cut sig today!

So I bought a pack of Celebrity Cuts. I pulled a presidential auto of Thomas Jefferson 1/3. Nah, just kidding, I still haven't bought any American Sports Cards this year. In fact, I might start making my own presidential cut signatures since ya know, the cut autos might not even be signed by the Presidents. This also has been reported on Wax Heaven, The Sports Card File, and Sports Card Uncensored.

The sports industry is not like any other business industry in the world. Not only do customers come into venues to watch the event or their favorite players, but they take in the atmosphere that comes with it. That hot dog you chomp on during a day game on July 4th, standing in the friendly confines of Wrigley during the 7th Inning Stretch, watching your favorite football team launch a 40 yard TD pass and high fiving the other frantic fans around you. This is your product you purchased. Those same people do not go to their job and high five when they get their budget reports sent on time, there is no wave at the Monday morning briefing. Hell failed "executives" and "managers" in sports aren't shunned from the industry when they fail, they are simply recycled from one team to another because they've already made it this far, so how bad could they be? In any other industry, they screw up, kiss goodbye ever trying to get a job in their respective field again. And that's why so many people take to sports. It's a place to take their minds away from reality, and why so many of us stay wrapped up in sports and write these blogs.

Sports cards are no different. We can all sit around and rip open packs and talk about the cards we pull in them. Pulling that autograph or memorabilia piece of your favorite player can leave you on a Cloud 9 high for days or even weeks. Slowly for a lot of us, the passion we have for this industry is fading away by crooks. The people running this industry are destroying it while they swindle plenty of ill-advised collectors of their hard earned cash.

Razor seems to be the worst of the bunch as of late. And that's unfortunate because they are a new company trying to get a foothold in the game. They picked up some good first round picks to exclusive deals. Throw in some presidential cut sigs and the brand now has some power in the industry. They can now play with Topps and Upper Deck. Unfortunately they are not playing against them, they are playing with them. People are dropping insane amounts of cash on cards that might not even be legit. That should never have ever happened from major companies. Gimmick cards that show players throwing no hitters in the future, superstars from one club being in jerseys of another, parallels that aren't parallels. This stuff has got to stop. The sad part is, it never will because it makes money off of sucker customers.

Unfortunately for those of us who know enough about this industry (bloggers for the most part), we are watching our childhood past-time die slowly every day.

Topps, Upper Deck, and Razor make nice products but I won't see myself buying any of their products this year if all of this gimmick crap keeps up. I already am welcoming Panini and it's line of basketball cards into America with open arms.

March Update

This is my first post since February 19. In that time span there have been quite a few releases of baseball cards from the big two. Having read about them and scouring Ebay, I honestly have no desire to collect any of those cards. Error cards and rare chase cards plus the whole "black" parallel set that is in Wal-Mart and Target, unreal. A Hanley Ramirez in a Sox uniform that says "2008". I literally refuse to spend money on this garbage anymore. It also doesn't help the fact that even if I wanted to buy cards, I can't. Over the last few months I barely have money to do anything, let alone buy cards. The economy has killed what little income I have not to mention the fact that bills are coming in at a resounding rate, but I guess this is what I have to look forward to in growing up.

Most likely, I'm going to end up selling a majority of my cards for whatever I can get, which will probably end up being around $5, if I'm lucky. I'd much rather trade what I have away for Grady Sizemore cards, so if you'd be interested in that, let me know. I do still have to mail out John's cards to England (sorry it's taken forever!). I appreciate your patience and you'll be rewarded for it all throughout this summer when I move back home.

Also, tickets for the National have gone on sale, so if you plan on attending you should get them soon before they increase the price. I should be in attendance one of the days.

Lastly this blog will still talk about sportscards but as of right now, posting on here will not be frequent. Hopefully I'll have time to write some decent articles this summer.