Trading with Eric from Iowa

I received a nice box of Cardinals from a commenter named Eric from Iowa. He sent me more than 100 cards from recent sets, most of which I didn't have. Rather than bore you with the details of every single card that I was able to add to my collection, I've chosen to spotlight some hand-picked Cards on cards here. Right out of the box, the first card on top was a 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings Jim Edmonds. I have no idea what this set is, but the card looks great. Unfortunately, I have decided to put a moratorium on intentionally collecting Edmonds cards for the indefinite future because of the illness he contracted by becoming a member of the Chicago Cubs. This, of course, happens while I'm awaiting several Edmonds-related eBay auctions to show up in the mail.


2008 Upper Deck Cesar Izturis - Cesar is looking smooth with the sunglasses on top of the cap. Full bleed photos are nice.


2008 Bowman Troy Glaus - This is officially my first 2008 Bowman base card. This set looks like an old TV screen.

2005 Fleer John Mabry - Mabry hates getting his picture taken for baseball cards, even moreso than School Picture Day. He is clearly doing this in protest.


2008 Albert Pujols Starquest Common Series 1 and 2 - Home and road unis. Two inserts I didn't have. Albert Pujols. Enough said.


2008 Spectrum Chris Carpenter - A shiny Carp card from a set I can just about guarantee I wouldn't even buy a pack of. There were two of them, in fact. Carp pitched so well on Sunday, only to end up with soreness in his triceps. I hope the triceps are well and I hope he gets to pitch again soon. Sometimes it's rough being a fan.


2008 Upper Deck Skip Schumaker - Schumaker, the righty-crusher, in his first full major league season.


2008 Topps Chrome Chris Carpenter - More shiny Carp.


2008 Topps and Upper Deck Kyle McClellan RCs - I had been looking forward to finally getting a McClellan card, and here's both of the base set rookies. He has been a bright spot in the pen this year and I definitely think he has a lot of talent. His future may be as a starter, though.


2005 Topps Total - (Silver) Stuart Pomeranz / Jason Motte and Chris Lambert / Rick Ankiel - Ah, Topps Total. I wish this set still existed. I would love for Opening Day/First Edition type sets to go away and for this affordable idea to persist. Jason Motte is shown as a position player (C) here, but he is now a promising relief pitcher for the AAA Memphis Redbirds. Everyone knows the Rick Ankiel story, of course, but I am wondering if this is one of the first OF cards of Ankiel here. In any case, this documents his fall from rookie staff ace to hitting "prospect" sharing a card with Chris Lambert. Lambert, by the way, was the PTBNL in the Mike Maroth deal last season. I had wanted to forget that Mike Maroth even existed, but there was a Maroth card in the stack that Eric sent me (which I did not scan.)


2008 Topps Heritage Cesar Izturis - Here's Izturis again. He can't believe he's being photographed again. He may or may not have stomach cramps. This is a card I need in a set that I pretend like I am collecting, so this is nice.

2007 Bowman Heritage Prospect - Jarrett Hoffpauir - I saw Hoffpauir play in Portland last season with the Memphis Redbirds and I figured that he would figure into the Cardinals plans this year. He has yet to get a call. The internet will tell you that he's hitting .267 with an OPS of .713 this season. Stupid internet.

Now, it's onto the disasters. I will mention that when I say "disasters", I do not mean that I am not appreciative of the cards mentioned here. In fact, they are among my favorites because above all else, they provide me with much amusement and entertainment.


2008 Upper Deck Matt Clement - All we have of the Matt Clement Era is a studio photo on a baseball card. Look at what is on his chin. Why does he do that? The Cards took a flyer on him and gave him a major league contract. They also expected him to be ready in April. He never got ready. I really don't know the details of what happened there, and at this point I guess I don't care, but there are baseball cards to document these things. I suppose that this is the Padres equivalent of a Mark Prior card.


2007 Topps Updates and Highlights Todd Wellemeyer and Troy Percival - Now, I cannot complain about cards of the Colonel and Percy. Welley has gone above and beyond what you can expect from a scrap-heap reliever pickup and Percival, coming out of retirement, was lights out last season in the bullpen. But what makes these cards disasters is their horrible Photoshop doctoring. The Colonel's red warmup jersey and cap blends the logos in with the red background to make them nearly invisible, which is just wrong. And Percival's Cardinals lettering is correct (but probably copy-and-pasted from someone else) but the number 40 is totally off.

Eric gets a new stack of Yankees from me as soon as I can get a package together and in the mail.