Bring on the Minor Leagues

I think I have finally caught up on all the mail I've received recently. This was somewhat of a surprise package from TribeCards. David had mentioned that he had a bunch of minor league cards to give away, and I contacted him about the possibility of getting some Cardinals-affiliated cards if it was easy enough to do. I guess that means it wasn't a complete surprise, but for some reason I lost his e-mail requesting a list of the Cardinals minor league affiliates somewhere in the murky depths of my Inbox and had nearly forgotten about it all.

Among the other things that I didn't know until this showed up, I had no idea that Jay Witasick was ever in the Cardinals organization. Apparently he was a Cardinals draft pick, but was sent to Oakland in the Todd Stottlemyre trade and eventually made his major league debut with the A's. I only really remember him as the guy that gave up about 45 runs in the playoffs when he was with the Yankees.

This is a fairly interesting looking card of Alan Benes, someone I definitely do remember. This picture looks totally posed, though. The A-Travs definitely don't have the uniformed look of a AA team. I'm thinking more along the lines of a high school team, a small college or perhaps someone's rec league where the team manager has a lot of cash to blow (but not that much.)

Jeff Fassero... a Cardinal draft pick? I had no idea about this, either. It goes to show how little I've ever followed the MLB draft. Fassero eventually made his way to the Cards as the quintessential soft-tossing lefty, even starting a few games for the disaster-prone 2003 pitching staff. If he had hung around Louisville a couple more years he could have been Jamie Moyer's teammate. That would have been hilarious for some reason.

I have no idea who Andy Beasley is, but he must be important because I was sent three of this card. Apparently he never made it past single-A. Poor guy. He doesn't get his own Wikipedia page, unless he led a double professional sporting life.

And then there's Billy Wagner. Wait... what?? Billy Wagner was a Cardinal? Nah. Here's where my laziness kicks in. The Quad City River Bandits team became a Cardinal affiliate in 2005, but of course I never sent David that list of team affiliates. I'm sure it would have been extensive and every bit as annoying as it sounds. I'll file this card with the unclaimed Astros minor league cards that I tried to give away late last year and save them for a rainy day.

Thanks again to TribeCards, a blog that is always working hard to give you free cards.