30 Teams in 30 Posts: #5

I have a few "trade bait" type cards that Erin has charged me with finding suitable homes for, and some of these may be featured in a future post if I work up the ambition to do so. I also may just start sending out some emails to find trade partners. In any case, the one thing I would like to ask anyone that trades with me from now going forward is to at least pay some consideration to the players on Erin's player collection list. (See the sidebar if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) We're still working on coming up with a complete list of what she has for each player she is going after (and I plan on doing that for my PC lists as well), but for now I know a good final resting place for any of your extra Yadier Molina and Tim Lincecum cards - for example.

Tonight I'm supposed to talk about the Blue Jays. I actually just sent most of my Blue Jays cards (aside from the surplus stashes of stuff like 1991 Donruss) out in a package last month, so I don't have a lot to show. I have been fond of Toronto's since I was a kid, seeing them as both a strange bird as now the only Canadian team left in the league and some sort of blue kindred spirit to the red Cardinals club. Also, a lot of my more liked early '90s non-Cardinals players (Dave Stewart, Dave Winfield, Joe Carter, Rickey Henderson, etc.) ended up in Toronto at some point.

Favorite current Blue Jays player: Omar Vizquel. I know this is kind of a cop out. I just can really appreciate the existence of a 45 year old major league shortstop, even one that's been relegated to spot duty.

Least favorite current Blue Jays player: Edwin Encarnacion. I don't really have anything against him personally. He was just a lousy fantasy player for me, year after year. Oh, did you think I was going to say Colby Rasmus? Nah...

Favorite Blue Jays player of all-time: Fred McGriff. Man, who didn't like the Crime Dog? My only regret is not having any McGriff cards at hand for this post. Dave Winfield gets honorable mention here, but that's only because I think I picked him for several other teams in this series of posts.

Least favorite Blue Jays player of all-time: Juan Guzman. Like with Encarnacion, I don't really have anything terrible to say about Guzman. He got me all excited about his career (and consequently, his baseball cards) with his terrific 1992 season only to fade in notoriety. He worked really slowly on the mound. I thought he was going to be one of the all-time greats, and then I just kind of forgot about him.

The Toronto Blue Jays merely exist at #5 in my reverse-ranking of favorite teams as of the moment I picked them a long, long time ago on October 4th, 2010. All of these cards are very much up for trade, so please contact me if you're interested.