Trading with a Fanatic

Carlos Beltran is ready for the playoffs. Are you ready?

For at least the third time, I received a large package of set building cards from fellow set builder The Topps Baseball Fanatic. His blog primarily consists of wantlists of cards from Topps sets, but if you find something he needs and work out a deal with him I'm sure you're mailbox will be stuffed with cards that you need.

In addition to a few cards from the 2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team insert set, I also got a healthy amount of needs from the 2007 Bowman Heritage. This short printed Ichiro "no signature" variation is a nice get. I don't exactly like that so many cards in this set have variations, but it's better that than no Bowman Heritage at all, which is the case these days.

Here's a shiny Miguel Cabrera. I don't really know what to say about Miggy, a guy who has put up video game-like numbers for the second straight year. I don't know, it could be that he's really good at the baseball game. I have a ton of these rainbow foil cards, but I need a ton more.

This package also continued where the previous package I received from The Fanatic left off, with a bunch more 2013 Heritage cards to add to my collection. Lance Lynn has been tabbed to start game 2 of the upcoming NLDS series with the Pirates right behind Adam Wainwright. Lynn was roughed up in a few relief appearances in last year's divisional series with the Nats and didn't fare much better in two brief starts versus the Giants in the NLCS. Hopefully he has learned something from his past playoff experiences and can turn that around.

I'm still chipping away at the 2006 Bazooka set, which was once upon a time a repack staple. I like all of the inserts and parallels, and I picked up a few of those in this package.

Well, it's the, uh... rarely seen Larry Bigbie. The right side of this card could tear apart the bozos on the left. That's all I'm saying.

Finally, this is a tough to find (for me) short printed team card from the 2007 Topps Heritage set. On a night where we saw the Reds season end, I had to wonder how long they'll keep Dusty Baker around, especially after he sent an ill-prepared Johnny Cueto to the mound with the season on the line. I guess it was technically the postseason, but it doesn't really feel like it. Much of the country was rooting for the "underdog" story Pirates to come out on top, and I was as well, though for a much different reason. I think the Cardinals, despite the regular season head-to-head records, will have better success against Pittsburgh than I did against Cincinnati. A couple of the Reds not-so-secret weapons (Chapman and Billy Hamilton) had me a bit concerned with the way they can affect a close game.