A Late Night Trade Post

No selfies here.

It feels weird to talk about baseball right now. A few smaller free agent deals have been worked out. Some bigger names have moved to (presumably) greener pastures. Tim Hudson is going to be a Giant? I didn't see that one coming. I don't have a lot to say about the Cardinals right now or baseball as a whole, but here's a few nice cards from Night Owl Cards to pass the time.

I watched a phoned-in interview with Ozzie Smith today on MLB Network and began to wonder how many times he's been asked the same questions in his lifetime. And what about his post-playing days? The further a great player is distanced from those days, the more his accomplishments are reduced to the few common highlight plays that are busted out whenever he's discussed or (in this case) is part of an audio-only interview. He did a lot more than the "Go Crazy Folks" home run, the backflips and that crazy play where he almost ran into his teammate going back for the ball. And things are much, much worse for players that didn't play in the basic cable era.

When this year's MVP vote was announced, I had mentally prepared a long rant about why I thought it was ridiculous that McCutchen won. I reconsidered and decided not to write the post, but I haven't changed the way I feel about it. The short of it is, I think he's a great player, but probably not one of the greatest in the game right now. His season was not that impressive. Top ten for sure, but I see nothing astounding in either his traditional counting stats or the more advanced ones. He had an all-around good season, though not as good as his 2012 season. He's a likable player that played for a team that made the playoffs for the first time in more than 30 years, a team that people generally like to root for superficially. Now, the reason I didn't write the post is that I didn't want people to think I was just sticking up for my guy, Yadier Molina. In the truest definition of the term "most valuable player", Molina is tough to beat. Traditionally, however, this has been an offensive award handed out to players on good teams, and Molina's season at the plate also didn't cut the mustard. I don't know who I would have voted for if I had to do it, but I do know that McCutchen wouldn't have been in my top 3. (It might've been Goldschmidt, I guess?)

Serial numbered Albert Pujols cards are always going to be a special thing to me, so long as they are from the Cardinals era - obviously. The Cards could have really used a performance like this in this year's World Series.

I usually save the "hit" or "hits" for last in any given trade post, but this is by far the best card I received in all. I have no idea where this came from exactly, but it appears to be some sort of Sega/Topps Japanese collaboration that also might be a game. All I know is that I need more of these.

I can only guess that Dodgers fan Night Owl got ahold of this because someone sent it to him thinking he'd need it because Skip is a current Dodger. (I could also be way off base.) Most team collectors don't collect this way, unless someone was a true franchise icon and ended up on another team due to extenuating circumstances... or at the very least, didn't play for the rival team. Regardless, Schumaker is out of LA after a single season (and two relief appearances as a pitcher). Walt Jocketty is making him the latest ex-Card to move to Cincinnati, on a surprising two-year deal.