Farewell, Edmundo Sosa

A trade envelope featuring a couple of autographs and an embedded coin. 

 

The Cardinals bid farewell to Edmundo Sosa last month before the trade deadline, a backup shortstop who had been in the organization since he signed as a sixteen year old more than a decade ago. Sosa finally found regular playing time with the Cardinals for the first time in 2021 and even won the starting shortstop job over a faltering Paul DeJong down the stretch. He couldn't repeat his success this year and was having a hard time even finding at-bats when he was dealt to make room for, you guessed it, Paul DeJong.

Cards as I See Them (gcrl) sent me the Sosa autograph and some other Cardinals goodies in an envelope last May, and I'm just getting around to them now. Let's check out a few more.

Last year's Donruss Diamond Kings design (not to be confused with the Diamond Kings set) featured Jack Flaherty making a weird face.

In 2020, the manufactured relic item of choice for Topps flagship sets was an embedded coin. These ended up being a lot heavier than what they've put into the blaster boxes of the past couple of years.

Here's another pesky '90s parallel down. There are many to go.

You can tell that this photo isn't from the current season, because Yadi has been sporting some seriously glowy yellow pads on his arms lately.

Jon Jay retired back in April, so the timing on this really fancy Topps Tribute signature card was pretty exquisite. I really need to figure out which players from the 2011 team I am still lacking autographs from.

First Half Champions

Banking wins is good, but this team needs to be the best in October.

The good times and vibes abound with the Cardinals right now as the team has jumped out to a 50-24 start and a sizable division lead over two very talented teams in the Cubs and the Pirates. It's been strange to watch, as the Cardinals have seen quite a few injuries already, both of the season ending variety (Wainwright and Adams) and the significant but not season threatening (Holliday and Walden.) They don't hit very well, but they seem to hit just enough. The pitching has been great. They don't really have a quality first baseman right now, but that may be changing as Xavier Scruggs has been very productive since his recent callup. I'm not complaining, but I am a little nervous considering that past Cardinal glories have come from the team playing their best at the end of the year rather than the beginning.

Here's a fresh batch of Cardinal cards from Scott Crawford that I received back in April. This is a mid-oughts parallel of Jimmy numbered to 643, which matched his slugging percentage the previous year. It's also Edmonds card number 482 in my collection.

Scott added a couple of goldies to my collection, including Cardinal legend (not really) Felipe Lopez.

This shiny-for-no-real-reason Heritage Chrome refractor is Holliday number 250!

There were lots of serial numbered goodies, like this Sweet Spot gold from Big Albert. Pujols is moving his way up some very impressive lists these days.

If' you're still a productive player in 2015, take a step forward. Ehhh... not so fast, Mr. Howard.

Scott also sent a number of minor league cards, which are always welcome in my collection. Wacha is pretty much the ace of the staff these days with Wainwright's long recovery from an Achilles tear still ahead of him.

Tim McCarver recently called Wong the best second baseman in the league [edit: National League] during one of the local team broadcasts. Wong's bat has certainly been impressive, but is that the truth or is McCarver succumbing to home team bias in his post-FOX national team years?

Finally, here's a classy Jon Jay framed jersey swatch from a couple of Gypsy Queens ago. This is further proof to me that all relics should be framed and miniature.

Trading With Reader Dave

Reader Dave, a Blue Jays fan from the country up north, was kind enough to send me a super deluxe package of Redbirds which arrived right before I went on vacation at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately, I still haven't mailed his return package. Expect that to be rectified tomorrow.

Bryan Anderson has been buried in prospect purgatory. It was nice to received this shiny purple serial numbered refractor. Although this one still suffers from the curvy "Pringle" effect, I can report that despite everyone's greatest fears, most of my 2010 Topps Chrome cards are a lot less curvy and can almost pass for normal cards.

This guy might drive Cleveland fans nuts, but he's not exactly saying things that aren't true. He's also proving himself to be a tremendous closer. The Cardinals eventually ended up with Jason Motte in the closer role instead of Perez, which has had its (mostly good) moments for sure. I like Motte a lot, but what I'm really saying is that I wouldn't mind having Perez back.

I really like these Heritage minor league cards. I don't know if they're doing them this year (not sure that I'd be as interested) but I'd like to find a checklist of the Cardinals affiliated ones from 2011 to see which ones I'm missing.

I believe this is an insert from the American Heritage set. I didn't even think about the possibility of baseball cards being in this non-sports set.

Here's a rather unflattering close-up of the guy that's done a tremendous job filling in for Chris Carpenter this year.

Steven Hill has 10 plate appearances in his major league career, 3 of which were in 2010. He did homer in his first at bat, but he's been used as more of a fourth catcher type. This is the first card I've owned of his.

I know that not everyone liked the blaster manupatches, but when they're done like this, I am not going to complain all that much. Wait, they're done making these, right?

And to finish it off, here's a tremendous looking Jon Jay auto/jersey from last year's Triple Threads set. Jay's return to the lineup has sparked off five straight victories for the Birds, something I really can't complain about.

Thanks again to Dave, who should keep an eye on the mailbox soon.