Down on the Farm: The 2001 Memphis Redbirds

My first 2001 Albert Pujols card and more. 

My pace of buying up minor league team sets has slowed a bit, but I still have some scans to look at from one I was eager to grab a couple of months ago. This one includes a few more recognizable names than you'd expect for a nearly twenty year old set, including an iconic Cardinals player who was far and away their player of the decade in the 2000s.

Sort of a low rent Fredbird, although he looks a lot more like an actual cardinal.

It's nearly impossible for me to find a rookie year Pujols card in my price range, and for what I paid for this complete team set on eBay, I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find any single 2001 Pujols card priced as cheap. It makes me wonder if this wasn't just listed poorly. 

The man of the hour, although it's not his best look.

This set was sponsored by Post, so it may have been a stadium giveaway at one point. A lot of times, the stadium giveaway sets can command a premium over a regularly issued minor league team set, but it probably depends on player selection more than anything. Albert Pujols only spent a brief time with Memphis, and of course famously made the big club out of spring training in 2001.

The uniform is dirty as you'd expect.

From the Great Name Hall of Fame to the present day Cardinals coaching staff comes the legendary Stubby Clapp.

A nice action shot of the former NFL quarterback.

Chad Hutchinson didn't last long as an MLB player, as is well documented. His name doesn't get brought up all that often when talking about guys who played both football and baseball.

Not actually signed, but it's a nice looking card.

There was a bonus card of Bud Smith, who was a big exciting prospect at the time. The box breakers and retail flippers would have gone nuts over him back in the day, if such a thing actually existed. 

Another rare excellent action shot in a minor league set.

I'll be on the lookout for the next minor league team set deal. Let me know if you've got any leads!

Down on the Farm: The 1997 Portland Rockies

A team that only existed briefly. 

After the Portland Beavers moved to Salt Lake City following the 1993 season, Portland had a professional baseball stadium but was devoid of professional baseball. Enter the Bend Rockies, who moved to town shortly thereafter, replacing AAA ball with short season A ball. I was living in for the majority of the brief time of the Portland Rockies (a stadium renovation and a return of the Beavers would happen in 2001) and only had the chance to attend one game if I recall correctly.

There's really no star power in this set, which was sent to me at some point last year by Rod of Padrographs. I wasn't able to find any players in this team set who actually made it to the majors. The following season's team counted future MLBers Aaron Cook and Chone Figgins among its ranks. I think I still have a game program from that season somewhere.

The biggest name of the set ends up being this guy. Colin Cowherd spent some years as a local TV news sports guy here before branching out locally into mostly insufferable talk radio. Eventually the big networks came calling, because the nation loves its insufferable sports talk.

Many of the pitchers in this set have this same close-up shot of their follow through.

Solid photo here. This seems like it was probably used for a newspaper photo.

This is a little blurry with the ump in the back, but I still like it.

Down on the Farm: The 2005 Johnson City Cardinals

Even a Rookie League team gets some cards. 

I meant to continue "Down on the Farm" as a regular feature, but for some reason I had to reach all the way back to a post from last November to recall what I even decided to call this thing. The premise is that I've been slowly working on acquiring minor league team sets, when the price is right. Here is where I'll show off a few of the cards.

This wasn't a big time team for stars, which isn't all that surprising considering that it's minor league baseball at its lowest level. We do have my first card of the son of a former Cardinal star in A.J. Van Slyke. This is my first card of the younger Van Slyke, who did not reach the majors, unlike his brother Scott.

We also have a card of a lesser Pujols. The cousins of Albert Pujols is a very... interesting story. Cousin Wilfrido played baseball professionally (as we see here) and also had the misfortune of being a passenger in the car that cousin Wilfredo (note the 'e' in the spelling) was driving when it struck and killed a teenager in a hit-and-run back in 2008, which resulted in a murder conviction.

Early on in this blog's life, someone interviewed me via email and got me to answer a question about players I was excited about. I offered up the name of Daryl Jones because I had been reading too many other blogs, or something. He didn't make it.

Colby Rasmus is probably the biggest name in the set, and at one point in time would have probably driven the price of this set up well beyond what I would have found reasonable to pay for it. I wish we could get a glimpse of how young Rasmus looked at the time, but all we have here is a fairly anonymous looking player that could even be an advanced little leaguer.

Aside from Rasmus, there weren't a lot of future big league seasons to go around for this bunch. Donovan Solano, however, has carved out a handful of seasons for himself. He reappeared last season with the Giants and even has some projected stats on B-Ref right now for a fake 2020 season.

Down on the Farm: The 2010 Memphis Redbirds

Quite a few recognizable faces are among this bunch of birds. 

I've been on a bit of a side quest this year to pick up minor league team sets on the cheap. My latest acquisition was the 2010 Memphis Redbirds set by Multi-Ad Sports. With the Cardinals due to win the World Series the following season, this set certainly had some familiar faces.

Allen Craig was one of the Cardinals top offensive players for two and a half seasons before falling off so harshly that he became one of those "whatever happened to that guy?" guys.

Daniel Descalso is still kicking around the league as a utility guy, and had a weirdly productive season at the plate in 2018. He's probably going to be confused for, say, Skip Schumaker, but... don't do that.

Here's where things get weird because it's Triple-A and all. Gotay popped up on a few big league teams the previous decade, but never made it to St. Louis (or anywhere else in MLB) in the 2010s.

Jon Jay was a staple in the Cardinals outfield for years. He was always the fourth outfielder pressed into third outfielder duties because someone or other was always getting hurt. When Jon Jay is your Plan A, things are not... good. But he was above replacement level as a replacement for awhile. He played for the White Sox last season.

Josh Kinney was actually on the 2006 World Series winning team, not the 2011 team. His surprising run as an effective reliever in a bullpen that was constantly looking for new answers was something announcers loved to mention during that playoff run. His persistent arm troubles kept him from ever making an impact again.

While Lance Lynn had a bit of a bounceback season with Texas this year, he didn't quite return to his All-Star peak. He was in the Cardinals rotation as recently as 2017.

Matt Pagnozzi only had a brief stint as Yadier Molina's backup, which doesn't exactly give you a lot to do in the first place. He's probably better known as former Cardinals All-Star Tom Pagnozzi's nephew.

Adam Ottavino was in the Cardinals farm system a long time and never really delivered on his promise. He was a late bloomer, and ended up pitching in the ALCS last month with the Yankees.

Noted blister-haver and usually good when actually healthy starting pitcher Rich Hill was actually in the Cardinals system long enough to get his own Cardinals autographed card in an Allen & Ginter set, but he spent his whole time with the organization in Memphis. Dennis is probably jealous that I have this.

Ah yes, here is Sugar Shane. He was more of a fifth outfielder type and is still kicking around the game as well. It looks like he spent 2019 in AAA with another organization.

Free (minor league) Cards Redux

Almost exactly one year ago I divided up an 800 ct. box of minor league cards into little piles, sorted by their team affiliates, and proceeded to attempt to give them away to my readers. I was somewhat successful, but one year later I am still stuck with 14 teams' worth of minor league cards taking up vital space in my dwelling. I've decided to give another go of it and post the list of remaining teams that are up for grabs. These cards are primarily from the early 90s and late 80s era of overproduction and most of these guys, like Mr. Ogliaruso, are also-rans and never-wases. There are a few future Hall of Famers still left unclaimed, however.

Here are the unclaimed teams that are still up for grabs:

• Angels
• Astros
• A's - Hackenbush
• Blue Jays - Bo
• Brewers - taken
• Cardinals* - Adam from MO
• Expos - Hackenbush
• Giants - SueFitz
• Mariners - TheJaw
• Mets - Sean / Condition Poor
• Orioles - Night Owl
• Padres - Rod / Padrographs
• Pirates
• Rangers - Play at the Plate
• Royals - JustinB521
• Super Bonus Mystery Pile**

Here's what you have to do:

Well, not much really. Just leave a comment or send me an e-mail. You don't need to send me anything in return, although if you've read this far you probably have a good indication of what I collect and I am not one to turn down anything in a certain shade of manila envelope. If I currently have a trade going with you or if you're someone I've traded with in the past, e-mail me as soon as possible if you want in. I know that not everyone is as hardcore of a team collector as I can be at times and may not be interested in a card from 1991 of some guy that never passed high A ball. Also, if you are one of those blogging types and happen to know others that might be interested in ridding me of my excess cardboard problem, feel free to post about it, write your friends, spray paint my web address on a back alley wall... whatever you're feeling.

*If anyone is truly interested in the Cardinals, I'll dig through my thousands of Cardinals doubles and find some minor league stuff for you. I may augment your stack of cards with actual major league cards depending on how many minor league doubles I manage to dig up.

**If you claim the "Super Bonus Mystery Pile", all you're getting is some checklists, a few cards of players that appeared to be signed to independent teams with no major league affiliates, a stray card or two from teams that didn't exist in 1991 and some other leftovers. You've been warned.

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.

Update: Free (minor league) Cards!

There's still plenty of time left to get in on my minor league card giveaway. There are still no takers for the following teams: Angels, Astros, Athletics, Blue Jays, Brewers, Expos, Giants, Mariners, Mets, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, Rangers, Reds and Royals.

All you need to do is respond to this post (or the original post) with a comment and I will e-mail you to request your address. If you don't have an e-mail set up in your profile, you'll want to also send me an e-mail to follow up on your comment so I can get your address. And if you're only interested in a particular obscure player from the early 90s or a particular minor league team, let me know and I'll try and fulfill that request. As you can see, though, a number of cards are already spoken for.

Free (minor league) Cards!

I'm officially jumping in with one or two toes in the pool on the holiday baseball card giveaway madness. I have a somewhat overflowing 800-ct. box of baseball cards that is (no longer) meticulously organized by set and card number. Unfortunately (for you), the cards are minor league baseball cards. Last night I spent a bit of time during the Blazers game I recorded to sort the cards by team, and I am now fully prepared to give them away.


All you have to do is tell me what team you're interested in. Leave a comment here, and I will contact you by e-mail. If you don't have an e-mail listed in your profile, leave a comment AND send me an e-mail (my e-mail is listed in my profile.)

There are, of course, restrictions. Certain teams are not available. There are 3 stacks of cards earmarked for bloggers, whether they like it or not. Also, since these cards are primarily from the late 80s and early 90s, certain teams are not available at all. For instance, there is only one Rockies-affiliated card, and nothing for any other franchise established after 1992. If you request the Nationals, you're going to get Expos (whether you like it or not.) Also, I don't have many Cardinals available, but there may be a few- I'd have to check on whether I have doubles or not.

Special consideration may be made for player requests and minor league team-specific requests, as long as you have a good story or reason behind it. For example, if Hilly Hathaway is your long lost cousin or if you went to high school with Joey Wardlow, I can probably make an arrangement for you. If you're just hoping I have a Derek Jeter card for you, well, then you're out of luck. That being said, there are a number of active players and coaches available in the team groupings and even a few future Hall of Famers. I'm not holding back anyone for any reason unless they are in my Cardinals binders or a member of the Portland Beavers.

Once again, let me know if you're interested. I realize that this is geared more towards the nerdy team collector and less towards those of you who may be more interested in cards with actual value and maybe a story behind them. The cards will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, although if there are multiple people requesting a specific team within a limited time span I will consider splitting the lots up.