warning - overdue trade post - good thing this sushi doesn't spoil

here are some cards i received in a trade with speigel, a fellow dodger enthusiast.  leading off is a nice 2001 topps double play turn, courtesy of adam kennedy

the star of the card, however, is obviously dodger lurker fp santangelo.  i don't think fp got a topps card of his own as a dodger, so it's especially appreciated.

1999 fleer si kevin brown

in transition.  brown had signed his ridiculously long contract along with the private jet concessions when this card came out.  how is it that i knew it would end badly for the dodgers, but the sheriff didn't?  or was it still dan evans back then?

2007 bowman chrome spike lundberg

spike the dog, spike jones, spike jonze, spike mendelsohn... those are legitimate 'spikes'.  not sure about this lundberg character.

2001 topps stars reggie abercrombie

abercrombie never made it to the bigs with the dodgers.  they traded him away in 2004, and he surfaced as a major leaguer eventuallly for the marlins and astros.

1997 ud collector's choice wilton guerrero

sadly, not his brother vladimir.  although, i also received this card

so i feel a little better.  upper deck didn't have to show the whole continental united states, though, they could have just shown la and orange county.  upon closer inspection, i see that they put a couple of dots in the southland.  i guess that makes sense, but aren't rivals, by definition, in close geographical proximity to each other?  it's not like vladdy and manny were rivals before they played for the angels and dodgers, right?  i am overanalyzing a decently cool card.  apologies.

last but not least, a 2010 bowman platinum clayton kershaw

lock him up, ned.

thanks speigel!

cards from the cheap seats

although i was shut out in dan's recent group break, he had already sent me many many great cards that more than make up for it. it has taken me far too long to document his generosity (i think i have received 2 or 3 packages from him since i last posted about one of our trades). sorry, dan. here goes.

first, dan sent me a bunch of 1978 topps to help with my upgrade project. i am going to post more about that set soon.

in addition, dan sent some bowman cards. i very rarely will buy packs of bowman product, so this is great. here are a few for our mutual entertainment:

2008 bowman draft picks and prospects (I think) clayton kershaw

no pressure.

2007 bowman matt kempthe card back says he ‘oozes with raw power potential’. i think that means ‘tremendous upside’.

2007 bowman randy wolfback for another spin with the dodgers this year. reportedly he bought a house formerly owned by slash.

2007 bowman chad billingsleyit’s the gold version. i wonder if chad speaks jive, like barbara billingsley did. apparently he is a believer in nolan ryan’s philosophy of extra throwing to develop arm strength. i wonder if that includes throwing a football around, too. there are some who believe that there are only so many innings in your arm, no matter how often you throw. here’s hoping chad has another 20 years of innings in his.

2007 bowman draft picks and prospects tj nallnall spent 2007 in the red sox and nationals’ organizations after 8 years in the dodgers’ minor league system, and it looks like that was his last year. now, here’s one of the reasons i don’t buy much bowman. this card is similar to the base cards above, but it is numbered bp91. i guess that means bowman prospect 91. it has silver triangles on the bottom front. otherwise it would look just like

2007 bowman draft picks and prospects austin gallagherthis one is numbered bdpp21 which i would guess means bowman draft picks and prospects 21. aren’t these two cards from the same set? someone educate me, please. gallagher played last year at the high a level, mostly at third base. i don’t know enough about him to know if he is a future contender for the rotating spot that is the dodgers’ hot corner or not. we’ll see.

2007 bowman draft picks and prospects tony abreunow, this one looks like the others above, except it is green and is numbered bdp29. i give up. according to the back of the card, tony was ‘discovered’ by luis polonia. they put discovered in quotation marks, which leads me to believe that polonia must have mistaken abreu for a young girl. anyway, tony is another middle infielder, along with chin-lung hu and blake dewitt that is probably bummed that orlando hudson was acquired.

there were also some shiny cards.

2008 topps chrome blake dewitt.speaking of dewitt, he will likely play the role of superutility man this season unless someone is injured. as much as i would like to see more of dewitt, i am hoping he doesn’t see any real regular action as a starter this year.

2001 topps chrome dodgers team carda nice card with the left field pavilion in the background. trust me, it's there. the 2001 dodgers were a fun group. kevin brown. gary sheffield being gary sheffield. darren dreifort injured for the entire second half. eric gagne, the starter. one of night owl’s alltime greg(g)s, gregg olson finishing his career. paul loduca coming out of nowhere to hit 25 home runs. as the church lady would have said: hmmmmm. good times all around.

dan, thanks for all the great cards. i hope you enjoyed the tribe and omar stuff that went your way.

kent stand losing you

or can I? congrats on a career, jeff; perhaps a hall of fame worthy one. i respect the talent, the work ethic and the "ornery-ness" to a point, but i never really connected with kent as a dodger.

perhaps because he never seemed to belong to any team - from the blue jays to the mets (hello jose offerman and dodger stadium!)to the indians to the giants to the astros to the dodgers. just another stop on the way back to texas.

i am not sold on blake dewitt, though. still, here's hoping ned doesn't trade kershaw for uggla or something stupid like that.