Trade with a Phillies Fan!

Back when I made this trade with Josh of blog Pence, Nix, and Pierre, Ryne Sandberg was still the Phillies first-base coach, and the Phils had an outside shot at the East. (The Brave-beating Dodgers were in the NL West cellar at that time, which is saying something.) Seems long ago now that the Red Sox have bearded their way to a 3rd World Series title in a decade, spawning awful Nike shirts and gladdening the hearts of Bostonians, and making my August Fenway visit feel approximately 4.3 times cooler.

Guess who Andruw Jones is playing for now? Yankees? Rangers? No and no. Jones in fact spent 2012 with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan, along with another former Brave, Takashi Saito.

 This card is a nice one, though the serial numbers slightly resemble a Wal-Mart receipt.

 Klesko power-swinging his way through the glitter!

Tim Hudson has filed for free agency, along with Brian McCann, Eric O'Flaherty, and Paul Maholm. It would be nice to have a strong Huddy for the next year or two, but the Braves have a track record of not being overly attached to players (like Andruw Jones, for example) past their primes. I expect Hudson to sign elsewhere, but I wouldn't be shocked to see him return. The latter would certainly be nice, but the Braves' cupboard is full of pitchers for the 2014 rotation.

 Gold parallels of backup infielders? Yes.

Remember how Andruw Jones plays for Tohoku Rakuten? They have been playing for the World Nippon Series against the Yomiyuri Giants (who you may have heard of). Best I can tell, the series has gone to six games, and Andruw has become the fourth player to hit a home run both in the Nippon Series and the World Series. (Hideki Matsui would be the only other one you might guess, followed by Johnny Logan and Roy White.)

Couldn't resist sneaking in a Listia win. 762 credits won me this 2005 Donruss Elite Dale Murphy, which is numbered 0526/1500. How much is a credit? I feel like Harry Caray on Saturday Night Live trying to implement hot dogs as our national currency, "20 hot dogs would equal roughly a nickel..."

Some 2008 UD Documentary. This set has gone mostly-forgotten, except as the object of ridicule, on the blogs. It's not a bad design, though. Did anyone ever try to collect all these? It would make a good blog feature...

This was a nice add. Andrelton was awarded his first Gold Glove Monday night, and I dare say he deserved it. Maybe a 5.4 WAR sounds impressive only to me. It's good to know Simmons has a few years before he's arb-eligible in 2016.

Last, a Kimbrel second-year Heritage. Classy.

Thanks to Josh for the trade! Till next post...