Chistmas in July from Jolly Johnny

You guys make me wonder sometimes.

Where on earth do you get all of your cards?

Guys like Wes and Johnny have a seemingly endless supply of what I collect. I know that can’t be true, but there are definitely some bloggers out there who swirl in a sea of cardboard mystery.

John of Johnny’s Trading Spot hits me up about once a month these days…definitely faster than I can return packages to him. This one was labeled “Christmas in July” in a note he included. Indeed it was!

The first half of the package was nothing but Tinos. Like I mentioned, where does one stumble upon so many cards of the guy I collect? There were some neat ones too, like some old school Fleer Ultra inserts.

The second half of the team bag – prospects!

These ones made me a little sad. I didn’t load up on Blake Rutherford cards yet, so his trade to the White Sox didn’t break my heart from a collecting standpoint. Still, I liked him a lot, but do think it was a fair trade.

Chance Adams is a guy I don’t understand what the Yankees have planned for him. He’s really good, and comes in at #63 on MLB.com’s top prospects. Yet, the Yankees keeps saying he needs more development time. I get it. They know a lot more about baseball and their prospects than I ever coyld. But from afar, I don’t understand why they are running our Caleb Smith or Luis Cessa every fifth day. Surely a still-developing Adams is better than those guys. I suppose they want to set him up for success down the road, but it’s hard for me to accept that he can’t give a better effort than the current #5 starters.

Wilkerman! I’m officially going to stop sending him TTM requests. I think I’m 0 for 3 on him. Time to just sit on cards of his now instead of sending them into the abyss.

 

Zippy Zappy favorite Thairo Estrada! He’s so overlooked, but just keeps producing. He’s hitting .308 as a 21-year-old in AA. He’s got a shot.

Nick Solak is a solid prospect too. He produced in college at Louisville and has carried it right into the pro’s. It feels like he should be ticketed for Trenton at some point, although there is a bit of a log jam there.

Lastly, new cards of Gleyber and Frazier! I didn’t have either of these.  Frazier is a lot of fun to watch every night. Jokes were made about his “legendary bat speed”, but he seriously does have impressive bat skills, even to my untrained eye. And it’s crazy to think of the trickle-down effect that Gleyber’s injury had on the Yankees. If everything went according to plan, there is a very real chance he would be the Yankees starting 3B right now. But things never go according to plan, especially with prospects.

Johnny, thanks for the early Christmas present!