Steven Moya Return!

The Tigers released Steven Moya due to not having a direct spot for him on the 25 man roster and he was out of options. Luckily, he found his way through waivers unscathed and is back with the organization playing in Toledo. I hope he finds his swing there. He is a giant man with all the potential in the world. I love to see him knock the ball around. I sent him two different letters with two different items to spring training and he sent both back signed for me.

Allen and Ginter are always perfect for a sharpie and this is my 2nd Detroit Tiger 5x7 Signed and 3rd overall. I love collecting these jumbos.

2017 Detroit Tigers Predictions

Here are some predictions and hopes I have for the 2017 Detroit Tigers:

Team: 94 Wins
(UNLESS: 1. Cabrera, Verlander, Fulmer miss over 40 games collectively for any reason and 2. the greatest factor; Zimmermann starts less than 16 games and wins less than 68% of them)

Miguel Cabrera- Batting Average > .360 and 35 homeruns but loses out on MVP to an up and comer non 2016 all star player nobody saw coming.

James McCann- Break out season. Voted an all star starter and gold glover. 25 Homeruns

Justin Verlander- 19 Wins, ERA < 2.60 but not the Cy Young winner

JaCoby Jones- .268 average, 18 homeruns, 22 steals, AL rookie of the year


Pitchers' wins:
Boyd - 13
Norris - 14
Fulmer - 18
Sanchez -8
Zimmermann - 16 

Notable Players' Homeruns:
JD Martinez - 31
Victor Martinez - 15
Justin Upton - 28
Nick Castellanos - 35 Homeruns!
Kinsler - 22 with a .325 average
Collins - 18

Most starts in Center: Andrew Romine

Again, these are my very hopeful, somewhat lofty predictions for the season. Nothing seems too crazy or out of reach but you never know what the injury bug will do.

Box Breaks and Classic Cards

INSTANT CLASSICS

I love, love, love these heritage '68 Topps card game remake cards. They look terrific. I've only pulled the three above but talk about some good pulls. I am contemplating sending the Renfroe for a TTM signature. The Kaline I got for a steal off eBay. Its an original 1968 card and you can see they were a little smaller.

 

BOX BREAKS

I am so broke its ridiculous but I have the craving to get into box breaks. I won a spot in a Bowman one on facebook when their 2016 set came out and got decent cards. That hooked me though in the "first one is always free" crack dealer sort of way. I found a .99 Detroit Tiger team break available on eBay from a guy who had good feedback and thought what the heck. It was for 2015 Diamond Kings and if I added 2.67 he would send me my commons. I thought that was a good deal as the cards look great and hold ink well and I am chasing a James McCann Relic/Auto for my PC so I added the facebook group and watched the break and didn't get any actual hits. Long story kinda short; he forgot to send me the commons so I messaged him. The guy's name is Clint and he is a great guy. He was very apologetic and offered to send me some Tiger commons from some other breaks that nobody wanted. I was very grateful for that and offered to up the shipping but he said just enjoy the group and jump in on some more breaks in the future. My package came from him a couple weeks later loaded with cards!

He even tossed in the Upton jersey card. There were hundreds of cards, many of which will be sent out and brought to games hoping for some ink. I HIGHLY recommend joining the facebook group DUDE Sports Displays and Breaks Group. Check it out for a while, watch some breaks and then join in. Its a great group and from what I have noticed its hard to find a break leader who is trustworthy but this Clint guy is top notch! Check out his eBay offerings too at Clintob2000.

Flash Back Pack 1988 Score

I opened a pack of 1988 Score and got some nice surprises. Pretty sweet Tom Glavine RC. I didn't expect anything good as I couldn't think of any good cards from this set. I got lucky.

Flash Back Pack 1989 Topps

I opened a pack of 1989 Topps last night and got these gems. Pretty good pack! I'm probably going to save the Ryn-O for a TTM auto. I've sent recently TTM auto requests to:


SENT 3/11/17
1.    Tyler Glasnow Pirates

SENT 3/14/17
1.    JaCoby Jones Tigers
2.    Andrew Miller Indians
3.    Orlando Arcia Brewers
4.    Ross Detwiler A's
5.    Jose Iglesias Tigers
6.    Chris Davis Orioles

SENT 3/22/17
1.    Mark McGwire Padres
2.    Clayton Kershaw Dodgers
3.    Jhonny Peralta Cardinals

SENT 3/23/17
1.    Joe Musgrove Astros
2.    Ian Kinsler Tigers
3.    JaCoby Jones Tigers
4.    Marcus Stroman Blue Jays

Flash Back Pack 1988 Topps

I've had some old packs of cards sitting around and last night I got bored and decided to open one. A pristine pack of 1988 Topps. The gum wasn't the greatest but the cards are gorgeous and have that feel that cards lack nowadays. Here are the highlights.

If I was a Cincinnati collector I would have been ecstatic. The Kirby and Larkin cards are terrific nonetheless.

Super Return!

I finally made it up to my return address to pick up any new returns and found only one. Which is crazy when I see all these other guys getting multiple return days and I check after 2 weeks and only a single one. I hope I can trust my mail carrier... At least there were no RTS's I guess thats a good sign.

My returned card today is a huge one that equals 20 decent ones in my eyes. "Mr. Tiger" Al Kaline on a Gypsy Queen card. It got a little beat up from the back and forth but is a perfect, magnificent, gem masterpiece to me. I don't think there is any Tiger as important to a collection than Kaline, Cobb comes close. I am so glad I finally have a Kaline auto. Definitely need to do something special to display it.

REJECTION #1

Well as expected with choosing such big names to send to I got a rejection from Rick Nash for the first reject return. I also received my Freddie Freeman RTS but sent it knowing 99% of Braves spring training mail gets returned. I probably have a load to pick up at my delivery address and won't be able to get them until this weekend. I'm hoping for a good thick stack of fresh ink returns. I've also sent out a some more:

SENT 3/6/17
1.    Wily Mo Pena Indians
2.    Anibal Sanchez Tigers
3.    Josh Hamilton Rangers Salty Dual Card I posted earlier
4.    David Price Red Sox
5.    Joba Chamberlain Brewers
6.    Jacob Turner Nationals
7.    David Wright Mets

I'm probably bugging Joba by now but the guy is so cool I just needed another item hopefully signed. I've also ventured out to see what other people have been doing for baseball card related blogs. There have been one or two I follow but I never really dug around for any good ones. I found this very useful site: http://bdj610scblogroll.blogspot.com/ which led me one way or antoher to: http://www.thedailydimwit.com/
a fellow cardboard addict and Nolan Ryan enthusiast who's blog is uniquely humorous making it much more entertaining than most. I share the same sense of humor so that makes it all the better. 

Dunk You Very Much!

DC Sports has a few different locations here in Michigan and almost always has at least one signing going on or coming up. They had Detroit Pistons Reggie Jackson signing at their last one. Just like the Michael Fulmer signing, I couldn't attend but was able to submit a 5X7 card and had them send it to me after the event. I love these jumbo cards! I was holding my breath waiting to see if Reggie would be a Piston after the trade deadline. So glad we kept him.

Looks like a standard but this is a 5X7 and its AMAZING!