the 1973 topps card that came from 2001

this is a 2001 topps stadium club card of, not luis alicea, but rather chad kreuter

i think the oddly cropped photo featuring the partially obscured dodger catcher would fit nicely in the 1973 topps set as a kreuter card - all that is really missing is the umpire and parts of a couple more players.

this is another card from 2001 topps stadium club.

but it is simply eric karros rounding third and lumbering for home where he may well be thrown out by 20 feet.  karros also shows up on this 2001 topps stars card

but is noticeably absent from this 1996 score select team nucleus insert

you know, beneath the clothes you will find the man. and beneath the man, you find his…nucleus.  this card features the rookies of the year from 1993-1995 (mike piazza, raul mondesi, and hideo nomo), but the 1992 roy (karros) didn't make the cut.

before mondesi was the rookie of the year, he appeared on this 1992 upper deck minors team checklist

as a member of the albuquerque dukes.  abq is where joc pederson played last year, although the dodgers' triple-a affiliate was then called the isotopes. here's a 2014 topps heritage minors card of the dodger prospect

and here is a 2014 topps heritage minors card of fellow prospect corey seager

who will hopefully follow jimmy rollins as the dodgers' shortstop after spending this season in the minors at oklahoma city.

here's another minor league shortstop - yuri sanchez

turning two on a 1995 upper deck minors card.  i figure that the fact that sanchez was a shortstop, coupled with the way he's dragging his right foot over the bag means that there is a double play being turned.  just like this 1982 topps tim foli card

is a double play turn, because why else would foli be at the bag like that?  now that i look at foli's card more closely, i notice the parked car in the background behind the spring training fence.  that's another card that could pass for a 1973 topps card.

and that is how you bring a post around full circle.

trying to catch up with a trade

i received some great cards from jared at catching up with collecting not too long ago.  actually, it was a couple of days before christmas.  i still need to get my return package out the door, but i will do so soon.  in the meantime, here are some of the dandies that jared sent my way.

2001 upper deck decade 1970's steve garvey decade dynasties

2001 ud decade1970's manny mota

2013 panini cooperstown duke snider

2013 panini prizm yasiel puig

2013 panini prizm hyun-jin ryu

2013 panini prizm paco rodriguez walmart blue parallel

1998 bowman chrome paul konerko

2013 bowman chrome prospects corey seager

2013 topps luis cruz emerald parallel

2013 topps clayton kershaw walmart blue diamond insert

and a 2013 topps update clayton kershaw rookie card manupatch

a good lot of dodger cards there.  thanks jared!

here's a question about a random card from my scanned folder

i picked up this 2014 topps pro debut corey seager card somewhere along the way

he hit a combined .349 this year between high-a and double-a, and may well be in triple-a next year when the dodgers open shop in oklahoma city next year.  looking at the card got me wondering - what number will seager wear in the majors (22 is taken)?  and why is his name pronounced see-ger, like bob seger, instead of say-ger, like steve yeager?

anyway, i am thankful that ned didn't send seager anywhere in an attempt to get another starter (the roberto hernandez trade was bad enough), and hopefully in a year or two we will find out what number seager wears as a dodger.

new platinum dream

i took a shot at some 2014 bowman platinum when running through the local target last week.  i picked up one of those value packs - 3 packs plus the 3-card purple refractor pack.  i did ok for a dodger fan.

yasiel puig gold parallel

corey seager prospects base

seager is only 20 but hit .345 in a half season at double-a.  i wonder who the stop-gap shortstop will be for the next year or two - arruebarrena? alex guerrero? dee gordon?  can one of them play third?

byron buxton die-cut cutting edge stars insert

i would be more excited about this card if i were a twins fan.  lots of optimism here in the twin cities these days after the debuts of danny santana and kennys vargas.

anthony rizzo

cubs prospect is an all-star but is also already old news.

here are the purple refractors, plus a random base giant

andrew susac is up with the big club backing up buster posey, luis sardinas is also up with the suddenly very bad rangers, but lucas sims is still in high-a ball.  too bad that card came to me too late to send it to wes as part of the world cup of trading.

i beat the odds with my pack by pulling an autograph.  this is jake sweaney, phillies prospect.

dude's from bakersfield (former home to a dodger farm team) and is only 19 years old.  i picked up a chrome blaster, too - those cards will pop up here later today.

play at the platinum

everybody's favorite rangers fan sent me a few cards last week.  brian from play at the plate had been holding a 2013 bowman platinum prospects yasiel puig card for me, and it headlined the package.

that card goes alongside the top prospects insert of puig that i found in a pack a while back.

brian also sent a 2001 upper deck sp game bat milestone edition of former dodger and current ranger third baseman, adrian beltre

it touts beltre's international connection, but upper deck leaves it to you to figure out that he is from the dominican republic.  hope you know your country flags kids!

the rest of the cards were all from 2013 bowman platinum.  here's a gold parallel of adrian gonzalez

and a die-cut cutting edge insert of hanley ramirez

he has a kind of 'bizarro' superman look on his face, i think.

the last card of the package from patp was this purple parallel from 2013 bowman platinum chrome prospects

which reminds me - i picked up another value pack of 2013 bowman platinum at target a couple of weeks ago.  i won't bore you with the stuff in the regular packs, just the purple parallels that came in the exclusive pack.

justin nicolino of the marlins

jeez i wish there were a marlins collector out there...

joc pederson! a dodger!

i've seen some writers speculate that pederson could be part of a package to get tampa bay to let go of david price.  i'm not ready for hot stove season gossip just yet.

here's the third card from the purple pack - it's the guy from the top of this post, yasiel puig!

that's some good karma from the card aisle.

thanks for the cards brian!  i'll send you some more soon.

i did some more platinum diving

still looking to pull a puig from a pack.  i have a few 2013 topps allen & ginter cards thanks to topher at crackin' wax and his charity case break, and play at the plate (i hope) is holding a 2013 bowman platinum base of puig for me, but that didn't stop me from buying some more packs and another blaster a couple of weeks ago.  i did pretty well as far as dodgers go.  better than last time.

gold parallel adrian gonzalez

 gold parallel clayton kershaw

base hyun-jin ryu

here's a base of former number one pick carlos correa

i like the 'stros orange jerseys.  and no, correa is not in the dodgers' old bullpen - those vertical lines show up when i scan shiny stuff on the right side of my scanner.

a top prospect card! not of puig, but of some yankee farmhand instead.

i pulled some sapphire parallels - nori aoki

 and darin ruf

and some more gold parallels - manny machado

and mariano rivera

plus a numbered green parallel of kyle crick

a lone ruby parallel - giancarlo stanton

and an xfractor of brad miller

there were even two die cuts in the packs i opened - mark trumbo

and james shields

early on, i found a dodger top prospect card, not of puig but of corey seager

seager is the younger brother of the mariners' kyle.  only time will tell if the dodgers wound up with the better brother.  history is not on their side in that regard.

with just a couple of packs left to open, the clouds parted and lo and behold i had a puig top prospects card in my hands

huzzah!

all the non-dodger stuff is available for trade if you are so inclined.  i plan to spend some time this weekend getting caught up on all the packages i need to send out so speak up if you want any of this stuff.