Robertson Gone: Tigers Choose One Basket for All Their Eggs

Oh boy.

So I was eating lunch with some co-workers when the headline caught me: Nate Robertson was traded to Florida for LHP Jay Voss and Cash. As the bottom line ticked away this factoid appeared:

Detroit 6 Baltimore 5 5th Inning. Willis: 4.1 IP, 7H 5ER 4BB 3K

Oh boy.

2009 DAV Detroit Tigers Nate Robertson

I always liked Nate Robertson. Back in 2006 he was a tough-luck, hard working, awesome facial-haired pitcher. He was my wife's "Tiger" in the "Who's Your Tiger" campaign. He started gum time. He was the only Tiger who actually bought a house in Michigan and lived there year round. Ironically, today's Detroit Free Press announced that Brandon Inge will now be living in Michigan full time.

In recent years, pitcher Nate Robertson has been the only Tiger to live in Michigan year-round. He resides in Canton.

No more.

Somewhere along the line, the wheels fell off. Robertson went from being a serviceable major league starter to a fringe major leaguer in a matter of months. As he wasted away as a generally ineffective bullpen lefty last season, it turned out that he was suffering from any series of maladies, including bone chips and a groin issue.

Flash forward to this spring. Bone chips removed and Groin healed, Robertson, in his 19-odd innings of Spring Work outpitched, by a not insignificant margin, the other two main contenders for the open spots in the Tigers rotation. With Robertson, Willis and Bonderman all proud owners of $10 Million+ contracts, it was widely believed that 1) someone would get traded or 2) someone would fill up a bullpen slot.

What is interesting is that the pitcher that ultimately did get traded was the one most "coveted" (as much as any one of these pitchers can be coveted) by other teams for precisely the reason that you wouldn't want to trade him: he looked the best.

2009 Allen & Ginter #AGR-DW Dontrelle Willis Relic

There is a concept in economics known as sunk costs. They apply to things that will need to be paid for no matter what, and it the general theory is that the sunk cost shouldn't influence strategic decisions because they are fixed either way. The Tigers are not foreign to this concept. Last year, they cut Gary Sheffield and his multi-million dollar contract for one reason: they thought that they were better without him. He was getting paid no matter what, so the question was whether they were better off with Sheffield and his contract alone, or with Sheffield's Contract and a different player and his contract. They chose the latter.

This season, monetarily, Bonderman, Robertson and Willis all had similar sunk costs, and presumably, their contracts shouldn't have factored into any decision. However, you begin to wonder whether there is some ego or emotional factor that swayed Dombrowski to stick with Willis. Perhaps a glimmer of hope that his signing wouldn't turn out to be a total failure?

In other words, blatant disregard for Willis as a sunk cost.

Rob Neyer parses this by assuming that the Tigers are not motivated by ego or hubris or what have you in his brief update on the trade:

Early rumors are that the Tigers are paying almost all of Robertson's $10 million salary this season. Considering Voss's presumed future, that means Dave Dombrowski is essentially betting that Dontrelle Willis will be better than Robertson this season. (emphasis mine)

Assuming that Dombrowski is consistent in his application of economic theory, and recognizes sunk costs for what they are, this trade says one thing: We think that Dontrelle Willis will be better than Nate Robertson.

Whether that position has any merit remains to be seen. The brief flashes of Willisian brilliance this spring have been encouraging, but really no different than say, 6.1 innings of excellence for example. When I see a walk rate that is as high as ever, and wild pitches and all of the inconsistency that has plagued Dontrelle Willis over the last two years, I have a hard time of saying that 20-odd innings of good-not-great performance is the type of encouraging sample size that I like to see.

But this is the basket in which the Tigers have placed their eggs (two baskets really, as Bonderman--who arguably pitched the worst of the three this spring--is a huge risk too) by making the trade.

Now, I'm not saying that it is a bad trade. But when I see a player who loved Michigan, was pitching well and could have served as a lefty in the bullpen (move over, Brad Thomas) get shipped out for a low-level prospect with limited upside and the Tigers are playing the bulk of his salary, I start to question whether it was something that needed to be done. When this is done alongside the human question marks that are Willis and Bonderman, you need to wonder whether Robertson isn't more valuable as insurance in the Tigers organization than he would be to any other team.

But hey, the eggs are where they are. Willis (and Bonderman) are in. Robertson is out. I'm not calling myself a pessimist, but let's just say this: I hope Eddie Bonine keeps himself stretched out.

*it is worth noting that I probably would have felt this way no matter which of the three players were traded, and clearly Robertson was the only player that had any trade value whatsoever. It is more a question of depth. With the salaries all sunk costs it seems like the trade doesn't net enough for the team to sacrifice the depth of another starter option. Through a combination of random chance and likelihood of failure, it seems to me like the Tigers would want as many viable starters as they can get, but that's why Dombrowski gets paid the big bucks, I guess.

Diminishing Greatness

In the last three years--basically, the three years since I've gotten back into card collecting--I have noticed a general trend among my Tigers. In addition to current Tigers players, there has been a steady stream of retired greats that have made appearances in my sets. However, that steady stream looks pretty much like this:

Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Al Kaline
Ty Cobb
George Kell
Ty Cobb
Al Kaline
Hank Greenberg

For a team that has existed for more than 100 years, it makes me wonder how the history of the great Tigers franchise has essentially been reduced to four players. Four. Seriously, try to find recent Tigers cards that show anyone else. There may be one or two, but that pattern above tends to holds.

Now some of this is attributable to the fact that MLB has contractually limited the degree to which retired players can be included in card sets. Part of it has to do with the rights to the deceased that Topps acquired prior to 2009, leading to Ty Cobb overload, but I'm pretty sure that part of it is this: If you can only have X retired players per release, why even bother with the "second-tier" greats. Hall of Famers are 1. Better Players and 2. Have a wider appeal than your general hometown heroes etc.

The problem is that people can only digest so much of the same thing. There are what, like a dozen photos of these players that the card companies can use? And for how many cards? I feel like I'm seeing the same thing over and over again. Well, no more. Courtesy of some 1993 Ted Williams cards I got last week.

Sure, you've got your old standbys:



But the photos are different from what you typically see nowadays, which is nice.

What's more, is you've got some greats (and goods) from the past too.







So I have two questions. The first is, given that 1993 was in the wheelhouse of my childhood collecting years, how did I not have any of these cards? The second, and more important question, is how many players--for any franchise, not just the Tigers--have essentially been relegated to the annals of history because they weren't in the Top 5% of players all-time? Mickey Lolich was a tremendous pitcher, and was a huge part of the 1968 World Championship Team. Yet, apart from some Sweet Spot autographs in 2004, there has been bupkis.

What ever happened to just good old fashioned baseball cards? Sure, autographs of these players are great, and very cool, but they tend to be rare, expensive and devoid of anything that is actually, well, interesting on them. So where's my Lolich base card now? Or highlight card? Or something that tells me, the collector, who Mickey Lolich was and what he did in his career? The beauty of hindsight is that it gives us perspective on where something fits in the context of history. I can look at vintage cards and see a player's stats in his day, or a neat cartoon factoid about him, but that doesn't mean anything to me when I'm trying to tie that player in to the context of baseball 40 years later.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just crotchety, or sick of having a million Ty Cobb cards from the last two years. And, honestly, I'd probably give an out-loud WTF if Darrell Evans was a short-printed Topps issue or part of an insert set. But please, can we get some context around here? Or are we going to be forced into believing that there are two tiers of players in baseball: the Hall of Famers, and everyone else? Has time really diminished their greatness that much? Or have cards betrayed the legacy of these former All-Stars, Hometown Heroes and Franchise Mainstays and, in so doing, veiled the character and context in which the game was played?

I'm sure I'm being overdramatic, but seriously, there's more to baseball than the Hall of Fame and I'm afraid that point is being lost in today's landscape. It is up to baseball cards, as much as it is journalists or media or whatever, to remind us that there were some great players who did great things beyond what is enshrined in Cooperstown.

Tigers Gallery Checklist: 2010 Topps Finest

Oh Topps Finest, how I adore you. For some reason, you were never on my radar as a young collector--too expensive, I suppose--and I was blissfully ignorant of your existence right up until I saw these staring back at me. Now, three years into my world, you've done it again. Bold, Shiny and Colorful you make any collector smile, and any player collector giddy with anticipation over completing the coveted "rainbow" of your cards--despite the fact that they know in their heart of hearts that it probably is not to be.

Alas, I am out of the player collection business, but I can't help but create a scenario in which I start picking up some Finest just because.

Base Set The knock on the Finest base set is that it is little. 5 Tigers, one of whom is this season's "rookie that is in every set even though he won't make the team and isn't even the third most important rookie in the system," Brent Dlugach. Dollars to Donuts says that Austin Jackson is treated to a redemption a la Rick Porcello in 2009 Finest.

As is my way, I will highlight the "base set" in the form of much better looking refractor parallels. In this case, the Blue Refractor. The "rainbow," for those keeping score, would include the base card, and the following refractors: regular (#/599), Blue (#/299), Green (#/99), Gold (#/50), Red (#/25), Purple (1/1)

Note: This is one of those sets for which there is no checklist yet, but based on what I'm seeing on eBay, I think I'm in the ballpark on this one, even as it pertains to inserts and autographs etc. As always, if I'm wrong let me know and I will correct as necessary.

#31 Miguel Cabrera	#58 Brandon Inge	#87 Justin Verlander
#101 Rick Porcello	#145 Brent Dlugach RC

Autographs Bare bones Tigers inserts and hits this year: Rick Porcello gets a "Finest Moments" autograph, which is on a sticker (BOOOOOOOO!!!). As far as I can tell, that (with it's parallel versions) is it for non-base Tiger cards in the set. Oh well. Multi-colored refractors it is then...

2010 Topps Finest #FMA-RP Rick Porcello "Finest Moments" Autograph

And that's all she wrote for Finest. I need to get some of these in hand, but from the looks of things, they stack up very nicely to the 2009 version, which was arguably my favorite design from last year.

...But Wait, There's more! Thanks to sruchris, in the comments, it turns out that there is another card on the Tigers checklist that is worth mentioning. It is a "RC Patch" for Brent Dlugach. This is different from the Manufactured Letter patches, as you will see, and is numbered to 50 copies. Essentially, it is just the picture from Dlugach's regular card, turned horizontal and with a huge rookie logo patch on it. To wit:

2010 Topps Finest #145 Brent Dlugach RC Patch Logo (#/50)

Also in the manufactured patch realm, the first Tiger to make an appearance in Topps' year-long, cross-producted "Logoman" continuity set has come to the fore. It is none other than Miguel Cabrera looking shiny and awesome:

2010 Topps Finest #LM-25 Miguel Cabrera (#/50)

It isn't a Finest card per se, it isn't branded "Finest", after all, but it comes in the packs so it goes on the list. Once they're all out, I may re-label these as part of a different Topps subset, but we'll just have to wait and see for that.

And, barring a secret redemption announcement (I wouldn't rule out a Rookie Redemption), that should be it for Tigers in Finest.

The Grand Scheme Brandishes the Winnowing Fork

Judgement Day With 5th starter decisions dropping like wildfire around the league, it makes an old Tiger fan a bit uneasy to think that we really don't know who will be included in the back end of the Tigers rotation. But I ask you this, if you had consulted the MLB Odds, what, a year ago, or at the end of last season or at the start of Spring Training, where do you think "Dontrelle Willis making a Major League Rotation" would fall? 1,000,000-to-1? He was done like a Christmas Goose. Yet here we are, with two weeks to go and Willis sports a 0.82 ERA and some newfound life. Even the national big boys like Sports Illustrated are getting in on the fun. As John Heyman writes, here's Dontrelle circa 2010:

"I'm having fun,'' Willis says.

Indeed, people around the team emphasize the changes in Willis' personal demeanor when talking about him, and that may in fact be the key for him. "He seems great, he seems relaxed. He seems a totally different guy,'' the Tigers' legendary manager Jim Leyland says.

"He seems to be at peace,'' pitching coach Rick Knapp adds.

As opposed to say, Dontrelle circa 2008:

When he first arrived in Lakeland two years ago, Willis definitely wasn't ready for major-league action. And he wasn't himself, and everyone could see that. Armed with a new $29-million deal as the lesser of two players who came from Florida in that trade, Willis fell to pieces practically the moment he arrived. Whether it was the new contract he signed with the Tigers before he ever threw a pitch for them or any comparison of his value to the superstar slugger Cabrera, he just flat lost it. He couldn't throw a strike. He was cranky. He was, in short, very bad.

"Sometimes the harder you work, the worse you get," Willis says. "I was in quicksand."

Boy, he was really bad, wasn't he? Well, with the National media now fully in the fray, and the possibility that Willis may again make the team, we're stuck playing the what ifs again.

And luckily, answers can come as soon as tonight. Dontrelle is starting the Tigers 1:05 game against the Blue Jays today. Jeremy Bonderman--the presumed 4th starter going in to spring training--pitches the 7:05 game against the Nationals. Sure, it's just one start, and sample size and spring training and all that, but at some point the Tigers are going to need to make a decision. And with Nate Robertson looking like the best of the bunch so far, today may very well be judgement day for the two former rising stars who, for one reason or another, essentially haven't pitched in the major leagues for two years.

And now, for the first time, as spring training hopes give way to the reality of the season, I am able to see why that may not be a recipe for success. But what if...

Also What if the Tigers still had Jair Jurrjens? Our friend Lynn Henning asks that very question and is quickly rebuffed by Bless You Boys, who has had enough

We already know Jurrjens would look great on the Tigers' pitching staff, and would have made a formidable top of the rotation that much better. We know Edgar Renteria was a bit of a risk due to his age and lack of success in the AL with the Redsox, and was a massive disappointment as a Tiger. We know the trade ended up a massive failure, by far the worst of Dave Dombrowski's tenure.

We know, we know, we know.

Well, so do the Tigers.

They realize it everyday when they see Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis struggling to nail down a spot in the 2010 rotation.

Of course, Kurt goes on to pick at the old wounds that he warns us not to dig up, but what are you going to do. As a kid growing up in the "The Tigers traded away John Smoltz" era, I think that as long as this generation of Tigers avoids the organizational black-hole of talent that they experienced from say, 1994-2003 give or take, and is competitive for the next few years, then it will be a little more than a footnote, I hope. Back in the 1990s, Smoltz would have been the savior the Tigers needed, but nowadays I think that Justin Verlander fills that role. For all we know, Jair Jurrjens could just end up being the next Brian DuBois or Felipe Lira (although he certainly seems to be the real deal, as many of us surmised at the time).

Final question, would people really be as upset about Jurrjens (now, and at the time) if his name wasn't so awesome? I say no.

Glowing Adjectives That's what I've got for this year's edition of Topps Finest, which is awesome, as per usual. Here's a preview of the gallery I've got in the works.

(Blue!) Refractors are fantastic in Finest.

The Shoes Fit Not to put too much pressure on the kid, but Austin Jackson has been tremendous in spring training. Hardball Times runs down five key Tigers questions and says as much:

My initial thoughts were that Jackson would start in the season in Triple-A and the Tigers would go with the more experienced Clete Thomas, but a .341 spring batting average has all but locked Jackson in as the Tigers' Opening Day center fielder. Even more interesting is that the speedy Jackson will be hitting as the team’s leadoff man. Jackson strikes out a lo,t but he also gets his share of walks (.356 minor league career OBP) so he isn't a poor choice at leadoff.

He has hit for average, taken walks, struck out far less than expected, stolen bases, stretched triples etc. The big question is are we looking at a hot-streak aberration happening at the right time, or is this the Great Leap Forward in Austin Jackson's development? Oh, how I hope for the latter.

Misc. A blog totally unrelated to baseball cards goes in search of a Curtis Granderson-as-Yankee card and IS TOLD THEY DON'T EXIST. Grand Cards, to the rescue! Night Owl knows all about Billy Hoeft. Bless You Boys revisits the Spring Training questions asked back at the start of the month. Michigan Baseball by the numbers, so far.

Former Tigers Lefty Billy Hoeft Dies at 77

File this one under "players you young whippersnappers don't know anything about until they die," which is sad. Cue the info from the Free Press

Hoeft, from Oshkosh, Wis., once struck out all 27 batters in a high school game. He began his Tigers career in 1952 and was an All-Star in 1955.

The Tigers traded Hoeft to the Boston Red Sox in 1959. He also pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee Braves and Chicago Cubs before retiring after the 1966 season with a 97-101 career mark and 3.94 ERA in 15 seasons.

Of career highlights--Hoeft won 20 games for the 1956 Detroit Tigers, not bad for an 82-72 5th place team.

Also to my liking, Hoeft played in that wonderful era where baseball cards were just fabulous looking. Thanks to the magic of Topps' Million Card Giveaway database, I was able to snag images of Hoeft's cardboard immortality as a Tiger. All the best to his family and friends, and I encourage you to consult the cards to learn more about Hoeft's place in Tiger History.  Cue the music...

1953

1956--I don't know why he didn't have cards in 54 and 55. Anybody?

1957

1958

1959

The Grand Scheme Can't Complain

I'll Start This Off Without Any Words

Maybe because it was in the era of overproduction or because it's just not as totally blatant as some of the more offensive card mishaps in history, but I'd like to thank Joe at the Priceless Pursuit for reminding us (or showing for the first time, as was my case) this little beauty. Oh baseball cards. Is there anything that they don't do?

Somewhere I have heard this before How would you like to be Casey Fien? His spring road trip looks something like this. Waived by Tigers. Signed by Red Sox. Waived by Red Sox. Signed By Blue Jays. Released by Blue Jays. Signed by Tigers. So, I would like to welcome Detroit Tiger, Casey Fien. Fien's Fiends may now rejoice.

Fien's spring makes me think of electronic bank transactions, where money can move all over the place without any cash moving at all. Makes me wonder whether he could have just stayed in Lakeland and digitally become property of other teams. Heck, he hasn't even pitched to a batter this spring

"A liability? I haven't thrown to a hitter all spring. It's been like a twilight zone, a nightmare. Nobody gave me a chance. That's the first time I'd ever thought of quitting baseball."

And the best of luck to you, sir. May your perpetual nightmare be over.

It is now time to make it unclear Yeah. Roster decision time. The battle has boiled down to the three amigos. Nate Robertson had a nice game yesterday, and Dontrelle Willis has continued to exceed the lowest expectations in the history of life, which, good for him. Jeremy Bonderman has made his case as well, and it's looking more and more like two of those three will be your #4 and #5 on the Tigers roster. Lynn Henning thinks this is pretty much a done deal, and that Dontrelle's stuff just is not at a major league level at this point:

I believe today that Willis will be released and Bonine will make the team as a long reliever.

There is no indication from the Tigers that any such move is likely. But it appears from how the pitchers have performed during the past three weeks that Willis is not throwing with enough zip or command to be a serious factor in Leyland's 2010 rotation. In his three-inning stint Thursday against Houston, Willis' fastball never once exceeded 89 mph.

Henning has the uncanny ability of making things up and turning out to be 100% correct in hindsight, and this is not a particularly unreasonable claim so I will not trash him. FWIW though, Beck tweets some interesting tidbits including "D-Train's 1st pitch today hit 93 on the ballpark radar" and "Only one inning for Dontrelle Willis, apparently by design." Indicating that 1. Maybe he does still have the velocity in there and 2. That there may be a role in the bullpen for him, which given the injuries to Seay and Miner to start the season, could suit him fine.

For Willis' part he'll do whatever the Tigers need him to do. Can't fault him for that. Is there anybody that doesn't really really want to see him succeed?

It's safe to say, quote me on that

"It was going to be fun," Granderson said. "I only faced (Verlander) once, in a batting cage. It was in the first couple days of spring training when the guys are just getting their arms going and the catchers are telling you what pitches are coming

Hat tip to Bless You Boys for pointing out this MLive article that talks about how Granderson was looking forward to facing Justin Verlander in a game situation. The game got rained out. Lucky for him, that chance will probably come around again, and while I wish Grandy all the luck in the world in his new digs, I'd like Verlander to get him out.

I know it's wrong, so what should I do? I love Hank Greenberg, thanks in part to a thorough indoctrination from my Grandpa, who as a Jew growing up in Detroit, watched his career develop in the face of severe anti-semitism et al. So, I'm a Greenberg fan. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg is tremendous movie that everyone should watch. However, they might need to make a sequel in light of this New York Times article:

Some members of Greenberg’s family and legions of his fans believed that anti-Semitic pitchers had walked Greenberg often to keep him from a fair shot at Ruth, who set the record in 1927. Greenberg, however, called such a view “pure baloney.” To shift responsibility for his falling short of the record onto others would have been out of character.

There is now statistically compelling evidence that Hank Greenberg was walked at a unusually high rate as he approached Babe Ruth's single-season Home Run record in 1938. Sadly, this doesn't surprise me in the least and it adds another fascinating dimension to the history of baseball and the unquantifiable greatness of some players. The vast majority of these were African-Americans who were denied the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues, but other players, like Greenberg, were allowed to play and still had to face obstacles from spectators, opposing managers and players alike. All the while, he was a total class act. Definitely read the Times article, and watch the movie, if you haven't seen it before.

I'm on a plain plane You know what's cool? Internet on an airplane. Like, the airplane that I'm on right now while writing this entire post [Ed. As this sentence was written, we started our descent and I had to store my electronics, making the whole novelty of this post, in which I use lyrics from Nirvana's "On A Plain," while cleverly changing the spelling, moot. Such is life. Nonetheless, internet on the airplane is the best thing ever. Wave of the future!]

Misc. Posting has been slow. I know this. With a full weekend and then a quick, unexpected business trip that I just got back from, the blog took a hit. I did see some nice yellow envelopes when I stopped home this afternoon though, so it appears as though blog life can continue.

PPD

Grand Cards blogging has been postponed due to unseasonably nice weather in Baltimore. Blog posts will be rescheduled at the next available date when sitting behind a computer feels acceptable. Until then, if there is any bit of sunshine and/or warmth where you are, I recommend taking advantage while it lasts.

Tigers Gallery Checklist: All Star Program Inserts 1981-1985

Credit to Don, who hit it right on the head. That teeny tiny Trammell was the product of one of those early 80's All-Star programs indeed. This Trammell was of the 1981 variety.

Now, I didn't really know anything about these until I saw them in an ebay store that I was perusing to combine shipping for my Porcello Mini. I didn't quite know what to think of them, but oddball cards being fun and all, decided to add them to the order. When they came I was blown away. I had no idea they were so small! For the record, they're also really, really thin, much more like poster stock than card stock.

But that makes sense, based on what I was able to piece together from the internet. These "cards" were part of a fold-out insert put into All Star Programs from 1981-1985 that featured all of the All Star nominees for that year. Some entrepreneurial types took those inserts and carefully cut out the teeny cards within. They really are like cards though, complete with a little player profile on the back.

Like I said, this was what I was able to piece together, so there might be some more detail about these that I'm missing, but I think that's the gist. In my order, I ended up getting the Tigers sets for 1981, 1982 and 1985, all of which I'll showcase here. As for 1983 and 1984, I'll leave space on this page for if and when those little guys make their way to me.

1981 All Star Program Inserts (Cleveland) I'm not going to get into too much description on any of these, but the Tigers had a respectable, albeit small, group of nominees, highlighted by the ubiquitous 80's Trammell, Whitaker, Parrish Triumvirate. I'll start things off with the very neat back of the cards, which differ from year to year much more so than the fronts.

1981 ASG Program Insert (Back)	Alan Trammell	Lou Whitaker	Lance Parrish
Steve Kemp	Milt Wilcox

1982 All Star Program Inserts (Montreal) Now these are just plain cool. Same concept as the '81 versions but because the game was in Montreal, everything dual-written in English and French--even the positions. We also get the first, rather unbelievable error of the set, a card claiming to be Starting "LANC" Jack Morris, with a picture of someone else. I don't have time to dig through my 80s Tigers to find out who exactly, but Jack Morris it is not. I say that the error is somewhat unbelievable too because come one, these are All Star nominees, not the scrubs. Weak. Anyway, these '82s are my favorites of the ones that came in.

1982 ASG Program Insert (Back)	Kirk Gibson	Lance Parrish	Lou Whitaker
Chet Lemon	Alan Trammell	Jack Morris (Err.)

1983 All Star Program Inserts All in good time, my friends.

1984 All Star Program Inserts I don't have these either, although I'm excited to see the Tiger representation after their 35-5 start to that World Championship season.

1985 All Star Program Inserts (Minnesota) To the victors go the spoils. Of this I mean that with the Tigers' World Series win in '84 they were very well represented in the '85 All Star Game. We still get the same standbys as we had in the earlier sets, but with all sorts of new blood from that '84 team. One downer: no player profile on the backs. Just a name, team and ASG logo.

1985 ASG Program Insert (Back)	Jack Morris	Willie Hernandez	Kirk Gibson
Lou Whitaker	Alan Trammell	Chet Lemon	Dan Petry
Darrell Evans	Lance Parrish

Flashing Some Green

For no reason whatsoever, I felt compelled to show off all the Green cards that I have in my still-intact Granderson collection:

2008 Triple Threads #187a Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/50)

2008 Triple Threads #187b Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/50)

2008 UD Heroes #60 Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/499)

2008 UD Heroes #60 Curtis Granderson Emerald Relic (#/25)

2008 UD Spectrum #SS-GR Curtis Granderson Green Relic (#/50)

2008 UD First Edition #SQ-39 Curtis Granderson Starquest

2008 Goudey #69 Curtis Granderson Green Mini (#/88)

2007 Triple Threads #129a Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/50)n

2008 Topps Co-Signers #33a Curtis Granderson Green (#/200)

2009 Topps Finest #102 Curtis Granderson Green (#/99)

2009 Topps #CBQR-CG Curtis Granderson Career Best Quad (#/20)

Now please continue to enjoy your otherwise nondescript Wednesday.