2018 trade package #1: Sport Card Collectors

I'm gonna take a quick break from the Sportlots stuff because the other day I received my first trade package of 2018!  It was a PWE from Matt of Sport Card Collectors and it contained plenty of Tigers goodness:

This fun quartet starts off with Miguel Cabrera's base from Panini's 2017 Donruss Optic, the chrome-ified version of the base.  As is often the case I'm a fan of the regular design and the new finish is a plus.

Next is a 2017 Topps Rainbow Foil parallel of 3B (and maybe future RF) Nick Castellanos.  His bat was good enough that I hope Detroit finds a way to keep it in the lineup this season.

The only non-2017 card was one that came out the previous year in the form of an Al Kaline 2016 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball Legends insert.  It's always nice adding a brand new card of Mr. Tiger to my collection!

And finally, in another example that Topps can do right once in a while, there's a base card of starter Daniel Norris from 2017 Topps Gallery.  Like Stadium Club this is clearly a brand that should be available every year, and I like how the artwork here includes the "Mr. I" patch in honor of late Tigers owner Mike Illitch.

That was a nice little bunch but there were a couple more cards as well:

Wow, two autographs!  On your left is Bryan Garcia out of last year's Donruss Elite Extra Edition (a very useful brand for autograph collectors!).  I have to admit I wasn't familiar with Garcia so I looked him up and found that the pitcher was Detroit's 6th-rounder in 2016 and played at pretty much every level of Detroit's system last year.  He doesn't appear to be listed among the Tigers' top 10 prospects at this point but his quick rise in 2017 is a good sign.  Plus I'm always a sucker for an Elite auto I didn't have.

Joining him is another Tigers relief pitching prospect, Joe Jimenez, with an autograph out of Topps' 2017 Bowman Platinum.  The Puerto Rican amateur free agent had a rough go of it in his Major League debut last year but has been looked at as a potential future closer for a team that doesn't have any reason not to give him some chances to claim the job in the next couple years.  I'm hoping he succeeds where Bruce Rondon flamed out in Motown.

Matt, thanks for a fun PWE that got my year of trading started off on a high note!  I'm looking forward to sending stuff back your way once I pile up more of your favorite teams, and in the meantime I hope your Giants find a new coach that'll help turn things around.