2019 trade package #1: Nachos Grande

Chris from Nachos Grande was nice enough to be the first person to send me cards in 2019.  He was one of the many folks who received some Christmas Cards from me, and then he returned the favor after I claimed a couple things from his Trade Bait Blowout.  Naturally he threw in a bunch more stuff because he's a great guy to trade with.

Here's what I got this time:

Group 1 here is guys I have sorted by player in my Tigers box.  Miggy and Sanchez are the only ones that are still playing, but Clark is the head of the MLBPA and Henneman is still coaching in the Tigers organization (I think).  Peralta was quite good in his four years in Motown, but it looks like 2017 may have been his last year in the Majors.

And some other Tigers from the past 25-ish years.  Alvarez came to Detroit from Arizona by way of San Diego during the expansion draft in a deal for former star Travis Fryman, but he never got his bat going enough to last.  Anderson was a #1 overall pick as a closer but blew his arm out.  Benoit was a very effective arm out of the pen but his performance priced him out of Motown.  Fick was somehow an All-Star during the awful 2002 season.  Pena is back with the organization as a coach after retiring last year.  Rondon is the White Sox's problem now!  And Young just had a hell of a Winter League in Venezuela.

Chris's note mentioned that he thought I may have asked him for some Chris Sabos at some point and sent this five-pack my way.  That was awesome of him as three were new to me:  1990 Classic Update and Starline Long John Silver (#25, one of his two appearances), plus 1994 Pacific.  I'm especially glad he sent the latter because I'd included that set on the checklist of another player but not for Spuds.  That's all fixed now, and I'm happy to have even more cardboard of the notable 3B!

Also:  three many Verlanders!  The 2017 Topps Bunt card in the middle was a new one for me as was the A&G relic from the same year.  The latter was one of the two cards I claimed from Chris's piles of trade bait and I thought it would be fun to grab as I have his other version from the same set:

By their powers combined these give me 350 total Verlanders, which is not Too Many but is definitely a lot!

Last up is a very shiny Thomas Rawls insert, a Yellow parallel of 2016 Panini Phoenix's Adrenaline Rush (#49/99).  I claimed this one as well since Rawls is a former Wolverine (who blew up in his senior year after a transfer to Central Michigan).  While I usually post this kind of thing over on TMM I didn't feel like it was worth it for just one card.  Besides, the sport is especially relevant today, the NFL conference champ games, plus I have another Sportlots post I hope you'll all check out over there.

Thanks again for a great return package, Chris.  May your eight not be so elusive and your Larkins be plentiful in 2019!