2021 trade package #20: Bob Walk the Plank

I'm taking a break from sorting through that Facebook lot (currently working on a 5000-count box full of '96 Score!) to thank another cool person for a trade package so I can put away some cards.

The envelope from today's post arrived a few weeks ago courtesy of buddy of the blog Matt (@walktheplank82), the estranged writer of Bob Walk the Plank, though he does occasionally still post over there. As always, I was very pleased to see what he sent:

Tigers, part 1. A lot of what Matt sent this time was from 2021 Bowman, Select, Stadium Club, and Topps flagship, meaning practically everything was new to me.

Today's a good day to be mentioning Cameron--who, along with Jake Rogers, is starting to make the Verlander trade look less lopsided--as he came up with a huge two-out RBI double to overtake the Jays in extras. After some of the bums the team has trotted out the past few years it's great to see what guys like Daz and Derek Hill can do for you.

Dingler is a rare OSU alum I'm rooting for as he's been more than worth a second-round choice in last year's draft based on the numbers he's been putting up in the Minors. Best of all, the numbered Refractor Matt sent me is blue!

And Mize has definitely taken some steps this season on the way to fulfilling some of that promise that made him go #1 overall in 2018. He currently leads the pitching staff (and in fact the team overall) in bWAR, is tops in innings pitched, second in wins (with 6) and has a complete game to his name. The Bowman and mini Topps insert are cool but I really like seeing the Stadium Club base next to his design variation, which should be the '92 version. I'm not sure how short-printed those are, but the latter is especially cool!

IF prospect Paredes hasn't done a lot this year due to injuries but he's young enough to still get a good look the next couple seasons. Reyes is only 19 so we may not know if he'll be a factor at SS for a while yet. Skubal is definitely more of a known quantity at this point. He's roughly the same age as Mize and doesn't have the same prospect pedigree, but his performance in the Minors has earned him a role in the rotation and he's run with it to the tune of eight wins to lead the team. The HR ball has been his enemy but he appears to be a fixture for years to come. That Stadium Club base provides a great look at the end of his delivery.

And then we have the guy currently considered the team's top prospect after being selected 1-1 in 2020 as many expected. The corner IF with the big bat got promoted to both AA and recently AAA this year, and I may have to get down to Toledo to see the stacked roster of prospects they've got right now, which includes another one in Riley Greene. Matt sent both his Bowman and Chrome base cards as well as a shiny Chrome insert to bolster my small collection of the future (hopeful) superstar.

And if those Tigers prospects weren't excited enough for me, he treated me to a trip to the #cronezone with this quartet of recent Michigan star Jake Cronenworth. San Diego shrewdly traded for him late in 2019 and he's rewarded them by placing a fairly close second (tie) in last year's Rookie of the Year balloting, then putting up 5.0 bWAR plus almost 20 HR thus far in 2021. He has positional versatility and has done quite well hitting near the top and middle of the order. Thanks to these cards from Bowman/Chrome, Select, and Topps, I now own five cards of Jake with the Padres and 17 overall--I was collecting his 2015 Bowman Draft/Chrome cards before he was cool! Now that everyone knows him and he's appearing in way more products I'll likely have to wait a while for some of his better stuff to be affordable, but in the meantime it pays to have friends like Matt.

These 2021 Topps HR Challenge cards make for a nice brief intermission. I believe when I asked him, Matt told me he probably threw them in by accident, but it worked out nicely since they hadn't been scratched, and I immediately thought of another buddy of the blog, Paul, who's addicted to the game, and has done quite well for himself on it when he's not jinxing players into 0-for-30 slumps and significant injuries.

Now we head over to the gridiron, with Michigan due to kick off the 2021 season in under two weeks! And there's lots of college action photos here to help me get ready. Brady's cards are split right down the middle with 2.5 each of him in college and pro action, and I love the Panini-branded items from this year--Contenders, Prizm, and Score. This year's QB play doesn't need to approach that of #10 to lead to good things for the team, but if that's Cade McNamara's (or eventually J.J. McCarthy's) future then that works for me!

And then we have a couple much more recent alumni. Collins was a huge WR recruit who came to Michigan over the likes of Bama, and he was about as productive as he could be considering the playcalling didn't send the ball his way nearly as much as it should have since it would have pretty much been Henne-to-Braylon all over again. Better yet, he had the dubious honor of being selected by one of the worst organizations in the league, the Texans. But he still has a ton of potential so we'll see what happens for him this year. I'm loving all three cards Matt sent from Contenders, Prizm (an Orange Ice parallel, I believe), and Score, representing his debut in my collection.

Meanwhile, Chris Evans (the RB, not Captain America) found himself selected by the Bengals in the sixth round. He had a pretty decent career in Ann Arbor with the lowlight of a lost 2019 as he was suspended for academic impropriety. Outside of that he was a great story, and a dynamic player out of the backfield to boot. I don't know if he'll last in the League very long but I hope he does, whether it's in Cincy or elsewhere. That Prizm Draft card you see above is my first of him as well.

We started the football section with NFL's GOAT QB and we'll end it (and this post) with a guy I consider one of the greatest DBs in college and NFL history: Charles Woodson. This is a fun quartet with three cards from his '98 rookie season: a Playoff Contenders Leather insert (cool die-cut!) plus RCs from Score and UD's Black Diamond Rookie Edition. And lastly, I love seeing that Woodson is still appearing in new products like 2021 Score thanks to their Game Face insert. It's obvious how serious Charles was when he played and that's why he was one of the best.

Matt, thanks again for this fun surprise full of great stuff! I have some stuff set aside for you and continue to add to it, especially thanks to the plethora of stuff I got on Facebook (Jason Kendall might make an appearance or two), so I hope to have something you can show off on Twitter soon.

I'll continue to try to carve out a bit more time to cover stuff I have in-hand before recapping the Facebook stuff, and that includes a show, two eBay purchases, and a TCDB trade, all of which I believe I've mentioned a few times here. Until then, if you don't hear from me, assume I'm sorting even. More. Cards.