2024 trade package #4: Sport Card Collectors

Happy June! As for me, I'm on to March over here, though I think that was a relatively slow month for me so maybe I'll make up some time with enough posts over the next few weeks.

Tonight you get to see the first cards that were sent to me this year by Matt of various blogs including Sport Card Collectors. He always manages to PWE over some cool stuff, especially when it comes to my Tigers and Michigan Football collections.

Here's what he sent me back in March:

RP Lange is one of three current/former Tigers seen on Purple Heritage parallels tonight. Though he'd been decent in the past he's had a frustrating year (join the club--oh wait, he's on the right one for that) and a hissy fit that included firing a ball over the dugout when being taken out led to a demotion to AAA for now. I'm sure he'll be back, but things aren't looking great for supposed winner AJ Hinch.

Speaking of frustrating, one guy who has a legitimate beef is starter Reese Olson (2024 Topps) who gets just about zero run support whenever he pitches, leading to a completely unjustified 1-6 record. It took until his 10th start to get his first victorious decision despite giving up more than two runs just twice in 11 starts. Just think how good of a 1-2 he and Tarik Skubal could be if the cheap/incompetent owners and front office actually acquired and held on to quality bats!

Tork, star of a Topps Chrome insert, looked like such a bat by the end of last year but he's got some different swing mechanics going on this year that I blame on the coaching staff because this is a guy who could hit right out of college.

I'll get to the Verlanders in a minute but first let's look at Vierling (another purple!) who's been decent this year, plus a Mini of Austin Meadows, the guy Detroit foolishly traded away Isaac Paredes to acquire. Maybe his little bro will pan out for the Tigers, but so far that's feeling unlikely.

(Another tire fire of a Tigers season aside, this was a nice selection of cards of my hometown team!)

And now we get to just a few too many Verlanders! Can you believe in just a few weeks it'll be the 17th anniversary of JV's first no-no, which he fired against the Brewers? His 2022 AL Cy Young nod--pointed out by that Heritage card--was his second with Houston and third overall go go with 2011 and 2019. As mentioned, he joined Lange and Vierling in this shipment in getting the Heritage Purple treatment. And finally, there are a couple Ginter Minis including another relatively rare appearance from his stint with the '23 Mets. That's my 13th card of him with the dysfunctional franchise that can't stop punching itself in the face.

Besides Verlander, the best player in the envelope was one Aidan Hutchinson, the local boy who made good after moving on up to the Lions once his outstanding college career in Ann Arbor ended. These two Retail Blue Panini Select cards appear to do a good job of showing off one of his coveted traits: the "endless motor" that draftniks love. With what's likely a very improved secondary, he could make even more noise at and behind the line of scrimmage this year, living up to his hype as a QB-seeking missile.

Matt, as always thanks so much for thinking of me and IDing some great new fits for my collections. Having already fired back (which you've already recapped), I'll have to start another stack for you, but in the meantime I'll be glad to show off the next bunch you sent me once I've made it into May's acquisitions.

I think the next post you see here should be my March show recap, and that may just do it for that month. April might not take me too long either with a single show and two or three trades. May will be a crazy month to catch up on with three shows (the "June" show for me was actually yesterday, still in May) plus a bunch of trades. So, yeah, lots more good stuff to come!