Players retiring in 2014 (almost non-Jeter edition) Part 2

Besides Jeter, there were three other players who announced their retirement in 2014 that I didn't cover yesterday. I'm going to slip in one Jeter card.

Alfonso Soriano
1999 Topps Traded #65

2014 Bowman #120

Soriano started his career in Japan, playing for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. He didn't like it there and broke his contract to sign with the Yankees. The Carp threatened legal action against MLB but nothing came of it. Although Soriano has had problems during his career, both on-field and with management, he has had a very productive career. He hit 412 home runs, putting him at #50 on the all time homer list. His career batting average is .270 and he has stolen 289 bases. In 2006 he joined Jose Conseco, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez in the 40-40 club (40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season). He was a 6-time All-Star in his 15-year career and was the 2004 All-Star MVP. Back with the Yankees in 2014, he struggled at the plate as a DH and was released in July.

Mark Teahen
2007 Topps Turkey Red #181

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #225

Teahen was the #1 draft pick of the A's in 2002 and made his ML debut in 2005 with the Royals. The earliest card of his I have scanned is the 2007 Turkey Red. His last major league game was on 9/28/11. He spent the next two years in the minor leagues and went unsigned by anyone in 2014. He announced his retirement in December 2014. He finished his 7-year career, mainly as an infielder, with a .264 average and 67 home runs.

Josh Willingham
2006 Fleer Tradition #99

2014 Topps Heritage #340

Willingham was the Marlins 17th round draft pick in 2000. He made his major league debut with the Marlins in 2004. He had appeared on cards before 2006 but this is the earliest card I have scanned. 2006 was his breakout year anyway, having appeared in only 26 games prior to that. Although he was primarily an outfielder during his career, for half of his games prior to 2006 he was a catcher, which I guess explains that 2006 Fleer Tradition card. He was a career .253 hitter with 195 home runs. He finished his career with the Royals and got to the plate 4 times in the 2014 playoffs, getting one hit and 2 strikeouts.

Derek Jeter
1993 Bowman #511

My best early Jeter card.

2004 Draft Picks - How did they do? Part 4

When we get down to draft pick #31, it feels like we're scrapping the bottom of the barrel. But there were 50 rounds to the 2004 draft. That means there were 1,457 players picked after the first round. I'm going to follow up this post with the bottom ten players who actually played in the majors.

2009 Topps Heritage #587 J. P. Howell

Pick #31 by the Royals. Howell made his ML debut in 2005. He was a starter early in his career but was converted to a reliever in 2008. He's mainly been a middle relieve although the Rays used him as a closer in 2009 when he saved 17 games. He's currently pitching for the Dodgers.

Zach Jackson. Pick #32 by the Blue Jays. Zach was a starting pitcher who compiled a 4-5 record with the Brewers and Indians between 2006 and 2009. He's currently in AAA with the Nationals. I don't own a single card of his.

2004 Just Rookies #57 Justin Orenduff

Pick #33 by the Dodgers. Orenduff was a pitcher who lasted 7 years in the Dodgers system without ever being called up.

Tyler Lumsden. Pick #34 by the White Sox. Another pitcher who never made it out of the minors. There are no Lumsden cards in my collection.

2004 Bowman Draft Picks #90 Matt Fox

Pick #35 by the Twins. It looks like Matt made his ML debut on 9/3/10, started one game, pitching 5.2 innings with no result. He was then released by the Twins and picked off waivers by the Red Sox on 9/9/10. He appeared in 3 games, 1.2 innings, with an ERA of 10.8. He was released by the Red Sox on 9/28. So in the space of 25 days he pitched for 2 ML teams. And that was his whole ML career.

2007 Topps Turkey Red #85 Danny Putnam

 Pick # 36 by the A's. Putman hit 0.214 for the A's in 28 at bats in 2007. Then it was back to the minors until 2011.

Jon Poterson. Pick #37 by the Yankees. Another guy who never made it out of the minors and for which I have no cards.

2006 Bowman Draft Picks Future's Game Prospects #7 Gio Gonzalez

Pick #38 by the White Sox. In 2005 the White Sox Gonzalez traded to the Phillies with Aaron Rowen. In 2006 the Phillies traded him with Gavin Floyd to the A's for Freddy Garcia. The Phillies eventually lost out on that deal as Garcia was a bust and Gonzales is now a top pitcher for the Nationals with an 80-58 career record.

2004 Topps Traded #76 Jay Rainville

Pick #39 by the Twins. Drafted right out of high school, he lasted in the minors until 2009 before being released. What becomes of guys like this?

2006 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor #38 Huston Street

Pick #40 by the A's. Another successful pitcher from this group. In a 10-year career, Street has pitched for the A's, the Rockies, the Padres and is currently with the Dodgers. He has a 36-29 record, 275 saves and a career ERA of 2.82. He was the 2005 Rookie of the Year and is a 2-time All-Star.

2010 Topps Update #201 Jeffrey Marquez

Pick #41 by the Yankees. Jeff pitched 1 inning for the White Sox in 2010 and 3 innings for the Yankees in 2011. Just enough time for a cup of coffee and maybe a doughnut.

2012 Summer Clearance Trade - Twins Taken

Teams are going fast but some I posted earlier are still available.   Look back for these:

A's
Rockies
Rays

Sorry it you're looking for Rangers or Red Sox cards. These went pre-clearance to long time trading partners.

This will be my third, and maybe last Summer Clearance Trade. I'm going to feature each team in an individual post to give you an idea of the cards available. I have cards from each team, except Astros and Phillies. The deal is, I'll send you a bunch of cards of your favorite team, you send me some Phillies and/or Astros you don't want.

The cards I'm dealing are junk wax, no relics, autos or hard-to-get parallels. They are mostly base cards but from a wide variety of sets. Most teams are loaded with more recent years (2010-2012) but I have a lot of cards from the 1980s and later gotten from repacks.

 You can send me as many Phillies/Astros cards as you want. I'll be featuring each team in alphabetical order over the next few weeks. The first person to claim a team by making a comment in that team's post gets the team. This is hard to coordinate so I'm not taking any advance reservations.  Good Luck!

I've made trades with quite a few team collectors but I've never connected with a Twins collector. Surely they exist! This explains why I have 130 Twins cards gathering dust. Here's an sampling of the many cards I'm offering.

2007 Topps Turkey Red #90 Justin Morneau

2007 Ultra #107 Joe Mauer

1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection #487 Matt Walbeck

Here's that rare parallel card you need to complete your Matt Walbeck collection.

1990 K-Mart #22 Kirby Puckett

These 1990 K-Mart cards show up all the time in repacks.

1988 Topps #45 Kent Hrbek

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #2325 Adrian Peterson

OK, this guy is actually a Viking. Can you believe a card numbered 2,325?

2010 Upper Deck #306 Joe Mauer

2004 Throwback Threads #112 Jacque Jones

2012 Summer Clearance Trade - Nationals/Expos Taken

Teams are going fast but some I posted earlier are still available.   Look back for these:

A's

Brewers

Mariners

Marlins

This will be my third, and maybe last Summer Clearance Trade. I'm going to feature each team in an individual post to give you an idea of the cards available. I have cards from each team, except Astros and Phillies. The deal is, I'll send you a bunch of cards of your favorite team, you send me some Phillies and/or Astros you don't want.

The cards I'm dealing are junk wax, no relics, autos or hard-to-get parallels. They are mostly base cards but from a wide variety of sets. Most teams are loaded with more recent years (2010-2012) but I have a lot of cards from the 1980s and later gotten from repacks.

 You can send me as many Phillies/Astros cards as you want. I'll be featuring each team in alphabetical order over the next few weeks. The first person to claim a team by making a comment in that team's post gets the team. This is hard to coordinate so I'm not taking any advance reservations.  Good Luck!

There apparently isn't much love among my readers for the Nats. I've got a 2-year backlog of Nationals/Expos cards to trade. 183 cards!  Last chance!

1988 Donruss Bonus MVPs #18 Tim Raines

1995 Zenith #78 Moises Alou

2007 Topps Turkey Red #127 Ryan Zimmerman

Everybody loves Topps Turkey Red!

2009 Topps Update #201 Jordan Zimmermann

2011 Topps Heritage #296 Ian Desmond

2009 Topps 206 #211 Jordan Zimmermann

2011 Bowman Platinum #61 Jayson Werth

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen #184 Stephen Strasburg

2012 Summer Clearance Trade - Cardinals Taken

This will be my third, and maybe last Summer Clearance Trade. I'm going to feature each team in an individual post to give you an idea of the cards available. I have cards from each team, except Astros and Phillies. The deal is, I'll send you a bunch of cards of your favorite team, you send me some Phillies and/or Astros you don't want.

The cards I'm dealing are junk wax, no relics, autos or hard-to-get parallels. They are mostly base cards but from a wide variety of sets. Most teams are loaded with more recent years (2010-2012) but I have a lot of cards from the 1980s and later gotten from repacks.

 You can send me as many Phillies/Astros cards as you want. I'll be featuring each team in alphabetical order over the next few weeks. The first person to claim a team by making a comment in that team's post gets the team. This is hard to coordinate so I'm not taking any advance reservations.  Good Luck!

Unlike some teams, the Cardinals have gone fast in previous Clearance Trades. I've only got 71 Cardinals cards and most of them are relatively recent. Here's a nice selection.

2007 Topps Turkey Red #48 Albert Pujols

1991 Donruss #43 Ray Lankford

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen #41 Yadier Molina

2009 Topps 206 #206 Yadier Molina

1987 Topps #520 Jack Clark

2008 UD Masterpieces #85 Chris Carpenter