A 1970's Flasback

After striking out on almost everything eBay related in March and most of April, I've started to win some auctions. As I've said before, I really haven't been chasing much in 2015 so my focus has been on the early 2000's. This time around I was able to nab this card which is full of star power.

2001 UD Decade Bench/Garvey/Stargell/Foster Bat Card

I rarely buy relic cards on eBay, but this one caught my attention. I have several of the single relics, but this is my first quad from this set. If I recall this set was more of a retail oriented set, but I may be messing that up with something else. 

This card cost me $16.50 shipped which is a little on the steep side for a relic purchase, but according to the odds these fell about 1:400 packs. You would figure they could find a color photo of Foster instead of making it look like he played in 1890. Other than that this card has a nice vibrant look. 

Hope everybody is enjoying some nice weather. 85 and sunny in my neck of the woods.

Thanks for reading.

A Nice Mix of Old and New

2004 SP Prospects Dual Auto Johnny Bench/Neil Walker 43/50

Neil Walker was drafted in 2004 as a catcher in case you were wondering of the odd combo.  Walker converted to third base in 2007 and eventually found a home at 2nd base as an everyday player.  It wasn't an easy road to the majors for Neil as his prospect status was beginning to fade by 2010.  Opportunity presented itself through an injury to Aki Iwamura and fortunately for Walker he took advantage.  He has been a mainstay at 2nd and continues to show improvement every year.  He is off to his best offensive start of his career and may be on his way to his first All Star game appearance if he can keep pace.  I'm curious to see what kind of numbers he could put up if he stays healthy the entire season

That Johnny Bench guy turned out ok.....Don't think I need to go in much detail about him. 

I also featured the triple auto version of this card a few months back.  That Piazza guy was good too...

Neil Walker Great at Nothing Good at Everything

I'm a frequent watcher of the MLB network and one of my favorite offseason features is the top ten at each position.  Last weeks feature was 2nd base, and Neil Walker was 8th.  The rankings are based on past performance/upcoming projections and weighs defense and offense.  My first instinct was that I could name a lot more than 7 second baseman I would rather have than Walker, but that proved to be more difficult than I thought.  He is so average he is good. 

When looking at his numbers you see a good obp with a rising walk rate, decent pop (13-17 homers a year) all while continuing to improve his defense.  Really the only flaw in his game is the ability to stay on the field.  He has had DL stints each of the past two years.  A healthy Walker is vital to the Pirates success as middle infield depth has been a weakness the last couple of years. 

Would Neil Walker be in your top ten? 

Neil Walker was drafted out of high school as a catcher back in 2004.  Pretty cool company on this card.  This is from 2004 SP Prospects and is serial numbered 19/25.