Mystery Boxes From a Mystery Yard Sale (continued)

As promised in Tuesday's post, here's the continuation of the cards from the mystery yard sale boxes with my favorites of the 90s cards I found in the haul.

With the 90s cards, Dime Box Nick would've had a field day with some of these. Some cool double play cards and Trevor Hoffman fiddling with a camera.

Some nice rookie cards and early career cards. Ramon Hernandez might be someone I eventually add to my player PC as I always liked him when he was with the Reds. Finding a Konerko Dodgers card was a treat as well although I'm not a big fan of Pacific.

Eric Davis and Joe Oliver are two former Reds shown here with two teams they definitely don't belong with. Davis spent two seasons as a member of the Orioles, 1997 and 1998. The 1997 season wasn't all that great, with him only appearing in 42 games. However, he had a bounce back season in 1998 with the last great year of his career hitting .327/.388/.582 with 28 homers and 89 RBIs in 131 games. He even finished in the top 20 of AL MVP voting that season.

Joe Oliver spent one season as a Brewer in 1995 after playing in only 6 games with the Reds in 1994. He had a nice season appearing in 97 games hitting .273/.332/.439 with 12 homers and 51 RBIs. After the season, he signed again with the Reds as stayed with them for another two years.

More "short term stops" cards including Tom Candiotti as a member of the A's, Joe Carter as an Oriole, and Eddie Murray as an Angel. Terry Steinbach spent three seasons at the end of his career with the Twins, so that doesn't count as short term but I didn't remember it at all until I saw this particular card.

I thought Sportflix cards were just a fad of the 80s, turns out they lasted until the mid 90s. In case you can't make out the players pictured, left to right its Pedro Martinez, Don Mattingly, and Jeff Bagwell.

A couple of neat Jim Thome cards for my collection of his.

Oooo! Shiny cards!!! I really like the Delgado card but the Kenny Lofton All-Star credentials card is really a cool looking card.

These cards scanned like absolute crap but there were a boatload of Roger Clemens Blue Jays cards in the boxes. Juan Guzman is a press proof card numbered 1 of 2000. I'm not sure if that holds much weight but here's the proof ...

Again, not sure if it holds weight like numbered parallels in today's world. Regardless, it's still a nice card.

I wasn't expecting to find Devil Rays cards in here, especially not first year Rays cards. Seeing Wade Boggs in a Rays uniform is still a weird sight.

Diamondbacks cards were in more supply than Rays cards. I don't have many early cards from either team so these definitely will fit in nicely.

Nearly time to wrap this up so I'll show some stuff rapid fire .... first, some Pinnacle Xpress Peak Performance cards of Randy Johnson and Mike Piazza.

Two Pinnacle Mint Collection cards of Cal Ripken Jr. and Andruw Jones.

And I'll put a bow on this treasure trove of a yard sale haul with some 1997 Fleer.

For three bucks, I'd say that I definitely got more value than that out of this, especially due to the sheer number of 90s cards I found that I didn't already have. I really appreciate my step mom picking these up for me. 

Say It Ain't So, Arroyo

This must be the year for retirements. First there was Shane Doan of the Arizona (nee Phoenix) Coyotes and now Reds fan favorite Bronson Arroyo has officially hung up the spikes after 16 seasons and a valiant comeback attempt earlier this year.

1995 Topps Traded and Rookies #47T

Arroyo was drafted by Pittsburgh in the 3rd round of the 1995 Amateur Draft out of Hernando High School in Brooksville, FL. He made his major league debut during the 2000 season and started 12 of the 20 games he appeared in during that season. His years with the Pirates were very uneventful, going 9-14 with a 5.44 ERA in 53 games over three seasons.

Just before spring training in 2003, the Red Sox claimed him off waivers. His season that year wasn't much but  he did get to pitch in the ALCS that year out of the bullpen. The 2004 season though is where he really started to blossom with Boston, going 10-9 with a 4.03 ERA in 29 starts. While his playoff performance wasn't great that year, he did win his only World Series ring as the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to break the curse.

He had another stellar campaign in 2005 going 14-10 with a 4.51 ERA over 32 starts. His lone appearance in the ALDS against Chicago that year did him in though as he came in relief in Game 1 an he promptly gave up 2 hits, 2 walks, and one homer over 1 inning for an overall ERA of 18.00 in a game where the Red Sox lost 14-2.

2007 Topps #30

Towards the end of spring training in 2006, the Reds pulled off a coup, acquiring Arroyo from the Red Sox for slugger Wily Mo Pena. That proved to be one of the most lopsided trades ever for Boston as Pena never really panned out but Arroyo would go on to be a mainstay in the Reds rotation through the 2014 season. In his first season with the Reds, he made his only All-Star team and finished 23rd in MVP voting. He threw a career high 240.2 innings over 35 starts and compiled a 14-11 record with a 3.29 ERA. 

2007 Ultra #43

Over the next 7 seasons, he never missed a start for the Reds and never landed on the DL once. He also threw over 200 innings every season except for one (2011) where he threw 199 innings and made over 30 start every season from 2006-2014. In 2010, he won a Gold Glove and finished 12th in Cy Young voting for a Reds team that surprised everyone and made the playoffs. For as surprising and memorable as that 2010 club was, they were unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs by the Phillies via a three game sweep in the NLDS.

2009 Topps #513

The Reds would return to the playoffs in 2012 in season where the steamrolled the NL Central and won 96 games. That season Arroyo went 12-10 with a 3.74 ERA over 32 starts. Then the playoffs started and despite being only one win away from their first NLCS since 1995, the Giants rattled off three straight wins and surprising knocked the Reds out in the first round. That was the downfall of the Reds as they could only muster a wild card berth the next season, which would be Arroyo's last in Cincinnati.

2014 Topps - Red Foil #78

He signed as a free agent with Arizona that offseason and only managed 14 starts before landing on the DL with arm trouble which ultimately led to Tommy John surgery. While injured, the D'Backs shipped him off to the Braves in June of 2015. He never made an appearance for the Braves and just over a month later, was sent to the Dodgers as part of a massive three team 13-player trade, which included future Reds teammate Jose Peraza. At the end of the season, he was granted free agency by the Dodgers. 

2015 Topps #596
Image from COMC.com

In 2016, he signed with the Nationals reuniting himself with former Reds skipper Dusty Baker as part of a comeback attempt but had rotator cuff problems resulting in him not getting a roster spot. He was released by Washington after the season. On Valentine's Day this year he signed a minor league deal with the Reds with an invite to spring training. 

2017 Topps Heritage #598
Image from TradingcardDB.com

Surprisingly, he made the team and made his first start on April 8th of this year in a 10-4 loss against the Cardinals in a 4 inning effort. It was obvious from the start that he wasn't the Arroyo of old as his fastball had lost a lot of zip and he was forced to rely mainly on breaking pitches and finesse. His last start before arm troubles resurfaced was June 18th, Father's Day, at home against LA where he threw three innings giving up 7 hits, 5 earned runs, and one homer over 16 batters faced. His final stats for the season were 3-6 with a 7.35 ERA. His final career stats came out to be 148-137 record with 4.28 ERA, 1,571 career Ks, 2,4335.2 IP, one World Series ring, and one All-Star appearance.

And so ends the career of one of my favorite players and someone I'm glad to have on my player collection list. I've got a decent start on my Arroyo collection but I'm always on the lookout for more.

Congrats on a great career Bronson. Hope to see you again soon in a few years for your induction into the Reds Hall of Fame.

Bronson, today is your day. pic.twitter.com/qazVQn1l1g

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 23, 2017

Happiness is a Box of 2016 Donruss

Along with the box of Ghostbusters cards I reviewed a few weeks ago, there was also a box of 2016 Donruss that came along with them. I opened a few packs back in the spring, pulled 3 hits out of four packs, and was really blown away at how great the cards were, even for a logo-less product. While this won't be a super thorough review like the Ghostbusters cards, there were still lots of highlights to be had.

Everyone has probably seen the base cards for this by now as it was the first release of the year from Panini. There's a healthy mix of current players, up and coming players, and retired starts, not to mention the San Diego Chicken. Even with the fact that there are no logos or team names on the cards, these are still some pretty good shots and Panini did a fairly decent job of hiding the fact that there are no names or logos.

Like they did last year, there are some throwback cards, this time from 1982 Donruss. It seemed like there was one in every pack. I really like the Rickey Henderson cards of him, well literally, stealing bases.

Now here comes the fun stuff, the inserts! I haven't seen the Masters of the Game inserts talked about a lot, if at all, but I really like these two cards. They have that artistic look like Diamond Kings and have a really nice design to boot.

There are photo variations although, unlike Topps, you can actually pick out the variations without having to consult some sort of online repository. The photo variations have a nickname, such as the case of the Ken Griffey Jr. card above, or some sort of note like "NL ROY" or something to that effect. I was expecting more than one of the pink parallel cards and for what they are, they're okay but not really my thing.

Rookies were plentiful and these are three of the best that I pulled. I like how the Rated Rookies are a different design from the base set but the "Rookies" subset seems like overkill.

Now we're getting into the good stuff. First up these 82 parallels of some sort. The design on the Prince Fielder card looks like the ink blotches from one of those visions tests while the Donaldson has some sort of 80s zebra print thing going one. The Elite Dominator and the Elite Series cards are one per box inserts. While I like the Elite Series DeGrom card, it feels almost unnecessary as Panini does the Elite cards as one of their late season releases.

Ok, now the very good stuff. This Dansby Swanson parallel is numbered out of 400Swanson was flipped to Atlanta last winter as part of the ridiculous Shelby Miller trade. When all is said and done, I think Atlanta will come out the winner as Miller has been a complete disaster for Arizona.

Speaking of Arizona, the hits from the desert continue with this Peter O'Brien autographed jersey card. I really like the concept of this series with jersey pieces and signatures from up and coming players. The patch itself is no small piece either which makes it that much better.

This must be some sort of Diamondbacks hot box! First the Dansby numbered card, then the O'Brien autograph jersey card, now this Archie Bradley jersey card. For lack of a better term, this is the "base" card design as there are different versions of these in both red and green (each of which are numbered). The design on this is a bit dark and I personally think this card would have benefited from a jersey swatch from a color other than black. 

Nola is one of the top pitching prospects for the Phillies and when I pulled this out I was pretty happy. You can't really tell from the scan but it's numbered as well, even though it's a sticker autograph, which really doesn't bother me as it blends in pretty well with the white. I like the blue background and the general design a lot on this. 

Here's another jersey card set that I think is pretty cool where it's a jersey piece from a team of a current player, in this case Jake Arrietta being represented as a member of the Orioles. This is my first Orioles hit I've had in a long time and I'll gladly take it, especially since he's one of the best pitchers in the National League, well at least until he cooled off recently.

I'm not sure this card could be classified as a hit but I'm going to put it in that bucket anyway. This is a test proof card of Alex Rodriguez numbered 9/10 as this is apparently the magenta version. There are other versions of the test proof cards in cyan, black, and yellow. Needless to say, I was pretty happy to pull this out of the next to last pack when I broke into the box. This sucker went right into a top loader.

Overall, I would say this was a really good product to tear into. You get a lot of stuff, be it numbered cards, hits, inserts, and base cards, as evidenced by the picture below. Whatever you're into, I don't think you could go wrong with this. It's moderately priced too. Counting the A-Rod test proof card, I pulled five hits out of a box that guaranteed three. 

Three Duds of 2016 Topps Heritage Packs

I'm taking a break today from getting caught up on the Super Trader packages to show off three 2016 Heritage packs that were complete duds (at least in my opinion). I picked these up during my trip to the card shop last month, the same trip in which I got some awesome stuff from four packs of Donruss. These packs, however, were quite the opposite.

First up, some cards from the NL Central. Phillips was the only Reds card I got in this batch. I wish I could find something good to say about these cards but I can't.

Three Diamondbacks cards. I like the Goldschmidt simply because he doesn't have any versions of the horrid unforms that the D'Backs are wearing this season. It's just the basic red and white, which is perfect.

These posed shots coupled with the bad design this year do not make these very exciting cards. I liked last year's Heritage a lot and the few years before that as well, but these just strike me as bland. Nothing against 1967 Topps, which these cards were based off of, but it's just not that great of a design.

A few more to wrap this up. The Astros card is probably the best of this little batch.

Sorry if I sounded like a grumpy old man in the post (which normally I'm not ... and I'm not even old!), it's just that I'm not impressed with Heritage at all this year. At least I can say I sampled it now I can move on to other stuff I like such as Gypsy Queen, Donruss, Diamond Kings, and perhaps some Bowman. 

Now get off my lawn.