2001 Upper Deck MVP, Adam Eaton

#275 Adam Eaton

Here is the last card from 2001. This is a Padrograph of Adam Eaton.

Adam was a first round draft pick by the Phillies in 1996. Three years later, he was part of a deal that sent him to the San Diego organization in exchange for Andy Ashby. In his first season with the Padres, he spent more time with the big league club than the in the minors. He pitched for for the Padres through the 2005 season, winning 11 games for them twice.

Before the 2006 season, he was packaged in a deal that sent him and Akinori Otsuka to the Rangers for Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez. Without looking up any stats, I think that it is safe to say that the Padres got the better of this deal.

Adam pitched one year with the Rangers before signing a three year deal with the Phillies. He ended up getting released before Spring Training last year and was able to catch on with the Orioles. The O's released him after 8 starts and an 8.56 ERA. The Rockies picked him up after that and he spent the rest of the 2009 season with them and their AAA team. I have no idea if he was in camp with anyone this spring.

For his career, Adam is 71-68 with a 4.94 ERA and 855 strikeouts.

My 2010 Topps Heritage fantasy team

Here is my Cardboard Junkie Topps Heritage fantasy team. You can see all of the cards I had to choose from a couple of posts down.

c- Geo Soto CHC and AJ Pierzynski CWS
1b- Kendry Morales LAA
2b- Jose Lopez SEA
ss- Erick Aybar LAA
3b-Pablo Sandoval SF
of- Ryan Ludwick StL Jayson Werth Phi Andre Either LA
ci- Joey Votto CIN
mi- Martin Prado ATL
4th of- Jacoby Ellsbury BOS
util- Jeff Francoeur NYM
p- Cliff Lee SEA Mariano Rivera NYY (my one insert/sp)Edwin Jackson AZ Johan Santana NYM Aaron Harang CIN Jair Jurrjens ATL Tim Wakefield BOS

2001 Upper Deck, Jason Smith

#287 Jason Smith

Here is a card that I got signed during the 2008 season. I was able to get it signed a few hours before the ballpark opened while I was hanging around the Royals team parking lot. It was the only card of Jason that I had at the time, so I was glad that I got it signed. Jason carpooled with a couple of other players (Mike Aviles maybe). I already had sigs from the other two guys, so Jason was the one that I was after and it turned out OK. Amazingly, this is one of two cards from 2001 that I got out of a pack and then got signed. The rest of the 2001s were either given to me or purchased to get signed.

Jason is a journeyman utility player that can play anywhere in the infield. He has played at least part of a season in the Majors every year since 2001. He has played for the Cubs, D-Rays, Tigers, Rockies, Blue Jays, D-Backs, Royals, and Astros. He's a .212 career hitter that has 17 home runs. The official minor league website currently lists him as a free agent.

2001 Topps Traded, Brian Buchanan

#195 Brian Buchanan

Two Buchanans in two days. That doesn't happen too often here.

Since I just talked about Brian yesterday, I'll keep tonight's post short. I will say that I like this card. I never heard of Topps Heritage until 2003 and even then, I didn't realize how it worked. I didn't know that 2001 redid the '52 set and that every set thereafter would go in order. I bought one pack in 2003 and didn't get any more until 2007. This design has been a little played out after the Topps '52 Rookies sets, but I still like it.

It seems that a few people don't care for this year's set and I can't say that I blame them. But, from an autographers standpoint, you just cannot beat a card that doesn't need to be prepped prior to signing. That's why I like Heritage and will continue to buy future products.

Both Buchanan card I posted on here were purchased from checkoutmycards.com.

2010 Heritage Blaster Fantasy Break

Here is my blaster of 2010 Topps Heritage for the Cardboard Junkie fantasy league. Here is a recap of the packs.



Pack 1
Edwin Jackson-P
Baltimore Orioles
Saltalamachia-c
Morales-1b
Pedro Feliz-3b
berlin Wall
Kung Fu Panda-3b
Rowand-of

Pack 2
Hornsby
Eybar-ss
Prado-2b
Soto-c
Spilborghs-of
Guerrero chrome-of
Porcello-p
Ellsbury-of

Pack 3
Jurrjens-p
Gardenhire-mgr
Dice-K-p
Cliff Lee-p
Damon/Feliz WS thang
checklist
Chris Davis-1b
Jeter WS MVP SP-ss

Pack 4
Nick Johnson-1b
H Wagner
Wade Davis-p
R Ludwick-of
Harang-p
Francouer-of
Votto-1b
J Bruce-of

Pack 5
Bochy-mgr
LaPorta-of
Brad Bergensen-p
Vlad-of
H Matsui WS card-of?
Giants
Ryan Doumit-c
Miggy Tejada AL MVP SP-ss?

Pack 6
Quentin-of
Delmon Young-of
A Everett-ss
M Riverea NAP-P
Tillman-p
I Stewart-3b
Michael Brantley-of
Wakefield-p

Pack 7
Riemold-of
League Leaders (Mauer, Ichiro, Jeter, Cabrera)
Beltran-of
Carlos Gonzalez-of
The Riot-ss
Jayson Werth-of
Etheir-of
Manzella-ss

Pack 8
Y Betancaurt-ss
Pierzynski-c
M Mora-3b
Jose Lopez-2b
Fontenot-2b
johnson
Johan-p
Moyer-p

I think that is all of them. Out of all of those, I came out with three shortprints, one chrome and one insert.

For positions, here is the breakdown.

Pitchers- 12 (+1 insert)
Catchers- 4
First Base- 4
Second Base- 3
Third Base- 4
Shortstop- 5 (plus 3SPs)
Outfield- 18

I will post my team tomorrow night.

2001 Topps Chrome, Brian Buchanan

#72 Brian Buchanan

Here is a card that I got signed last year on my College World Series trip. I usually try to go to some minor league games on the trip and last year I went to Des Moines, Iowa. I got to see the Iowa Cubs host a double header against the Omaha Royals. Brian was playing for the O-Royals at the time and I got this card signed outside of the ballpark after the games. Brian seemed like a nice guy and signed for everyone who wanted his autograph.

Brian has had a long career in professional baseball. He is a former Yankee first round draft choice (1994) that got traded to the Twins in the Chuck Knoblauch deal. He made his Major League debut for the Twins in 2000 and he played in 30 games for them that year. He spent time with the Twins, Padres, and Mets over the next four seasons.

The last time he played in the Majors was 2004. Since then, he has mostly played AAA ball. He also spent one season in Japan and half a season in the Northern League. He is now officially retired from baseball and this season will be his first season as a manager. He will be in charge of the Royals rookie team, the Idaho Falls Chukars.

2001 Topps, Alex Arias

#T81 Alex Arias

Here is a Padrograph that came out of the '01 Topps Traded set. Surprisingly, I already had an Arias autograph. The first one came out of a pack of Leaf Signature Series. Since I already did a write-up on Alex for the first card, I'm going to talk about something different today. I'm going to talk about my first baseball game of the year.

On Tuesday, I drove to the Little Apple to see the #20 Kansas State Wildcats host the #30 Wichita State Shockers. The day got off to a bad start when I got to the ticket window and discovered that they didn't take debit cards. After a long walk back to the car, a drive to the nearest gas station, and a longer walk back to the ballpark, I made it inside just in time for the first pitch. It was hard to find a seat at the game since there was a record crowd of 4,745 at the game.

I found a seat in the right field line bleachers. The bleachers were installed last season to accommodate all of the fans for the KU/K-State game (the previous record crowd) and thank goodness that they are still in place.

It was a beautiful day on Tuesday and I got to watch five innings of baseball before I needed my jacket. Plus, the Cats won the game 8-3 after a five run seventh inning broke the 3-3 tie. I just hope that the big crowds continue for the rest of the season since the team seemed to really play off of the crowd.

With the victory, Kansas State moved to 20-3 on the season while Wichita State dropped to 14-8. Here's a few random pictures of the game.