Back In The Fold

Ryan Braun comes across as cocky, but since he's on my team I don't care.

I just love Brauny, I really do. I hope he and Prince settle down in Milwaukee for a Yount and Molitor-esque stretch. That would make my decade.

I picked up Braun's Goudey Heads Up card off eBay along with ManRam. The lot cost me $0.99 total. I dig these cards. I think it's the sketches and the random information on the front of the card like I like so much. On some of the older cards you get these cartoons and such on the back of the card, but never really on the front. This gives each card a nice whimsical feel that I can really get behind.

Little dude swinging a hammer on Braun's card? Sweet. Love it.

A side note on the "Drafted 5th overall" note. At the time I remember being upset that we didn't take Troy Tulowitzki. I think I'm over it now. All I can say is that I'm glad we steered clear of the pitching in that first round. Wade Townsend, Mike Pelfrey, Lance Broadway. Eek. Garza and Volstad may be the only decent arms out of that first round. There is however still a bit of unfulfilled talent from the top of that draft class. Justin Upton, Ryan Zimmerman, and Troy Tulowitzki have all emerged but Alex Gordon hasn't gotten on track yet (I'm betting on him this year), and Jeff Clement hasn't done what he was supposed to do yet. Maybin, McCutchen, and Jay Bruce were high schoolers at the time and are still making their way toward being solid MLB players.

For the record, Manny's card is cool just because it features all that pine tar.

I'm glad to add these to the collection and I'm still looking for about half the cards from the 2009 Goudey SP set. If you've got any Heads Up or Sports Royalty for trade, just let me know - my goal is to get a trade bait post up this week.

Stay tuned, I've also got some trade packages to post.