It's spring training and the start of the collecting season. As a player collector and set building you learn to pick your battles. I'm one card away from finishing my '09 Topps Series 1 set. And I've given into temptation and got 2 blasters of 2009 Upper Deck base. So I'll work on that set as well. And I know for sure I'll be working on Heritage this year.
But for those other sets I'll be looking around for some of my favorite Yankee players. And maybe jumping on the Teixeira bandwagon due to his Mattingly connection.
But I'm really excited that there will be a bunch of cards of Xavier Nady in a Yankee Uniform. I know 2008 Updates & Highlights, 2008 Documentary and 2008 Ultimate(?) had him in a Yankee uniform but there's nothing like pulling your favorite player from a good ol' fashioned regular set.
Also Phil Coke has made his mainstream debut in both Topps 2009 and Upper Deck 2009. I know he has an auto card in Spectrum which I hope to pick up when my eBay hiatus is over. I've seen his Heritage rookie card which looks great. I actually own a Jim Kaat rookie from the 1960 set and the rookie cards are similar in design except they have that ROOKIE CARD MLB logo in the middle of the ribbon as shown
here. I'll have to dig into the 2009 checklists and see what sets he's in.
And my man Phil Hughes is a hobby regular in this year's sets. I have a feeling I'll be tracking down quite a few Phil Hughes cards this year. I've seen the 2009 Heritage Hughes card and I love it. I want it! I hope he somehow finds his way into the rotation this year. I'm really rooting for Hughes to do some great things in his major league career. Which is pretty unheard of for me. I'm used to sticking with players that are established and Phil Hughes is a pretty big gamble. The odds that he'll be traded within the next 3 years is probably extremely high given the state of the rotation at the moment. I held my breath this off season hoping to not see his name in the hot stove reports and I've been lucky. I don't know how I'd feel if he got traded.



I really like Upper Deck's Game Used Jersey insert for this year. The letters are a bit more exciting than putting a big square swatch or X shaped swatch (I'm talking to you Upper Deck X) in the middle of the card. And it's better than that stupid UD thing they had in 2008. I never liked that.
So in summation, if you find yourself with a bunch of Phil Hughes, Xavier Nady and Phil Coke cards that you don't really want. Just drop me a line and I'll see if we can work something out.
Oh yeah, if you have any of those YSL thingys hangin' around, I'm interested in them too.