2012 Phungo Cards #23 Freddy Garcia

Over the weekend news came down that Freddy Garcia was released from the San Diego Padres, for whom he was trying to get a 5th starter spot.  

2012 Topps #23 Freddy Garcia

The bullpens at Camden Yards are beyond center field and afford fans a great opportunity to see pitchers up close. If you get there early enough to see batting practice, you will also likely be able to catch the warm ups of the starting pitchers.

This pix was taken prior to a game on April 24 2011. Garcia threw six innings of shutout ball that day and would have won the game had it not been for a blown save by Mariano Rivera. In 2011 Freddy Garcia was a pleasant surprise for the Yankees much of the year, but he was unable to repeat that performance in 2012. As spring training winds down teams will be finalizing their opening day rosters and Garcia may find a spot to continue is career. Based off his poor spring I would think it is unlikely that he gets picked up right now, but he will be out there when a starter somewhere goes down.

Garcia has had a solid career, 152 Wins, 1 World Series Championship with the 2005 White Sox.  The big exception is his 2007 stint with the Phillies (1-5, 5.90 ERA).  Even worse the Phillies traded two prospects for Freddy Garcia - Gavin Floyd AND Gio Gonzalez.  Floyd has had mixed success since 2007. Gio Gonzalez is now one of the top opposing pitchers in the Phillies own division with the Stinking Washington Nationals. 

That's right - for the first time I referred to the Nats as the Stinking Washington Nationals - I have finally admiited the Nats are a major threat for 2013 and forward.     

2011 04 14 Yankees @ Orioles SnapShots

Tough game for the Orioles on Sunday.  They lost 6-3 in extras to the Yankees in a game which the O's could have won had a close call at the plate in the 9th gone the other way.

Jake Arrietta settled down after a giving up a couple of runs on a Curtis Granderson homer in the first.  New Yankee (and short time Phil) Freddy Garcia pitched very well shutting out the Orioles for 6 innings on 2 hits.  The Yanks relief corps did not fare as well.  First Joba Chamberlain gave up a 2 run dinger to Mark Reynolds and then Mariano Rivera had to come in for a four out save. 

The Orioles were down 3-2 with two outs in the 9th when Brian Roberts batted with a pair of runners on base.  Roberts ripped a double down the Right Field Line  plating the tying run and leading to a play at the plate.  Fom my seat I thought that pinch runner Robert Andino was out, but on a replay it appeared that Yankees Catcher Russell Martin may not have gotten his glove down.  Regardless the call made was an out.  That play could have given the O's a 4-3 victory, but instead the game went to extras and the Yankees took a 6-3 win in 12 scoring a couple of those runs via some ugly Orioles fielding.

SnapShots from Sundays Game


New Oriole Derrek Lee

Curtis Granderson

Freddy Garcia

Blah

In Phungo Blog news,  I have opened the potential "Hot Box" of 2011 Heritage.  I will let you know that my research has found that the upside down topps logo box theory is......Urban Legend Only.  My box was a "Not Box" - as in not a Hot Box.  Which is a little disappointing but it was still a fun box to open and I am happy with the decision to build 2011 Heritage.  Hopefully later this week or sometime next week I will get a synopsis of the box posted.  

Trade with White Sox Cards

2008 UD Baseball Heroes #183 Steve Carlton and Johan Santana
1986 Topps Mini #55 Mike Schmidt
1978 Topps#574 Bob Lemon 2008 UD Masterpieces
#70 Jimmy Rollins

As you probably know Steve at White Sox Cards has been very active on the trade market lately. And Team Phungo is very happy to have worked out a deal with WSC involving some White Sox some Phils and a bunch of stuff on my need list.

Basically I had a couple ’59 White Sox looking for a good home and Steve checked on my want list and we expanded the deal from there. Steve sent out a team bag full of Phils which included lots of stuff I needed.

And another bag full of cards to help out with my set building.

The cards above are among the highlights. I didn't pick up any Baseball Heroes cards this year and was very happy to get the Carlton/Santana card. The Schmidt is the first 86 Mini added to the Phungo collection. I also let Steve know that I enjoy vintage cards if he had any, The Bob Lemon card was among the vintage he sent. I like the '78 manager cards - probably had this one when I was a kid - glad to have this one back in my collection.

The set builder bag had cards I needed from 08 Topps Series 2, 07 Bowman Heritage, and 07 Masterpieces. I was very happy to knock a bunch of those sets off of my lists.

Thanks a bunch for the cards and keep up the trading – it’s like getting a blaster in the mail – only I want all the cards and it’s a heckuva lot cheaper.

And I think it all went much better than this trade....