The Fun Trade Partner

I have traded with people long enough in the blog world that sometimes I don't even have to mention to someone that it is time for a swap.  Some of my regular trade partners just mail me cards when they think that they have accumulated enough cards to send my way.  I do this too sometimes.  I just package a bunch of cards for a blogger and mail it out to them.  I usually just shoot them an email to let them know that some baseball cards are in transit to their home.

Julie from the Phillies blog, Funner Here, surprised me with a trade package.  Her blog used to be called Things are Funner Here but, she shortened the name.  Just wanted to clarify so, people don't think that there are two Julies in the blog world and one of the Julies is stealing a blog title from the other.

Julie and I have been trading Phillies for Dodgers for over a year now.  Maybe even close to two years ago was our first trade.  There has been a gap that we haven't traded in a while until she sent me an awesome package full of Dodgers and other goodies.

This Hideo Nomo card is one of my favorites that she sent.  This Circa Thunder card was designed by someone that loves lava lamps, the 70s and acid.  The influence of those three things makes for a nice looking card.  Maybe Topps should hire a graphic designer like that.

A rookie card of my favorite Dodger to make fun of.  James Loney had so much potential and he had some hype among Dodger fans when he was racing through the minor league system on his way to the big leagues. Now Loney is probably hoping to get at least a one year deal from somebody.  A team shouldn't give him a multi-year deal.  He never lived up to expectations of being able to hit for good average with some power in his bat.

2007 was his best season and it was in limited time as a 23 year old.  Loney had 375 plate appearances with 15 home runs and an on-base percentage of .381.  The 15 bombs he hit in 2007 are still his career high.  Between 2008-2011, Loney had seasons of getting well over 500 plate appearances and never hit more than 13 home runs.

Russell Martin was part of the core that came up through the minor leagues with James Loney.  Martin had some good years in Los Angeles before leaving for the Yankees.  Martin is now a free agent hoping that no team will notice that he batted .211 last year with a .311 on-base percentage.  Martin also had a career high 95 strikeouts in 2012.

Martin is really hoping that teams see his 21 home runs that he hit last year.  He hit 13 of the home runs in tiny Yankee Stadium.

Martin is the type of player that should stay in the American League, far away from the Dodgers.  He seems like the type of player that will hurt his former club despite his declining numbers.  I would rather ignore Martin than root against him.

Thanks for the trade, Julie.  I have some cards already set aside for you, now I just need to make a trip to the post office.