The Trading Post #107: Summer of '74

We've probably seen the two biggest transactions occur already during this MLB offseason. Japanese star Shohei Ohtani has chosen to hitch his wagon to the Angels, and the Yankees just took a nine-figure obligation off the Marlins' hands in Giancarlo Stanton, becoming the first team since 1919 to lead the Majors in home runs and then acquire the individual home run leader. The Yankees acquired Babe Ruth almost a century ago, though it would be a few more years before that turned into a championship.

The trades that occur in the Cardsphere have far fewer zeroes in the value column, but they are still appreciated, especially when there is a new face in our community. Summer of '74 is a newcomer as of this past April, and Matt P has already established himself as a trading partner with many veteran bloggers.

This won't be a two-part post, but Matt sent me a stack of 1994 Topps Gold cards before I could even blog about this first shipment. Watch for that in the near-ish future, but for now, let's start things off with a double play/cameo card:

2000 Topps #306 Mike Lansing

2000 Topps doesn't get a lot of love. The gray border and vertical back are often cited as demerits, but it's one of my favorites of the long period that Topps moved away from white borders. It has generally good photography, and I particularly like the "Topps 2000" lettering, something that really taps into the turn of the millennium craze that was happening at that time.

Mike Lansing is shown turning two over top of Brian Giles, center fielder of the Pirates. At first, I thought this player was an Oakland Athletic, thanks to the yellow outline on his uniform numbers. It took a bit of digging to find out that neither Brian Giles nor his brother Marcus ever played for Oakland, and what's more, #24 is retired by Oakland, as Rickey Henderson wore it for much of his career. I mistook the black for a shadowy dark green.

This was a tricky one to pinpoint. The Pirates hosted the Rockies twice during the 1999 season, but Lansing only played in the first series. There's no clear situation where Giles was the first out in a double play, so the best guess I have is May 1st, 1999. Giles was forced out at second base in the bottom of the first inning, and it looks like the Rockies may have tried turning a 5-4-3 double play but couldn't pull it off, allowing a run to score. This high slide of Giles', which does not look entirely Kosher to me, may have had an effect. The inning deteriorated from there, as the Pirates batted around and plated three.

I'm not as confident in this detective work as usual, so take it with a grain of salt. But it's a good shot, regardless.

2014 Topps Upper Class #UC-30 Matt Holliday

In 2014, when Upper Deck was several years removed from the baseball card market, Topps was bold enough to name an insert set "Upper Class", and this is my third card from it. There's plenty of gold foil and a nice frame, as well as a posed shot of a youthful-looking Matt Holliday. This 50-card insert set focuses on the player's rookie year, and Holliday's was full of power, including a grand slam. The back also mentions a few other rookies that joined the league the same year, in this case David Wright, Joe Mauer, and Adrian Gonzalez.

None of those players made a dramatic impact last season; in fact Wright didn't play at all. They may have a few years left in them, but their careers are definitely winding down.

2010 Topps Update #US-56 Matt Holliday

Matt Holliday's time in Denver had come to an end by the time the 2010 Home Run Derby was contested, where he represented the Cardinals. He didn't make it out of the first round, and it looks like this particular swing counted as one of his ten outs. But as this card tells us, he did have the longest shot of the night, 497 feet out of Angel Stadium (of Anaheim).

There are logos plastered all over this card, from the huge National League logo in the curve where the team logo is usually found, down to the Home Run Derby logo, which incorporates State Farm, the MLB logo, and a little architectural feature found in the Angel Stadium (of Anaheim) parking lot, which also makes an appearance on Billy Cowan's famed 1972 Topps card.

2013 Topps Emerald #638 Andrew Cashner

Andrew Cashner hasn't been able to take part in any All-Star Game festivities, but he was promising enough a prospect to get a base set card in 2013 Topps. That means there is an Emerald parallel, which is what you see above. The retro Padres uniform clashes somewhat with the design, but in my mind, that's what a Padres uniform should look like. Also notice the camo t-shirt that Cashner is wearing under his jersey, frequently a staple at Petco Park.

This was one of about a half-dozen Emerald cards that Matt threw in, and the retro jersey caught my eye enough to use it in this post. And I'll give a little love to the Padres, a team that the Rockies usually share a similar spot with in the NL West standings. Interestingly, Cashner didn't begin his career as a Padre. He was drafted by a few teams, including the Rockies, but didn't sign until the Cubs came knocking a second time. The Cubs eventually swapped him for Anthony Rizzo, a move that surely helped the Cubs break their curse.

2017 Topps Salute #S-191 Jeff Hoffman

Speaking of big trades, Jeff Hoffman joined the Rockies as the "key return in the Troy Tulowitzki trade". He's young, has performed reasonably well both in the rotation and out of the bullpen, and he may be more of a later-innings guy in the 2018 season, as the Rockies have some work to do in rebuilding their bullpen.

Topps Salute is a rather forgettable insert set that spans a gigantic 250 cards across the two Series and Update. I'm pretty sure I've seen this set before on some of the blogs, and it jumps out at me enough to include in a post, but not nearly enough to make me want to chase the other 249 cards.

1995 Upper Deck #265 Juan Acevedo (RC) (AU)

I remember Juan Acevedo as one of the many pitching prospects that the Rockies fielded before it became clear how difficult it is to pitch in Coors Field. Alphabetically, at least in my collection where the Rockies are first, he was at the top of the stack in most of the 1995 sets I collected. I have his rookie card from 1995 Upper Deck already, but certainly not a signed copy! This was a nice surprise to get from Matt. I have no idea if this was signed during his rookie year, or perhaps during his brief second stint with the Rockies in 2001. He played with numerous other teams in his eight year career, even closing games for the Cardinals and Tigers.

This has the look of a rookie card to me. His uniform is tucked in just so, his glove looks like it just came off the rack at a sporting goods store, and he's got a touch of his own style in leaving the top button on his road jersey open. He has a more youthful-looking photo on the back, where he appears in the familiar Rockies pinstriped home jersey, which is inset next to a paragraph detailing his Minor League accolades. His big-league debut came in a 3-1 loss played in the Astrodome, a few days after Dante Bichette's historic home run.

2017 Topps Heritage #357 Mark Reynolds

Just like 2000 Topps, 1968 Topps and 2017 Heritage gave us vertical backs. Fortunately for Mark Reynolds, there is plenty of space to have a Home Runs column, but not enough for a Strikeouts column. Those counts have gotten better since he was on the Diamondbacks, but he still struck out 175 times last year. It's amazing that you can hit for power, get away with putting up a .198 batting average in a full season, and still be playing toward the end of the same decade.

The Rockies roster is set to undergo some major changes in 2018. Chris Iannetta will be returning to Denver, making it unlikely that Jonathan Lucroy will stick around. Also hitting the free agent market are Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Holland, and this guy, Mark Reynolds. Do the Rockies keep the veterans around a while longer with some short-term contracts, or do they commit to their solid pipeline and start calling up their prospects like Ryan McMahon and Brendan Rodgers? Ohtani and Stanton are off the market, but there are tons of players out there for the Rockies to fill their 25-man roster.