Anonymous PWE Bomb?

So I came home yesterday to a PWE with no return address and an illegible postmark. Someone who has my address and knows what I collect only limits this to about 50-100 possible candidates. Maybe somebody I myself bombed last week with my "pay it forward" post? Or maybe somebody starting a war who does not want retaliation. Hmmm.

Regardless, I would like to thank my mystery donor publicly since I can't do it personally. Thanks for the Target Red parallels!

We've got a trio of Rookie Cards including one of the best cards of the year below in Blake Parker. I'm starting to think about going after the rainbow on this one.

And a fourth Target Red parallel, this one from Series 2.

An added bonus is that all four cards were new to me. I had a few Reds from Series 1 but that was it. Putting together these parallel sets might get me through the rest of the offesason.

Thanks again, mystery donor!

A Quartet of Pitchers

I'm trying to keep up with the amount of players the Cubs are using this season. These four pitchers have been around a couple of weeks now so it was about time I got to showing them off. 

This Blake Parker photo is from a game back in June against the Seattle Mariners. The Cubs won 5-3 in extra innings with Parker pitching the bottom of the 11th to get his first (and so far only) Save for the season. The throwback uniform makes it a little cooler, if I do say so myself.

Henry Rodriguez wore #63 with both of his previous teams, the A's and Nationals. But coming to Chicago he had to settle for#62, as closer Kevin Gregg wears#63. The photo comes from the June 23rd, 14-6 whooping of the Houston Astros. Rodriguez is currently on the disabled list with the Iowa Cubs after being DFAd in mid-July.

Chris Rusin started and got the win in the Cubs first shutout in St. Louis since 1997 this past Friday night. There was also something about him being the first lefty to throw 6+ shutout innings in St. Louis for the Cubs since sometime in the late 70's. As in, probably just the second in my lifetime. Crazy. I can't remember the year but the last one to do it was Ken Holtzman.

And although he didn't end up with the win, he also blanked the Giants over 7 innings in a 1-0 victory. Not too shabby when you do that to the defending World Series champs (Giants) and your #1 rival (Cardinals). That said, this photo is from his season debut in which the Cubs lost 8-7 to the A's. To be fair though, Rusin only gave up 3 of the runs and thus, did not get the loss.

Pedro Strop came over to the Cubs with Jake Arrieta in the deal that sent Steve Clevenger and Scott Feldman to the Orioles. This photo is from his Cubs debut, a scoreless 8th inning on July 4th in a 1-0 loss to the A's. Note the special hat.

Strop has made 18 appearances so far for the Cubs, 17 of them scoreless. Unfortunately for him, his ERA rose significantly because of a 5-run third of an inning against the Brewers. 

These are cards 37-40 in the 2013 team set. Still have 9 more to go!

Blake Parker

Like last week's Brooks Raley cards, this Blake Parker ATCRCS card comes courtesy of some help through Sportscollector.net.

Parker is currently in Iowa with the Cubs Triple-A affiliate where he also spent most of last year. However, he qualifies for an ATCRCS card because he pitched 6 innings over 7 appearances in two different stints with the big league club last season.

After a short stint in late May-early June, he was also recalled towards the end of the year. He pitched in two of three games here in Washington, although not in the game I went to. I was lucky enough to get his custom 2012 team set card signed during that series though. I also have a 2012 Iowa Cubs team set card signed by him.

I read a few weeks ago that Blake Parker became the Iowa Cubs all-time Saves leader with, wait for it...35 career Saves at Iowa. I'll admit I don't follow the minor leagues as much as I could, but for a team as old as the I-Cubs, that seems absurdly for a career leader. I guess if you prove you can do it a couple of times in Iowa, you're ready for the Major League bullpen.

I'm not real active on Twitter but when I signed up, I followed a bunch of Cubs players, Blake Parker being one. I thanked him via Twitter after he signed for me last year and he actually responded, which I thought was kind of cool.

This is the 53rd ATCRCS card I've gotten signed for my collection.