eBay Wins #257

There's still a whole lot of 1990 cards left, and here's the smallest stack out on my table, 60 cards from Topps Traded, cut down to just the Cardinals.

1990 Topps Traded
#15T Tom Brunansky
#39T Keith Hernandez
#90T Tony Pena
#117T Bryn Smith
#122T Bob Tewksbury
#124T John Tudor

When I arranged these by number, I figured that the set was arranged by team, but then I saw Cleveland's Keith Hernandez splitting up Boston's Tom Brunansky and Tony Pena. It's alphabetical order by last name, and I just happened to get some Cardinals all between S and T. Keith Hernandez is a player I'd really like to get an autograph from, but with him having a solid job in the Mets booth, he doesn't seem to get back to St. Louis for appearances.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5302
Total Spent	$65.39
Per Card	1.233 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

A Season Starting PWE, Part II

Way back in March, Stealing Home sent out some PWEs to celebrate the start of the season. I saw a few others post theirs at the time, but I'm just now getting to mine.

Part I

This isn't one of my giant 40-part series posts, since, after all, it was just a PWE. Today I have the vertical cards, just because that's a nice way to split up the scan.

2014 Topps #157 Matt Adams
2015 Topps #261 Lance Lynn
2015 Topps #286 Trevor Rosenthal
2016 Topps #46 Jhonny Peralta
2016 Topps #106 Jordan Walden
2016 Topps Chrome #132 Stephen Piscotty
2016 Gypsy Queen #215 Matt Adams
2017 Topps #99 Michael Wacha

The danger of waiting too long to post some cards of current players is that if your team hits a swoon, they might not all be there anymore. Matt Adams went to Atlanta when Freddie Freeman got hurt, and Jhonny Peralta was just released. Jordan Walden has been a free agent since November, so he wasn't lost specifically during this season. That shiny chrome Piscotty saves the post, though.

A Season Starting PWE, Part I

Way back in March, Stealing Home sent out some PWEs to celebrate the start of the season. I saw a few others post theirs at the time, but I'm just now getting to mine.

As usual, I like to tag every Cardinal player and card set, and I just barely ran out of space, so even this PWE is getting split into 2 posts. So, today, let's see the horizontal cards.

2015 Topps #60 Michael Wacha
2016 Stadium Club #37 Yadier Molina
2017 Topps #234 Luke Weaver

I really need to get more of that Stadium Club set. I like it, even if it does look a lot like some mid 90s Fleer sets. The cards flanking that one are an interesting pair, as there's currently talk of demoting Wacha and/or bringing up Weaver to try to save this season.

eBay Wins #256

Today's eBay cards are from 1990 Upper Deck. I've given up on scanning every single card, so I just picked out the Cardinals, and enough other stars to round out the scans.

1990 Upper Deck
#16 Pirates Checklist (Bobby Bonilla)
#230 Mike Gallego
#334 Rickey Henderson
#342 Jack Clark
#393 Lee Smith
#397 Terry Kennedy

Can you pick which one didn't play for the Cardinals? You probably can, it's Rickey Henderson. The Cardinals were not among his 9 teams.

1990 Upper Deck
#402 Rich Gedman
#445 Fernando Valenzuela
#584 Les Lancaster
#659 Dan Quisenberry
#689 Todd Burns
#727 Scott Hemond

Dan Quisenberry is the only uniformed Cardinal in the big stack, even though he actually spent 1990 playing for San Francisco, his final year.

The size of that stack that made me give up scanning every card was 135, all out of the penny box, for a total of $1.35.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5242
Total Spent	$64.79
Per Card	1.236 cents
Change	-0.006 cents

Zistle Trade #31

With this trade post, I'm all caught up with Zistle, because I've been extremely inactive there for the last few months.

1992 Fleer #596 Todd Zeile
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #230 Ron Gant
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #231 Brian Jordan
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #232 Ray Lankford
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #234 Tom Pagnozzi
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #235 Todd Stottlemyre
1998 Fleer Ultra Main Set #295 Todd Zeile

I liked the sparkly set that was 1997 Metal Universe, and bought several packs when it was new. Before this trade I only had one uniformed Cardinal, John Mabry, which came in a prize package. Now I've got 6 with the addition of these 5, leaving me Alan Benes,  Andy Benes, and Dennis Eckersley to complete the team set. I also picked up 2 Todd Zeiles, one featuring his time with the Marlins, where he arrived with a much higher-profile star, Mike Piazza. Piazza of course was quickly sent to the Mets, and Zeile would go to the Rangers at the trade deadline, and the following season, rejoin Piazza on the Mets. I guess I never realized before they played together for both of those teams and Los Angeles.

2017 Stanley Cup Projection Recap

Pittsburgh managed to win a road game and took the Stanley Cup in Nashville. As is tradition, I've made a stacked graph of every playoff team's chances throughout the playoffs.

Worst position for Pittsburgh: 5.5% on April 11, at the start of the playoffs. A bit worse than a random 1 in 16 chance.

Best position for Nashville: 43.4% on May 24, after clinching their spot in the final but before Pittsburgh was in.

Best position for a Conference Finals loser: 29.3% for Anaheim on May 19, tied 2-2 with Nashville in the Western Conference Finals.

Best position for a Second Round loser: 42.1% for Washington on May 10, tied 3-3 with Pittsburgh just before their elimination, and also on April 24, when round 1 finished.

Best position for a First Round loser: Minnesota, on April 11, at the start of the playoffs. I had them projected on a relatively easy path.

Here are the full playoff results:

Pittsburgh over Nashville

Stanley Cup Final
NSH 2-4 PIT

Round 3
NSH 4-2 ANA
OTT 3-4 PIT

Round 2
NSH 4-2 STL
EDM 3-4 ANA
PIT 4-3 WSH
NYR 2-4 OTT

Round 1
NSH 4-0 CHI
STL 4-1 MIN
CGY 0-4 ANA
SJS 2-4 EDM
TOR 2-4 WSH
CBJ 1-4 PIT
NYR 4-2 MON
BOS 2-4 OTT

eBay Wins #255

Let's see the rest of the 1990 Bowman cards. At least, the ones that survived 27 years of chewing gum.

1990 Bowman
#281 Wade Boggs
#293 Bobby Rose
#295 Lance Parrish
#320 Frank Thomas
#328 Doug Jones
#341 Brook Jacoby
#346 Steve Wapnick
#373 Bob Boone
#375 Danny Tartabull (x2)

My perception of time gets all wonky when I see guys like Bob Boone in junk era sets. It feels like he played forever ago, and also that 1990 wasn't 27 years ago. But, he did play through 1990 at age 42.

1990 Bowman
#382 George Brett
#383 Gerald Perry
#392 George Canale
#397 Darryl Hamilton
#420 Dan Gladden
#441 Mike Blowers
#445 Mike Moore (x2)
#453 Scott Hemond
#455 Felix Jose

Gerald Perry, Scott Hemond, and Felix Jose were all Cardinals, but George Brett is probably my favorite card of this scan.

1990 Bowman
#457 Rickey Henderson
#461 Walt Weiss
#468 Randy Johnson
#469 Erik Hanson
#477 Jay Buhner
#486 Nolan Ryan
#495 Geno Petralli
#518 Nelson Liriano
#524 Tony Fernandez

Nolan Ryan, Rickey Henderson, and Randy Johnson make this a formidable group. And Jay Buhner always compels me to insert this video.

1990 Bowman
#526 Checklist 133-264
Art Inserts
#1 Will Clark
#2 Mark Davis (x2)
#8 Nolan Ryan
#11 Robin Yount

I'm no art critic, and I can't tell if these art inserts are good or not. Something about them just seems off. I suppose they are good enough to get me to recognize the players, so that's good enough.

With another 35 cards for 35 cents, I've knocked down my per-card average ever-so slightly again.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5107
Total Spent	$63.44
Per Card	1.242 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

2017 Stanley Cup Projection, June 9

Pittsburgh over Nashville

Stanley Cup Final
NSH 2-3 PIT

Round 3
NSH 4-2 ANA
OTT 3-4 PIT

Round 2
NSH 4-2 STL
EDM 3-4 ANA
PIT 4-3 WSH
NYR 2-4 OTT

Round 1
NSH 4-0 CHI
STL 4-1 MIN
CGY 0-4 ANA
SJS 2-4 EDM
TOR 2-4 WSH
CBJ 1-4 PIT
NYR 4-2 MON
BOS 2-4 OTT

Team	Strength	Cup
PIT	0.592	80.7
NSH	0.534	19.3

Pittsburgh looked pretty unbeatable in a 6-0 victory in game 5, but neither team has lost a home game yet, so we may well be headed for a deciding game 7 after the next one in Nashville.

eBay Wins #254

Today I continue my never-ending series of cheap eBay purchases with some 1990 Bowman. A bunch of these came in still-sealed packs, with chewing gum that not only soaked into the back card, but through it and onto a second card. None of them were huge stars, so I'll probably just toss the damaged ones.

1990 Bowman
#3 Andy Nezelek
#12 Lonnie Smith
#18 Jim Presley
#39 Andre Dawson
#44 Danny Jackson
#55 Todd Benzinger
#60 Ken Griffey (x2)
#72 Gerald Young
#75 Dave Rohde

I liked that for 1990 Bowman made the names more readable than 1989, though just barely. Lonnie Smith, Danny Jackson, and Gerald Young all played for the Cardinals.

1990 Bowman
#84 Orel Hershiser (x2)
#92 Jose Offerman
#96 Tom Goodwin
#99 Kal Daniels
#111 Dennis Martinez
#122 Frank Viola
#129 Terry Bross
#132 Mike Marshall
#140 Gregg Jefferies

Gregg Jefferies is the only Cardinal in this scan.

1990 Bowman
#146 Roger McDowell
#149 Jeff Parrett
#156 Ricky Jordan
#159 Tom Herr
#180 Gary Redus
#192 Ray Lankford
#198 Vince Coleman
#199 Paul Coleman
#201 Pedro Guerrero

I also enjoy a set that's numbered by team, making it an easy choice how to sort it, and giving me a solid block of Cardinals with Ray Lankord, Vince Coleman, Paul Coleman, and Pedro Guerrero. Tom Herr and Jeff Parrett also played for St. Louis.

1990 Bowman
#219 Mike Pagliarulo
#239 Ernie Riles
#246 Curt Schilling
#247 Pete Harnisch
#264 Mike Rochford
#265 Jeff Reardon
#266 Wes Gardner
#273 Kevin Romine
#278 Greg Blosser

To finish off this post, a scan with no Cardinals, but a nice old Curt Schilling card.


I won't count the 10 gum-damanged cards in my count, but I also don't count their cost since I bought a big box for less than a penny per card. That puts me at a level 38 cents for 38 cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5072
Total Spent	$63.09
Per Card	1.244 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

2017 Stanley Cup Projection, June 6

Pittsburgh over Nashville

Stanley Cup Final
NSH 2-2 PIT

Round 3
NSH 4-2 ANA
OTT 3-4 PIT

Round 2
NSH 4-2 STL
EDM 3-4 ANA
PIT 4-3 WSH
NYR 2-4 OTT

Round 1
NSH 4-0 CHI
STL 4-1 MIN
CGY 0-4 ANA
SJS 2-4 EDM
TOR 2-4 WSH
CBJ 1-4 PIT
NYR 4-2 MON
BOS 2-4 OTT

Team	Strength	Cup
PIT	0.592	61.1
NSH	0.534	38.9

Home ice advantage strikes again, and Nashville and Pittsburgh are now tied. The series is now effectively a Best of 3, with Pittsburgh getting game 1 and a potential game 3 at home.

2017 Stanley Cup Projection, June 4

Pittsburgh over Nashville

Stanley Cup Final
NSH 1-2 PIT

Round 3
NSH 4-2 ANA
OTT 3-4 PIT

Round 2
NSH 4-2 STL
EDM 3-4 ANA
PIT 4-3 WSH
NYR 2-4 OTT

Round 1
NSH 4-0 CHI
STL 4-1 MIN
CGY 0-4 ANA
SJS 2-4 EDM
TOR 2-4 WSH
CBJ 1-4 PIT
NYR 4-2 MON
BOS 2-4 OTT

Team	Strength	Cup
PIT	0.592	77.0
NSH	0.534	23.0

Nashville won their first game of the Final as the series moved to their home ice. Pittsburgh remains in the lead, 2-1, and with a 77% chance of winning the series.

A 100th Post Celebration Contest

To celebrate 100 posts, there's a contest going on at A Cracked Bat.

But you had better go enter fast. The deadline is 10pm EST on June 2.

The prize is effectively a box of random cards, but promised not to be "junk", so throw in your name and hope for the best out of the randomizer.

2017 Stanley Cup Projection, June 1

Pittsburgh over Nashville

Stanley Cup Final
NSH 0-2 PIT

Round 3
NSH 4-2 ANA
OTT 3-4 PIT

Round 2
NSH 4-2 STL
EDM 3-4 ANA
PIT 4-3 WSH
NYR 2-4 OTT

Round 1
NSH 4-0 CHI
STL 4-1 MIN
CGY 0-4 ANA
SJS 2-4 EDM
TOR 2-4 WSH
CBJ 1-4 PIT
NYR 4-2 MON
BOS 2-4 OTT

Team	Strength	Cup
PIT	0.592	86.8
NSH	0.534	13.2

Every June, it just strikes me as odd that hockey extends this far in the year. Perhaps if the Blues made the finals now and then it wouldn't seem as strange. Pittsburgh took a 2-0 lead, scoring 4 unanswered goals after allowing Nashville to score first, and now have almost an 87% chance of winning the cup.