Double Threat

I have very few card collections given my limited resources and space, but I did decide some time ago to begin collecting on-card Royals autographs. It’s been a blast so far trying to track these things down and this is the latest addition to my collection. To view the cards currently in the collection, take a look at the Gallery or the other posts in this series. I’m working on getting a legit want list together on my trade page but, in the meantime, if you have any on-card Royals autos that it looks like I don’t have, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

Can you imagine pulling a card like this out of an expensive product like Triple Threads? I sure can't. Then again, I can't imagine paying $100+ for a pack of cards.

Chris Getz used to play for the White Sox. My friends who are White Sox fans couldn’t stand him. Sure, he stole some bases, but he was just one of those guys who never seemed to impact a game. The kind of player that people who don’t buy into the Moneyball “it’s all numbers” approach would hate. Which is to say, most actual fans of the game of baseball.

Not to say I’m one of those people. I like the poetry of the game, sure. I choke up when people start talking about what the game “means.” But I also happen to be a huge nerd. So the Moneyball stats business kind of gives me the best of both worlds. So let’s look at Getz from the other angle for a second. And by “the other angle” I mean the angle of the stats novice. I’m not patient enough to actually do calculations or anything.

In 2011, his first 400+ PA year for the Royals, he had a .313 OBP. Meh. .287 SLG? Ugh. 26 stolen bases. Good number but did he make them count? 7 CS and 50 R. So, not really probably. WAR? .5.

Okay, 2011 wasn’t his year. He’s basically the everyday 2B for the Royals this year though, so maybe he’ll turn it around. In the early going he’s improved most of his number. But he hasn’t hit a Major League homer since 200 when he hit all of 2. Yipes. He’s got to have a great glove to justify all that, right? Hmm… slightly above average FLD% at his position… and a .3 dWAR. Okay well I guess this all explains why I got this triple relic auto from 2010 Topps Triple Threads for $3 shipped.

Three whole tiny pieces of possibly game-used something or other?! Sign me up for 8 parallels, please!

They made parallels of these. This one is /75. I don’t know what’s different about it other than a touch of color. The /25 is gold I think so who knows what this is. At any rate, Billy Butler squished his already-sloptacular autograph in that little auto area. Some dudes in this set went full vertical with it. I’m glad Billy didn’t but damn, bros, can we get some lead space up in hyah?! Literally Composition 101. Some versions of the Butler contain a red swatch and someone once told me that might be from an All-Star hat. I’ll work on getting one but for some reason, no one’s selling 2010 Triple Threads I need anymore. Any they’re hard to search for because they also have some awful sticker autos in the set. I wish eBay had a way to separate on-card from sticker autos in your searches… but I guess that would require the seller being smart enough to check that box and most people can’t seem to even be bothered to click the “Baseball, not football or hockey or whatever” box which is something I find utterly infuriating. In the meantime, it’s all manual for me!

Wait. That didn’t come out right.