Blog: August 9-August 15, 2010

August 9, 2010. Upon further review, I don't think I can be indifferent about the two Pujols bats on eBay that I mentioned on 8/7/10. This 2007 bat has the wrong barrel font and inconsistent knob stamping. And this 2008 bat has far too much wear on the hitting surface for me to think of it as a gamer. Maybe a BP bat, maybe a cage bat, but the next gamer I see with this much use will be the first... Here's more evidence the bat market is crashing. Just $36.50 for Renteria? Really?

August 10, 2010. Skip Schumaker was swinging an X-Bat with a black handle and a natural barrel... The first 2010 Civil Rights Game (CRG) jersey has hit the secondary market -- Matt Holliday's. If he can attract one bid, the seller will double his investment. Let the flipping begin!... If you want a jersey from the first CRG in 2007, there's one of those on eBay, too.

August 11, 2010. Jason LaRue was injured during last night's brawl with the Reds, so the Cards called up AA catcher Steven Hill and assigned him #60. As always, I'll hold off adding him to the uniform number database until he actually sees playing time... Here's another bat bargain, one I couldn't resist, so I bought it myself. Henke was a 300-save guy when 300 saves meant something. Even though it likely was used by Oquendo, Henke bats are tough. Paying less than $30 is almost criminal.

August 13, 2010. No straight hem, no year flag -- no dice. This Pujols jersey almost certainly is an extra that Albert signed and gave away, in spite of the description of it having "light but apropos superstar wear." What the hell does that mean? Similar 2005 jerseys have surfaced in the hobby both with and without autographs. This GUU message board thread has a bit more detail.

August 14, 2010. The Cardinals have three game-used bats at auction on the team's website -- a Wainwright, a Holliday and a Molina. They rarely auction bats on their site... Wonder if Brendan Ryan is using one of Colby Rasmus' bats. I noticed Ryan's black LS M9 had tape around the knob, ala Colby. But, Ryan's bats also seem to have gold foil stamping instead of silver. Difficult to tell.

August 15, 2010. Steven Hill made his MLB debut and hit a home run in his second AB. He was wearing #60 and used a Gwynn-finished D-Bat... Some poor soul spent $762 on this alleged Pujols bat. Its issues are described in detail on my 8/9/10 blog entry.