This Week in Cardboarding

For some odd reason Target had a blaster of 2006 Ultra, then the next day i see that A Cardboard Problem also found one and made a contest out of it. I however decided to use it for TWIC. I have received two Crawford cards from this set so i was familiar with the base and actually liked it and since i never ripped any before, i figured for a dollar a pack why not try it out.

This blaster got me thinking about the problem with free agency. After all it is a 2006 blaster, four seasons ago, and the amount of players that are no longer with the same club, was astonishing to me.


Pack 1

Totally forgot Soriano was with the Nats
remember the 40-40 Soriano
the lead off man
i wonder if the Cubbies put he back at lead off
if he would be super productive again?

Swisher has since been a White Sox and is now a Yank
Bagwell has since retired

and Hafner COUGH, Ster.., COUGH, ..oids
no proof, just a theory
Big contract, now unmovable, locked in til 2012
poor Cleveland
Shouldn't they be able to sue Hafner for misrepresentation
or being conned, can he be arrested?
after all he is making millions for a contract
he really isn't keeping up his end
breach of contract, something, anything?
unless they knew ...
things that make say mmmmm...
yes big Papi should face the same fate

Pack 2

Tex and Abreu both have seen LA and NY since these
Rogers has retired
and Andruw Jones COUGH, Ster.., COUGH, ..oids
again my theory, no evidence to back it up
except when testing started he went from All-Star to zero

Pack 3

Yeah Chipper, Legacy Player
the rest have seen to many teams to even bother

Pack 4

Wells and Grienke, WOW! two players still with the same team
Matsui now in LA and CC a Brewer now a Yank
LA and NY, a coincidence, i think not

Pack 5

Another two more players still on the same team
with Lee and Oswalt
Abreu i already discussed

Pack 6

Pedro lets say retired
Street traded not his doing
Mulder, not sure what happen to him
(to lazy to look up)

So out of 30 cards - 6 players are with same club, 6 have retired, 3 are rookies that never panned out, and 14 are on a different team (i got two abreu cards but didn't count both)

So my hypothesis on the problem of free agency thing is that free agency only benefits NY and LA (Boston too, although no evidence from this blaster) and for my conclusion, i really think that MLB needs to change things for the integrity of the game and not the betterment of 5 teams.

My suggestion is to have a Legacy Rule, where a team and player agree to a legacy contract and that player becomes a permanent player with that team. What about money? I pitch a salary step structure, starting from his previous year salary whether from arbitration or their last contract. Simple structure that automatically increases 2 million a year until over 15 million and then a million a year after that. Of course there would be insurance clauses for the team and players. Such as a no trade clause that the player has to approve, and for the team, a playing clause could be if a player is injured and they miss a whole season the player would only be paid 5 million. That way the team can still fill holes. My example will be - Carl Crawford - His contract is for 10m in 2010, so the Rays and CC agree to a Legacy contract, then in 2011 he makes 12m, 2012 14m, 2013 16m, 2014 17m, 2015 18m, etc... Well what happens if he starts to decline? No longer batting .300 or 10+ homers, no longer stealing 40+ bags? Have clauses per player, if he bats less than .280 with less than 20 steals go the other direction in two million dollar increments. If he is not productive in 60 days the team is allowed to bench him, things like that. Just my thoughts, feel free to share your own. Come on MLB, For the Integrity of the game.

Back to the break - Nothing really to exciting, Grienke looks young, i mean, like he doesn't fit in to adult cloths young. Fun little break, i do really like these cards just wish i would have got a few players i like. Thanks for reading.