My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 1

Picking my #1 purchase of the year was the easiest card to select in this list. It really wasn't even close. Brett Anderson is by far the main player that I collect. My collection consists of mostly rookie cards from 2007, but I'm always looking for anything rare of his. Right now I'm working on his 2009 SP Authentic By the Name set. I currently have four of the eight letters. I'm always looking for low numbered inserts and parallels of his as well.

Anderson was drafted in the second round of the 2006 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was traded to the A's in 2007 as part of the Dan Haren trade. Anderson made his major league debut in 2009 and didn't disappoint. He went 11-11 with a 4.06 ERA and 150 strikeouts with only 45 walks. He struggled with elbow injuries last year and only made 19 starts. When he started, he was dominant. He went 7-6 with a 2.80 ERA and 75 strikeouts with only 22 walks. His slider is his top pitch. It's a beautiful thing to see him drop that slider on the back foot of a right handed batter for the third strike.

The card pictured is his 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Gold Status Autograph graded BGS 9.5 gem mint. Only five of these cards exist. I purchased this raw on eBay taking a chance that the condition was as good as the seller said it was. It turned out to be an accurate description as it came back a gem from BGS. I was thrilled to just own the card, having it grade so high was icing on the cake.

I'm hopeful that Anderson can stay healthy in 2011 and show everyone that he is one of the elite left handed pitchers in the game.

Brett Anderson pitching for Oakland tonight

Brett Anderson, the 21 year old pitcher for the Oakland A's, and Baseball America's #7 overall prospect, takes the hill tonight for the Oakland A's. Anderson is an enormous talent and the A's are counting on him and the rest of their extremely young staff to lead them to an AL West title.

Trevor Cahill, also 21 years old, and Baseball America's #11 overall prospect, pitched for Oakland on Tuesday night. He went 5 innings, gave up five hits and two earned runs. It wasn't spectacular but it was enough to keep the A's in the game and they eventually won.

Oakland is relying on a pitching staff that doesn't have a starter older than 25. It's quite a risk for a team that was more active on the free agent market than they've been in quite some time. They added Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera and Nomar Garciaparra to their offense. This gives you an idea of how much confidence the organization has in the young staff. Some of the free agent money could have been spent on pitching but it all went to offense.

Many eyes around baseball will watching Brett Anderson tonight, especially in the AL West.

UPDATE - 10:38 PM EST: Brett Anderson had a 7-pitch first inning, then it all went wrong. He gave up five runs on 26 pitches in the second inning. Looks like he's not handling his first start as well as Trevor Cahill did.