Retro Break - 2000 Fleer E-X Baseball

It feels funny to say "retro" when referring to a box from 2002, but that's really how it felt opening this box and pulling cards of players from that year. Aramis Ramirez was still on the Pirates!

I purchased this box on eBay for $37 shipped. The allure of pulling some really great low numbered inserts was too hard to resist for that price. The Fleer (Skybox) E-X brand always seems to be most popular with basketball collectors. Low numbered Michael Jordan cards from this brand always sell for big bucks. I decided to roll the dice and hope for something comparable in the baseball line.

I was guaranteed three game used cards out of this box. There aren't any autographed cards in the set. You can also pull a low numbered Essential Credentials Now or Essential Credentials Future card. The first hit I pulled was a Tom Glavine Essential Credentials Future numbered 015/110. The second hit I pulled was a Jose Video Hit & Run bat card. The third hit I pulled was a Behind The Numbers Ivan Rodriguez game worn jersey card. The fourth hit I pulled was a Essential Credentials Now Jason Giambi game used base card numbered 05/46. I also pulled two no-name nEXt Prospect cards numbered to 2499 and 2999 respectively.

The Glavine and Giambi cards would have been really nice hits back in 2002. I still have a feeling there are some player collectors out there that will pay some decent money for these cards. I think I'll mail both off to CheckOutMyCards.com and add them to my account.

All in all, this was a really fun break. The anticipation of pulling the low numbered inserts was great. I'd definitely buy another one of these for the same price to take another crack at some nice rare inserts.

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.