Give Me The Bad News First

So, as you may have heard, 2013 is starting to look a lot like 2012 as far as promising young starters getting hurt beyond hurt. Casey Kelly has been experiencing soreness in his pitching elbow and may very well have to undergo Tommy John surgery. It's getting past ridiculous at this point; fellow big-name young starters Cory Luebke and Joe Wieland aren't even back from their TJs yet... I don't really want to talk about it so I'm changing the subject.

Appropriately, I got the emerald Kelly card above from Emerald City Diamond Gems. He won a box from Topps on Twitter and shared the bounty with his readers. Along with that now bittersweet slab of shimmering cardstock, he sent along copies of each of the Padres in the base set. I had a few of them but he finished off the list and left me with a couple of doubles that I was able to pay forward.

Will Venable got a great photograph on his. Along with a Kelly, this was one of the first two 2013 Padres I got- the guy at my LCS gave them to me on the house when my pack came up Friarless. Ryan Braun and Alfonso Soriano are on that card along with Chase Headley but they don't matter.

Here are a couple more I already had a copy of. I got a four card lot of Series 1 Padres off of Listia around the same time so I was afforded the chance to pass one of each along with a Kelly and a Venable to someone who, like me a few days earlier, had none of them.

These two are where it gets really good. I'm a sucker for throwbacks and I'm an even bigger sucker for our throwbacks. Yonder Alonso has always reminded me of John Kruk to a certain degree, and even more so here wearing the same home uniform Krukky wore in his time with the Padres. These uniforms were selected in a fan poll to be worn in a game last season. They were officially billed by the team as the "1988 Mark Grant uniform" in honor of the then-pitcher turned beloved broadcaster.

The 1978 uniforms are one of the most iconic in sports history despite being worn for only one season. It's shown here on Cameron Maybin. And because you really wanted to know, Cam's number 24 was worn by Dave Wehrmeister that year.

Anthony Bass, like seemingly everybody else, had injury problems last season. He is- knock on wood- doing well so far this spring and is in the mix for a spot in the rotation. Hopefully Tommy Layne can make enough of a name for himself this season that Topps will get it right on his 2014 issue.

So, thanks again to Larry. I'm waiting on a couple of things I've bid on and when they get here I have an envelope heading your way. Best of luck to the M's when they're playing any of the other 28 teams.