It’s that time of year, when baseball players find themselves in new organizations because their previous team needed to open up 40-man roster spots for more highly-regarded prospects or potential free agent signings.
The New York Mets removed four players from the 40-man roster today, and two were claimed by other teams.
Mike Baxter‘s catch will live on in Mets’ lore as long as the memory of Johan Santana‘s no hitter does.
I’ll wish him luck with the Dodgers, as long as he’s not playing against the Mets.
Robert Carson‘s departure will be noted by fewer people, and he really did not seem ready to contribute to a major league bullpen. However, I will remember him as one of the good guys who would come over and sign autographs, pose for pictures or even just wave to fans before games.
Greg Burke and Sean Henn could choose to remain with the Mets organization, or they may end up moving on to greener pastures elsewhere. Burke, too, gets credit for coming over to sign autographs after batting practice at several games I went to this year. Henn will probably just confuse people trying to figure out who was the most recent player to suit up for both the Mets and Yankees until someone else takes that distinction.
Mets Baseball Card Of The Week
Lucas Duda‘s 2013 Pinnacle card is this week’s Mets baseball card of the week by default, as it’s the only one that came into my collection recently.
Once upon a time, Score put out some really cool baseball cards. Pinnacle was their attempt at an “elite” brand (before that meant packs costing hundreds of dollars.) Score stopped making baseball cards in the late 1990s.
Somewhere along the way, Panini picked up the brand, and did a nice job of invoking the old card designs. Unfortunately, because Panini only has a license from the Major League Baseball Players Association and not from Major League Baseball, they have to remove all team logos.
The basic Mets team set includes eight cards:
- 23 Matt Harvey
- 63 Ike Davis
- 96 Lucas Duda
- 115 David Wright
- 145 Johan Santana
- 151 Jeurys Familia
- 165 Zack Wheeler
- 196 Collin McHugh
You can find team sets on eBay for $1.99 (plus shipping).
I have not really felt motivated to purchase any of Panini’s baseball products because of the lack of team logos, but a friend gave me the Duda card.
PaulHadsall.com 
I like Mike Baxter, but I don’t know how much of a future he had with the Mets. It’s interesting the Dodgers picked him up; maybe they figure they’d get some spare outfielders should they trade Kemp or Ethier?
From what little I’ve seen of Pinnacle… well, I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m *impressed*, but I think they did a decent job of creating cards that don’t scream out “NO LOGOS!!!”
The cards might say “Sorry, dude, no logos” in a conversation tone of voice, but they don’t scream it.
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I see Mike Baxter more as a future Long Island Duck than a future LA Dodger, but we’ll see what happens, I guess.
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