Six finds from the quarter box

I'm going through miscellaneous, older cards at the LCS and at times I feel I'm scraping at the bottom of the barrel, particularly when it's a dead period for newer cards - I like to spend time finding so-called keepers as adds to my mini-collections, though I feel like I'm paying a premium for cards I see are otherwise discarded, traded and/or usually gifted to others.

1974 Topps Traded Kurt Bevacqua #454 T - I think I have his 1976 Topps bubble gum champion card autographed.

2003 Fleer Ultra Dmitri Young #161

2003 Fleer Ultra Aramis Ramirez #182

2003 Topps Milton Bradley #415 - Jim Thome cameo

2004 Upper Deck Jose Valverde #281 - chilling out at Wrigley Field, inking it up for fans perhaps

2004 Topps Total Danny Graves #94  - inking it up

The scowl isn't going away anytime soon

Featured player: Milton Bradley
2001 Fleer Platinum #121 - Bradley is fighting in every single at-bat fighting in each at-bat and one of the constants in his Major League career is he's bound to go postal on any umpire whom Bradley feels is squeezing him behind home plate.

He's the living, breathing emotional outburst and while he's always been able to hit with some pop and get on-base to boot, he comes with a lot of baggage - he is sort of hard to figure out, hard to root for as a far and easier to pick apart. Most of the time he isn't going to get the benefit of the doubt from the fans, the umpires and maybe people in the game who thinks most of what he does is 'Bush league.'

Time will tell if Bradley can have his best season as a professional ballplayer - but in the shadow of the meteoric season Josh Hamilton is put together for the Texas Rangers, Bradley has been doing his part to at least keep the team close to .500.

After ending the 2007 with a season ending injury, Bradley's bounced back through 54 games in 2008 - he has hit 13 home runs and driven in 41 RBIs in 193 at-bats. His slugging percentage is sitting at .627 with his on-base percentage sitting at .449.