More contemporary Angels pick-ups

At times there is no rhyme or reason for picking up random Angels cards because frankly the idea of being a team collector seems overwhelming - I'm not ever going to be hyper focused trying to keep track of all the releases [past, present and future] and working around [trades, purchases, etc] to see if I can have ownership of a perpetual number of team sets.

As is, I do consider the Angels my team and one of my ideals is to have that one big league team to focus on - where it's fun to have new team related cards to go through, even if they don't go towards team sets other collectors may boast about completing at some point.

The lone Mike Trout is 2019 Bowman Sterling Continuity insert #BS-20 - I like to imagine the card is a harder to find pull, but it's a $2 card at best.

I mentioned picking up the trio of quarter century old Garret Anderson cards last year - they are probably binder material that helps make collection of 'GA' cards pop.

I picked up a couple of random Topps On-Demand issues featuring pitcher Griffin Canning and infielder David Fletcher - while they might not be outright stars, each gives a couple of current 'second tier' Angels players to collect.

There was some uncertainty about the health of Canning's arm during spring training - but the righty seemed good to go for much of the shortened 2020 season and was awarded a Gold Glove at his position.

Fletcher has established himself as this generation's David Eckstein as a runty looking guy - who can play all over the diamond and can be a spark plug at the plate or on the bases.

I picked up a Shohei Ohtani is a 2019 Donruss Action All-Stars insert / Pink Fireworks parallel No. AA4 because it pops nicely without costing much - though it may get confusing describing what these alternate versions of non-base set cards are supposed to be.

Finally I picked up a 2020 Finest Flashback Anthony Rendon #58 - I might only have 2-3 Angels cards of the third baseman and maybe they mean a bit more at the moment.

While the original 1993 Topps Finest was never a thing in my collecting universe - after the fact, it's nice to travel back in time to see a re-imagined version of the first Topps Finest cards, featuring current players.

2019 Topps Series 2 Gold parallel David Fletcher #520

I was out of the country for three weeks and maybe I wanted to set things up where I'd buy miscellaneous cards online so I'd have something to look forward to coming back home - go figure, I didn't follow through on that plan, though I did make this one low-end purchase while overseas.

From the Series 2 flagship of Topps, I could try and hunt down a Fernando Tatis Jr. Gold parallel for the going rate or pay $2 for the rookie parallel of the guy on my local team - it's an apples to oranges comparison where Tatis Jr. is one of the hot rookies this year with superstar potential.

There is still a collector in me who kind of wants to chase some of the rookie-year issues of rookie stars like Tatis Jr. - but for now, the Fletcher card works as a ‘have not’ placeholder.

Featured autograph - David Fletcher

When he was first starting his professional career, maybe I've heard him mentioned on Twitter just a few times and he was just another guy to me - I got him to sign a card when he played in the Arizona Fall League in 2016, so eventually I was able to add it to my all-time Angels autograph collection when he got to the big leagues in 2018.

Fletcher fits that scrappy, grinder, David Eckstein mold that might be a little overplayed or at worst biased - but it's true that Fletcher can be described as many adjectives mostly saved for right guys [guys who play the game the right way]; he's not Manny Machado and he's going to scrap and battle every time he is inserted into a big league game.

In his second year and first full season in the major leagues, the now 25-year old Fletcher has played five different positions as a utility player - but hitting like an Up & Up version of Jose Altuve, Fletcher seems to have nailed down a regular spot in the Angels' lineup.