Yadi Card of the Week #7

My in-laws are in town and we have a had an action packed weekend but I was able to pick the Yadi card of the week. This week’s card is 2004 Studio XRC #241. Even though I think the card speaks for its self I will go ahead and scribble a few lines. What is not to love about this card? First you have the top half of Yadi’s torso with the home uni, second his catcher’s mitt is begging for the ball, third his arm is cocked, ball in hand, as if he is going to gun it down to second. All of this is with the backdrop of the STL skyline with the Arch prominent. It is a simple clean design with the Donruss Studio 2004 in the upper left corner and black and yellow band on the bottom with Yadi’s name and the birds on the bat. The back is well done too.  Along the top is Yadi’s name above a line of yellow dashes. There is a ¾ Yadi holding a bat on the left and the right has a little blurb about Yadi about his huge hit against the Mets in 2004 Playoffs. The bottom of the card has another line of dashes and below that are his 2004 stats. The autographed version of this card occasionally pops up on EBay but it is out of my budget limit (currently one is listed for $300) by several times. The difference between the two cards is the auto on sticker placed over Yadi’s catcher’s mitt and the Private Signings S was moved to the right corner. This is hands down one of my favorite cards of Yadi. There is a youthfulness to Yadi on this card. Though he is now a grizzled veteran, when you watch him as much as we do you can still the youthfulness that is displayed on this card.

Yadi spent part of 2004 with the Memphis Redbirds of the PCL. In Memphis he appeared in 37 games,  had 150 plate appearances, 129 ABs, scored 19 runs, had 39 hits, 14 RBI, .302 BA, and .759 OPS. His fielding % was 1.000 in 37games with NO steal attempts. In 2004 he appeared in 51 games with the big club, had 135 AB, 135 plate appearances, 36 hits, 12 runs, 15 RBI, 13 BB, 20 SO, .267 average, .329 OBP, .356 SLG, and an OPS of .684. Defensively he started in 39 games, caught 344 innings, had a .993 fielding average, gave up 9 stolen bases but caught 8 others for caught stealing % of 47.