Beeler?... Beeler?....

So, right before I fell off the face of the earth, I was contacted by Weston, proprietor of the aptly named blog Fantastic Catch.  As a Cub fan, I pretty much loathe the Cardinals, so the opportunity to unload a few onto him was a welcome opportunity.  In return, he helped me to cross another name off of my CATRC want list,

Dallas got the call for the first time last summer to start the second game of a double header on June 28th against the Nationals and making a second spot start on July 9th against the Cardinals (how appropriate for this trade!).

He was excellent in his first start, giving up no earned runs in six innings, although he took the loss.  Game 2 was more of a mixed bag, giving up four in just five innings.  He's technically in the mix for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring, but it would take an unfortunate set of circumstances for him not to start the season in Iowa as depth.

John Baker comforts Dallas Beeler as the Cubs waste his strong debut

Also of note (not a good note), as a testament to how bad the Cubs were at developing talent at the end of the Jim Hendry regime, Dallas was the first player from the draft of 2010 (41st round!!) to make the bigs, with many of the top picks having already washed out of the game. Anyone remember Hayden Simpson or Reggie Golden?

However, this 2010 Topps Pro-Debut card depicting his tenure on the Mesa rookie league team wasn't the only thing that fell out of Weston's envelope:

Here we have a Cubs legend from days long gone by and, hopefully, a Cubs legend-to-be for days long to come.  I presume Weston was willing to let this shiny 2011 Topps 60 go because it commemorates his time with the Cubs, specifically his franchise record for single-season total bases (409 in his MVP year of 1929).  I'm happy to oblige,

Jorge has gone from the 41st best prospect in the game on this Bowman card to one of the leading contenders for the NL ROY courtesy of a monster late-season call-up.  His prodigious power has me feeling quite optimistic!

Also included was this nifty gold "58 Years of Collecting" parallel from the 2009 edition of Update.  Jeff Baker never looked so good!  Thusly, this card now represents Mr. Baker in my CATRC.

Side-note, good thing I got my hands on a copy, apparently there are "only" 2009 of these floating around out there!

Now, I'm rather certain that Weston included a few more cards in this trade, however, too much time has passed for my sleep-deprived brain to remember.  For that, I apologize.  But, even just based on what you see above, it's easy to acknowledge that this was a pretty sweet deal!

Thanks for trading with me... even though it took several months for me to give you proper credit!