Monday, October 6, 2014

A.J. Cole and a Dumpster Fire

One of my favorite Triple A teams to watch this year was the Syracuse Chiefs.  They had a great season and had a lot of great talent on the roster.  I have done some raving and ranting about Stephen Souza and a few others over the summer, but I am saving one of the better ones for last.  Meet the 53rd best prospect in all of baseball (according to Baseball Prospectus) A.J. Cole.

The right-handed pitcher for the Nationals spent his season split in between Double A Harrisburg and Triple A Syracuse.  During the first half of the season he went 6-3 with an ERA of 2.92.  His SO/9 was below 9 for the first time in his career, but overall good enough to get the call up to Triple A.   With Syracuse the pitcher posted a 7-0 with an ERA of 3.43.  Again, his K's per 9 was a little low, but Cole looked really good with the Chiefs.

While I am sure that Cole is still another year away from the Majors, I am pretty sure that Cole has a very bright future with the Nats.  Curiously, his cardboard prices have not quite caught up with the brightness of his prospect star.  This card cost me right around a dollar.





While I am not a huge fan of the sticker autograph, this Bowman Platinum card has a decent autograph, and the jersey piece is really nice.  The Nats do not have a minor league, that Cole has played for, that wears any orange on their jerseys.  The patch piece is likely from his 2013 Futures Game Jersey, hosted by the Mets, which Topps seems to use old All-Star game jerseys all over the place this year.  

I picked up another card along with the A.J. Cole autograph.  The second autograph also is from the Bowman Platinum set and features Rangers prospect Corey Knebel.  He started out the year with the Tigers, but posted an ERA over 6.  Knebel was traded to Texas for Joakim Soria.  Not sure that really solved the Tigers bullpen woes.  



Knebel has a great autograph, again on a sticker, and strangley the card features a piece of jersey with a pinstripe.  Not quite sure where the pinstripe can from, none of the Tigers Minor League teams wear them, but it's another nice piece of jersey.   

1 comment:

  1. Toledo Mud Hens have a sleeveless, pinstriped jersey.

    ReplyDelete

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