2009 Upper Deck USA Baseball Tyler Lyons Autograph

The Cardinals are keeping me busy this season with all of the different players that they have had on their team.  Despite the injuries and frequently shuttles running between Busch Stadium and the team's AAA affiliate in Memphis, the club currently claims the best record in all of Major League Baseball.  The team's top rated farm system has provided plenty of depth and allowed the Cardinals to fill in for injured starters like Jake Westbrook and Jaime Garcia.  For card collectors, it has left some scrambling for new cards of new players.  Many Cardinals fans were anticipating the call ups of top pitching prospects Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha and have already had a chance to see Martinez and will see Wacha make his debut tomorrow afternoon against the Royals.  There have been a few other surprising names that have popped up for the team this year too which have required a little more digging to find cards of players.

2009 Upper Deck USA Baseball Tyler Lyons Autograph

One of the more surprising names that the Cardinals have brought up from their minor league system this year has been left-handed pitcher Tyler Lyons.  While he was not a top prospect in the system, Lyons pitched in college at Oklahoma State and also played for the USA College Baseball team.  The USA Baseball team practices and is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina just a few miles from my house.  They play several home games every summer at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and I usually attend one or two of the games, but I cannot remember if I saw Lyons pitch or not.  If I did I guess it was not memorable.  Anyway, through two starts Lyons has had two great outings and picked up two wins.  

Card wise, Lyons was a heavy signer in the 2009 Upper Deck USA Baseball set.  Sites like Ebay and COMC literally have fifteen to twenty autographed cards of Lyons and also a handful of jersey and baseball cards too.  The high quantity of cards makes the prices of the cards rather inexpensive.  In fact, the card above cost me less than $3 delivered.  While it is the most basic of all the Upper Deck Lyons autographs, nicer versions with jersey and patch pieces generally run no more than $10-$15.  Considering that the 2009 Upper Deck USA Baseball set includes some solid names and signatures this card might be a good pick up considering the relative inexpensive price tag.