Thank Mr. Pujols

There are mornings where I have to pinch myself that Albert Pujols is no longer a member of the Cardinals.  Seemed like he would always have the birds on the bat across his chest, but we all know how that turned out two off seasons ago.  While I was initially bitter at the fact that Albert took his services to Orange County, I am pretty hip to the fact that he is gone now.  I am sure there are many other Cardinals fans who went through the dame grieving process.  

Now that Albert is hanging out with the underachieving Angels for the next eight years, the only piece of Albert left around St. Louis are the two draft picks the Cardinals received from the Angels for signing "Da Albertross".  

First, the Cardinals received the Angels first round pick, the 17th overall in the 2012 MLB draft, and they also received a sandwich pick in between the first and second rounds, which turned out to be the 36th overall pick.  The Cardinals used the picks to select two college players: Texas A&M pitcher Michael Wacha and Stanford outfielder/3B Stephen Piscotty.  I decided to spend a little time checking out their cards this past week and added one of each.  Let's start with Wacha.

2013 Bowman Bowman's Best Refractor Die-Cut

  

I landed this cool looking Bowman's Best Refractor insert of the Cardinals pitcher which came out of this years Bowman set.  The card is serial numbered to just 99 and I love the cool shape of the die cut.  Topps has done some good work recently with some of their die-cut cards and the Bowman's Best cards are some of the sharpest looking of the bunch.  Wacha seems like he's going to be a good Major League pitcher for a long time.  The Cardinals have put him into the rotation recently and he has pitched very well.  I am eager to see what he can do over a full season of starting and not shuffling between the Majors, AAA, and the bullpen.  Here's a sampling of his work on the hill....

Piscotty has not made an appearance yet for the Cardinals, but had a really good year playing for the Cardinals Double-A team in Springfield and High A team in Palm Beach.  His total line for the season included a .295/.355/.466 line with 15 homers and he also walked more than he struck out.  He has some pretty good reviews around different Minor League sites.  He ranked as the 10th best prospect on the team before 2013, but with Rosenthal, Miller, Wong, and Matt Adams graduating to the Majors I think he will be a top 5 prospect next year.  Here's my new card of the Redbirds prospect....

2013 Bowman Inception Stephen Piscotty Autograph

This Piscotty autograph comes from the Bowman Inception set.  Great looking card.  I've started wondering about putting together this set.  Back on track... Piscotty actually had an autograph last year, but the card has one of those awesome Topps airbrushing jobs.  How do you get a Stanford uniform to turn into a Cardinals road jersey?  Not very well.  He also has a card out in this year's Bowman Chrome set which is either not airbrushed, or done by someone not in seventh grade.  

I am very happy with my two newest Cardinals cards and owe a big thank you to my favorite Anaheim Angel of Orange County, California USA Albert Pujols.  I know your wheels are bad...how's that elbow feeling?