Buy Local- #4- Wil Myers

There are several ways that Wil Myers is a local product for my blog, so we'll start with the most obvious.  Wil Myers started out this season playing for the Tampa Rays Triple-A affiliate the Durham Bulls.  Myers is also a High Point, North Carolina native and graduated from Weslayan Christian Academy....back to the Bulls....While Myers only played about half the season the Bulls, he was clearly one of the better players in the International League.  In fact, Myers ended up tied with super utility man Leslie Anderson for the team lead in home runs with 14 despite having almost 200 less at-bats than him. 

 I saw Myers a few times and was really impressed by his sheer power.  While his dip in power concerned many this season, Myers still managed to post almost 30 extra base hits in his 76 games in Durham and posted an OPS of almost .900.  While there is still room for improvement in Myers game, he is still a really good player at this stage of his career and, in my opinion, an impact player for some time to come with the Rays.  Check out his first home run off of C.C. Sabathia:





Look further into his numbers this year, Myers posted an OPS+ of 132 which would have ranked just outside the top 10 in the American League had he taken enough at-bats to qualify for the the league leaders boards.  Baseball Reference actually projects out Myers nicely with their 162 game average, which is right below the players career totals on the page.  The Myers line looks something like this:

Not the easiest to read, but the BA, OBP, SLG, and OPS are still set at his season average of .293/.354/.478 with a .831 OPS.  Add in 42 doubles, 24 home runs, and 98 RBIs and I bet you would have a lot of people on the Rays and fans take that kind of line from Myers over the course of a full 162 game schedule next season. 

For my cardboard fans, Myers has plenty of cool cards to track down.  His most popular and common rookie card comes from the 2010 Bowman Chrome set.  There is an autographed version of this card which can be a pretty pricy get, but if you are just starting on your Myers collection this is a good place to start. 

2010 Bowman Chrome Wil Myers RC

There are several other early cards of Myers on the Royals, but the vast majority of his cards have been released this year since his trade to the Rays.  If you are looking for an inexpensive autograph of the American League Rookie of the Year, I would actually point you in the direction of that small stack of Royals cards.  While the Bowman Chrome Autographed rookie card of Myers is pricey, the opposite can be said about his In The Game Autograph. 

2010 ITG Heroes and Prospects Wil Myers Autograph

Myers has actually also signed a lot this year with the Rays.  His autographs seems to be getting a little bit more affordable, but they will still probably cost you at least $20-$30 with premium and low print runs costing you more depending on what it is and the quantity of the print run.  I went hard after the Bowman Inception set this year and was happy to add this gem to my collection earlier this summer. 

2013 Bowman Inception Wil Myers Jersey/Autograph

I have been collecting Myers cards for a short time, but have had a blast adding some of his cards to my collection.  Ignore the people complaining about his signature (see Greg Maddux) and track one of these cool cards down for yourself.