Things I Am Sorting...Part 2

I might have to do two of these posts this week.  During Spring Break I began the process of remodeling my baseball card room.  My card room has always been my little corner of the house complete with a television I bought in 2004 and refused to throwout and some old furniture.  Same as the television, not parting with any of it.  New furniture and television along with a little calmer paint job means that a lot of cards that were sitting out got put away.

Here's a look at the paint job.  The room was red, now two different colors of grey...

The cards that got put away were kind of put places.  Anywhere.  

Before the remodel I had set out a lot of doubles from different sets that I had sorted out onto a desk.  I not only put the cards away to avoid the risk of paint splatter and drips, but also because I got rid of the desk.  The cards on the desk were put into about a dozen 800 count boxes, four 3,200 count boxes, and the rest were stacked up in a closet.  The top view of the desk is on the right, closet on the left.  More on these cards later in the week.

There are plenty of cards to sort at the moment, so I am focusing my time and energy today working on sorting out my cards from Topps Series 2 and Pro Debut.  I opened a box of Series 2 awhile ago, I just haven't made a post about them.

There are all sorts of photo variations and the whatnot in there, so here are my hit cards....

This Pham autograph is obviously my favorite.  He had an autograph in Topps Update last year, but for some reason it is crazy expensive.  I understand that Cardinals collectors can be rather enthusiastic at times, but come guys...he's a fourth outfielder.  I like picture on the card and Pham has a nice signature.  Here are my other two cards.....

I am really burned out on the manufactured cards this year and probably plain pieces of relic too.  Yawn.  The base set is what you would expect out of a base Topps set, same with the parallels.  I have not pulled an acetate yet this year, haven't bought one either, think that's going to change soon though.  

Which brings me to my last thing I am sorting this week.  I ended up with a box of Topps Pro Debut about two weeks ago.  I am not going to recount the whole story about how the box came to be in my house, but I made a trade and ended up with the box.  It's not what I traded for.  Reminded me a little bit of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry gets a van and Kramer tries to trade for it, but instead of a van it was baseball cards.....

I actually really like the cards, not quite sure why I did not pull the trigger with my local card on buying a box of this product.  Minor League cards are way up my alley.  I could do a post with just the base cards, and will at some point, but for the moment I will share my hits out of the box.

First up, my two autographs.  

Justus Sheffield was a first round draft pick of the Indians in 2014 and is playing this year in the Carolina League with Lynchburg.  I have seen the Hillcats this year, but I missed out on seeing him pitch while they were in town.  Currently he is striking out about a batter per inning, has a 3 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio, and has an ERA just below 4.  Not bad.  Baseball America has him ranked as the fourth best prospect in the Indians system at the moment.  

Next up is Brewers outfield prospect Omar Garcia.  Well, I am not sure that this guy is much of a prospect actually.  Garcia is in his fourth year in the Brewers system, is unranked on every top prospect list out there, and has played just 11 games at Double A.  He's a speed guy, but the problem is that he does not always get on base.  Last year he stole 53 bases for Brevard County, but had a .318 OBP.  That's not going to hack it.  

Next.  The manufactured stuff.  

Franklin Barreto is a really good pull out of a prospect set.  He's one of the better prospects in the minors at the moment, most major publications place him in the Top 50 and at the top of the list for the A's.  He was originally a Blue Jays international signing, but was traded for Josh Donaldson.  There are different levels of the pennant cards, with this being the gold, and numbered to 50 copies.  

Two more.  

Umm.  I have seen this card before, but you can never have too many Wool E. Bull cards.  Last one, promise.  

I also landed a printing plate of Mariners pitcher Edwin Diaz.  There are always a few guys in the Pro Debut set who have cracked the Majors and Diaz is one of them.  He's appeared in 17 games this year for the Mariners and has some really good numbers like: 17.3 K/9, 2.89 FIP, and a 164 ERA+.  This card pictures Diaz on the Jackson Generals, Double A, where he started the season and skipped over Triple A.  He was a starter in the Minors, but still had good numbers with high strikeout totals.