Brewers' Best

Last night I wrote about a Durham Bulls player.  That happens often in this blog space.  Sometimes, I feel like I really neglect the rest of the great baseball that is played in my little corner of the world.  There is not a Major League baseball team in the state of North Carolina, but within an hour of my house I can get to:  

• Five Different Minor League parks: Durham, Zebulon (Carolina Mudcats), Fayetteville, Burlington, and Greensboro.  Kinston is just over an hour.   
• Three ACC baseball teams that are frequently ranked in the top 25: UNC, NC State, and Duke 
• The ACC Baseball Tournament is frequently held in Durham 
• The USA Baseball program is 10 minutes from my front door

I have often thought about finding more time and space to write about these teams and players.  I will be a little proactive about the matter and write about a former Carolina Mudcat tonight.  The team plays about forty minutes away from my house headed towards the coast from Raleigh.  In the decade plus that I have lived in North Carolina, the team has cycled through a few different affiliations.  The past two years, the Mudcats have been the Milwaukee Brewers team in the Carolina League.  

Last year the Mudcats best player was Keston Hiura.  I'd argue that he's also the Brewers' best prospect.  The second baseman was a first round draft pick out of UC Irvine back in 2017.  While he was there he played for the College National team as a part of the USA Baseball program, so I had seen him before he was in the Minors.  

Very good player.  

Hiura passing through town twice has sort of outweighed the fact that he is on the Brewers.  Easily one of the best prospects to pass through the area in the past few years.  

He's a top 50 prospect and you can buy his autographs for between $5 and $10.  Keston Hiura has actually hit while he has been in the Minors too.  Some of his autographs are actually quite pricy, but if you're like me, you just want to own an autograph of a good player, there is nothing wrong with finding something like this Bowman Tek card.  

The design on Bowman Tek cards this year is a lot better than Topps Tek in my opinion.  There is still something goofy behind the player picture, but it's geometric and fits into the overall appearance of the card well.  The diagonal name plate looks pretty nice too.  

Minor League Goodness

How long has it been since I have done a write up on a new, current year, set that I have written up in blog post form?  I am actually not entirely sure, but I know its probably been five to six months.  I love putting together sets, but I have been a little bit lost/uninterested in a lot of the base sets this year.  The topic deserves its own post, maybe over Thanksgiving break next week I will find the time.

I have a hard time passing up Minor League baseball cards.  About a month ago Topps put out one of their two products which feature players from their Minor League uniforms.  Obviously there are Durham Bulls cards, but I can also find cards of the other players I see at Minor League games, as well as a few younger players who previously appeared at USA Baseball.

Heritage Minors has the same borrowed 1968 Topps design as the Major League version of the Heritage set.  I like the commonly held opinion that this set design looks like a burlap sack.  I still have a few favorite base cards.  Really, it's just a pair of Durham Bulls cards and a player with a connection to the Cardinals.

First up the two Durham Bulls.

Adames is widely considered the Rays best prospect.  The middle infield is crowded in Tampa, but young cheap talent always wins out there, so Adames is going to get a chance in the Majors sooner than later.  He was originally signed by the Tigers, but the Rays picked him up in the David Price trade.  Topps has only started putting him in their Minor League products the last two years, even though he was been a highly regarded prospect for a several years now.

Honeywell is the other Durham Bulls card I am going to give a little love.  First, I like the alternate jersey on the card.  The Bulls have now been a Rays affiliate for 20 years.  This season they wore a Rays inspired Bulls jersey several times.  Kind of a cool mash-up of the two uniforms.

I am intrigued by Honeywell.  He's another top Rays prospect, probably their best Minor League pitcher for the moment.  He throws a screwball.  I am kind of skeptical about how that will work out in the long term.  Is it just me, or has there been a serious lack of screwball pitchers since Fernando Valenzuela?  

My last base card is Padres infield prospect Fernando Tatis Jr.  If you weren't sure about his relationship to the Cardinals, long time baseball writer Jon Heyman had a gem of a tweet about this in the middle of the summer.

Just in case you had any lingering doubts.  He's only 18 and in A Ball, but the numbers have been impressive for such a young player.  Last year he hit 21 home runs, 26 doubles, stole 29 bases, and had an on base percentage near .400.  

Fort Wayne Tincaps.  Hilarious.

I also pulled out a base card variation.  You know Topps always has to make these things and make them nearly impossible to find.  This one is actually pretty clear.....

that the first name is missing from the front of the card.  Zack Collins is a pretty well thought of catching prospect for the White Sox, plus one time he dropped a ball on a tag play that let NC State get into the ACC Baseball Championship Game.

A few other things that come in boxes of baseball cards.  Two jersey cards.  

Alex Verdugo is kind of a meh card.  I really like Christin Stewart though.  He hits for powers and draws a lot of walks.  Like the brown jersey swatch from the Futures Game last year.  

Moving along.  

I like these disc inserts which are based on a 1968 Topps test issue.  The set is half mascots and half players.  Just something different.  My favorite mascot, Wool E. Bull, did not make the cut for this insert set, but does make an appearance elsewhere.  

Last two cards for today. 

P.J. Conlon is a Mets prospect.  Not a huge fan.  Bobby Dalbec was drafted by the Red Sox out of the University of Arizona.  I saw him play with USA Baseball a few years back.  The power is impressive, I think he can be an everyday Major League player.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 30

For the first time in five years the Cardinals missed the playoffs.  While the team has some nice young pieces on the roster, clearly the team needs a few adjustments if they are going to compete with the Cubs next year.  One of the likely changes is that the team will pursue a new centerfielder, move Randal Grichuk to left, and allow long time fixture Matt Holliday walk.

Holliday first arrived on the Cardinals in 2009 in a trade with the A's and has been a fixture in left field ever since.  For the last eight years he's been a pretty consistent performer: 20 home runs, close to 100 RBIs, a .300 batting average, a high on base percentage, and a little shaky outfield defense.  The Cardinals have also won a World Series and made the National League Championship Series three other times with Holliday in the lineup.

In his supposed last at-bat as a Cardinal, he ended up with another one two days later, he went yard against the Pirates.  A cool ending to some great years as a Cardinal...

I have watched most of Holliday's time with the Cardinals from away from St. Louis, but he actually spent a few years playing in North Carolina on his way to the Majors with the Rockies.  Holliday was drafted in 1998 and squeezed in about 30 games with AZL Rockies before the end of the summer.  His first full year was spent in the South Atlantic League with the Asheville Tourists.  

One of his first baseball cards featured him wearing a Tourists uni. 

If you do not remember the Just Minors cards they are still really easy to find and are really cheap.  They actually have some pretty cool autographs too.  I dabbled a bit with them back in the late 1990s, but I was not a huge Minor League collector at that point, so they did not hold my interest.  Pretty fun cards to look at now.  

Also note that Holliday is a third baseman on the card.  He actually played the infield until 2001.  In his first two and half years in the Minors Holliday made 79 errors at third.  While he was not a good defender in left either, that's a ton of errors.  

Holliday also later appeared for the Carolina Mudcats, but they were the Rockies Double A team at the time.  I am not sure if Holliday has a team issue Mudcats card, but if he does I will find it at some point.   He does have a 2002 Upper Deck Minors card with a Mudcats logo on the front of the card, but he is wearing an Asheville uniform on the card.  

The Mudcats did have a banner for him in the outfield, until they took it down.  

Minor League Set Week: 2015 Carolina Mudcats

Second Carolina Mudcats set of the day, but this one is the current issue from the team.  The Mudcats switched affiliations this year from the Indians to the Braves, so a totally new set of players and coaches to look at in this product.  The cards do not have as cool of design as the 2014 team set, but this is still a pretty solid design with the black and red design.  Same deal as the previous minor league sets, two players you should add to your collection, and one player who might be flying under the radar.  I promise not to pick a coach the rest of the week.


1.  Lucas Sims- Sims is the top rated pitching prospect in the Braves system.  The Mudcats game that I attended was Sims first start since returning from the DL.  The team was involved in a bus accident earlier in the season and Sims was injured in the wreck.  He gave up a bunch of runs in the start (thanks starting catcher), but he definitely has a lot of giddy up on his pitches.  I am guess that I will get to see Sims in another year or two when he rolls through Gwinnett.  Good arm, should turn out just fine with the Braves.  MLB.com still rates him as a top 100 prospect and Baseball Prospectus has him just outside the top 50 at 54th.

2.  Tyler Brosius- Little known Tyler Brosius fact: He was Russell Wilson's backup at NC State for a season.  His bio is still on their web page and he made a challenge for the starting job after Russell Wilson left to play baseball.  Mike Glennon (Buccaneers) won the starting job, Brosius quit and decided to play baseball full time.

So, I am picking Brosius because he is an NC State, but I am going to back it up with some numbers. Unlike Russell Wilson, Brosius came to NC State to just play football.  Wilson shuttled back and forth between the two teams before leaving the school after being drafted by the Rockies in the fourth round.  After two years of only playing football Brosius left NC State, transferred to Walters State (where's that?), and made himself eligible for the 2013 MLB Draft.  So, basically Brosius played in high school, took two years off, played a year of college baseball, and then went pro.  The Braves have used him as both a starter and relief pitcher, but he has settled into starting for the past year and a half.  This year in 5 starts he is 2-1 with an ERA of 3.33.  Considering he is in his third pro season, after one year of college baseball only, several Braves prospects sites point out the fact that Brosius, still only 23, is basically like a just drafted college senior.  

Under the radar- 

3. Matt Marksberry- Marksberry actually pitched in college about an hour away from my house at Campbell College.  You know the Camels.  Marksberry was drafted by the Braves in the 15th round of the 2013 MLB Draft and until last week was just lingering around in the lower Minors.  Lat year Marksberry was a starting pitcher.  This year he is a relief pitcher.  In 22 games with the Mudcats he was basically striking out a batter per inning and nobody was hitting him in the Carolina League.  The Braves promoted him all the way to Triple A Gwinnett about a week and a half ago.  So far this season Marksberry is holding left handed batters to a .074/.123/.093 slash line on the season.  That's one hit in 54 at-bats against Marksberry.  I watched Marksberry pitch Sunday for the Gwinnett Braves.  Pretty filthy stuff with lots of movement and velocity on his fastball reaching up to 93.  He seemed pretty excited to pitch here too.  

Minor League Set Week: 2014 Carolina Mudcats

Another team set from my Summer Baseball Tour.  This is the Mudcats set from last year when they were an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.  Currently they are a Braves team.  Two quick notes on the set before we get into the players and scans of the cards:


1.  This set is really well designed.  The fronts of the cards have nice clear photography (Minor League sets can be grainy at times) and the backs of the cards have both a color photo of the player and a stat line.  The stat line is not extremely rare, but it's never a given in Minor League sets.  The color picture on the back is a really nice touch.

2.  Looking over the checklist I was initially to disappointed to not see Francisco Lindor in the set.  At some point during my time on social media last week I had discussed this set with a few fellow collectors and mentioned the fact that he was not in the set.  After checking Lindor's record he was not actually with the Mudcats last year, but was there in 2013.  I know I had seen Lindor last year, but he was with Columbus (AAA) for the last part of the season.

So just like the South Atlantic League set from yesterday, I am going to pick out three players from this set who are good players to keep an eye on in the future.  I will pick two obvious players and then go out on a limb for one.

(Scanning is a little crooked and might be slightly disproportionate- I will lay off the water)

1.  Ryan Merritt- He's the only player in this card set that is ever mentioned in anywhere on any Indians top prospects list.  Merritt actually recently threw a no-hitter for the Indians Double A team in Akron.  From the sounds of things, Merritt is not an overpowering pitcher, but does a good job of locating pitches.  Possibility that he is a contributor to a Major League team at some point in his career.

2. Luigi Rodriguez- If you ever get the chance to watch Luigi Rodriguez he looks the part of a really good player.  He's got a nice swing, the ball has a good sound coming off his bat, and he looks good in the field (he's a second baseman).  The only thing missing was the numbers.  His career slash line is .278/.353/.421 with a career high of 11 home runs in a season with Lake County (low A).  I am not sure what exactly has happened to Luigi this year, but he seems to have finally find the results.  His slugging percentage is at .508 and he has already matched his career high in home runs.  Luigi also has 17 doubles, 8 triples, and 19 steals this season.  He might make it to the Majors a little bit later, but still could be another good player for the Indians in the future.

Under the Radar:

3. Steve Karsay- I know, Steve Karsay already made it Majors, but he is trying to make it back as a pitching coach by working his way up through the Indians Minor League system.  This was his third season working with Indians minor leaguers.  This season Karsay is with Lake County in the Midwest League.  Karsay seem to be well regarded as a pitching coach and there are a lot of teams that promote within to find their coaches.  Hopefully Karsay makes it back to the Majors again.

Snorting Bull Baseball Tour Day 3: Carolina Mudcats vs Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Day 3 of my summer baseball tour took my to Zebulon, North Carolina last night for a game between the Carolina Mudcats (Braves) and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs).  The two Carolina League squads both had a few notable prospects on the field last night, but the Mudcats were put away quickly by the Pelicans.  The game ended up being a rain shortened 12-0 win for the Pelicans in 8 innings.  Here's a few sights (no sounds, we were in the quiet section of the stadium) around Five County Stadium.

Quick video too.  This is Braves top pitching prospect Lucas Sims facing Cubs prospect Mark Zagunis.  Zagunis doubled in this at-bat and helped push the Pelicans lead to 6-0.  Sims has stuff, but seemed a little phased by the umpires strike zone, and the catcher for the Mudcats was playing some shaky d.  The first two runs of the game scored on pass balls.

Snorting Bull Baseball Tour Day 3: Carolina Mudcats vs. Myrtle Beach Pelicans

This was originally scheduled to be the fourth game on my tour, but a stomach bug kept me home Friday afternoon on what was supposed to be another USA vs. Cuba game.  I am feeling better and it's always rough to figure out how you are going to squeeze an extra baseball game into your vacation.  Anyway, here's a look at this evening's game between the Braves and Cubs High A Ball Teams in the Carolina League.

The starters for the game were originally slated to be Brandon Barker for the Mudcats and Daury Torrez for the Pelicans.  However, Barker was moved up to Triple A Gwinnett this afternoon to make a spot start.  That actually leaves me with a chance to watch Braves top pitching prospects Lucas Sims.  He's off to a slow start in High A ball, with an ERA over 5 and a WHIP of 1.55, but he started out the same way last year before fishing the year strong.

The last game Sims started was actually for the GCL Braves against the GCL Yankees.  It did not go very well, but his last start for the Mudcats for a successful outing.

It was a a 7 inning game, part of a doubleheader, against the Salem Red Sox where Sims pitched a complete game with 6 Ks.  I am interested to see how he fairs today against a Myrtle Beach line up which hung sixteen runs on the Mudcats last night.  Here are the position players for the Mudcats.  None rank amongst the Braves notable prospects:

The Pelicans enter today in first place in the Southern Division of the Carolina League and own the league's best record.  Like most Cubs affiliates the Pelicans are built on offense.  The team ranks near the top of the Carolina League in runs per game and team OPS.  The Pelicans also have a few good pitchers on their roster, most notably, Duane Underwood who rates as one of their better pitching prospects.  

Top Prospect Billy McKinley also spent part of the season with Myrtle Beach, but has been promoted up to Double A with the Tennessee Smokies.  Mark Zagunis and Victor Caratini were also Top 20 Cubs prospects at the beginning of the year and might be closer to Top 10 prospects for the team given the number of prospects the team has graduated to the Majors this season.  Here's a look at the offensive players on the Pelicans....

The Clipper Contestant

I had a great time this last summer attending The Triple A All-Star Game hosted by the Durham Bulls.  The team did an outstanding job of hosting the event and showcasing the best players from the International and Pacific Coast Leagues.  I still have my program from the game handy and still have some strong opinions about some of the players I had a chance to watch.  The PCL players I do not get to watch outside of the highlights on the Minor League website, but International League players I keep up with mainly just by keeping up with the Bulls.  One of the players I was eager to watch at the All-Star Game was Indians prospect Jesus Aguilar.

Aguilar actually played for the Carolina Mudcats (Indians High A team) back in 2012.  He's was a big guy without a real position, and while he got on base and hit for a good average, it was not clear that he had enough pop in his bat to really make a huge impact in the Majors.  Two years later he was in the International League playing for Columbus Clippers and was one of the bigger offensive threats in the league.  Aguilar was named an All-Star based in large part to his first month of the 2014 season where he hit .356/.440/.667 with 7 homers and 16 RBIs.  I had seen Aguilar in games before, but it was fun to see him hit in the Home Run Derby.  

Tonight, @JAguilarCLE will represent the International League in the #TripleAHRDerby! #ClipShow pic.twitter.com/H6chP3SsR4
— Columbus Clippers (@CLBClippers) July 14, 2014 

His raw power was really impressive to see in person.  He has a great swing and generates a good deal of power.  I usually do not like to buy into a lot of the comparisons that people throw out there about Minor Leaguers.  However, the comparisons between Aguilar and Boston's David Ortiz could be pretty spot on.  Aguilar has been kind of late bloomer, has good power, hits for a good average, and draws a lot of walks.  Hopefully the Indians will be a little more patient with Aguilar then the Twins were with Ortiz.  Unless they want to trade him to the Cardinals or Rays....then I am game.  Here's a look at Aguilar during the Derby.....

Jesus Aguilar #indians #columbusclippers #tripleahrderby #asgdurham

A video posted by The Snorting Bull (@thesnortingbull) on Jul 7, 2014 at 4:43pm PDT

After watching Aguilar I immediately went out and tried to find a couple of his cards.  The problem?  There are not very many at all.  A couple of team issues, a Leaf product or two, and an odd or end in a Bowman set, but nothing really to fun looking.  Enter Topps Supreme.....

Aguilar has several different autographs in the product.  Most are flying way under the radar compared to most high end prospects.  His Leaf autographs have been selling for slightly less than $5 over the past couple of months, but his Supreme autographs are only slightly more expensive and can be had for a little more than $5.  It seems that the really low print runs do not add much of premium onto the price of his cards yet either.  My copy of his autograph from the Supreme set cost me $7 and is limited to just 35 copies.  The purple version of this card, numbered out of 25, sold for just a dollar more.  

Aguilar should be a contender for the American League Rookie of the Year next year, especially if the Indians move Nick Swisher and free up some at bats for Jesus at first base and DH.  Last season the Tribe ran Swisher out to first base and DH for 86 games and he hit .206/.278/.331.  Pretty pathetic.  Aguilar can do much better for a lot less money.