Project Durham Bulls #35 - David Justice

1986 Durham Bulls 

Background-

The Braves drafted Justice out of high school in the 4th round of the 1985 MLB Draft.  Justice played for the Bulls during his first full season in professional baseball.  Durham was one of two stops for the outfielder that summer, along with Sumter in the South Atlantic League.  Justice made the Majors at the end of the 1989 season, but maintained his rookie status heading into the 1990 season.  He ended up hitting .282/.373/.535 with 28 home runs, and 78 RBIs during that season.  The performance was good enough to win the Rookie of Year Award in the National League.  Justice would go on to spend 14 seasons in the Majors playing for the Braves, Indians, Yankees, and A's.  He ended his career with more than 1,500 hits, more than 300 home runs, and more than 1,000 RBIs.  Beyond his Rookie of The Year Award in 1990, Justice also took home the American League Championship Series MVP for his performance against the Mariners while playing for the Yankees.  He retired from baseball in 2002, but since he played with the A's that season, he managed to get into the movie Moneyball....

Well, not really David Justice.  Just some guy playing David Justice.  We're cool.  

Card- 
Justice has had a lot of different autographs over the years, several from his playing years, and several since he retired.  I actually have an autograph of him from the 2004 Topps base set, it's from the World Series insert set, so I wanted something a little bit different.  At the same time, I also really wanted an autograph of Justice on the Braves.  I know he was a good player in Cleveland, New York, and Oakland, but I best remember him in Atlanta.  Plus, the Braves were the parent club of the Durham Bulls at that point in history.  I was really happy to run across a Topps Tribute card of him on the cheap.  This set has been in my last three posts, all about Durham Bulls players, like I found a huge bundle of them on Ebay.  They did not sell for much.  He's got a great signature too.  Happy to add this to the stack of Durham Bulls cards.  

Project Durham Bulls #28 - Lee Gardner

2000-2002, 2005 

Background- 

Lee Gardner is one great Minor League baseball player.  He's someone who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.  He played in parts of four different Major League seasons with the Devil Rays and Marlins starting in 2002, with his last appearances coming during 2008.  In all, he totaled 86 games, just slightly more than 100 innings, and a 4-5 career record.  His career ended with an ERA of 3.01 and he also picked up 2 saves for the Marlins in 2007.  Even though his time in the Majors was limited, Gardner took full advantage of his time in the Minors.  

He was originally signed by the Devil Rays during the summer of 1998 as an undrafted amateur out of the University of Central Michigan.  Gardner made his first appearances for the Bulls during the 2000 season, which coincided with the team's third straight division title in the International League South. His primary role on the team was as a late inning reliever and the Bulls gave him some chances to close out games.  In 2002, Gardner saved 25 games and followed that up the following season with 30.  The Bulls not only won their division in 2002, the team also took home their first International League title since they were bumped up to Triple A in the late 1990s.  The team repeated as the International League Champions in 2003 with Gardner finishing games.  

After a quick stop over with the Giants Triple A team in Fresno in 2004, Gardner returned to the Bulls in 2005.  Over the year he notched another 15 saves. His last two years were spent with the Toledo Mud Hens (Tigers Triple A) and the Florida Marlins.  

Gardner ended his career as the Durham Bull's all-time leader in saves, owns the single season record for saves with 30 in 2003, and won the International League title three times during his run as a closer in the Minors.  He also won with the Mud Hens in 2006.  During the summer of 2017 Gardner was elected to the International League Hall of Fame.  

Card- 

I really love when card companies do something really nice to showcase a player who may not normally appear in their products.  Lee Gardner had an autographed card in the 2001 Royal Rookies set, it is a low budget Minor League per pack auto product, that is not really the nicest card.  If it were the only Lee Gardner autograph out there, it would not be shocking considering that he had a very limited role in the Majors during his baseball career.  

Why was he included in some nice Upper Deck products in 2007?  

I have no idea, but he was a 32 year old pitcher at this point in his career who had spent a considerable amount of time in Triple A.  Hardly the usual player to make an appearance in a nice baseball card product like Upper Deck Exquisite.  This card is actually from the Rookie Edition of the product which had only 6 cards in a box of cards at just a mere $300 per box.  

Did I mention I did not get this card out of a pack?  

This is a card that really has no business in a $300 a box product, but it is nice that Upper Deck rewarded a career Minor Leaguer like Gardner with an appearance in a set.  Probably even nicer that they let him sign some cards.  The next time you get an autograph, find out that's it's an older Minor Leaguer, be nice.  

Project Durahm Bulls #26- Carl Crawford

2002 Durham Bulls 

Background- 
The Durham Bulls have been successful throughout their tenure as the Triple A team for the Tampa Bay Rays/Devil Rays.  The 2002 squad was the second Bulls team to win a division championship in Triple A, but the first team to take home the league crown.  The team's star players included Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, Aubrey Huff, current manager Jared Sandberg, and Toby Hall.  Carl Crawford only appeared in 87 games that season for the Bulls before he was promoted to Tampa where he closed out the season.  He had 7 home runs, 9 triples, and 17 doubles during that half season stint with a .297/.335/.456 line.  Crawford would go on to play 15 seasons in the Majors with the Rays, Red Sox, and Dodgers.

While playing for the Rays, Crawford led the American League in triples and stolen bases four times, made the American League All-Star team four times, won the All-Star Game MVP in 2009 after making a game saving catch....

on what would have been a home run by Rockies first baseman Todd Helton.  

I always felt like Crawford took a lot of unnecessary criticism during the second half of his career.  He left the Rays for the Red Sox after the 2010 season for a 7 years and 142 million dollars.  He played what amounts to a season and a half in Boston.  One season was definitely subpar, the second was filled with injuries.  The Red Sox eventually dumped him on the Dodgers where he played a few more partial seasons before he was released.  Can't really blame Crawford for taking a large contract offer, or slowing down because of injuries.  

Card- 

The Traded/Update set disappeared for awhile in the mid to late 1990s.  Topps skipped the set in 1996, 1997, and 1998.  After a three year hiatus we got the 1999 Topps Traded set which was sold as a complete set with one autographed card per box.  There were some nice names in the product including Carl Crawford, C.C. Cabathia, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, and Mark Mulder.  The autographs on these cards weren't Crawford's best signature, but he was just removed from high school when he signed these cards.  He actually ended up with a pretty decent signature by the time his career wound down.  

At the time of the sets release, and throughout the early 2000s, the autographs of the successful players in this set had good value.  Most of the autographs of the players listed above, including Crawford, are very affordable at this point.  If you are not a huge autograph collector, but like these cards there was also a Chrome version of this set.  There were no autographs in that version of the 1999 Topps Traded set.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Blake Snell

This year marked the fifth time that a player on the Durham Bulls won the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year when Blake Snell won the award.  Previous winners included Jeremy Hellickson, Delmon Young, Rocco Baldelli, and Andruw Jones.  The recipient of the prestigious award this year compiled a 15-4 mark with a 1.41 ERA and 163 strikeouts in 134 innings split between three levels of the Minors.  Snell was also named the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year.

For a high profile prospect, Snell actually has a fairly limited array of cards available to collectors.  His first cards appeared in Bowman products back in 2011.  I was lucky enough to land a copy of his Bowman Chrome autograph out of a pack of retail I bought at my local Target.  At the time I pulled the card I was fairly happy, but just simply filed the card away as a Rays prospect to keep my eyes on for the future.  Snell was a first round pick, but has not appeared on any top prospect lists with Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, nor MLB.com since that time.  Here's a look at my Bowman Chrome autograph....

The popularity and prices of Snell cards have risen dramatically over the last few years in spite of the fact that some of the biggest prospecting writers have not given Snell not press.  His Bowman Chrome autograph is now regularly selling for more than $20, some even pushing close to $30.  He has a few unlicensed autographs from Panini which sell for slightly less.  However, if you are looking to add in some Snell cardboard there are some nice looking base cards out there for collectors to add to their collections.  

Since he is in the 2011 Bowman set there are loads of parallels with all sorts of different serial numbers available.  Some are cheap, some are not.  I actually like his mini card which appeared in the 2013 Bowman set along with all the aforementioned parallels.  Snell also has a 2013 Topps Pro Debut base card which features him with the Rays Appy League affiliate in Princeton.  

I am guessing that Snell will start off the 2016 season in Triple A with the Durham Bulls, but his stay could be short.  I would also guess that Snell's profile as a prime time prospect will increase over the off season.  While it might be easy to speculate that Snell's cards could push even higher, I suspect that he might actually start to appear in 2016 products which might actually slide the prices backwards when he finally has a few more cards available to collectors.

Collecting The Durham Bulls: Grant Balfour

I like Grant Balfour.  I first encountered him as a player during the 2008 season when he had a brief stint to start the season with the Durham Bulls.  What's to like about watching Grant Balfour pitch?  He throws hard, he's a max effort guy, and he's extremely fiery.   Fans of Aussie pitcher in Tampa and Oakland dubbed the pitcher Balfour Rage which has caused a few run ins over the years.....

 
Grant Balfour has had his struggles with the Rays since returning to the organization before the 2014 season which ultimately lead to the closer being sent down to the Durham Bulls towards the end of April.  I can't say I am surprised that Balfour ended up in Durham, but I hope he's back somewhere in the Majors before the end of the season.  However, while he's in Durham I am going to take a look back at his baseball cards........

The first Balfour cards appeared in 2001 products.  He actually signed with the Minnesota Twins in 1997, but it took him awhile to get his first piece of cardboard.  He did have a few Minor League issues before 2001 along with an Australian baseball card or two.  I have actually seen more copies of his Australian cards then team issues from his days in For Myers, New Britain, and Edmonton.  His rookie cards in 2001 are not in every product, but some can be tricky finds due to the fact that they are short prints, or the fact that sets from that year have rookies of Pujols and Ichiro and have been locked away.

Once Balfour became a regular with the Rays his cards became frequent parts of most major base sets.  He's been in every Topps base set along with several Panini and Upper Deck products during that time.  My favorite Balfour base card is easily his 2011 Topps Update card.  I think the picture fits Balfour to a tee.

Balfour also has several certified autographs floating around too.  Several of his signatures are really cheap including his 2015 Topps Autographs and his 2012 Panini autographs.  Both are available with some frequency on Ebay and COMC and often cost less than $5.  Let's put it this way, if it costs more than $5, just skip it and wait and it will show up cheap soon.  His best autograph, I do not own it, is his 2013 Tier One autograph.  It's still not an expensive pick up and usually sells for somewhere between $5-$10.  Nice looking card too...

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Ronald Belisario

The Rays signed Ronald Belisario this February and he has made his way onto the Durham Bulls.  The hard throwing right hander has spent most of his career with the Dodgers, but has also spent time with the Marlins, Pirates, and White Sox.  Between 2009 and 2014 Belisario made 335 relief appearances with an ERA of 3.75, FIP of 3.59, and an ERA+ of 102.  The numbers look rather pedestrian, but two of those season were outstanding efforts by Belisario.

During his 2009 rookie season, after spending a decade in the minors, Belisario posted a 2.04 ERA, 3.51 FIP, and an ERA+ of 197.  The Dodgers used him in the playoffs that year, and while he had a rough time with the Phillies in the National League Championship Series, he had a clean slate against the Cardinals in two appearances.

His 2012 season was also a bright spot in his career.  Belisario went 8-1 with a 2.54 ERA, 3.10 FIP, and 150 ERA+.  His two proceeding years were not so great with two seasons of sub 100 ERA+.  The time was split between the Dodgers and White Sox.

Not sure if/when Belisario is going to fit into the Rays bullpen this year, but he has pitched well so far for the Bulls.  In seven games (6.2 innings) he has allowed 1 run and only 3 hits.  I am hoping to get a closer look at Belisario next week when the Bulls host the Buffalo Bisons.

Let's look at the cardboard......

Belisario has a lot more cards then I would have guessed.  His first cards started popping up in 2004 while he was a Marlins prospect.  He is a bunch of the Playoff products that year including most of the Leaf Certified, Donruss Throwbacks, Studio, Elite, and Playoff Absolute.  Upper Deck also included Belisario in a few of their products.  Between the Playoff and Upper Deck products he does have a few autographs out on the market.  All of his rookie cards and autographs from 2004 are readily available on sites like Ebay and COMC and can all be had, with a little patience, for less than $5.  

I actually do not own any of Belisario's autographs.  He does not have the best signature and all of his autographs are stickers.  Some of the autographs, like his UD Etchings card, are definitely missable, but if I had to pick one I'd go with his Leaf Certified.  The sticker blends in with the card pretty well and I liked this set.  

Plus the price seems just right.

Almost all of Belisario's other cards feature him as a member of the Dodgers.  Yes, there are a few token White Sox cards floating around out there, but most of them are Dodgers cards from the last four or five years.

Being a middle relief pitcher means that Belisario has no real inserts or autographs, but if you like some of the colored parallels they are out there to chase down.  If you decide to add a Belisario card or two to your collection it will not be a costly add and there are a ton of his cards floating around including some low numbered parallels and occasionally a plate or two.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Scott Diamond

The Rays signed Scott Diamond to a contract just last week and sent him down to Durham.  Bulls fans might have seen Diamond previously with the Rochester Red Wings, Louisville Bats, or the Gwinnett Braves.  Diamond originally made it up to the Majors when the Twins made him a Rule 5 Draft Pick back in 2010.  After spending time with Rochester Diamond got 7 starts with the Twins in 2011.  He went 1-5 with a 5.08 ERA.  Not too great, but he bounced back strong in 2012.  He started 27 games that season and posted a 12-9 record with a 3.54 ERA.  His ERA+ was 116 and his walks per nine led the American League.

2013 was a step back for Diamond at 6-13 with a 5.43 ERA, 21 home runs allowed in 131 innings, and an ERA+ of 75.  He did end up back in the International League that year and had a fine 4-0 record with a 2.93 ERA.  Still the Twins ended up releasing the left handed starter who was then signed by the Reds making 2014 a split season between the Louisville Bats and Rochester.  Diamond went a combined 5-12 with a 6.57 ERA.  Not a great season.

The Rays are hoping that Diamond can regain his 2012 form with the Bulls.  Given the injuries that have struck the Rays pitching staff early this season, and some of the struggles that some of the young pitchers on the team have had, it wouldn't be surprising to see Diamond get a spot start for the Rays at some point in the year.

Cardwise Diamond has a lot of cardboard.  His rookie cards were in 2012 releases and can be found in Topps Update and Panini Prism.  The Panini card has an autographed variation to go along with all of the normal colors and different number parallels that can be found in that same.  Same for his rookie Topps Update card minus the autographed parallel.  Almost all of Diamond's rookie cards, including the Panini autograph, can be found for less than $5 shipped.

2013 is the prime year for Scott Diamond cards.  Diamond basically had an autograph in almost every major Topps product that year.  He was in the base Topps set, Gypsy Queen, Heritage, Tribute, Tier One, Turkey Red, and Allen & Ginter.  I picked up a Diamond autograph on the cheap awhile back, but the price has not really changed over the past few years.  Almost all of his signatures, brand does not matter, are all under $5.  You might have to pay some shipping that would bump some of those cards over $5, but still.....

I like the idea of having players like Diamond around.  He's got Major League experience and has won big in some of his previous Minor League stops.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Curt Casali

Casali is back with the Bulls to start off the 2015 season after losing out to Bobby Wilson for the Rays backup catching gig.  He spent 30 games in the Majors last year, but only produced a .167/.268.208 line with just 3 doubles and 3 RBIs.  Casali also played 70 games in the Minors last season including 46 games with the Durham Bulls.  He only hit .237/.335/.359 with the Bulls including 13 extra base hits.  I really think it might be a good thing that Casali is spending a little bit more time in the International League this year.

Casali will probably be the starting catcher for the Bulls to start the year, but the catching position is starting to get crowded for the Rays in the upper Minors.  The Bulls are also starting out the year with catcher Luke Maile on the team and highly regarded prospect Justin O'Conner is starting out in Double A with the Montgomery Biscuits.  It will be curious to see how the playing time works out this year with the catchers.

Cardwise Casali only has two cards.  They're both autographed.  The better of the two cards comes from last year's Bowman Platinum set.....

Not a really hard, nor expensive, card to find.  I picked one of these cards up at some point last year, and cannot remember the exact amount of money I paid for the card, but it was really cheap.  There are half of dozen of these cards on Ebay right now for less than $5 and several of them cost less than $3.  His other card is a little trickier.....

because I do not own one.  What is an Onyx Platinum Elite?  I am not sure.  For $2.99 I am tempted, and that may happen one day, if I can maybe get it down to $0.99.  Maybe.  In the meantime, I am stuck with just 50% of the Curt Casali cards out on the market.  Not a terrible feeling.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Dylan Floro

Dylan Floro was the Rays 13th round draft pick out of Cal State Fullerton in 2012.  He had great numbers in the lower minors, but did not appear on any baseball cards until last summer when he reached Double A Montgomery where he proceeded to post the worst numbers of his career.  During the 2012 and 2013 seasons Floro played for a total of three Rays affiliates and went 4-1 2.40, 2-0, 1.61, and 9-2 1.81 in those three stops for a total record of 15-3.

Notice I did not post strikeout numbers for Floro.  He is primarily a roundball pitcher, and while he can get strikeouts, 232 in 346 minor league innings, it's clearly not what he is trying to do out there on the mound.  Last season in Montgomery Floro went 11-13 in 28 starts with an ERA of 3.48.   The bad news was that he gave up 209 hits in 178.2 innings.  The good news is that only 4 of those hits left the yard.  Give me a summer of Hak Ju Lee fielding his grounders and I like his chances to have a good year for the Bulls.

As I was saying at the beginning of the post, last summer was Floro's first year in baseball card sets.  He appeared in Bowman, Bowman Chrome, and Bowman Inception.  His Bowman card is in the prospects section of the set and offers not only his rookie card, but all of those color rainbow variations to boot.  I landed a copy of his flag card which has a California flag in the background.  Pretty sweet card, easy to find, and really inexpensive.

Floor's first autographs are in the Bowman Inception and Bowman Chrome products.....

The Chrome autograph is one of those that you can get off of Ebay for $0.99 if you sit and watch the auction at the last minute.  If you don't feel like doing that they are selling for $1.50 on COMC.  There are colored variations of this Chrome autograph, but they are also inexpensive considering how much other players cost.  For example, his blue autograph out of 150 can be found for less than $10.

His best autograph is in the Bowman Inception product.  Like all Bowman product you can find this card in a variety of different colors and print runs.  I just got the plain jane Inception autograph and spent about $3 in the process.  The gold parallel is currently listed on COMC for just $5 and the green card is just $8.  Not a very expensive player to collect at all.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Corey Brown

This is an easy shopping list and pretty inexpensive.  Corey Brown has been around for awhile and has a fair number of cards for interested collectors.  His first cards were released almost immediately after the A's used a sandwich pick (59th overall) to take the outfielder out of Oklahoma State.  There were several different autographed cards to choose from.....

The cheaper options on Brown cards come from Minor League sets like the Just Minors and Tristar products.  By cheaper I mean that you can find these cards easily for 2 to 3 dollars.  I like the Just card since he is pictured in his Oklahoma State uniform.  Brown also has an autograph in the 2007 Donruss Elite set.  Again, he is pictured in an Oklahoma State jersey.  His Tristar autograph features him on the Vancouver Canadians team.  It's better than having a blanked out card, but still I like the college baseball cards better.   Just personal opinion.  

Better option: Find a copy of Corey Brown's 2007 Bowman Chrome Autograph.  The card might cost you an extra dollar or fifty cents above the Just or Donruss autograph, but finding autographs out of the Bowman products is rarely a bad thing.  Brown's Bowman Chrome autograph is an on card signature and features a nice picture which does not really look airbrushed.  Is it?  Can't tell.  

Brown has one other Major League Baseball card release in the 2012 Topps Heritage set.  It's a prospect card featuring Brown as a member of the Nationals.  The card also features Michael Taylor, Adron Chambers, and Joe Benson.  Again, not hard to find and not expensive to buy.  This card usually costs less than fifty cents.  

Brown also has several different Minor League team issues.  He has been in the Minors since 2007 and has been in Triple A since 2010.  Much of his time has been spent with the Syracuse Chiefs, but last season was spent with the Pawtucket Red Sox.  Brown has made some brief appearances with the Nationals and Red Sox.  As a Tampa native I am sure Brown would be excited to get a chance to play for the Rays this season.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Grayson Garvin

Grayson Garvin was apart of the Rays Draft Class in 2011.  The Rays had ten of the first sixty picks in the draft.  The team took Taylor Guerrieri, Mikie Mahtook, Jake Hager, Brandon Martin, Tyler Goeddel, Jeff Ames, Blake Snell, Kes Carter, James Harris, and Grayson Garvin.  None of those players have reached the Majors yet and there are many baseball experts who have taken notice.  I remember reading a string of Peter Gammons tweets last fall about the disappointment of this draft class for Rays, but there is still hope for several of these players including former Vanderbilt star Grayson Garvin.

Repeat after me: Wins do not matter.  Okay.  Garvin has a career 3-14 mark as a starter in the Minors.   I know there are some people who just cringed a little bit and are seriously contemplating something else to read, but hang with me for a moment.  The left handed pitcher has compiled that record over 41 minor league starts over three years.  While the win loss record is not great there are a couple of positives to be found in the numbers.

First, Garvin has given up less than a hit per inning.  Even better, he has only allowed six home runs and forty-two walks in three years of pitching in the minors.  So, Garvin keeps batters off base and keeps them in the yard, but has not won very many games.  While he is a really big guy, 6'6 and 225, and throws hard, he is much more Justin Masterson than flame throwing strike out pitcher.

I actually think that Garvin could have a good year pitching for the Bulls given some of the good defenders the team will have on the infield this year.   I do not usually use this space to make predictions, but I will throw this out there:  Grayson Garvin will have three wins by the middle of May.  He won three games this fall, in six starts, pitching in the Arizona Fall League.  I'd say the end of April, but I figure the Bulls might lose a game here and there at some point.  Plus there is the dreaded no decision.

Cardwise, Grayson Garvin has some really limited options.  As always, there are always team sets like last year's Montgomery Biscuits team issued set.  Beyond the team sets the options bill down to two 2011 issues.  Gavin has several 2011 Donruss Elite cards including an autographed card and all of the colored variations.  I do not own one of these, but am on the lookout for one.

The Garvin card that I do own comes from the 2011 Prime Cuts product.  Like the Donruss Elite set, it's a non-licensed product and features Garvin wearing a goofy blanked out hat....

it's also a sticker autograph (sigh).  I am a little surprised that Garvin has never appeared in a Bowman or a Topps Minor League product, but maybe they were too busy reading that wins line on his stat sheet.  I am guessing that a good season in Triple A this year could Garvin a slot in a product like Topps Pro Debut or Minor League Heritage.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Joey Butler

Opening Day is getting close, so I am going to start in on the players who are going to end up starting their summers in Durham playing for the Bulls.  There are some great new players on the roster, so I have been excited about going through my boxes and pulling out cards that are already in my collection and searching Ebay and COMC for the ones that I am missing from my collection.  First up is outfielder Joey Butler.

Butler has appeared in Major League games during both the 2013 and 2014 seasons for the Rangers and Cardinals.  Although the experience amounted to just 14 games and 21 plate appearances, both promotions were well earned through good offensive numbers in Triple A.  The 29 year old, former University of New Orleans player, has posted a .304/.397/.472 line.  Butler has a produced a 20 home run season, stolen 15 bases in a minor league season, and had a 30 double season too.

In some regards his stat lines remind me a little bit of a guy like Justin Ruggiano.  It seems like Joey Butler can do a little bit of everything, but has never put every thing together in one season, and like Ruggiano, been stuck at Triple A behind good Major League depth.

Butler is going to start the season with the Bulls, but could be up quickly if there is an injury or if a young player, like Steven Souza, were to falter.  In my opinion, Butler should be similar to some of the older minor league guys who have rolled through Durham over the years like Chris Richard or Jerry Sands.

The card selection on Joey Butler is limited.  He was a fifteenth round draft pick and never considered a big enough prospect to pick up a card appearance in Bowman, but there are still two good solid cards of the outfielder out there for fans to grab.....

My top choice of Butler cards is from the 2011 Topps Pro Debut set.  This Double A All-Stars card is an insert, but still not too hard of a find, nor expensive.  There are currently none of these on COMC, but a few have sold on EBay with most hanging out below a dollar.  If you are looking for something from a little bit better set Butler did appear in a Topps Heritage set in 2014....

The card is split with Jim Adduci, but adding cards from Topps Heritage is always a good thing for your baseball card collection.  Butler does not have any certified autographs, but there are a good amount of in person autographs listed/sold on Ebay.

Overall, I am looking forward to seeing Butler playing in Durham.  I am not sure that he will be with the team the whole year, but he should be fun to watch during the first few weeks of the season.  Especially at the plate where he could provide some pop along with a few other veteran bats the Bulls will start out with on their roster.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Kyle Snyder

Spring Training is starting up and we are just a few weeks out from seeing who is on the Durham Bulls roster to start the season.  While it easy to guess some of the names that might appear at this point, I am trying not to get ahead of myself, make a bunch of posts, and then end up not seeing that player end up in Durham.  So, I am going to do a few safe bets over the next months.  I already did a Jared Sandberg at the end of January.

Next up in my Collecting the Durham Bulls series is the pitching coach for Bulls this year Kyle Snyder.  Snyder pitched for UNC in the late 90s after being drafted by the Devil Rays in the 1996 amateur draft and opting for college instead.  His second time around in the draft he went seventh overall to the Kansas City Royals.

Snyder's early cards are right in my collector wheelhouse in the late 90s and early 2000s, but after spending an hour or so sifting through some boxes of Royals cards, my collecting of Snyder cards honestly stinks.  He has a card in the 1999 Topps Traded set, which is his true rookie card, but if you are looking for something cool I would try to find a nice parallel or serial numbered card from the era.  My two best Snyder cards are a Topps Finest Refractor, which is numbered to just 500 copies, and a Bowman Chrome refractor.

Now, here is where my Snyder collection falls surprisingly falls off.  He has autographed cards, but I do not own one.  I know it's pretty shocking because I always have autographs of these guys from the late 90s.  Snyder?  I am not sure why I never went there.  He was a high draft pick and a good prospect, but I just never got around to it I guess.  They are dirt cheap, so if you are in the market there are plenty of them out there for just the right price.

This is the pricing breakdown at COMC on his 1999 Topps Traded Autograph....

I might have to pick one of these up after I am done typing.  In the meantime, let's talk a bit about Snyder's cards outside of his early years.  Snyder reached the Majors in 2003 and started 15 games for the Royals going 1-6.  He spent a lot of time on the disabled list with the Royals and ended up tearing his labrum and missed the entire 2004 season.  In spite of the injuries Snyder was rated as the 7th best prospect by Baseball America in 2003.  During this stretch, he did miss a lot of time, there are plenty of nice base cards of Snyder pitching for the Royals.

If you were going to add just one Snyder base card to your collection I would recommend something from 2006 or 2007 while Snyder was pitching for the Red Sox.  It's true that much of Snyder's career was limited by injuries he did have one good season in 2007.  The cards prove he was there.....

The Red Sox used Snyder as a spot starter on the 2006 squad and brought him back to work in the bullpen in 2007.  He ended the 2007 season with an ERA+ of 125, the best mark of his career.  More importantly he earned a World Series ring with the team after the Red Sox beat the Rockies in the fall classic that year.

I'm going to get to work on buying one of those autographs of COMC.  In the meantime, I am also looking forward to seeing Snyder's work this season with the Durham Bulls pitchers.  He's done well with Bowling Green and Hudson Valley in past years.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Jared Sandberg

I worked on a bunch of these posts last spring just to show off the cards of some of the Durham Bulls players on last year's roster.  I am going to do something similar this spring, but we still have to go through the whole Spring Training thing and see how the roster shakes out.  Sure we can probably make some pretty good guesses on a few of the roster spots, but we are going to hope the best for everyone.  I know the Rays still only 25 spots on their roster.

We did get one part of the 2015 Durham Bulls clarified this morning...

Jared Sandberg named new manager of the #DurhamBulls. Full story: http://t.co/NQqKJrQJXa pic.twitter.com/RAUQEbgorg
— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) January 21, 2015

The Sandberg hiring has been rumored for the last week or so, but seems like a really good move.  He's been managing in the Rays organization for awhile and has been very successful.  The former Rays and Bulls player has managed a total of 6 seasons posting a .547 winning percentage and helped Hudson Valley and Bowling Green to playoff appearances in 2012 and 2013.  I have a feeling we are in good shape with Sandberg who is pretty excited about the opportunity to manage his former team.

I will be using all of my size 14 shoes to follow in the footsteps of Evers and Montoyo to lead @DurhamBulls #honored
— Jared Sandberg (@jlsofoly) January 21, 2015

Here's my take on the Sandberg's cards:

Sandberg was a pretty well thought of prospect for the expansion Devil Rays.  The name Sandberg, he's Ryne's nephew, at least got him a little notoriety.  He was drafted by the team in 1996 and his first baseball card appearance came in the 1997 Topps set.  

I am a big fan of the 1997 Topps set and I love these cards they put in of the Rays and Diamondbacks players.  The wallpaper turns a lot of people off, but it was a good 1990s baseball card design.  Lots of cool backdrops.  Both of the players featured on this card, Sandberg and Cedric Bowers, both played several seasons for the Durham Bulls.  If you are looking for something a little tamer in early Sandberg cards,  I really like his 1998 Bowman card too.  That hat is incredible.  

Sandberg had a good run of Bowman cards that started with this 1998 Bowman card, but he also appeared in the 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 Bowman products.  The 2002 appearances were in Bowman Heritage and Bowman Draft, but he was still there.  Appearing in Bowman sets also means that if you really want to chase down some Jared Sandberg baseball cards there are all sorts of refractors, diffractors, and serial numbered parallels.  

If I had to chase down one Sandberg card I would personally try to pick up a copy of one of his Bowman autographs.  He had a signature in the 1998 and 1999 sets.  Neither is terribly expensive, nor difficult to find.  

Both of his Bowman autographs came long before the dawn of the sticker autograph and are both really well done cards.  Speaking of sticker autographs, he also does have autographs in the 2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball set, but they are on a silver sticker on top of a white baseball card.  

The late 90s and early 2000s were great years for me as a collector and honestly I am excited to track down a few Jared Sandberg cards.  It's fan to look at old cards from an era of cardboard that you have enjoyed, but best of all Sandberg cards are really reasonable and easy to find which will make the dive into his cards both fun and inexpensive.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Bulls Bling

I attended a Durham Bulls game Friday night.  It was a great evening for a ballgame, except the Bulls lost pretty badly to the Pawtucket Paw Sox.  Raleigh-Durham is one of those metro areas loaded with tons of transplants, so of course there were a ton of Red Sox fans at the game to boot.  The Sox scored three runs in the first on a home run and picked up another three runs in the third all off of top Rays pitching prospect Enny Romero. Merrill Kelly pitched six innings of relief for the Bulls and shut out the Paw Sox the rest of the way. 

I was planning on posting a few more in my thread of Collecting Durham Bulls posts this coming week, but also wanted to take a little bit of time to share some of the cool things I pick up around the ballpark this year.  The Bulls are a first class organization and really have some nice promotional items for their season ticket holders and mini-plan holders. 

Rather than having a single night for a bobblehead, or beach towel, the Bulls give their ticket holders a set of tickets which they can redeem for a promotion of their choice.  You have a few opportunities throughout the year to pick up cool items and have some pretty cool choices.  I always try to plan out my items ahead of time.  I have two big targets this year and picked up the first of them a few weeks ago at a game. 

Last year was a great summer for the Bulls.  I feel like I say that almost every summer, but it really was a good summer.  The team won a lot of games, had great players, and was a really fun team to watch.  They ended up in the International League Playoffs and ended up taking the Governors Cup as the league champions.  The team fell in the Triple A National Championship game, but that still did not take away from the success the team had outside of that one game.  Here's a quick look at the team:

The Bulls made the 2013 championship run apart of their promotional schedule with a replica championship ring giveaway this year.  This was my first item I targeted on the giveaway calendar.  I know that several Major League teams have done this promotion over the years and they have been very popular with fans.  I actually went to the Cardinals ring giveaway in 2007 after they won the 2006 World Series.  I still have my ring sitting on a shelf in my house.  This Bulls ring is a really nice item.  Here are the pictures:

The front of the ring is pretty simple with the team logo and the Governor's Cup Champions script surrounding the jewels in the middle of the ring.  I like the baseball diamond design surrounding the Durham Bulls logo in the middle of the ring. 

One side of the ring has the International League logo.  The text under the league logo is an MiLB text. 

The other side of the ring features a Rays logo and the teams 93-59 record underneath.  Really a cool item and giveaway by the Bulls.  I am going to have another cool Bobble related item in a few weeks. 

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Joe Morgan

One of the best parts of watching minor league baseball is seeing your favorite players graduate to the Majors and enjoy a successful stay and productive Major League career.  Luckily, the Durham Bulls have a long history of former players on Major League rosters and honestly it's hard to do a thread of posts on Collecting the Durham Bulls without mentioning some of the better Bulls to appear during the team's long run.  So, let's start with Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan.

Morgan was apart of championship teams in Cincinnati and Philadelphia during his long career, but made a stop over with the Durham Bulls in 1963 appearing in 95 games and batting over .300.  Later that season he debuted with the Houston Colt 45s, but had to wait until the 1965 season to see his first Major League trading card in the 1965 Topps set.

         

The card is a Rookie Stars card which means he is sharing his card with Sonny Jackson.  I know that collectors often complain when great players share rookie cards with other players, but Sonny Jackson was at least around for a fairly long time playing 12 seasons as a utility infielder for the Astros and Braves.  It's not Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman, but its also not Cal Ripken and Bob Bonner. I love that the card was made while the team was still the Colts and I also really dig the look of the 1965 cards. 

Collectors interested in finding a copy of a Morgan rookie have a wide variety of prices in spite of the fact that Morgan only has one rookie card.  Copies of the 1965 Topps Morgan rookie with rough edges, bent corners, creases and folds, and off centering can be found for as little as $10 depending on the amount of wear and tear. My copy was around $20 with it being off center top to bottom with slight rounding on the corners and a little browning, or discoloration around the edges. 

During his playing career Morgan had the normal run of baseball cards associated with a player from his generation. There is a good number of Topps base cards and cool oddballs of Joe Morgan throughout the years. Since Morgan retired the world of baseball cards has changed greatly, but Morgan has very much been apart of the changes made to the hobby. 

It's not to difficult to still pull Morgan cards out of packs and he has also been a willing signer for several different card companies. Morgan is a difficult autograph to find for less than $20, but you also have to get something pretty exotic for the price to land north of $50.  My two favorite autographs are his 2001 Topps Archives and his 2000 Topps Stars cards.  Both are on card autographs and have a good design.  

                                       

                                         

There are other cool Morgan autographs beyond these two of course.  Morgan also has some really nice looking autographs in some of the Triple Threads and Topps Sterling products, but with some low print runs, those are the types of Morgan cards that can land you a price tag greater than $50.  

If you are looking for an item featuring Morgan in a Durham Bulls uniform I would recommend tracking down a 100th Anniversary Bobblehead issued by the Durham Bulls. If you live in central North Carolina they are fairly easy to find on Craigslist or you can also find them on EBay.  Here's a picture of mine, excuse Mike Matheny in the background. 

                                      

 
   

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Wool E Bull

It seemed like a good day to put up my Collecting the Durham Bulls post on the awesome mascot for the Durham Bulls.  When most people think of the Durham Bulls mascot, they naturally think of the odd looking fellow from the movie Bull Durham, who takes the brunt of a Nuke LaLoosh fastball as a Crash Davis devised strategy to frighten the opposing hitters. 

The Bulls mascot Wool E Bull is one of the best mascots around professional sports, not just baseball.  The Bulls are actually celebrating his birthday this evening, so why not today....  I don't post stuff about Fredbird or Raymond.  Mr Wuf?  He's pretty cool, but I am still going to go ahead and place Wool E. ahead of my favorite college mascot too. 

Wool E Bull actually has baseball cards too which makes him apart of my Collecting the Durham Bulls thread.  Every year the Durham Bulls have a Wool E Bull card in their team set which is always one certain place to find a copy of a Wool E Bull card.  

There are rarely single copies of the Wool E Bull card floating around on Ebay or COMC, so if you want a copy of his cards you will actually have to buy the complete Durham Bulls team set.  Outside of the team set, there is another Wool E Bull card in last year's Topps Pro Debut set.  

The card is actually considered a patch and features a cloth center piece with a picture of Wool E in action.  There are not a ton of these cards around and they tend to cost more than $10.  Some would consider that steep for a mascot card, but it's a small price to pay to pick up a cool card of my favorite minor league team.

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Mike Montgomery

I have been excited to put up my Mike Montgomery post on my Collecting the Durham Bulls thread for a weeks now since I saw him throw a no-hitter.  I had thought about jumping the gun a little bit, switching around the order I had scheduled my posts to appear, but stuck with my original schedule after taking a few deep breaths. 

On the Field 

The Bulls picked up Mike Montgomery from the Kansas City Royals in the James Shields/Wil Myers trade.  I love James Shields, but this trade is the gift that just keeps giving.  Myers won the Rookie of the Year Award last year, Odorizzi looks like a solid Major League starter, and now Montgomery is starting to put it together for the Durham Bulls.  By the way, there was a fourth player in the trade too, Patrick Leonard, who has a .947 OPS in the Florida State League.  Montgomery is now in his second season with the Bulls and is still a pretty good prospect for the Rays at 24 years old. 

Last season the left-handed starter had his struggles at times in his first season in the International League and first full season in Triple-A.  He did spend half of a season in the Pacific Coast League with the Omaha Storm Chasers.  The knock on Montgomery has always been that there are too many base runners and too few bats being missed for him to be a serious Major League pitcher.  It's actually why he's having a good season this year.  Let's take a look. 

In Montgomery's first go around in AAA in the Royals system you can see where he had a low K's per 9 and his walks per 9 ratio was high compared to his strikeout ratio.  Add in a high hits per 9 and you have a recipe for trouble.  Montgomery ended the 2012 season with 90 innings at the AAA level and an ERA of 5.69.  Montgomery has since improved in his two years in Durham.

Looking back at his numbers in Omaha, his 2013 line in Durham generally improved.  His strikeouts dropped slightly, but so did his walks and his hits.  His ERA improved to 4.72 in 108 innings pitched, but there was still room for more improvement.  I'm not sure what the Rays did during Spring Training to work on producing more strikeouts with Montgomery, but it has been awesome to watch.  His walks per 9 and his hits per 9 have continued to trend downward, while his K's per 9 have almost jumped 2 per 9.  Really good improvement.


Cardboard
Montgomery has a good selection of cardboard floating around out there.  He's had several cards in different Bowman and Topps Minor League products.  His cards are generally very affordable and should be an easy find in the cheapy bin at your local card shop.  If you are going to frequent Ebay or COMC to find a copy of some Montgomery cardboard I would guess that most of his base cards will cost you a dollar or less.  If you are really looking for one or two nice Montgomery cards for your collection I would suggest chasing down one of his autographs.  He has several. 

My favorite is his 2012 Topps Heritage Minor League autographed card. Yes, he's in a Storm Chasers jersey, but I love the look of the card.  Maybe minus the silver autograph sticker.  I am actually guessing that the silver autograph sticker is a leftover from his 2010 Bowman autograph signing, which also used a silver autograph sticker.  The vast majority of the autographs in this set are on clear stickers, but style wise you can never go wrong with adding Topps Heritage cards to your collection.  This card tops out around $5, but with patience can be found for $0.99 plus shipping on Ebay. 

If you are looking to just simply add a Montgomery autograph I would try to track down a copy of his Topps Pro Debut signature from 2010.  The card is not the most attractive, but is very inexpensive, often settling on Ebay for $2 to $3.  He does have a few non-licensed autographs from 2008 with TriStar, Playoff, and Donruss Elite, but this card looks much better.  The Donruss Elite isn't bad since it shows the back of his jersey and you cannot tell it's a non-licensed card. 

As mentioned before, Montgomery does have a 2008 Bowman autograph which is both a true rookie card and a certified autograph issue, but I do not have a copy of the card.  Hard to fathom, but it's true.  The card has almost always been a consistent seller around $10.  I am not saying that Montgomery is not worth $10, but I just have not put a ton of effort into finding a copy of the card.  Someday I will get there. 

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Enny Romero

One of the more promising prospects on the Durham Bulls is hard throwing right hander Enny Romero.  This is the first full season that Romero has spent in Durham, but as of this afternoon it may not really be a full season.  The Rays called up Romero to make a spot spot this week against the Mariners.  Not entirely clear why Romero is making the start, but the Rays obviously like the upside on the left-hander.  This is actually the second time that Romero has made a spot start for the Rays who also used Romero for a game in September last year against the Orioles. 

Romero went 4 2/3 in his debut giving up 1 hit, and walking 4.  Romero is a very harder thrower with a moving fastball sitting in the mid 90s topping out around 97 to 98.  I have seen Romero several times during the past year with the Bulls and am always really impressed with how lively his arm is and how much movement his pitches have on them.  Just 23 it is pretty clear that the Rays have big plans for Romero in the future.  In my opinion he is probably the best arm I have seen in Durham since David Price pitched for the team in 2008 and 2009.  In fact, if the Rays make the playoffs this year it should surprise no one if the team uses Romero much like they used Price during the team's run to the 2008 World Series.  

Card wise the selection of Enny Romero cards is pretty deep and is also pretty affordable.  It seems that many collectors are sleeping a little bit in terms of value on his cards.  Basically, Romero is a raw Top 100 prospect, but has card prices like he's a fringe prospect.  I have seen every pitcher in the Rays rotation come through Durham and can promise you that the prices on Enny Romero cards are too low.  Let's start with his rookie card.  

 

Romero's first appearance on a certified piece of cardboard came in the 2011 Bowman set.  As we all know the Bowman sets are always driven by rookie cards.  Bundle a few nice rookie cards together and the set tends to take off.  There are plenty of big names in the set: Bryce Harper, Francisco Lindor, Dylan Bundy, etc.  Romero will be one that you will want in your collection sooner than later.  Right now his rookie cards from the 2011 Bowman set are an afterthought and are often $2-$3 shipped.  Low prints and serial numbered cards too.  Bargain bottom prices for a top prospect, but there's more.  Romero also has a few autographs and relics floating around too.  

 

Enny Romero has a relic card in last year's Topps Heritage Minor League set and also has one from a Future's Game appearance in the 2012 Bowman Draft set.  Neither card is particularly splashy, but they can both be found for less than $5 and are extremely easy to find.   The Futures Game relic can be found in patch form, but the patch pieces tend to be small and I have not seen one in a long time.  Dry market for those cards.  

 

Romero also has two certified autographs from Bowman.  The one above is his 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects Rookie Autograph.  Not the best signature, but I still love the card.  Romero also suddenly reappeared as a signer for Bowman this year and has an autograph in the 2014 issue.  Both cards are easy finds for less than $5.  Romero also has photos on his Twitter account from a signing he did for Panini America at the end of March.  

 

 I guess we are going to get to see another Romero autograph in this year's Prizm release which comes out next week.  I am probably not going to open any wax from that product, but I will have to keep my eye out for some of Enny's cool looking cardboard from the set.  That shirt is cool too.