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.

Platinum Rays Autographs

I am doing a few posts the next couple days to catch up for last week.  It was just one of those weeks where things kept popping up and my day job kept me really busy.  I really wanted to put up a post about the 1991 Topps set, but am still working on it.  Probably this afternoon.  Plenty of cards to share, so here are two new cards to my collection:

Bowman Platinum was recently released by Topps.  I have opened wax of this product before and not always faired too well.  This year I avoided opening any packs of Platinum and settled for trading and buying single autographs, relics, and cool cards from the set.  The Cardinals and Rays autographs, which are always my first targets, have a few autographs in the product.  The Cardinals autographs in the set include Oscar Taveras and Stephen Piscotty, while the Rays autographs include Will Myers, Mike Montgomery, and Curt Casali.

Montgomery came over to the Rays in the James Shields and Will Myers trade.  He's been in Durham the past years and has yet to make an appearance at the Major League level for the Rays.  The left-handed starting pitcher made the International League All-Star team this year and is having a nice year for the Durham Bulls.  His last two months have been a little bit shaky, but I still think he will make a contribution to the Rays next year.  I'm not sure he starts, but he's in Tampa next year.  

I also picked up a copy of the Curt Casali autograph.  Casali played his college baseball at Vanderbilt and has spent a large chunk of this season in Durham.  He has also been called up to the Rays where he is hitting .186.  Not a great mark, but the Rays have been a little bit thin at catcher recently.  Not sure if his is ever a starter, but is decent defensively and has some good pop in his bat.