4th Post In A Week

I am on a roll.  

When I last left you, I was telling all about all the cheap Durham Bulls cards that I found over the summer.  Lots of old players from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but there were also a few more recent players mixed in as well.  Tonight, I thought I'd share a few cards of two players who were on the Bulls roughly 10-15 years ago.  

First, one quick card from 2020.  Also a former Durham Bulls player, which is why I am putting this card in the post.  

Another Kirby Yates card.  I believe he was in another one of the four posts that I made in the past week.  Some of these Topps brands are really running together these days in terms of appearance and design.  Card from an expensive box with a sticker autograph.  

Someone was probably really irked that they spent $300 and they walked away with a Kirby Yates card that I bought for $7.99 on Ebay.   

Onto some older players from the Durham Bulls.  

First up is Elijah Dukes.  Don't go look him up.  There is nothing there that you want to see.  I was excited to find these cards this summer.  Here is my quick run down on Elijah.  

The first year I lived in Durham for baseball season was 2006.  I actually moved to North Carolina in 2005, but missed out on baseball season.  The 2006 Bulls team was loaded was talent.  You might know Delmon Young, B.J. Upton, Ben Zobrist, Jason Hammel, Edwin Jackson, and James Shields.  The International League MVP Kevin Witt was also on the team.  Elijah Dukes was just as good as anyone else in that group.  Baseball America considered him a Top 100 Prospect.  

He was fast and could hit for power.  A star football player in high school who was learning to play baseball, and did some pretty incredible stuff at times.  

Elijah had some off the field issues and was eventually traded to the Nationals.  In Washington, he ran himself out of the league with a bunch of other off the field incidents.  Sadly, Elijah is still fighting the war so to speak.  

I still remember him as a tremendous talent.  I loved collecting his cards the first year or two he was in the league, and found two this summer that I did not own.  

This is a Finest Rookie Redemption card.  Always a nice group of prospects included in these cards, sometimes they do not pan out though.   The 2007 was hit or miss.  Ryan Braun, Justin Upton, and Tim Lincecum are in there.  So are Elijah Dukes and Akinori Iwamura.  

Last Elijah Dukes card is from the 10th Anniversary set of Allen & Ginter that came out in 2015.  There were buybacks of old cards that were stamped with the words "10th Anniversary Issue".  Nice looking cards.  I found a copy of Elijah's 2007 rookie.  

Final Durham Bulls player for this post.  

Desmond Jennings was a Top 20 prospect.  He was a great Triple A player, solid Major League player.  In the Minors he walked almost as much as he struck out, and never more than 80 Ks in a Minor League season.  While he was playing on the Rays, he struck out more than 100 times every full season in the Majors, and only walked more than 50 times once.  

Sometimes players don't work out they way you think.  Injuries finished off his career.  

I enjoyed his time in Durham, collecting his cards, and was missing this card from the 2011 Triple A All-Star Game.  It took place in Salt Lake City.  Probably why I did not get the set.  

I love the back of this card.  You don't get many Minor League cards with colored backs.  

Last card, same picture as the previous one.  

This is from the International League Top Prospects set.  Same card manufacturer as the card above.  Guess they saved some money on pictures.  That red striped shirt in the background makes it really obvious.  

Nice little write up on the back of the card about Desmond Jennings.  

Maybe the Durham Bulls players from the 1960s and 1970s in my next post.  

A Bulls Card I Missed

Topps does not make many Durham Bulls cards.  There are only two products that show Minor League players in their Minor League uniforms.  There is Pro Debut.....

and Heritage Minors......

and that is seemingly the end of the list.  Almost.  

There is actually another Topps card, outside of Pro Debut and Heritage, with a Durham Bulls card on the checklist.  I have seen the card several times over the years, but just never taken the time to buy the card.  Just kind of floating around out there, not in my collection, but I finally ended up with the card last week.....

The scan does not do the card justice....

This is out of eTopps.  It was Topps first attempt at selling single cards directly to collectors.  I do not buy any of them from Topps, but I have picked up a few over the years from Ebay and card shows.  I have long been a fan of Desmond Jennings.  Not the best Major Leaguer, but he was a great player in the Minors for the Bulls.

Back of the card.....

Slugging percentage of almost .500 out of the leadoff spot.  Pretty impressive.  You can also see the eTopps Minor League Prospectus label under the Bulls logo.  This card was from 2010, same time Topps was rolling out with Pro Debut.  Actually a really good set, if you're into Minor League cards.  

Farewell Desmond Jennings

Desmond Jennings has been on the Rays for as long as I have written this blog.  As a former player for the Durham Bulls, I was a little surprised when I went to search out some posts I had made of the former top prospect that I have made very few.  Desmond Jennings had a good start with the Rays, but has fizzled the last few years, before the Rays decided to part ways with him today.

I usually make these posts Farewell type posts about players who are retiring like Juan Pierre.  By no means do I think that Desmond Jennings is finished in baseball.  There are too many skills there that someone is going to roll the dice on signing him.  At 29, I would hope that a change of scenery can bring out some of the potential that I enjoyed while watching him patrol the outfield in Durham.

Desmond Jennings was rated no lower than the eighteenth best prospect in baseball during his time with the Bulls.  Prior to the 2010 season he was rated in the Top 10 by both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America.  So why so few cards?

I ended up going through my card boxes for a few minutes last night after I heard about his impending release from the Rays today.  I found an autograph....

That's a nice card, but there have to be a few that I am missing out on?  Well, there are a bunch of TriStar type autographs, but I try to avoid those like the plague.  So, really this is it for Desmond Jennings and autographs.  Top 10 prospect with one certified autograph card?  Consider me surprised.
I also scoured my relic cards.  I found something really nice that I had completely forgotten about picking up.  I actually have a whole bunch of his relic cards.  It seems like he does game-used cards pretty regularly.  While I posted those frequently when I first started blogging, I pretty much skip those nowadays.  This relic card is too sweet not to post....

Wherever Desmond ends up playing the rest of the season, or if he doesn't reappear until next season, hopefully it ends better than his time in Tampa.  Maybe we could get a few more nice cards with his next team.  Dare I say an autograph or two more would be nice...

Trade with Michigan and Trumball

There are so many cards sitting on my desk at the moment that I need to catch up on during the next week.  Missing posts the first half of this week did not help, so let's get started.  I picked up these two cards in a trade from fellow blogger Matt over at Michigan and Trumball.  

First up in a new card from my favorite new Cardinals prospect, you might know him as Alex Reyes, I am going to just start call him Big Al.  This newest autograph of the Cardinals pitching prospect comes from the 2015 Bowman set and features a nice on-card signature.  Big Al is having a great summer, so hopefully Topps will throw out some more cards of this great prospect.  

This is a really cool card that I have had my eye on for awhile.   I picked up a whole bunch of the acetate cards last summer and now own about 7 or 8 of these cards with a whole bunch of them coming from the Rays and Cardinals.  Or players with connections to the Rays and Cardinals.  We also always have to look at the backs of these cards......

Love the reverse look on the back with the black and white player image.  Very nicely done by Topps.    Really enjoyed these cards and I am looking forward to a few more trades with Matt.  Be sure to check out his blog in the coming days to see what went back the other way.  

Twenty Percent of a U and a Star

I love finding cool pieces of patch.  I love finding cool pieces of patch that can be traced to a specific game or event.  It's not the easiest thing to always find, but I have found a few really cool ones over the years.  Last week I managed to track down a pretty cool game used patch of Desmond Jennings who just happens to be one of my favorite former Durham Bulls players.  Here is a look at the card:

The card comes from the 2010 Topps Pro Debut set which featured some awesome jumbo jersey and patch pieces from the 2009 and 2008 Futures All-Star Game.  This Jennings patch actually comes from the 2009 game which was played in Anaheim.  Jennings was a Durham Bull at the time the game was played.  Here's a picture of Desmond sliding into home during the game......

A Trip Into Big D's Part 1- The Rays

Yesterday marked the beginning of the college football season.  I started my day off by sleeping in, after a long week at work, and watched my alma mater NC State take on Georgia Southern.  The game was a little bit closer than most NC State fans would have liked to see, but in the end the Wolfpack picked up a W on a nice pass play by quarterback Jacoby Brissett.

After the game ended I decided to check in at my local card shop Big D's Cards in Raleigh.  It has been awhile since I had been into the store, but Jimmy, the owner of the store, has been busy tracking down cards for my collection.  I had a pretty good stack set aside over the past month or so.  The stack was big enough that I decided to break it into two posts.  Tonight, the Rays.  Tomorrow bingo.  

I have been looking for a copy of this card for awhile, but have had a bit of a hard time tracking this down from half a world away.  This card comes from a Topps Supreme which was a release slated for Asian markets only in 2013.  It is coming to the states this year.  Each Supreme box came with one pack with two autographs in each pack.  There are some good names in the set, but the boxes sell for around $75-$80 US dollars.  While I would love to pull a pack fresh Chris Archer card, I would not like to spend $75 for a pack fresh Chris Archer card.  Cards have a cool design and a nice look.  Happy that I finally ran into one of these for a good price and in the United States.  

Next up is a Desomnd Jennings Allen & Ginter card from last year.  I believe this completes my set of Rays autographs and relics from last years set.  Next.....

This is actually an Astros card, but Zobrist is now a Ray.  I count it as  Rays card.  I already have a copy of this card, which comes from the 2004 SP Prospects set.  However, it was sold to me as part of a larger lot of Zobrist cards.  I also got these:

More Astros, but another rookie.  This is a really cool set if you have never checked it out.  Some really cool rookies.  On to some more, non-Rays Zobrist autographs.......

A Topps Tribute World Baseball Classic Autograph of Zobrist out of 50.......

another from the same set out of 35.......

and the 1/1 for good measure.  

2012 Topps Triple Threads

I have made it through an incredibly busy past week at work and am ready to enjoy a few weeks off with my wife and son.  I am going to catch up with some mailing, trading, and blog posting.  I will be continuing my countdown and ending my second blog contest tomorrow.  In the meantime, Triple Threads was released two weeks back and I haven't had a chance to share yet.

Speaking of countdowns, I could do a countdown of my favorite Triple Threads releases.  It's one of my favorite annual releases of Topps.  There is something for everyone in this set.  Autographs, patches, jersey pieces, low print runs, and really cool designs.  I didn't get a box of Triple Threads this year, but I am tracking down cool singles.

I've got a couple of cool jersey cards tracked down already and have an eye on an autograph or two.  So, I checked out the checklist for Cardinals and Rays to see what was available in this year's Triple Threads release.  The Cardinals set is pretty much a repeat from all the other Topps releases this year.  They have a Jon Jay, Matt Adams, Jason Motte, and Allen Craig.  There is also a Gibby autograph, but I'd prefer to keep my Hall of Famers on card and the Gibson is a sticker.

There are also some David Freese cards in the set that will end up being my Cardinals targets for Triple Threads.  Namely, I would love to add the World Series MVP and Mr. Freese card.  If I could pick up an autographed version I would be really happy.

So, my pick up this week started me off with my Rays.  I received a Desmond Jennings jersey and Evan Longoria jersey, but also got an Adrian Beltre to balance out the trade.

2012 Topps Triple Threads Evan Longoria x7 Jersey "Dirt Bag"

2012 Topps Triple Threads Desmond Jennings x4 Jersey

2012 Topps Triple Threads Adrian Beltre x6 Jersey "Toro Raro"

Longoria actually has a few different jersey patterns in the set this year.  This is my favorite.  One of them mentions Eva Longoria.  Not sure about that.  I was happy that Desmond Jennings was included in the set and actually have another Jennings jersey card on the way that is far cooler than this one.  It will be here in a few days. 

2011 Topps Diamond Die Cuts

I've entered a few codes for the Golden Giveaway on the Topps site this year and am having my first three die-cuts shipped out to me this week.  Last year, I did the Diamond Giveaway and tried to only focus on the die-cuts.  I never got a single good vintage card and figured I could get Don Mossi from somewhere else.  I tried to turn around all my unlocked cards for the die-cuts and even unlocked a few myself.  Once I got a die-cut I tried to flip it around for a Cardinal, Ray, or just someone good.  Sure, I walked away with a Mark Reynolds and Aaron Hill, but overall not a bad haul.

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Ryan Braun

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Billy Butler

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Chris Carpenter

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Jeremy Hellickson 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Matt Holliday

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Austin Jackson 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Desmond Jennings 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Jon Jay

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Josh Johnson

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Aaron Hill

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Yadier Molina 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut David Price 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Albert Pujols 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Colby Ramsus

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Mark Reynolds 

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cut Scott Rolen 

This Week's Trades Part II

The second half of my trade run down from this week is a bit longer than the first half, but well worth the extra reading time.  Do it for the cards.  Starting off with a cool card that I both traded and traded for in the same week (different copies).  Is there a better player than Matt Kemp at the moment?  I would argue no.  So, I traded for this card from a dealer in Springfield, Illinois for a few nice Cardinals; a 2004 Topps Matt Holliday autograph and a 2011 Marquee Descalso, as well as a pair of manufactured patches from Eddie Matthews and Ozzie Smith.  I ended up with this:

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Matt Kemp Autograph

I also received two packs of Gypsy Queen as a throw in and landed a Desmond Jennings Future Stars insert card.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Desmond Jennings Future Stars

My second trade of the week also involved a Matt Kemp Allen & Ginter autograph which I traded to DodgerBobble, along with a Milton Bradley autograph and got pack a big package of cards including; a 2012 Topps Bob Gibson manufactured patch, 2010 Topps 206 Sean Rodriguez autograph, a 2011 Topps Update Matt Joyce All-Star Jersey, a 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Carlos Pena jersey (plaid), a 2011 Topps Tier One Matt Holliday, 4 Topps Heritage Short Prints, and a 2007 Bowman Justin Ruggiano.  

2011 Topps Tier One Matt Holliday 

2012 Topps Bob Gibson Manufactured Patch 

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter Carlos Pena Jersey 

2011 Topps Update All-Star Game Matt Joyce Jersey

2010 Topps 206 Sean Rodriguez Autograph 

2012 Topps Heritage Short Prints and a 2007 Bowman Justin Ruggiano Rookie  

Two more trades to run through for this week which are related and were made on Facebook.  In 2001 I put together a master set of relics and autographs from the Topps HD set.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time and started also working on the 2001 Pacific Private Stock set.  The set was Pacific's last baseball release after they lost their license to produce baseball cards and they literally dumped everything they had into the cards.  There are 182 cards with either bats or jerseys and then numerous cards that featured pieces of patches.  After 11 years of work I have a lot of the cards, mostly the bats and jerseys, and have a hard time walking past a lot of them without taking a look.  I ran into a lot on Facebook with a Craig Biggio bat card which I was missing from my collection.  I traded a Keith Foulke and Trot Nixon autograph and received the Biggio bat along with a Barry Bonds bat, Matt Williams jersey, Dee Brown bat, and Alex S. Gonzalez bat.  

2001 Pacific Private Stock Alex S. Gonzalez Bat

2001 Pacific Private Stock Craig Biggio Bat

2001 Pacific Private Stock Dee Brown Bat

2001 Pacific Private Stock Matt Williams Jersey

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Bonds Jersey 

Last trade of the week.  I traded my Matt Williams, Dee Brown, and Alex Gonzalez dupes for another Private Stock I did not have:

2001 Private Stock Rickey Henderson Bat