Elite Cards

I took a little time last week to go look for a few 70s, 80s, and 90s cards that I have wanted to add to my collection.  A bunch of the cards were on COMC, a post at some point next week, a few came from a trade, and also a couple off of Ebay.  One of my quests in collecting single cards is to fill in some holes with older Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards.  

There are some really nice cards out there of players who started their careers other places, but ended up on the Cardinals at some point.  I am missing cards from the other places more so than the Cardinals.  The Durham Bulls situation is a little different, but that is for a different post.  

My two Cardinals for tonight both appeared in the 1993 Donruss Elite set, but not as Cardinals.  

First up, Mark McGwire.  

Not sure when the Donruss cards were put out during the 1993 calendar year, but it was a lost year for McGwire.  He only played a 150 games between 1993 and 1995.  I am not saying that he was totally cut out of products, but he definitely has fewer cards from those three years.  

Check out the card counts on COMC.  

When I flip through my McGwire cards from his time with the A's I feel like they are all either from his first few years in the league, or they are from his time leading up to the trade to the Cardinals.  Overall, I think this was one of his better non-Cardinals McGwire cards that I missing from my collection.  The Elite cards only had 10,000 copies, seriously tough number in 1993, but they are really popular.  Happy to add this card.  

Next and last.  

Larry Walker was not a Cardinal for long, but I feel bad that I do not have more of his cards.  He was a great player for the Rockies and Expos, and I really did not mind him as an opponent of the Cardinals.  Definitely a Hall of Famer too.  At least in my opinion.  I really need to work on adding a few more of his older cards.  This seems like a good start.  

Messed Up Biscuit

Last summer the Cardinals traded Tommy Pham to the Rays in exchange for one of my favorite Durham Bulls players Justin Williams, along with Double A pitcher Genesis Cabrera, and another Minor Leaguer.  We aren't going to worry too much about Roel Ramirez.  Pham has played well for the Rays over the last few months.  Currently, he is in the middle of a long consecutive games on base streak. 

Meanwhile, Justin Williams is not playing because he lost a fight with a television set during the off-season.  I still liked him from his time in Durham. 

I honestly think that Justin Williams is also the last Cardinals player on the 40 man roster.  There are tons of outfielders on the team, and he is the worst of them.  Even worse than Dexter Fowler for the moment.  We'll see how much longer he's a Cardinal. 

Which means there is a lot riding on Genesis Cabrera to do something.  Cardinals fans are relying on him to make everything alright.  I picked up a few of his cards last fall.  Probably my best was his Topps Heritage Minor League card, which featured him as a Double A player with the Montgomery Biscuits. 

Genesis has a deckle edged card, along with a few other different variations.  You know the routine.  

I did skip over his Donruss/Panini stuff last fall.  It was more expensive, and it's Panini.  Sometimes all of the airbrushing really bothers me.  Not to be snobby, but I like seeing the full uniforms and logos.  All of it.  

The price fell enough that I finally went out and got a copy of his Donruss Extra Elite card.  The autographed version.  It did not look great on Ebay, but he's a Cardinal right?  

It's pretty bad.  

First off, this is really a card of Genesis on the Biscuits.  They have a pretty easy to like Minor League uniform, yet here we are with this card.  I know, Panini can't do logos.  

The sticker autograph is also not very well done.  It's obviously a sticker, not blended in very well with the card.  Feel a little buyers remorse.  

Back of the card.  

We've got a description of his pitches, a good outing, and the details of him being traded to the Cardinals.  This is going to send a little weird, but the red coloring on the back of the card bothers me more than anything else.  The front of the card is purple, but the back is red?

Is it because he is a Cardinal, or are all the backs of the cards colored red?  The only other cards I have from this product are either of USA Baseball players, or Cardinals.  Not really sure.  It would have been nice to match up the coloring a little better.  Maybe just make it a card where everything ends up with the Biscuits coloring.  Pretty messed up. 

One Third Of A No-No Part 2

A few summer ago I was fortunate enough to witness a combined no-hitter by three pitchers on the USA Baseball College National team in a game against the Cuban National team at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, North Carolina.  The stadium is a few minutes from my house and a must stop at some point every summer.  The College National team is usually chalk full of some of the best draft prospects, so even if you don't get to see a no-hitter you still get to witness a slew of first round draft picks.

Previously I have made posts about Florida pitcher A.J. Puk and Texas A&M pitcher Ryan Hendrix who pitched the last two legs of the no-hitter, but I was still missing an autograph from the starting pitcher from that game.  

The starter for that game was Mizzou pitcher Tanner Houck......

Of the players I saw in this game, I was actually most excited to find a card of Houck.  Growing up in St. Louis, I spent a lot of time watching Mizzou football and basketball games.  There are not a ton of Mizzou baseball cards floating around, but some of the ones that are out there are kind of pricey.  Max Scherzer is the most notable player who came out of the program.  He has a few recent cards in Panini products wearing the old gold and black along with a Donruss Elite card from back in 2007 when it first became a amateur baseball product with draft picks.  

Houck cards can be a little on the expensive side too, at least for my tastes, so I had to wait a bit.  I was honestly hoping that I could also find an on-card autograph too since all of his Panini autographs from last year's USA Baseball products featured stickers.  In the end, the price dropped a bit, but I still ended up with a sticker autograph..........

This is my second card from the Elite Extra Edition Panini cards after I added a Seth Beer card a month or so ago.  These are really nice looking cards with the large jersey swatches and player pictures in their USA Baseabll uniforms.  I am trying to decide what number Houck signed next to his name.  From the picture and card above, he wore 31with USA Baseball, but he wears 11 while he is pitching at Mizzou......

Either way, 11 or 31, I am happy to finally land an autograph of the third player from the no-hitter I saw almost two years ago.  Houck will be a high pick in this summer's MLB Draft, so I am also looking forward to possibly finding a few more of his cards over the next few years.....

Red Bull

I have generally never really been much of a fan of energy drinks.  I have been through college twice, plus a whole bunch of other classes, and had the joy of waking up and taking my turn changing diapers and feeding two children in the middle of the night.  Throw in the fact that my job can sometimes require the occasional all-nighter to finish up paperwork, or whatever, and it's probably pretty surprising that I have not downed dozens upon dozens of Red Bulls, Monsters, or whatever your energy drink of choice happens to be.....

I have always been more of a Dr. Pepper, tea, and coffee type of person when it comes getting a jolt of energy.  Both types of drinks are loaded with all sorts of sugar, caffeine, and artificial sweeteners, but my category of sugar caffeinated drinks have a little bit easier let down at the end of the day.

Ultimately it really doesn't matter what my energy drink of choice is when I see a nice Durham Bulls card.  When spirits are naturally lifted and I feel energetic without any help from our good friend caffeine.  This past week I ran into such a card which was owned by one of my favorite Facebook trading partners.

The card....

Yes, this is one of those low numbered parallel cards.  I own the base version of this card and featured it awhile back on the blog at some point this summer when Topps first put out their Pro Debut product.  Looked a little bit like this.......

The difference of course being what is on the back of the baseball card.

since there is a really limited number of Durham Bulls cards put out by major manufacturers every year I was more than happy to add this card to my collection.  I have actually seen the plate for this card floating around.  If I had know I was going to land copy of the red parallel I would have gone for putting together the rainbow of this card.  

Beyond the Snell pennant I also picked up a few other autographed cards of some prospects.  They are a mix of Cardinals and Rays prospects.  I liked that these cards feature players in college uniforms.  

Hudson and Carlson are both Cardinals prospects.  Hudson was a top notch pitcher at Mississippi State and was a first round draft pick of the Cardinals last summer.  He had a good debut last summer with the Gulf Coast League Cardinals and A-Ball team in Palm Beach.  All of the games he pitched last summer were as a relief pitcher.  Not sure if that's his long term track with the team or if they were just limiting his innings after playing a full year of college baseball.  

Carlson was also a first round draft pick of the Cardinals and played with the Gulf Coast League team.  Not a great season for Carlson, but he turned 18 during this off-season, so a lot of time for a guy with a big frame.

and finally Ryan Boldt who was a second round pick of the Rays.  For whatever reasons the Rays have had some problems with developing position players the last few years.  Boldt started out in the New York-Penn League last summer with the Hudson Valley Renegades.  Not a great season for the former Cornhusker and we will leave it at that.....

Project Durham Bulls #1: Kyle Roller

I have been working on a few set projects recently on the blog, but I have also been thinking about taking up another project beyond the sets that would focus on single cards of Durham Bulls players.  More specifically, I am looking to add autographs of players who have appeared for my favorite Minor League team.

A few challenges I envision:

1. Minor League teams have a little bit higher turn over rate than Major League teams.  There are many years where the number of players who appeared on the roster is eye popping.  I am ready to track them down.
2. Some of the players who appear on the Bulls do not have autographs.  I am thinking about whether or not to chase in-person autographs, but have not made a final decision on that yet.  Kind of leaning towards no.  
3. What to do about the hundreds of posts that I have made over the last three plus years with cool cards of the Durham Bulls?  Just because I have one autograph of the player, say someone like Evan Longoria, doesn't mean that I am just going to skip over all of his autographs in the future and never give him a post in this series.  I will get there.  

With that being said, I have started a new page up at the top of the blog which will display the different players who appear in these posts.  

With that being said here is the first of many cards....

Kyle Roller - 2016 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

Kyle Roller appeared on the 2016 Durham Bulls for a total of 50 games before he was released.  His time with the Bulls included a .216/.316/.377 line with 5 home runs, 9 doubles, and 12 RBIs.  Roller's professional career started with the Yankees in 2010 after he was drafted out of East Carolina.  He played in the Yankees system from 2010 until the end of the 2015 season.  His best season in the Minors was easily in 2014 when he hit .300/.391/.550 with 26 home runs, 30 doubles, and 74 RBIs splitting time between Double A Trenton and Triple A Scranton.  Roller's other notable career highlight came in the 2015 Triple A All-Star Game when he sparked the International League to a 3-2 win over the Pacific Coast League.  

Card-

I really like college sports, so I was happy to find a card of Roller in an East Carolina jersey.  I am not always a huge fan of the Panini products, but I always liked these Elite Cards.  Roller was the Cape Cod League MVP during the summer of 2009 and was named first team All-American in 2010 at ECU, so while he was not the highest of draft picks or most highly regarded prospects, it's nice to see a player with a college career get a little cardboard love.  

  

A Rainy Saturday Afternoon Spent at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds Buying Cards From Men Behind Wooden Tables

Card shows are some of the coolest events that card collectors could possibly attend.  Yet, I have never written up a single card show on my blog.  In fact, I do not attend enough card shows.  They have them all the time at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, about a fifteen-twenty minute drive from my house, but I just never make it out to them.  I decided this weekend to change all of that and spend some time with a few other people who enjoy collecting cards.

Since I have never written up an appearance on at a card show on my blog I have also never shared my rules for attending a card show:

1. We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show
2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget
3. We never buy cards of the home team

So, I decided to toss the third rule since I no longer live in St. Louis and there is no home team in Raleigh.  We are all just a bunch of transplants from other cities.  Here's how I did on the other rules:


1.We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show

 I went out to lunch at the Cook Out in Cary.  It's a fast food restaurant that is loved by many in the south.  On this rainy Saturday I purchased the Cook Out Tray with a Hamburger "Cheddar Style", that's onions and melted cheese, fries, and a soda.  The picture of the "Cheddar Style" burger is below.

 It's delicious, but wise to pack some breath mints, or gum for afterwards.  Hand sanitizer with a strong scent is also good since the onion smell tends to stick on your hands.  Some complain about the smell of onions, so I think of the gum and scented hand sanitizer as more of a courtesy.  The Cook Out in Cary is alright, it's not as good as the Cook Out on Western Boulevard down the street from NC State, nor as good as the Cook Out in north Durham on Roxboro.  The north Durham location is my personal favorite.

 2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget

In this case I had right around $35.  There might have been a few extra ones floating around in my pocket after buying an attendance ticket at the Carr Building.  Here's what I got:

That's eight cards for $35-$40, or roughly about $5 a card.  Considering that included a cool Stan Musial Heritage relic, a Topps Heritage autograph, two Cardinals autographs, a Juan Gone autograph, a jumbo Lindor relic, and a sweet autograph of local Durham Bulls favorite Mikie Mahtook I am going to consider this a great day at the office.  It was also great to see a bunch of local collectors I have met over the past year or so hanging out at the local card shop.

Overall, a really fun afternoon and something I will go back to when the next card show hits Raleigh sometime in December.

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets From 2007

5. Topps Heritage- It's never a bad thing thing to start out with a Topps Heritage set.  Always a great set every year, I find myself sitting down every week and putting my thoughts down about another year and it is so difficult to avoid the Heritage products.  The 2007 Topps Heritage set is based on the 1958 Topps set.  Topps did a great job of duplicating some of the original details and also provided the usual challenge to set collectors to track down bunches of different short prints and variations.  Not really keen on any one short printed card, or variation from this set, but I do love the design.  Back in the day the first birthday present my mother-in-law ever bought me was a box of 2007 Heritage cards.  I landed a Chrome James Shields (former Durham Bull) card in the box.  Still a favorite card from a great looking set.  

4. Topps- I like when Topps goes with dark borders.  I am not sure if these cards will be as condition sensitive as some of the other black bordered Topps sets, but it still stands out for some reason.  Maybe not the blue borders from 2003, but I have always had a soft spot for the 1986 and 1971 sets.    I also threw this set in for the Jeter card.    I have never quite decided whether this was intentional, or not, but it got a lot of attention and seemed to get the ball rolling on Topps using a ton of variations, sometimes really silly ones, for their base sets.  At the time the card appear Topps had only gone to the well one time and the card brought a vibe to the 2007 Topps base set which had been missing for a few years.  Cool design and a really cool card land this 4th on my list......

3. Donruss Elite- I love college.  I love college sports.  I love cards.  Roll all of those things together and you get the 2007 Donruss Elite set.  This multi-sport product mainly focused on players selected in the baseball draft, but there are some other college athletes in the mix too.  I know that locally a lot of collectors love the Dean Smith autograph, which looks similar to the Cory Brown autograph above.  This product ran for a couple of years and has always been one of my favorites.  There are some good names in each of the sets, but even if you just are a fan of a certain college, there are patch cards are cool enough looking to own just for the sake of owning one.  

2. UD Black- This was a really cool set that I do not think gets enough love sometimes.  Loads of cool patch pieces, autographs, and all kinds of other goodies.  I have not seen too many affordable boxes of this floating around, but the singles are pretty easy to pass and can sometimes be a really good deal.  The sticker autographs are a little bit of a drag, but Upper Deck did a great job of designing this set and downplayed the stickers significantly by making them clear.  I also really like the autographed cards with the manufactured flags.  So many cool looking single cards, definitely a set you should look into if you have not done so already....

1. Upper Deck Masterpieces- This was easily my favorite set from 2007.  The cards were based on paintings, which is not really a new concept, but they had a really cool canvas card stock which was really unique.  The design of the cards was awesome with a dark border and really nice artwork.  Incredible looking relic and autograph cards with some nice names makes this, not only one of the better products of 2007, but one of the better products of the past decade.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Richie Shaffer

Two days in a row with a Richie Shaffer post.  I will leave him along the rest of this week, most likely.  A little bit of repeated information:  Shaffer was the Rays first round draft pick in the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft out of Clemson.  He has played in the Rays minor league system the past two and half years for the teams A, high A, and Double A teams.  The third baseman has increased his home runs totals each season in the minors and he seems poised to do that again this year with 9 in his first 40 games (last year he hit 19).

Shaffer's first cards appear in the late 2012 releases.  His key rookie is in the dreadfully super airbrushed Bowman Draft set.  At some point in the future Topps should write an apology letter to all of the players included in the set and reissue a new rookie card.  What pains me about the Shaffer rookie card?  The jersey airbrushing is not terrible, but the helmet is not cool, and if you are going to go ahead and change out the jersey and helmet why leave the little things untouched?  Shaffer has two wrist bands, one orange and one purple.  The crowd in background is also wearing orange shirts, and if you squint, you can even make out the C for Clemson on the guy's hat to the right of Shaffer's wrist in the picture.  Charles Barkley says......

Shaffer also has rookie cards in Panini and Leaf products which show him in a Clemson uniform, but the logos are just blanked out on the cards.....

All three rookie cards, the Leaf, Panini, and Bowman Draft, all feature an autographed version which all can be found for less than $5.  In my opinion, I like the Panini and Leaf cards better than the Bowman issues.  I'd rather see him in a Clemson uni with no logos, then a Rays uniform haphazardly placed over a Clemson one.

Since entering the Rays system in 2012 there have been plenty of Shaffer cards in Bowman products and some of the other Topps Minor League products like Pro Debut and Heritage Minor League.  The cards are readily available and really inexpensive.  I like his Stone Crabs card from last year's Pro Debut product.  I am guessing he will have a card in this year's product as a Montgomery Biscuit.

Shaffer also has a handful of autographs out on the secondary market all of them were issued in either 2012 or 2013.  I have already talked a little bit about his 2012 signatures, but I am going to throw out one from that year which is, in my opinion, his best autograph.

I am sure the photograph is probably photoshopped, but the fact that Topps made an on card signature of Shaffer is the important thing here.  The Leaf cards from 2012 are also on card, but this is Shaffer's only licensed on card autograph.  If you wanted to add a Shaffer autograph to your collection this is my 1A pick.  There is one other good one, but mainly because of the product....

 Share's Bowman Inception autograph is a sticker, but this is from a really nice product with real, non-airbrushed pictures, of players in their uniforms.  I like Shaffer's signature and he has been really consistent throughout his time signing for card manufacturers.

Number 997.....

It's a dreary Monday and I am not feeling too terrific today, so I am going to give you a short, simple, and sweet post for your reading enjoyment.  This offseason I added several players to "People Whom I Collect List" and now that the season has started I cannot let you, my loyal readers down, with a poor effort on players I might have introduced you too during the long off season.

Here's a player I hope to see in Durham towards the end of the summer.  Last year Johnny Field took home the Rays Minor League Player of the Year and managed to hit an even .300 with a .376 OBP, and .488 slugging at two stops in Low A and High A.  I am guessing he's going to spend the whole season with Double A Montgomery, but I can be optimistic right?  On to the baseball cards....

I have already picked up a bunch of the Johnny Field cards out of last year's Bowman Draft product and some of his USA Baseball autographs from Panini, so my card today is going to have to tide you over until Topps, Leaf, or Panini decides to make a 2015 Johnny Field card.....

This Field card comes from the unlicensed 2013 Donruss Elite product and features him wearing his college uniform with the Arizona Wildcats logos airbrushed off.  Not the most attractive card, and at 725 copies not the hardest to find, but if you're going to collect a player even these types of cards are nice to add to the collection.  This would actually be a cool card if Donruss had left the college logos on the uniforms, like they did in the Donruss Elite sets from 2007-2010.  I guess after 2010 they became more unlicensed than they previously were......

closer to 1000......

Ramblin Rockie

I try to pick up cards of different minor league and college players who pass through town who are not necessarily apart of a local team.  Players catch your eyes in different ways, but find their cards is not always the easiest task in the world.  One of the coolest college baseball games I ever attended living in North Carolina was a double header between UNC and Georgia Tech.  The Tar Heels were remodeling their stadium and were playing their home games at the USA Baseball Complex which is about 10 minutes away from my house.

There were at least seven UNC players on that team who are now Major Leaguers: Ackley, Kyle Seager, Tim Federowicz, Rob Wooten, Alex White, Adam Warren, and Matt Harvey.  I am still not sure how they walked away without a National Championship that season.  Georgia Tech had a great offense led by Derek Dietrich and Charlie Blackmon.  

As impressive as the UNC players were, I really liked Dietrich and Blackmon.  Dietrich seemed like he had a great bat for a middle infielder.  Lots of pop.  Blackmon seemed like a toolsy player.  He could run, hit, play a little defense.  Definitely good Major League prospects.  I put both of their names on my mental checklist of players to collect.  I actually have been able to find autographs of both players in Major League uniforms, but both players also have autographs in the Donruss Elite set in a Georgia Tech uni.  I tracked down Dietrich this spring.

Which left Charlie Blackmon.  He has been really difficult, but I finally found a copy of this great looking card for a reasonable price.  Yes, there is a non-logo patch autograph of Blackmon in that set, but why would you want to pass up one of these cool cards?

There have actually been several of these up over the years, but they were always for way too much money.  In other words, over $20 dollars.  His non-patch autograph in a Georgia Tech uni is listed for over $30 right now on COMC.  I like the Donruss Elite patch cards and think I now have one from almost all of the ACC schools save for Maryland (I am going to still count them) and Boston College.    I have a few others from other schools connected to Cardinals or Rays players, but always a really good find.  Kind of wish Topps would put something like this into one of their sets.  Hmmmm.

and now that you've read my post on a Georgia Tech baseball player, I give you the Georgia Tech fight song.  This is the best fight song, outside of NC State, in the ACC.

The Champ Returns To Durham

The Rays signed minor league free agent Allan Dykstra to a minor league contract today.  The former Wake Forest star was drafted in the first round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres after the first baseman was named 2nd Team All-ACC, 8th best prospect in the Cape Cod League, and was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.  Dykstra spent three years in the Padres organization and four years with Mets.  Last year he made the Pacific Coast League All-Star team and reintroduced himself to the good baseball fans in the Tar Heel State......

Quite a performance out of the former Deac.  I saw news of the signing this morning which reminded me of a card I picked up this summer and never posted.  I thought this was a cool looking card for a few bucks.......

Dykstra should be a good addition to the Durham Bulls next year.  The Bulls always seem to get an older player or two for the roster and this seems like a good replacement for Vince Belnome and Wilson Betimet.  I am just hoping that maybe Allan Dykstra will wear the championship belt from his Home Run Derby Championship in at least one at bat during the season.

Durham Bulls Player and Honorary Wolfpacker

One of the more tantalizing prospects on the Durham Bulls this year was hard throwing right hander Nathan Karns.  He came over to the Rays this past off season in exchange for my favorite Lobaton and was dispatched to Triple A after spring training to work on his command.  At times this year Karns looked brilliant pitching for the Bulls.  Hard throwing, lots of strikeouts, swings and misses...Things you like to see out of a pitcher.

I can even tell you that Karns made it all the way up to the Rays this year, a cup of coffee in September, and pitched one really awesome game in his Rays debut against the Blue Jays.  Seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts sounds great.  Looks good too.  

This all sounds like a bunch of sunshine and roses, but really it's not.  That top part sounded good, and I did not even mention the fact that he struck out 153 batters in 145 innings.  No, Mr. Karns is still very much a work in progress.  For starters he had an ERA of 5.08, led the International League in walks with 62, and allowed 16 home runs.  There were plenty of interesting games along the way.  

For example, in his season debut against the Gwinnett Braves Karns pitched 2.2 innings and only allowed 3 hits.  He gave up 6 runs.  How does one do that?  By walking 7 batters and striking out only one.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that Karns ends up back with the Durham Bulls again next year.  Just a hunch.  

Karns is one Durham Bulls regular I have not really touched card wise.  I decided to improve that a little bit this off season with a little bit of work on finding and adding his cards to my collection.  He's got some decent cards floating around, but not as many as I thought.  Up first is a cool Donruss Elite card featuring Karns as a Texas Tech Red Raider.  

This is a pretty nice card of Karns throwing a pitch, wearing his Red Raiders uni.  Karns was actually originally in school at NC State, pitched as a freshman, and then transferred home to pitch at Texas Tech after his mother suffered a stroke.  Karns went 3-2 with the Pack and posted an ERA of 2.67 with 24 K's in 30 innings of work.  The team made the NCAA's as an at-large team.  Does that make him a sort of honorary Wolfpacker?  I vote yes.  Looking forward to adding more Karns cards.  Go State! GTHC!  

 

Fight On Boxberger!

My fall break has finally arrived and I have a few weeks to spend doing the things that I want to do.  This is my second break of the year, with winter break being first.  Other schools are just starting up and I am already a quarter of the way through my school year.  I spent the weekend on total relax mode which meant no posts, but I got to spend some good time with my parents, wife, and son.  Even went to a college football game and almost saw my alma mater, NC State, pull over a huge upset against Florida State.  The NC State quarterback is awesome....

So, what to do with the rest of my break?  I am going to do a little bit of traveling, but I also have a stack of cards sitting on my desk which need to be scanned and shown a little love on this blog.  I might also open a few boxes.  Bowman Chrome just came out and I have a jumbo box sitting at my local card shop.  Stadium Club looks cool too.  So, here's the first of my cards I need to catch up on....

I am a pretty big fan of Rays pitcher Brad Boxberger.  He briefly appeared for the Durham Bulls this year, after coming over from the Padres in a trade, and was lights out.  I even saw him close out a no hitter for Mike Montgomery.  After he was called up to the Rays he continued to dominate posting a 5-2 record with a 2.37 ERA, 104 strikeouts in 64 innings of work, and ERA+ of 158.  Kind of flying under the radar.

His rookie card is apart of the 2009 Donruss Elite set which featured draft picks in their college uniforms.  These patches are really cool and have always been some of my favorite prospect cards to find.  It's too bad they do not make these anymore.  Anyway, Boxberger was a USC Trojan and is shown on his card in a Southern Cal uni with a patch and an autograph.  This is my second copy of the card and was extraordinarily cheap on COMC.  

Another one of these in a day or so, but until then if you have never seen Boxberger in action.....

Deja Vu? Not Quite.

Yesterday was my first post featuring a card of Cardinals pitching prospect Sam Tuivailala.  I picked up a copy of his card, but in the process of tracking it down, actually found two copies of the card.  I cannot pass up a good deal and a really cool signature from a Cardinals prospect.  Here is another copy of a 2010 Donruss Elite Sam Tuivailala autograph.

The signature on this card is much larger than the copy I posted yesterday and runs off the sticker on both the bottom of the card and the right-hand side.  Just one of the many reasons that sticker autographs make me a little bit sad.  Still a cool card.

Hey, I picked up another cool card along with this autograph.  I also landed a nice copy of a 2014 Topps Pro Debut Logo Patch of a Mikie Mahtook card.  One of my favorite minor league logos.....

That's Two EE Va La La

The annual September call-ups always mean tracking down and adding a few new cards to my collection from players added to the rosters of different teams.  Let's just keep it real and say that I am looking for some new Rays and Cardinals cards.  Not far enough, since I collect a lot of Rays minor leaguers with the Durham Bulls, I am mainly looking for a few Cardinals players.  I track down most of the big name Cardinals prospects like Oscar Taveras, Randal Grichuk, and all of the other well known Cardinals prospects.

There are always a few names that get called up that are challenges to track down on cardboard.  Anybody have a Xavier Scruggs autograph?  He actually has a card in last year's Topps Heritage Minor League set, but no certified autographs.  Tommy Pham?  Same story.

Then there is the Cardinals newest pitcher Sam Tuivailala.  He was drafted as a shortstop out of Aragon High School in California, but the Cardinals ended up switching him over to a starting pitcher.  The right handed reliever now throws in the high 90s and was promoted up to the Cardinals directly from the team's Double A affiliate.  Here is a look at some of his high heat....

and that leaves us to discuss Tuivailala's cardboard.  He has base cards like some of the other Cardinals prospects called up to the Majors with the expanded September rosters, but he also has a certified autograph in the 2010 Donruss Elite set.  He's got a nice autograph, even though it's a sticker autograph, and it's on one of my favorite brands (even if they are not a licensed card producer).  

The card also has a pretty high run at 820 copies, but it still seems to sell pretty well on the secondary market.  The card often crosses over the $10 mark, which is pretty good, considering that he just completed his first season in Double A and changed positions recently too.  The fact that the card features Tuivailala batting is an added bonus.  Great card and I am happy to have another hard thrower in the Cardinals bullpen.  

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.