The Search For Hak Ju Lee Continues Part 2.....

A few posts back, I showed off a new card of former Durham Bulls shortstop Hak Ju Lee.  His career was sidetracked by a knee injury and he ended up returning home to Korea.  It's been hard to follow his career in the KBO, but I have still enjoyed dabbling in collecting his cards.  Here was the card from the last post....

While I was writing the post, I found an interesting video online showing a crowd of fans at a Samsung Lions game singing the Hak Ju Lee cheer song and doing some sort of dance.  The video identifies Hak Je Lee as the "Religious Sect Leader of the Samsung Lions"

The song is catchy and I am sure that something is being lost in translation here.  

Anyway, I ended up picking up another Hak Ju Lee card last week.  I do not have Hak Ju Lee saved in my Ebay searches anymore, but I just type his name in from time to time.  A nice looking autograph popped up, it was inexpensive, so I decided to go ahead and buy it.  

Which takes me back to my previous Hak Ju Lee post.  After sharing the post on Twitter, a person shared a Hak Ju Lee tweet with me from the 2019 season.  It was incredible and the perfect follow up to the forty-five second video above showing fans sing and dancing.  

The Tweet shows a video of Hak Ju Lee dancing to the song from the video above, only he's wearing a robe and standing at home plate while he's doing it.  Even crazier when the at-bat starts and he's still wearing the robe.  Seriously.  

Per @JoshLindblom52's request, here's the video of the moment: pic.twitter.com/JVJ075MTnZ

— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) July 21, 2019

I either need to watch more KBO games, or we need more Major League Baseball players wearing robes and dancing before they take their at-bats.   

Back to baseball cards.  Here is the new Hak Ju Lee card.  

This card is from Bowman Black, which was a cross product autograph set that Topps put into all the different Bowman products.  Hak Ju Lee's cards were in the regular Bowman product.  Nice looking card, but I did not shell out for one when these first came out.  I try not to pay crazy prices for cards of players in the Minor Leagues.  I like the silver ink on the black background.  Really pops out.  

There are not too many of the Bowman Black autographs floating around on Ebay, so I am happy that I was able to find this card.  Plus, it gave me a chance to share the video of Hak Ju Lee dancing.  

The Search For Hak Ju Lee Continues.....

 Hak Ju Lee was one of my favorite Durham Bulls players when I first started writing on this blog.  He was a great defensive shortstop with some potential on offense.  In 2013, he was the best player in the International League for the first half of April.  Hak Ju Lee played his usual great defense while hitting .422 with a .600 slugging percentage.  It was like a combination of Ted Williams and Ozzie Smith. 

Then Travis Ishikawa slid into him at second base and tore up his knee. 

It happens.  

Former first overall draft pick Tim Beckham repleaced Hak Ju Lee while he was out with the knee injury.  Beckham played well during his first year in Durham and helped spark the team to an International League Championship providing fans with one of the most memorable base running plays of the 2013 season.  

 

Hak Ju Lee was never quite the same when he returned to the Bulls.  He got some at-bats, but was never promoted to the Rays.  Lee became a fan favorite of sorts around Durham when he returned.  It's easy to love a scrappy middle infielder who is trying to overcome a major injury and make it to the Majors.  I really enjoyed collecting his cards and picked up quite a few nice ones back in the day. 

His time with the Rays ran out and Hak Ju Lee became a Minor League free agent.  Lee signed with the Giants before 2016 season and managed to play part of the season for their Triple A team.  Then, he just disappeared.  

Seriously.  

I was looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. 

Well, it turns out that Hak Ju Lee went home to Korea.  He sat out a few years, but reappeared in 2019 with the Samsung Lions.  He's pretty popular, appearing in a video on YouTube that refers to him as the religious sect leader of the team. 

 

I love Hak Ju Lee too, but maybe something was lost in the translation there.  Maybe there's not. 

Anyway, way back at the start of the pandemic, I made a list of some Durham Bulls cards that I would like to track down for my collection.  The list included a few Hak Ju Lee cards.  I was able to find one of them a few weeks back.  

This card is from the 2013 Topps Heritage Minors set.  

 

 

Lee has several different cards in the 2013 Minor League set including a Bazooka insert and two relic cards.  With the addition of this black parallel, I have the complete run of Hak Ju Lee cards outside of the printing plates.  I don't always love the parallel cards in the early Heritage Minors set, but this is a good looking card.   

Here is the back of the card. 

 

The serial number is in the bottom left corner, only 96 copies of this card produced.  The back of the card also mentions his .422 average for the first 15 games of the season in 2013 with the Bulls. 

Biscuits and Biscuits

Working on finding my favorite Durham Bulls players every summer inevitably leads to me having to buy or trade for a few Montgomery Biscuits baseball cards.  The Bulls, being the Triple A team of the Rays, and the Montgomery Biscuits playing in the Double A Southern League, I'm sure that most of the players like getting to make that move.  As a card collector,  I really don't mind anything having to do with the Biscuits.  It's easily one of the coolest logos in all of Minor League baseball.

Better than the Baby Cakes or Railriders or whatever other goofy names have popped up in the Minors over the last few summers.  I have never actually been to Montgomery, so I am not exactly sure why the team is named the Biscuits.  As a Midwest transplant living in a Southern state, or is North Carolina a mid-Atlantic, I can attest to the fact that Southerns love eating biscuits.  Non-southerners like them too.  

We've got places like.....

They've got okra on their menu.  That's only cool in the south.  More well known.......

Bojangles.  A must stop for biscuits and Bojangles also in a Raekwon song.  

Back to baseball cards.  

So, over the year's I have dabbled in the world of Biscuits cards.  They have less butter than a Biscuitville biscuit and less blueberries than a BoBerry Biscuit, but they are nice all the same.  All of my Biscuits cards feature that cool logo along with a player who almost certainly appeared for the Durham Bulls.  My all-time favorite Biscuits/Durham Bulls cards is a Hak Ju Lee logo card from the 2013 Pro Debut card....

There have been others along the way too, including one that came out earlier this summer in the latest Pro Debut release.  The player on the card is even on the Durham Bulls this year.  Here's the latest Biscuits card featuring Durham Bulls infielder Willy Adames.  

I really like Adames as a player, he's fun to watch, and I was excited that this card was on the checklist this year.  However, I wish the Biscuits logo were a little but clearer.  The past two years Topps has used the pennant shape on these logo cards in Pro Debut.  The problem, in my eyes, is that it shrinks down the size of the logo, blurs what is there, and minimizes the minor league aspect on the card.

It's Was Good Hak Ju

Taking a few minutes this evening for a quick post featuring one of my favorite Durham Bulls players.  Hak Ju Lee came over to the Rays organization in the Matt Garza trade.  Same trade that landed the Rays Chris Archer.  At the time of the trade Hak Ju Lee was a well regarded prospect, especially for his defense.  His run with the Durham Bulls started in 2013 when he started off the season batting .422.  I was an excited fan and rushed out trying to find as many of his card as possible.

He ended up blowing out his knee a month into the 2013 season and never seemed to find his offensive touch again in Durham.  I still spent the last three years enjoying his defensive play which is quite good.  Of course, I also still collected his cards.  They are just a little cheaper and more plentiful.  In fact, I recently picked up this gem from the 2013 Topps Heritage Minor League set.  It's a mini Bazooka card scanned huge.

Towards the end of the season the Rays outrighted Hak Ju Lee, but he cleared waivers and stayed with the Bulls.  However, this off season he became a Minor League free agent and signed with the San Francisco Giants.  I am sure that he's not going to replace Brandon Crawford, but I would love to see him get up to the Majors at some point.  Even if it's just for a cup of coffee.  Kudos to the SF Giants Update on Twitter for finding this cool picture announcing his signing......

Anyway, I know the Rays have a glut of shortstops and we will have someone good manning the position next summer in Durham.  It won't be Hak Ju Lee, but I hope he has a great year out west.  Maybe I can find a few Giants cards of him this summer.  It was good Hak Ju Lee, best of luck with the Giants.  

A Trade With Big D

I recently had a chance to sit down with Jimmy, from the card shop previously known as Big D's, to trade a few baseball cards.  Even though Big D's is not open Jimmy still takes care of all the old store customers with boxes and still looks out for cool single cards for our collections.  He had been putting together a pile of cards for me over the summer and I was happy to sit down, look at the cards, and help him add a few nice cards to his collection.  

Here are my newest cards:

Starting off small, but I needed this card for my Heritage High Numbers.  This was one of the cards I most eager to add to my collection from this product.  Honestly, if I had not touched High Numbers at all I still would have gone after this great looking Mahtook rookie card.  Mahtook spent last year with the Durham Bulls and this year going back and forth between the Bulls and Rays.  Snorting Bull favorite for sure and a cool looking card.  

Next up is a Kolten Wong Museum Collection autograph.  I have other version of this Wong autograph, but not the double jersey piece.  I really like the look of these cards, nice card, cool autograph.  

Another Durham Bulls favorite with this Blue Bowman Chrome Hak Ju Lee autograph.  The card is numbered to 150 and is a variation of this card I did not have in my collection yet.  and the final card......

This gem is from the 2004 Playoff Prime Cut set.  The scan does not really do the card justice.  This was a high product that had tons of relics and autographs from Hall of Famers.  Not just the garden variety either, but a lot of players from the 20s, 30s, and 40s who do not have a lot of relic cards.  Hornsby was the first superstar player in the history of the Cardinals and there are not a ton of relics of him floating around.  He has had a few in some Panini products the last year too, but there are not many in nice looking products like the 2004 Prime Cuts set.  Definitely a great card to add to the collection.  

2014 International League Top Prospects

I went to a Durham Bulls game last week and was happy to see that the team was selling off some of their old baseball cards cheap.  I could not pass that buy, so I loaded up on a few things from their team store.  Really, I love looking at minor league sets and probably need to post a few of these sets on here.  There is always some star power in these sets, but there are some fun players too.  Here's a look at last season's International League Top Prospects set.....

First couple of cards and there are a few favorites in here:

 Jesus Aguilar because he was in the Triple A All-Star game last year and seemed pretty impressive.  He also recently pulled off the hidden ball trick against the Indianapolis Indians.

Christian Bethancourt because nobody should run on him, ever.  

Hak Ju Lee because if he ever learned to hit consistently he would be awesome.  Until then his slugging percentage is .250.  (Sigh)

Kevin Kiermaier because this is fun to watch.  The Cardinals win this game?  

Steven Souza because the guy can hit......

Marcus Stroman because he is one my favorite ACC baseball players I have seen in person

Allen Webster and Mike Wright?  I have got nothing here.  I listened to this great Pixies show while I was typing this post.  Give it a listen. 

Another Trip To Big D's Sports Cards

It had been awhile since I had managed to make my way into my favorite local card shop, Big D's Sports Cards, in Raleigh.  I do not have school on Monday and little responsibility for the next five weeks I am tracked out of work, so it was a no brainer that I needed to hit up the card shop.  Jimmy had a couple of things waiting for me.  Some of the cards he had found and set aside for me, while a few of the cards I picked up in a trade with a local collector. 

So, first up is a small side project in my collection.  A few Michael Sam cards from different Topps base sets.  The one card would appear to be a variation, but I might be wrong on that.  I actually know almost nothing about football cards, but I like picking up a few things from Mizzou and NC State guys here and there.  Sam was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year last year and was drafted by the Rams in this year's rookie draft.  

I also picked up a pair of Hak Ju Lee autographs which were signed in person while he was a member of the Durham Bulls.  He should be back in Durham next year, but the Rays seem to be working pretty hard on trading away everyone this offseason.  He will probably end up on the Padres.  

I love the Bowman autograph on the right hand side.  That is kind of the quintessential Hak Ju Lee defensive pose.  Spend five minutes watching the Bulls take infield practice before the game and you will see that pose half a dozen different times.  On to more serious things.  

I have been trying to work on a few new player collections.  The statement above about the Michael Sam cards being a side project should have probably been typed in blue (for sarcasm).  I am really trying to develop a player collection away from baseball cards, but let's face it: I am not a football person.  

As a resident of central North Carolina it is hard to go wrong with collecting something basketball.  I like basketball and I graduated from one of those North Carolina basketball schools.  So, I am happy to add a second autograph to my collection of T.J. Warren cards.  This time he is wearing a Suns jersey and not NC State.  Well, he's at least holding a Suns jersey.  Roll Pirates Roll.  (Google Riverside Durham)  

While I was in the shop I also decided to pick up a copy of a Trea Turner autograph that looked really sweet.  It is from Leaf Valient and is a die cut autographed serial numbered out of 25.  Turner went to NC State and was drafted by the Padres 13th overall in the draft this summer.  He was in the Will Myers trade last week, but since he has not played for a full year he's in some sort of baseball purgatory.  This was too cool of a card to pass up.....

Last two cards for this post came in a trade from a local card collector who traded me a pair of Cardinals for an autograph of Red Sox prospect Henry Owens from his days as an amateur with the USA baseball program.  I thought I was only getting an Allen Craig.  Looks like I owe you a card on the next trade. 

The Edmonds patch card is a great throw in for a card for a card trade and I love the Allen Craig card.  The PinchMe phrase is in reference to his appearances off the bench for the Cardinals during their 2011 playoff run which resulted in the team's 10th World Championship.  Craig pinch hit playing in Busch and was the DH in Texas.  He started game 7 because of an injury to Matt Holliday and ended up hitting the go ahead home run.  

Two New Rays

So much to do today.  I have a professional development seminar this morning and then the Triple A All-Star game this evening.  I am also still behind on cards from the last two weeks, so let's knock two out of the way this morning.  I picked up both of these cards at Big D's Card Shop, my favorite local card shop, about a week and half ago.  Jimmy, the owner of the store, found both of these cards for me and set them aside.  

Up first is a cool Hak Ju Lee from last year's Bowman Inception set:

In my opinion this was the best set that Topps put out last year and I have picked up a slew of these cards during the past year.  While I already own a copy or two of the Hak Ju Lee card, I did not own a copy of the blue parallel.  Add in the fact that this card is number one and you have the makings of a great card.  Hak Ju Lee is having a rough year at the plate, but he is still playing defense at an elite level and think he should make his Rays debut shortly.....

Last card for this morning belongs to Leslie Anderson.  The former Cuban baseball star spent several years in Durham playing for the Bulls.  While Anderson never made it to Tampa, he was still a fan favorite of Bulls fans.  This past off season Anderson left the Rays organization and the U.S. to play ball in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants.  

Collecting the Durham Bulls: Hak Ju Lee

I was really excited to see Hak Ju Lee return to the Durham Bulls this year after he got off to a great start last season, but ultimately missed most of the year due to a knee injury.  I had a chance to get my first look at Hak Ju Lee about a week and half ago.  He seemed up to par in the field, but is still working out the kinks on offense.  Lee still ranks as one of the better prospects in the Rays system and many think he is already big league ready in terms of defensive skill.  It's the offense which will be the key to Lee's eventual fate with the Rays. 

Last season Lee posted a .422/.536/.600 line during the first month of the season.  This year Lee is at .167/.302/.194.  Not so good, but there will be plenty of time for Lee to turn his season around.  Steamer actually did a projection for Lee this year, which is available on FanGraphs, and posts Lee as a .230/.300/.319 line.  While the Rays have signed Yunel Escobar to a two year contract, I am still convinced that Lee is the shortstop of the future for the team.  Here's a look at Lee batting:

Hak Ju Lee is also a fun player to collect.  There are plenty of Lee cards floating around on the secondary market.  While Lee's rookie cards were made during his Cubs days (Lee was in the Garza trade) almost all of his autographs have been made during the past two years as a Durham Bull.  He has one non-licensed certified autograph in a Leaf Valiant product.  The rest are in Bowman sets.  My favorites are in the Inception and Platinum sets.  

While many of Lee's autographs are stickers there are one or two on-card autographs floating around too.  Lee is also a fairly inexpensive find too.  The vast majority of his cards can be found for less $10, and with patience, can trend downwards towards $5.  There are plenty of other cool Lee cards too.  As a Cub Lee appeared on the World Team for the Future's Game.  Of course, Bowman made a whole bunch of jersey and patch cards of the slick fielding shortstop.  

The 2011 Bowman card is cool, but I would also recommend checking into his 2011 Topps Pro Debut Jumbo jersey.  Really cool card, with a huge piece of jersey.  There are a few limited patch cards from the Pro Debut set, but I have missed them every time they have come up online.  I'll still get one someday, hopefully.  Rare Lee cards can be a little bit competitive in terms of trading and pricing.  While Japanese players are often very popular with collectors in the US and overseas, Korean players can have some nice followings too.  Topps has given collectors what they wanted at times by making some really cool Lee cards outside of autographs and relics.  My favorites are his Pro Debut Hat Relic cards.  I do not have his card out of the 2012 set, but I do have the 2013 version.  Really cool card.  

Collectors should also be sure to check out the 2013 Topps Heritage Minor League set which features Lee in a Durham Bulls uniform set to the back drop of the 1964 Topps set.  Really nice looking cards.  Overall, Lee's cards are generally low at the moment, but he's going to be a Major Leaguer.  I have been trying to get back into some of his cards the past week or so and will posting a few nice cards of his in the coming weeks. 

The Snorting Bull Presents.........2014 Bowman

Sweet Rays!

The season came to a close for Rays a few days ago when they lost in Game 4 of the ALDS against the Boston Red Sox.  Much of the focus after the loss focused on long-time Rays ace, and former Durham Bull, David Price.  It's clear to many that the Rays will likely trade Price this off-season and will go into rebuilding mode next year without their ace.  However, I strongly disagree with this take on the Rays.

Yes, the Rays will likely trade their ace, but if the James Shields and Matt Garz trades taught us anything, its that the Rays will make a good trade for the Rays and will use Price to restock their minor league.  Not that it really needs to be restocked.  So, if James Shields was worth Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and Patrick Leonard I think it's safe to say that the Rays will make out just fine in trading Price.  I will still collect my David Price cards, but will have a few more good young players to track down.

Until then, I am still working on finding some cards of Rays current minor leaguers and ran into a pair of really cheap relics this past week.  Both cards come from the recently released Topps Heritage Minor League set.  The first is most likely the initial replacement in the Rays rotation for David Price.

2013 Topps Heritage Minor League Enny Romero Clubhouse Collection Relic 

Romero pitched at three levels in the Rays organization this year making appearances for the Montgomery Biscuits (Double-A), the Durham Bulls (Triple-A), and finally for the Rays at the Major League level.  Romero is a hard thrower with a very bright future.  I've featured a few of his cards on my blog during the past month.  Really inexpensive cards and well worth the risk.

2013 Topps Heritage Minor League Black Hak Ju Lee Clubhouse Collection Relic /50

I was really happy to pick up this card.  Numbered to just 50 copies, this is the only Durham Bulls relic or autograph in the Topps Heritage Minor League set this year.  It probably means they could have put Mike Fontent on the card and I would have bought it, but luckily they went with my favorite Korean shortstop prospect.  I actually really like the black background with the purple stripe.  Pretty catchy.

2013 Bowman Platinum Hak Ju Lee Jersey/Autograph

Time for a quick post tonight, but just barely.  My job, not as a blogger, is keeping me quite busy this week, so I am doing one card.  Fast.  I've had a great summer finding and adding Hak Ju Lee cards to my collection.  I saw one of the first home games the Durham Bulls played this spring and was greatly impressed by the Rays prospect.  This Bowman Platinum card is my latest addition.

2013 Bowman Platinum Jersey/Autograph 

While it has been a great summer for me to add new Hak Ju Lee crds to my collection, this has been a lost season for the future shortstop of the Rays.  Lee's weakness was long considered his offensive production, but he lead the International League in hitting for the first few weeks of the season before tearing a ligament in his knee and missing the remainder of the season.  I am not sure if the Rays will send Lee back to AAA next season, or if he will just jump up to the Majors.  I suppose that it all depends on his performance in Spring Training, but from what I can tell Lee is already able to play defensively at a Major League level.  I would be happy to see Lee make the Rays next year and will not complain if he is in Durham for another season.  Hopefully the knee is doing well.  

The Greatest Baseball Logo Captured on Cardboard

Last year Topps put a Hak Ju Lee hat patch logo card in their Topps Pro Debut set featuring the Rays shortstop prospect as a Montgomery Biscuit.  The Biscuits are the Double-A team of the Rays, so many of the players on the Durham Bulls, the Rays Triple A team, played for the Biscuits at some point.  I missed out on the Hak Ju Lee card last year and in doing so, missed my chance to have a the Biscuits logo on cardboard.  Cool logo pictured below:

Who wouldn't want a card with a giant version of that logo pasted on the front?  Luckily, someone at Topps did not get the message that Hak Ju Lee was playing in Durham this season, or perhaps since they already had a Durham Bulls logo card of Alex Colome, Topps made the executive decision to demote Lee in his Pro Debut appearance this year.  Which ever way you decided it went down, the decision to keep Hak Ju Lee as a Biscuit for an additional year allowed me a chance at redemption.

2013 Topps Pro Debut Hak Ju Lee Hat Logo Patch 

I was actually worried for awhile that I was going to fail on my mission for a second straight year.  I found one copy of this card for trade, but the other collector was looking for a Hall of Fame autograph or "Yankee type autograph" in return.  This was my initial PM on trading for the Lee patch card:  

"Dude, you have some pretty sweet Yogi Berra autographs, I could do one of those for the Lee"   

After spitting out my beverage I countered with a "Yankee type" autograph of Joba Chamberlain or maybe a Brett Gardner.  Still waiting for a response by not holding my breath.  If he ever actually trades me the card I will do a give away on my Facebook or Twitter page.  

Eventually I narrowed my search down to Ebay where I promptly watched several auctions, but forgot about them and forgot to bid.  I found a Buy It Now, but it was significantly higher than the auctions and the final offer price of $14 was not going to hack it on this card.  Finally, I was paying attention last week and found a copy for less than $5.00 which is good since I am back to school this week.  No more day auctions.  

In the meantime, I am really pleased with my latest pick up.  I really like Hak Ju Lee as a player, but more importantly I really like the Montgomery Biscuits logo.  There are some pretty crazy minor logos and mascots, but this one has to be one of the best ever.  

Two More Bowman Inception Rays Autographs

I am working closer and closer to completing my Rays autograph set from Bowman Inception.  This week I was fortunate enough to add two more cool autographs to my set which puts me a Richie Shaffer away from having one autograph from all of the Rays in the set.  I might double back and try to pick up a few of the variations, but the Ascension Relics, which feature a jersey swatch from the players minor league stops, are pretty difficult to find.  I will at least give it a good effort.

2013 Bowman Inception Hak Ju Lee Jersey/Autograph

First up is another autograph of the Rays shortstop of the future Hak Ju Lee.  I have been able to add several Hak Ju Lee cards to my collection this season and am still counting him as a Durham Bull even though he is currently out for the season with torn ligaments in his knee.  Lee started his season by hitting better than .400 for the Bulls before his injuries landed him on the DL.  I am happy to see Topps finally put out a certified autograph of the slick fielding shortstop.

2013 Bowman Inception Felipe Rivero 

A new name for my Rays autograph collection: Felipe Rivero.  Currently, Rivero is pitching in the Florida State League, which is High A, for the Charlotte Stone Crabs.  Rivero is already in his fifth minor league season, but signed as a 16 year old international free agent.  He is only rated as the 17th best prospect in the Rays system, but the hard throwing left-hander made an appearance in last year's Futures Game and is viewed by many scouts as having "stuff", but apparently he needs a little bit of polish.  He actually appeared in both Bowman and Leaf products last year, so there are quite a few of his autographs floating around.  Most are under $5.

Best of the Rest for June

I posted a lot of my extra pickups this month to my Facebook "Like" page just to float out some of the things that come into my collection that do not necessarily make it into a post because they are small, I do not have the time, or they are being flipped around for other cards.  I like the idea of showcasing cards in other ways outside of this space and have started working on putting pictures here and there of some additional cards and projects that I am working on with my collection.  Anyway, without further delay here is the Best of the Rest Top 5 for June:

5. 2012 Topps Chrome Drew Smyly Autograph 

Smyly is having a pretty solid season for the Tigers.  He's not in the rotation, after being given several chances, he's settled into the long relief role for the team.  So far in 2013 the University of Arkansas product is averaging a strikeout per inning and has a perfect record at 3-0.  I had actually considered putting a Adeiny Hechavarria card here for the Rated Rookie logo alone, but he stinks.  Possibly the worst position player, batting wise, in the Majors?  I vote yes.  Long reliever it is, cool Rated Rookie card below.  

2012 Panini National Treasures Adeiny Hechavarria Autograph 

4. 2010 Topps Debut Hak Ju-Lee Jumbo Jersey 

I was happy that the Rays brought Lee up from AA to play shortstop for the Durham Bulls this summer.  Immediately I rushed out and started picking up his cards knowing that the addition of Lee on the AAA roster meant that Mike Fontenot would spend the summer riding the pine.  Lee played well briefly for the Bulls before suffering a season ending knee injury.  I am still collecting his cards and think he is up with the Rays at some point next year.  The major concern surrounding Lee has always been whether or not he would hit, but he did very well offensively this year in the International League.

3. 2009 Topps Pat Neshek Autograph

Who is the best signer of all-time?  If I had to make a list of great signers this guy would be really high up on the list.  The A's right-handed reliever runs his own baseball card blog, has his own cool collection of cards, and openly advertises the fact that he will sign cards through the mail.  Though I have often contemplated sending Neshek something cool to sign.  I am not a big through the mail collector, but luckily Topps included a few of his autographs in their 2009 set.  

2. 2007 UD Black Victor Martinez Autograph 

This is a cool card from a really cool set.  A manupatch of a Venezuelan flag with an autograph?  Why not.  Not sure about that sticker autograph, but overall really cool looking card of a pretty good player.  Just not this year.  Still gets the number two spot in my countdown on the hopes that V-Mart can bounce back in the second half of the year.

1. 2009 Topps Tribute Prince Fielder Dual Jersey/Autograph 

This is a great card, but it was in my collection for a few days.  I traded for it, got it out of the mail, scanned it, repackaged it, and mailed it away.  Still it's a Prince Fielder auto, so it's pretty nice.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should have kept this one.  Seriously, sometimes I stumble upon a card that someone is trading away, or selling for well under value, and will pick it up and flip it around for something good.  In this case, this card and a few other Tigers cards were sent up north for a few Tribute cards.  

2011 Bowman Hak Ju Lee Futures Game Jersey

A quick post tonight on the Rays shortstop of the future.  Entering this season one of the most exciting players on the Durham Bulls roster, in my opinion, was shortstop Hak Ju Lee.  I picked up an autograph from Lee a few weeks back and did a write up on the hot shortstop prospect.  Unfortunately, Lee has been diagnosed with a torn ligament in his knee and will be out for the remainder of the season.   This Bowman card represents the second big Lee card that I have picked up this spring.  There was also a small one that I posted this past weekend.

2011 Bowman Hak Ju Lee Futures Game Jersey

I was able to trade for this Lee card and was extremely happy to pick up a copy of this Bowman card.  I've used the phrase "dry" in previous posts to describe cards and sets that seem to disappear from the secondary market and rarely make an appearance.  I have been looking for this card since January and have found the market to be extremely dry.  I have seen one copy of this card on COMC and have never seen it on Ebay during the past five months.  Honestly, I know that Bowman puts out a set of Futures Jersey Cards every year and that the cards appear in the regular Bowman set, Bowman Sterling, and sometimes a few other sets.  The 2011 Bowman set was no different, but the triple relics cards in the Bowman base were extremely popular and are generally off the market and in private collections.  There are lots of great names in the set including Mike Trout and Shelby Miller.

The Whole Kitchen Sink Highlights Part 1

What do you do with all the little cards that you pick up?  I am not really big into the photo albums and I do not have enough time or posts within the framework of my week to post all of the cards that I trade for or buy on the cheap.  The other day I was working on a trade for a 2011 Bowman Adron Chambers autograph.  I needed the card for my Cardinals autograph collection since Chambers was apart of the 2011 World Series champions.  I looked for the card when the 2011 Bowman set was first released, but left the card alone when it drifted north of $5.  Chambers is basically a minor league player and there is only so much that I am willing to spend on this card.  Fortunately, I was able to pick up the card and give up a pair of mid 90s inserts.

2011 Bowman Adron Chambers Autograph 

A few days ago my trade partner asked me why I had not made a post about the Adron Chambers card.  Honestly, I do not have the time to post all of the cards that I trade for in a given week.  Extremely happy to own the card and I do not regret the trade for a second, but time is one of the biggest limitation to my blog.  I am not much into the photo album or posting every card into the photo albums on my Twitter and Facebook pages.  Sometimes, I will snap a picture and Tweet out a few things that I pick up, but not many.  So, here's what I am going to do:  Once a month I am going to make a post showing the best of the rest.  It still will probably not show everything that walks into my front door, but it's a start.  I am thinking a the 5 best will make my monthly Whole Kitchen Sink Highlights.  Adron Chambers will be a bonus.  So, this is the premier edition:

1.  2012 Topps Pro Debut Gold Hak Ju Lee Jersey

2.  2010 Topps Pro Debut Mike Montgomery Autograph

3.  2009 UD Signature Stars Alexei Ramirez Autograph

4. 2012 Bowman Kez Carter Autograph

5. 2011 Bowman Chrome Brock Holt Autograph