Buy This Guy

Baseball card people love prospects. It's just really hard to figure out which Minor Leaguers are going to end up being good Major Leaguers. So much money lost. In fact, I was playing around with some Delmon Young cards just a few days back. Going to make a post about those later this week.  

I try to spend very little on prospects, but let me sell you on one of my current favorite Minor League players.  

I have posted a few Jonathan Aranda cards over the past year, but not really given him much of a write-up. Honestly, he does not have very many cards, nor is he a very highly regarded prospect. The cards that Aranda does have are generally really inexpensive, like he's typically the amongst the cheapest autographs or inserts in the products with his cards. I honestly have no idea why more people aren't in on his cards.  

Let's rewind to the 2021 season. Aranda played in Double A with the Montgomery Biscuits. He won the Southern League MVP and was a Postseason All-Star for his performance in the Double A playoffs. Last year, Aranda played with the Durham Bulls. He won his second straight MVP Award, was named a Triple A All-Star, and was named a Triple A Postseason All-Star for helping the Bulls win the Triple A National Championship.  

This year?  

Aranda is still playing for the Durham Bulls and is batting .339 with a .613 slugging percentage. He has 25 home runs and 23 doubles in roughly 350 at-bats. There is a very good chance he's going to win his third league MVP in row later this fall without taking another at-bat. Add in that the International League is a pitcher friendly league, and as a left-handed batter, the Durham Bulls Athletic Park has a deep right-field line and power ally. 

Aranda has now been up with the Rays for two weeks. He was up briefly earlier in the year due to injuries, but this latest call-up feels like it might be for good. Especially considering Aranda has hit. In two weeks worth of games Aranda has on-base percentage over .400 and has a handful of extra base hits.  He's walking as often as he is striking out, which is a very good sign for a young hitter. 

Here are my latest cards of Jonathan Aranda. 

Again, this is just about the cheapest autograph in Topps Finest this year. I got this for under $5 and it has been that low for the majority of the summer. There are colored parallels that cost more, but I like the base autograph just fine. I also like that he is batting in this card. Strangely the majority of his cards show him in the field, which is his real weakness. Not the best defender.

Next. 

There are some really bad autographs in this year's Topps Chrome set, so this is not quite the cheapest autograph. It's still right around $5. Little better signature on this card. Aranda has variance on how he signs the "A", which is a better look here than on the Finest card. 

Last card.  

Not an autograph, but I am a sucker for combined shipping on cheap cards. I picked this up as a bonus with the Topps Chrome autograph. The same seller had this Silver Pack insert listed for $1. Great looking card of Aranda playing second base. 

If you're into prospect, you should definitely buy this guy.  

Only $9.99, Part 1

The past two years, the Durham Bulls have had some high-end prospects on their roster. It would have been fun to own a Durham Bulls team set from one of those two years, but unfortunately a small group of Ebay sellers bought the majority of the cards and are currently selling them at a small profit.  

The sets are $9.99 in the team store.

I honestly cannot comprehend spending $40 on a Minor League team set and am a little disappointed that people actually bought these cards at that price. 

You know what they say about feeding trolls.....

Nobody on the 2023 Durham Bulls has the ceiling of Wander Franco, but they are still a really good team with several Top 100 prospects. They are currently in second place and likely won't catch the first place Norfolk Tides (Orioles) before the end of the first half.

I attended a Durham Bulls game last week and had the good fortune to find a copy of the 2023 Durham Bulls team set.  

My view for the game.  

This is the first half of my $9.99 Durham Bulls team set.  

I am actually impressed by the number of cards included. These are typically between 25-30 cards, but the 2023 Bulls set comes in at 41 cards. I scanned them in groups of 6, but also made a single card scan of one card to give you a close up of the design. There will be 19 cards in this post, 21 in the second post.  

This is the last card in the set.  

Ripken The Bat dog appears at one Durham Bulls game per home stand. The team actually borrowed the concept from the Greensboro Grasshoppers who have had bat dogs for as long as I have lived in North Carolina. That's been a few minutes.  

Ripken is a bit of a local celebrity. He also retrieves the kicking tee at NC State football games and does puck drops with the Carolina Hurricanes.  

As for the design, it's simple and I really like it for a Minor League team set. Save the flash, give me nice photos of the players. The back is similar with a simple design, but I like that there is a second picture on the back. I will have to go back and look, but I don't remember another Durham Bulls set with this feature prior to this year.  

Ripken has a write up on the back, along with a few of the other coaches and staff member included on the checklist, but the player cards have their statistics.  

First group of cards.  

Basabe, Aranda, and Taj Bradley will all be regulars in the Majors at some point.  

Brigden and Bristo are 4A players.  

Not sure about my mind is made up about Roberto Alvarez. He's a good defensive catcher, but not the best hitter. Feels like good defensive catchers always stick around. I saw him Roberto Alvarez pitch a few weeks back in a game where the Bulls were losing badly.  

He was throwing in the mid 40s.  

He did not give up a run.  

Back of the cards.  

I like that they included a details about how the player ended up in the Rays organization. International Free Agents and Draft Picks by the Rays tend to turn out pretty well, signed as a Minor League Free Agent is code for journeyman Minor Leaguer. 

Second group of cards.  

Brujan is the only prospect in this group.  

The rest of these players have all been in the Majors at some point and are trying to get back there, or spending their time shuffling between the Durham and Tampa.  

It would be nice if the Rays left Vidal Brujan up in the Majors or traded him to a team that would leave him in the Majors. Maybe at the trade deadline this year.....

Last group of cards for this post.  

Two of my favorite Bulls players are in this group. I am a big fan of Niko Hulsizer and Tristan Gray. I don't think Gray is much of a prospect at this point, but he has a huge swing and hits a ton of home runs.  Last year, Gray led all of Triple A in home runs. He's slowed down a bit this year, but still fun to watch.  

Hulsizer is one of those sleeper prospects. He's been around for awhile, but every time I see him he looks better. He's got a couple of really cheap Bowman autographs, if you're into rolling the dice on prospects.  

The rest of these players are Minor League free agents who are hanging onto their careers in Triple A.  

Here are the card backs. 

Sorry, Trevor Kelley is crooked. 

New Season, New Players

We are 60 games into the Minor League Season.  

I have been to a few Durham Bulls games this year.  

There are a lot of new faces on the team this year and I have been working hard the last few weeks to pick up some cards from the new players. I am going to sort them out by quality of prospect, but some of these players are flying completely under the baseball card radar.  

First up, Taj Bradley.  

He's actually pitched a bunch of games with the Rays this year. As good as the Rays have been, they have had a ton of pitching injuries. Taj Bradley is a Top 100 Prospect across the board, throws hard, and looks like all the other pitchers the Rays crank out. Somehow he has a bunch of autographs that are between $10-$20. I have not seen Taj in person yet this year, but I imagine the Rays will send him back to Triple A once some other pitchers come back.  

Next up is Curtis Mead.  

He's going to be the third baseman for Rays at some point, but he's currently on the injured list for the Bulls. Mead is not a new face. He debuted with the Bulls back in 2021. I actually got to see his Triple A debut, which was a little odd. The Rays had to call someone up unexpectedly, the Bulls had a thin roster, so they promoted Mead from A Ball (Charleston, SC) because he could drive to Durham for the game. 

I went for Adley Rutschman, but also got Curtis Mead and Felix Bautista.  

Mead is another Top 100 Prospect. He's also Australian, that's a bonus. 

You do not get many MLB players from Idaho, but Kyle Manzardo is from the Potato State. He is also another Top 100 Prospect. Good looking first baseman/outfielder, nice looking left-handed swing.  Super cheap baseball cards too.  

This is actually a double. I picked it up in a trade, but still love Jonathan Aranda. He was on the Bulls last year, back this year. Aranda can hit, but does not really have a defensive position. Should I say it?

He's a Top 100 Prospect, but only on the Baseball America list.  

That's four Top 100 Prospects and none of them are the best player I have seen in a Bulls game this year. It's tough watching the Bulls some days. 

On to a pair of non-Top 100 Prospects.  

Picked up a pair of Kameron Misner cards. He's a Missouri native, from Poplar Bluff, and also played at Mizzou during college. Misner was drafted by the Marlins and traded to the Rays last summer for Joey Wendle. No Rays cards yet, so I went for a Marlins rookie card and a sparkly Mizzou card from Panini. 

Misner is a really good defender in the outfield, but not the best hitter. Although, he has a crazy walk rate. Misner has around 200 at-bats and has walked almost 40 times. He's doesn't quite lead the league, but close.  

Last one for tonight. 

Tanner Murray has only played a few games this year. Three of them were with the Bulls. Why did I get this card?  I am a sucker for combined shipping and this card was two dollars. That's a pretty good deal for a Bowman Chrome autograph.  

Murray was decent in the lower Minors the past two years, so why not?  

A few more Durham Bulls related cards next week.  

I Don't Care That These Are For Kids.......

The 2023 baseball cards feel a little slow. It's the middle of April and all we've got so far is Topps Series  1 and Bowman Heritage from 2 years ago. Maybe some delayed 2022 products too. Where is Topps Heritage and Bowman?  

Anyway, strep has been making its way through my house this week. I have avoided it so far, but I spent my Friday hanging out with my middle schooler who felt miserable. Lots of rest, fluids, and some amoxicillin and we are feeling better today. Still, I needed a little entertainment to keep myself going yesterday, so I picked up a few packs of Topps Big League.  

I don't care that Topps Big League is made for kids, it provided a little bit of entertainment on a long day at home with a sick kid. 

Here's what I pulled out of the packs.  

The base cards are missable, but I picked out my favorite three........  

This Molina card is actually a foil parallel, hard to tell from the scan, but it has a silver finish. I did not pull a Pujols base card, which was a little disappointing, but it's a 300 card set and I opened a Blaster box with roughly 100 cards.  

My two other favorites were former Durham Bull Blake Snell and current Durham Bull Jonathan Aranda.  

I am honestly surprised that Aranda has appeared in both 2023 Topps products. I think he's a Major League player, but he's not high up on the Rays prospect list and he is buried in Triple A at the moment.  

Can I bring up the most annoying base card?  

Topps airbrushed a bunch of the players who were traded or switched teams with free agency this offseason.  Several are really bad, but Andrew McCutchen is easily the worst. It's really obvious that the photo on this card was airbrushed.  

Remember when Andrew McCutchen was on the Pirates for 9 years at the beginning of his career? You're telling me that Topps could not have used one of those photos?  I would rather see a dated photo than one where he in on the Brewers and Topps airbrushed him into a Pirates uniform.  

The insert cards are much more kid-friendly.

We've got graffiti name tag.  

Babe Ruth and graffiti. Peanut butter and jelly.  

I did pull an Albert Pujols card. Nice looking insert.    

Yes, it's a video game reference, which seems kid-friendly, but most current kids also think 8-bit games are really lame. My fifth graders talk about NBA 2K. I talk about NBA 96. They don't care about Reggie Miller or Charles Barkley. Not truly kid-friendly. Really, this card appeals to the average Topps customer. Middle-aged, white guy who collects cards and owned a Nintendo, Sega, or PlayStation at some point between elementary school and college.  

I am more of a 16-bit guy.  

These are "Fun Box" inserts.  

These two cards made me think that this insert set was somehow an ode to ballpark food or Lunchables, Ballpark food is okay, Lunchables are gross. I ended up with a few other Fun Box cards that had different backgrounds without the food.  

These feel like leftover Topps Project 2020 or Project 70 leftover cards. The Alonso card with the cartoon is goofy, but I like the Willie Mays with the swirled colors. Might be amongst my favorite cards out of these Big League packs. I guess someone at Topps was not able to quite pull this insert set together, but something decent came out of the effort.  

There are also City Slickers inserts, which are just advertisements for the Nike City Connect jerseys, which are available now at your team's store or at Nike dot com. There are a lot of base cards with City Connect jerseys as well including several Rockies players, which is why I included C.J. Cron in the scan.  

Although, those Rockies jerseys feel like an advertisement for the Colorado DMV.  

Don't forget to renew your license plates.  

Last two cards are the best two cards.  

I love the mascot cards.  

These are just incredible cards. I don't think I have a Rally Monkey card in my collection and that Fredbird card is one of the better ones out there.  There is no Opening Day set this year, so these are going to have to tide everyone over on mascot cards for the year.  

Bullish

The Durham Bulls won the Triple A Championship last year.  

The @DurhamBulls are the 2022 Triple-A National Champions!#TripleAWeekend | @raysbaseball pic.twitter.com/VSOl4qbUVc

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) October 3, 2022

That's two Triple A Championships in a row.  

I did not write much about it last year, but it was a pretty impressive group of prospects. Come to think of it, I did not write about much of anything last year. Several of the Bulls players will graduate to the Majors and will be with the Rays this summer. The team did have a few of the younger players might who might be back in Durham for another year. Either way, I have started working on putting together cards of the players.  

Today, I am starting out with two of the better Major League prospects on last year's Bulls team.  

First up, pitcher Taj Bradley.  

I have been meaning to pick up a card of Taj Bradley for awhile, but just did not get there until recently. He is only 21 and was only with the Bulls for the second half of last season, so there is a chance that he is back in Durham to start this season. Taj is a hard thrower with control. He's on most Top 100 prospect lists and has autographs on Ebay for less than $20.  

You should probably buy one and thank me later.  

Next.  

Jonathan Aranda.  

He hits and gets on-base. Reminds me a lot of Allen Craig, but he's left-handed.

Aranda has been a good player in the Minors for the past few years, but strangely has almost no cards outside of a base card and an autograph in the 2023 Topps set. He had less than 100 at-bats in the Majors last year, so I was a little surprised that he showed up on cards this year. 

Not going to complain.  

Big on both of these players for the coming year.