Three Shiny Bulls and One Flying Squirrel

I have been on a roll the last few days picking up some odds and ends that I missed throughout the earlier portions of the 2016 baseball card calendar.  Cards that I saw a few months back that either cost too much at the time on Ebay, or I could not line up a trade... Somthing happened to make me skip these cards.  I was certainly interested.

Kind of a good feeling to cross these off the list.

The four cards are in this post were all picked up in a Facebook trade.  I was originally interested in two of the cards, which feature former Durham Bulls players, but managed to kind of back into two other cards which sealed the trade.  The two main cards in my half of the trade were.....

A 2016 Topps Chrome Richie Shaffer autograph.  He has actually been shuffled between Tampa and Durham this past year.  I am hoping that he sticks around with the Rays next year, but their infield is rather crowded at the moment.  Perhaps he's trade bait, but I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him play in Durham the past two years.

Two quick observations on the Shaffer card:

• The card is one of those colored variations that pops up in the Chrome set every year.  I know there are collectors who try to chase down all of the different colors.  I feel like the longer I collect cards the less I care about all the variation stuff.  The important thing here is that I found a copy of Richie Shaffer's Topps Chrome autograph.  

• Is that a PokeBall on the end of his bat?  

Next up is my favorite Durham Bulls player from the last two years, pitcher Blake Snell....

I like the card, I like the autograph, but why is there smoke behind his head?  This card sort of looks like it was taken while Snell was on the Durham Bulls and airbrushed into a Rays uni.  The little Ray on his back sleeve looks rather sloppy for a real Rays uni.  

Next.  

Not an autograph, but still a former Durham Bulls player.  Rickard spent part of last season with the Bulls before he was left unprotected by the Rays this offseason.  The Orioles picked him up in the Rule 5 Draft and he spent the year playing in the Bigs.  His stay in Durham only lasted a little over a month, but he batted .360/.437/.472 during the stint.  Not too shabby.  

Last one.  

Last summer I spent a little bit of time traveling around to a few different ballparks in my neck of the woods.  One the trips was up to Richmond, Virginia to check out a game at The Diamond.  I actually spent a few years as a kid living in Richmond and many of my first baseball games were watching the Braves Triple A team.  Now the team in Richmond is the Flying Squirrels and they are the Double A affiliate of the Giants.  I spent part of last season following the team's box scores and the what not, one of their better players was outfielder Mac Williamson.  

Mac Williamson also has a local connection to North Carolina.  He is from Wake Forest, a town just north of Raleigh, and played college baseball at Wake Forest, a college in Winston-Salem which is about an hour and half away from the town of Wake Forest.  The card was kind of a throw-in, but I am still really happy to have this card.  

Minor League Set Week: 2015 Richmond Flying Squirrels

Down to the last my minor league set for the weekend.  This is the Richmond Flying Squirrels set for this year's team.  A lot to like about this set.  The design is pretty simple and let's the picture do most of the talking.  The pictures are crisp and we don't have any pixelated pictures or blurriness.  Any haziness in the cards is from the fact that my scanner game is bad this week.  I also like that the pictures were taken over the first half of the season and showcase a variety of different uniforms the team has worn during the year.  Believe it, or not, the Flying Squirrels seem to be one of those minor league teams that relies a little bit on gimmicky promotions.

I like the cards showing the players wearing the orange and black RVA jerseys.  Pretty sweet look.

Here are my three players:

1. Kyle Crick- Listed as the Giants top prospect and in the Top 50 in many overall prospect lists.  The 22 year old right handed pitcher throws in the mid nineties and has a nice array of pitches.  His record is not that impressive, but he is striking out a batter per inning and has a decent ERA.  I did not get to see him pitch while I was in Richmond, but he tends to have some long innings and loses focus.  There are several different places, Baseball America and MLB.com, that suggest he will be a high value relief pitcher in the long run.

2.  Tyler Beede- I have seen Beede pitch before at USA Baseball while he was at Vanderbilt.  Really good college pitcher with a high degree of finish before entering the minors.  I think he could be in the Wacha/Stroman category of being up in the Majors quickly and contributing.  He is not high end as someone like Carlos Rodon, or Strasburg, coming out of college, but he's going to play a long time and win a lot of games.

Under the radar-

3. Mac Williamson- If you look at the Giants prospects lists on Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, or MLB.com you will notice it is jam packed with pitchers.  So, I am going to go with the consensus best hitter in the Giants system Mac Williamson.  He was not in Richmond when I attended a game there, he has been promoted to Triple A, but I saw him play in college when he was at Wake Forest.  In fact, Mac is from Wake Forest, North Carolina which is about 15 minutes north of Raleigh (not home to Wake Forest U-long story go look it up).  He was one of the better power hitters in the ACC while he was in college and has shown some pop in the minors.  This year he has only 6 home runs in almost 300 at bats, but has been getting on base at nearly a .370 clip.

Other favorites in this set include Matt Lujan, the pig, who lives in the players parking lot, and Steve Kline.