I picked up a bunch of 2020 Topps cards a few weeks back on Twitter. I do not buy or trade a ton of cards there, but I saw a good deal on a Mike Brosseau Stadium Club autograph and ended up with a few other good cards in the process.
A Heard of Bulls.
Here is the Brosseau autograph.
I'm not sure what to think of this year's Stadium Club. I usually like this product, but I also usually buy a few packs at some point during the year. I am convinced that there are zero packs of baseball cards at retail stores in all of the Raleigh area. For the moment, I have a Mike Brosseau autograph. That's a good start.
I am a big fan of combined shipping, so I always ask about Rays who were on the Durham Bulls and Cardinals when I buy an inexpensive card. Here are my other former Bulls players:
I already have one of the Lowe autographs, but these are really great cards. I couldn't pass one of these up for a low price. Lowe is having a great season too.
I also received a pair of Brendan McKay 1985 Topps cards. He's out for the season with an arm injury, but I am hoping that he can make it back at some point in 2021. McKay is a two way player, not sure that will last long, but it is fun for the moment.
Last former Durham Bulls card....
Meadows is a pretty good young player. He's having a bad year, but I am still hopeful. I really like these sepia parallels. I know they are not serial numbered or tough pulls, but they always are pretty eye appealing to me.
A College of Cardinals
All three of these cards are pretty simple, but I like the looks of each of them. I got two sepia cards and a base of Miles Mikolas. I don't really collect these three players, but they might some of the few 2020 Cardinals cards in my collection.
The last card in the group was Carter Kieboom. Always love a throw-in card.
I am still catching up on the new cards that I have added to my collection over the past two weeks. I am also juggling catching up on my out going mail, nap time for my daughter, and finishing up a project for work that I have stared at for far too long. Just two cards for this post, keeping it short. They are great cards though.
I figured the baseball season was going to be short. I am honestly surprised that we have made it this far into the season. Although, my Cardinals should probably be disqualified after the past week and a half. Not many highlights for me so far this year with no Minor League season, and now no Cardinals.
I did manage to find two Topps Now cards that featured two pretty memorable highlights from the season. So, with no Durham Bulls and no Cardinals, I am looking elsewhere.
First, is the card of Dr. Fauci from his first pitch in the season opener between the Nationals and Yankees.
I believe this had the largest print run of any Topps Now card ever. Something like 50,000 copies were made. Similar to the Project 2020 cards, these have been selling for pretty unreasonable sums of money on Ebay. I like the picture in the card. While it was not the best first pitch, it was still pretty memorable considering the circumstances.
The next card is actually from the Giants exhibition games against the A's.
This is commemorating Alyssa Nakken becoming the first women to coach in an MLB game. She has actually been working for the Giants for several years, but had never taken the field in uniform in previous years. Apparently, teams can hire as many coaches as they choose, but can only have seven in the dugout for the game. I learned that a few weeks back after this game. Considering other sports have female assistant coaches and referees, it's probably time for Major League to catch up with the times.
I have been on vacation for the past week, and have enjoyed sitting around sorting out some cards and watching baseball. I have sorted out a few thousand cards, but that's for a later post.
I have also enjoyed checking out the baseball playoffs. One of the best perks of my job is the fact that I get the first two to three weeks of October off. Always nice.
On to cards.
While I have been sorting out all these cards, I have run across more than a few cards that I wish I had taken the time to post when I bought/traded for them. In looking at the stack I pulled out on Tuesday, I decided that there were two cards that were clearly better than the rest of the stack, or so they seem that way for the moment.
First card.
I posted my first card of George "Possum" Whitted way back in August. The Durham native primarily played for the Phillies, Pirates, and Cardinals from 1912 until 1922, so his cards are quite old and often quite expensive. Possum also managed and played for the Durham Bulls for six years during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
This card is from the long running Exhibits cards, which are more or less postcards with baseball players. There are still a lot of people who like collecting them. Personally, I have never done much with them, but I am not really in line to drop a few hundred dollars on a Cracker Jacks or Famous & Barr card of him. Let's try one out.
The card years on the Exhibits tend to be over multiple years. This card is listed as a 1921 in many places, but other sites have it as a 1921-1924. Either way, it's almost a century old, and still in relatively good condition. The corners are soft and the dings and scratches are on the card, not on the top loader.
I like the simplicity and the fact that this card has an actual photo of Possum. My first card was a drawing.
Next.
I still do not buy directly from Topps, but I spent one day of my summer looking for different cards they have sold on their website that I have missed out on. More of those for a later date, but know that I am not going to let the whole Aledmys thing go yet.
Since I did not buy it from Topps, some guy on Ebay got my money instead. Although he paid Topps for the card, so really Topps still made a bunch of money off of this card even though I bought it from someone else.
Some other reasons why this card is here:
Who wouldn't want an Expos card?
Have I ever told you about how St. Louis people obsess over what high school they went to? Max Scherzer and I went to different high schools, but in the same school district. Also a decade apart from each other.
Max Scherzer went to Mizzou. I did not, but I still like their sports teams.
Max Scherzer is good.
Max Scherzer is wearing an Expos uniform.
After getting the Possum Whitted card, I specifically thought about how great these two random cards would look in a post together.
My work here is done. Off to watch baseball for the rest of the day.
Once upon a time there was a quarterback at NC State who also played on the school's baseball team. We will call him Russell. Now, while he played both sports in college, most people knew him for his football talents.
Russell had some pretty good wheels and was a really accurate passer. The NC State football team had some pretty good years with Russell under center. Most importantly they did not lose to the dreaded light blue team from Chapel Hill. Best play was the two yard Hail Mary in 2010.
As I mentioned before Russell also played baseball for three years while he was in Raleigh. He was mainly an infielder, although he pitched a little here and there too. His best year on the diamond came in 2010 when he hit .306/.439/.490 in 47 games. ACC is no slouchy baseball league, so those are solid numbers.
Russell was drafted in the summer of 2010, but returned to State to play football in the fall. The spring of 2011 was spent with the Rockies who eventually sent him to play with the Asheville Tourists. He had an alright summer, but quit the Rockies towards the end of the Minor League season.
Big Russ picked up his telephone and called Tom O'Brien, the NC State football coach, but was told that the school had another quarterback who was ready to start. Mike Glennon was tall and looked a little bit awkward at times, but he also had some really good moments playing at State. My favorite....
Russell Wilson transferred to some B1G school and won some games there. Since the whole relationship was Russell has been weird. People in Raleigh really want to still love Russell. He got invited back to the spring football game have his jersey retired by the school.....
and Russell has come up with clever ways at times to merge the two schools together.....
Whole Pack of Badgers is pretty good, but Russell hasn't really dropped the whole thing about not getting his quarterback job back at NC State. For whatever reason Wisconsin invited him as a graduation speaker a year or so ago and Russ rehashed the whole story about NC State not giving him his starting job back after he quit the team.
Boo Hoo.
Which leads to a baseball card. If you go and look at a list of current baseball players who went to school at NC State you'd end up with Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner as the two most recognizable names. Pretty good talent there.
In fact that team was good enough to make a trip to the College World Series in 2013. It was a pretty cool thing to see as a Wolfpack fan.
You know who wasn't on that team? Russell. Russell Wilson never made a College World Series appearance. In fact, he was never even on the same team as Trea Turner or Carlos Rodon. The best Major League player that State had while Russ played with in Raleigh was Jake Buchanan.
Nothing wrong with Jake. It's just that he's not Trea Turner, nor Carlos Rodon. So, here is the card....
Okay. First, I was in school while Russell Wilson was the quarterback at State. I really liked watching him play football and have great memories of sitting in the student section watching him do his thing. Probably my favorite game I saw him play in was his freshman year against Miami. Really did a lot of damage with his feet. Great game to watch.
I also understand why State did not give him his scholarship back. You quit a team, they moved on. End of story. Back to the card.
I have been looking for a Russell Wilson autographed card for awhile now. I have some non-autographed cards of him with in a Wolfpack uni......
The problem with the Russell Wilson baseball autographs has always been price. There are always a bunch up on Ebay, but they are way too expensive for what I would spend on a Russell Wilson baseball card.
That's $299.99. I did not pay that much for my copy of this card, or anything close to that price. This is not just one of those jacked up prices on Ebay either. The Russell Wilson NC State autographs are always priced like this by almost everyone who sells one. Luckily I was able to trade for a copy of this card. Hurt a lot less.
Overall, there is something a little odd about this baseball card. I know that Panini put them together on a card because they went to the same school, but.....
They never played together
I am not sure you could really argue that Russell Wilson was ever a great baseball player
I am not sure that Russell Wilson wants to have much to do with NC State at the moment
Russell Wilson was not really a pitcher
Carlos Rodon makes a lot more sense for this card..or give me Dan Plesac. Someone. Anyone.
I don't have a collection of Max Scherzer cards and I am not going to start one anytime soon. Still, I have been on the lookout for one of his cards for a few months now. Different things have gotten in the way during that time. Me not paying attention to the end of Ebay auctions, getting sniped at the end of Ebay auctions, and me not willing to spend $79.99 on a Buy It Now for a Max Scherzer card.
The card I have been on the lookout for features Scherzer during his time at the University of Missouri. I went to another public university in Missouri, but I grew up rooting for the Tigers. I went to basketball and football games, had siblings attend the school, and many friends from high school.
I was living in North Carolina the majority of the time that Scherzer was at Mizzou, but I did get to see him play with play with the USA Baseball College Team.
I have always thought it would be cool to have seen Scherzer actually pitch a game for the Tigers. There is no going back at this point, so I have dabbled in Scherzer cards at times when I have had a chance to add a copy of him wearing the black and old gold. I think my first Scherzer card in a Mizzou uniform was out of the 2007 Donruss Elite set, I will post it on another day.
So, here is my second....
I love the picture of Scherzer in the Mizzou uniform obviously. The design of the card is really simple, but I like the fact that it draws your eye towards the signature and the picture. Yes, the signature is a sticker autograph which is always something I try to avoid, but in this case I am making past it just fine.
The official school colors of NC State are red and white, but if you watch enough of their sporting events you'd know that every great once in awhile the school breaks out some black uniforms. I have never quite understood the timing of the events, but it usually happens at least once a year in most of the sports.
Black jerseys for basketball.....
Black Jerseys for football......
and of course State also wears black jerseys for baseball too. However, of all the sports teams at the school I am pretty sure that the baseball teams wears their black uniforms more than the other sports. True, they have a larger slate of games to wear alternate jerseys, but the black jerseys seem to pop up a little more frequently on the diamond.
The football jerseys are probably the shakiest unis out of the black alternate jerseys pictured here, and while I am usually not a fan of straying from the school's color scheme I must say that the black looks really nice with the red and white. At least a lot better looking than some of the black jerseys that the two blue Carolina schools from down the street try to pull off.
Which leads me to my newest baseball card of a Wolfpack player. They are wearing a black jersey on the card which is itself a black baseball card. Looks really sharp. There was a little glare from the scanner, the card has a really shiny finish......
This might be the nicest NC State baseball card that I own. I have picked up a bunch over the years, and while I sure some of them have a lower print run or whatever, this card is just awesome in every way that a baseball card can be. I know that Carlos Rodon also has a bunch of cards like this that Panini has put out, but Turner seems to suddenly be the player with the higher upside which was not the way it was viewed while they were playing in Raleigh. The back of the card....
Very well done by Panini and very happy to own this card. I hope that I can find another couple of cards from this set which fit into my collection. Go Pack! Go Trea Turner, hope it's a good year!
Why I am I posting this a few months after the set came out? See the post from yesterday about the Durham Bulls set. I picked this up at a Durham Bulls game and it features some really good talent from the International League which is Triple A level teams. Sometimes the amount of high end talent in Triple A can be short lived, it seems that more and more teams get players past Double A and promote them very quickly.
Cards and a little snippet about one of the players, maybe two....
Out of this group I really like Josh Bell. Berrios could be really good too, but he's been really shaky at the Major League level. Bell made it to the Majors last year too, and while the pop in his bat did not shine through in the 40 or so games he played in Pittsburgh, he had more walks than strikeouts. That translated into a .368 OBP. Getting on base is always a good skill to have and a great way to stick around...
A lot of players to like here....Pompey is a great defensive player, should be around a long time as a good centerfielder. Glasnow is going to be a good pitcher, Judge is going to hit, and I am still pretty high on Buxton. Feel like people have gotten down about him, but he is still only 22 and has a lot of potential.
Sanchez and Turner are the real standouts here, but there are others in this group who could be solid players. My favorite here is obviously Snell, also good to see Shaffer in this set, but I think he's lost a lot of his luster as a prospect. Severino and the two Red Sox could also be pretty good.....
Last three...
Hey, I like that Bacon USA jersey Nick Williams is wearing.....
Trea Turner is really fast. I am really fast if I am running with someone who has a sprained ankle.
Trea Turner is really good at baseball. I am really good at wiffleball when the people I am playing against have been drinking.
Trea Turner is on the Washington Nationals. Sometimes I watch the Washington Nationals on television.
Trea Turner was once a student at NC State. I was also once a student at NC State. I graduated, not sure about Trea, but I might have that over him. Maybe.
Sorry, I am not scanning my degree for this post.
I did scan a pair of Trea Turner cards for the post that I picked up because I did go to NC State. I borrowed the title from a speech given by another former student at NC State.....
I am hoping that maybe Zach Galifianakis could have Trea Turner on Between Two Ferns in the near future.
I actually picked up both of these cards from a card shop in St. Louis, RBI Cru 7, awhile back. The store was not there when I last lived in the Lou, but I actually picked these up after they posted a picture of them on Twitter. I need to get to that shop one day soon, hopefully it's near an Imo's since we do not have provel cheese in Raleigh.
First up.
This is a Tier One autograph of Turner numbered out of 25. I love these cards when they have the gold and silver signatures. It's a little busy with the granite like design on the bottom of the card, but overall this is a very nice card of the former Wolfpacker. The card is serial numbered out of 25.
Next.
Also a Topps Tier One autograph, this card is serial numbered out of 250. The card has a little bit cleaner look with the lighter colored marble pattern on the bottom of the card and the signature in blue ink. While Turner has a really simple signature, he is really good about the consistency on his 'graphs. The autograph on both cards is roughly the same.
Overall, I am thrilled to add these two cards to my growing collection of Trea Turner autographs.
Oh, and while we are here tonight.... Go State! Beat the Illini.
Topps is now making cards that feature in season highlights the day after they happen. Jake Arrieta throws a no-hitter, Topps Now card. Melvin Upton has a walk off hit, Topps Now. Supposedly Topps got the idea for the Topps Now cards from this scene from SpaceBalls.
Since its inception Topps Now has drawn a lot of talk around social media. Some good, some not good. Recently I took the Topps Now plunge. At $9.99 a card I was expecting something really cool. I received my envelope a week, or two, ago and all I can say is "sigh". Let me review a few reasons for my sigh of disappointment.
1. Shoddy Packaging - Seriously, a $10 card with no penny sleeve in the cheapest, flimsiest Ultra Pro that money can possibly buy. If someone had sent a card like this off of Ebay the would at least get a stern message about their packaging. Luckily in this case nothing happened to my card, but if you have not bought from Topps Now, just beware that this is how your card is shipped.
2. Remind Me What's So Special? - I took Bryce out of his flimsy Ultra Pro to scan him, he's felling better in a penny sleeve and a sturdier top loader. I had to check out the front and back of the card, but outside of the date on the front of the card I cannot really find anything that sets the card apart to make it special. Is there a serial number? No. Is there some sort of cool certification statement on the back? No. So, it's printed on some sort of cool card stock, something? No. Anything? No.
3. So This Will Be Great For Team Collectors? - Some of this is a little bit tricky. If you are going to make roughly two cards a day, there are going to be days where there are some really tough choices. As a Cardinals fan, I was happy to see Jaime Garcia get a card for his near no-hitter, but I have also been disappointed that Topps has missed getting a card of Aledmys Diaz out. You know, the rookie shortstop is has been hitting .400 during April and leading the world in OPS, OPS+, and WAR. So, maybe I am biased. I asked around.
I decided that I would check out a Cubs collector or two who had said something about Topps Now cards. After all, nobody is having a better season than the Cubs....Both liked the Arrieta no-hit card that Topps put out the day after, but that was sort of a no-brainer. Both mentioned a few different plays and games that could have been a Topps Now card, but both wondered why Dexter Fowler had gone unnoticed for the first month of the season? Fowler has had a spectacular start to the season, several huge games, yet nothing.
Dropping down further in the standings, there are several other collectors who have teams that currently reside near the bottom of their divisions. For example, as a Durham Bulls fan and collector, I have the chance to interact with a lot of Rays collectors. Many have expressed doubts about the Rays getting a Topps Now card anytime soon short of a no-hitter. After all, Drew Smyly accomplished almost the same thing that Jaime Garcia got a Topps Now card for, but where is his card?
I missed getting to see Trea Turner in the Minors this summer, but it is good to see him up in the Majors playing for the Nationals. It's been a little bit of a slow start for the shortstop so far with just 1 hit in his first 14 games. Still most baseball fans are expecting good things from the former Padres first round draft pick who officially came over to the Nationals this summer after being traded last fall. It's a long story. While I am not a huge fan of the Nationals I have enjoyed following Turner's career since he starred locally for NC State.
Turner should move into a starting role next season for the Nationals and should provide the team with good defense up the middle and lots of speed. I have seen a couple of Nats fans question Turner's ability to hit given his struggles so far in the Majors, but I think he is going to be just fine in the long run.
My newest Turner card comes from the Bowman Inception set and features a nice on-card autograph of the former NC State star. Turner has had numerous autographs over the past few years, but I think this might be the best of the lot, meaning it's not an unlicensed card or airbrushed from a stock college photograph. I am guessing a Nats autograph could show up at some point this fall, until then this is my favorite Trea Turner autograph.
If you missed my list of top 5 rookie position players you can click here to review my list. For this morning's list I am going to take a look at some of the rookie pitchers floating around MLB this year. There are some good names on this list, but I do not think any of these players are strong candidates for the Rookie of the Year hardware. Still, long term, I think some of these players are going to be very good pitchers.
5. Chris Heston - Giants
Heston is a 27 year old rookie who spent a long time in the minors. He's also already thrown a no-hitter for the Giants. The East Carolina grad probably does not have a really high ceiling as a Major Leaguer, but he's here and filling a role for a contending team as a starting pitcher. There have been good starts, and a few bad ones, but everything about Heston's numbers suggests he is just an average pitcher. His ERA+ is 102, FIP 3.37, and his K/9 and BB/9 are 6.8 and 2.9. Just average. I think that the no-hitter he pitched against the Mets earlier in the year might garner him a Rookie of the Year vote or two, but he's not a serious contender.
4. Taylor Jungmann - Brewers
Jungmann has pitched well enough that perhaps he should be higher than five on this list, but I am not sure if he's going to keep up his current level of performance. Perhaps I will look back at this list in a year and shake my head for putting him fifth, or perhaps I will look back and think about why I did not put a player like Carlos Rodon, who has a higher ceiling without the success in the Majors, on this list. In the minors Jungmann started almost 90 games with an ERA just over 4.00 a WHIP of 1.358 and a K/9 rate under 7. Kind of blah, but throw in the fact that his walk rate is almost 4 and he kind of seems like the fifth starter/long reliever type. The Brewers put him at the end of the rotation and he's done nothing but pitched well since. Well might be selling it short. He's K/9 rate is suddenly almost 8, his walk rate is 2.6, he's given up 2 home runs in 71.2 innings, and has an ERA+ of 174. If he had enough starts to qualify his 2.89 FIP would put him in the top 10. Again, I am not sure this is a true picture of what Taylor Jungmann truly is as a pitcher, or we are just witnessing a hot streak that will end when he starts facing teams a second and third time. I like his curveball.
3. Joe Ross - Nationals
What in the world were the Padres thinking by trading this guy? For Wil Myers? Seriously, I think that Ross is going to be a really good pitcher for a long time. This spot on my list this morning is sort of the dividing line, Jungmann and Heston might be solid pitchers at best, Ross and the two names lower on the list have high ceilings and could be much more than solid pitchers. He has only made seven starts, and I get the feeling the Nationals are being really careful with the right handed pitcher, but his numbers are quite impressive. More than a strikeout per inning, an FIP of 2.56, and an ERA+ of 137. My favorite number on Ross, just seven starts in, is his 47 strikeouts versus 4 walks. Seems Pedro Martinez like. I am eager to see how the rest of the season plays out for Ross, but I would imagine a goos showing will mean that the Nats find a spot in the rotation, full-time, for him next season.
2. Lance McCullers - Astros
McCullers was a first round draft pick of the Astros back in 2012. They have added a lot of other talent to their Minor League system since they drafted McCullers, so I feel like he gets overshadowed often by guys like Carlos Correa and Mark Appel. Still, McCullers has 14 Major League starts under his belt and his striking out more than a batter per inning with a FIP under 3. I have never seen McCullers in person, but I know a lot of people have been really impressed by him and think he will be a very good pitcher for a long time.
1. Noah Synergaard - Mets
Syndergaard is clearly the class of the rookie pitchers this year. Coming into the season he was almost universally rated as a top 10 prospect by publications like Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. Unlike some of the previous names on this list, who are out performing their minor league numbers, Syndergaard has dominated since starting his career. His ERA has been right around 3 in almost 100 starts and he has averaged more than a strikeout per inning throughout. Really his roughest year in the minors was last year when he had an ERA of 4.60 in the offensive minded Pacific Coast League. The Mets started him out there again this year and he was dominating in five starts. Since being called up to the Mets he has started 15 games this season and is averaging more than a strikeout per inning while holding down an FIP of 2.78. If he had enough innings to qualify for the league leader board he would be in the top 10 in that statistic behind Garret Cole. His K/9 is in line with pitchers like Cole Hamels and Lance Lynn. I have watched a couple of his starts this season and have been really impressed with his stuff. Syndergaard clearly can be a front line pitcher in the Majors for a long time.
My baseball summer tour came to a close Thursday night when I attended the Richmond Flying Squirrels game versus the Harrisburg Senators. I picked the final stop in Richmond since it was the first place that I attended a professional baseball game sometime back in the early 1980s. My wife made the trip up to Richmond with me, so we get some non-baseball items too.
We took a tour around the area where I used to live in Richmond and decided to do a quick random restaurant. We do not eat at chains on the road choosing to look for something local and unique instead. We went to The Mill on MacArthur. Excellent.
It's pub food, but it has a lot of good touches. They have a great wine and beer selection too. If you happen to ever be in Richmond this is a great place. Small, yet friendly. On to baseball.....
The outside of The Diamond is a giant concrete bowl with a shoddy wooden fence out in the outfield. In discussing the stadium with different people someone suggested that the outfield fence actually was originally attached to Parker Field. There is a gap in between the billboards on the fence which is reportedly one of the "character" points of the stadium. Really, the outside of this park reminds me of the 70s cookie cutter concrete bowls. The inside is old and antiquated too.
Narrow and crowded concourses run throughout the stadium. The Squirrels had a good crowd for the game (6,200) and the areas around the concession stands tended to bottleneck. While the stadium is just 30 years old it was one of the major reasons that the Braves pulled their Triple A affiliate out of Richmond and moved them to Gwinnett. Even now, the stadium debate in Richmond is still a hot issue and many feel like the Squirrels will leave too without a better facility.
The seating area is better than the inside areas of the stadium. The lower deck has nice seats with good views of the field. There is little foul territory on the field, so fans are really close to the players. The back of the lower bowl has party boxes with seating areas inside and outside. The upper deck has a pretty sharp downward angle (sort of like Kaufmann in KC) with the awesomeness of tarps around the top. What is the stadium in Oakland called now? Yeah.
Oh, and while you are getting off my lawn there is also this.....
Why am I being served ice cream in an Angels helmet at a game involving a Giants affiliate? All I could think of was Scott Spiezo and Troy Glaus going off against the Giants bullpen in the 2002 World Series.
The game. The Squirrels put up a four spot in the second inning which was more offense than the Senators could muster. One of the big hits in the inning came from starting pitcher Matt Lujan. Watching an American League minor league team (Durham Bulls- Rays) means I do not see the pitcher bat ever unless I am watching the Cardinals game on television.
Lujan was also pretty sharp on the mound. The left handed starter had taken a no hitter into the seventh the last time he pitched against the Senators and was dominating again this time. Lujan is not the hardest thrower (high 80s/low 90s), but has good control and stays on the edges of the plate. Here's a great battle against Matt Skole. I am not sure where this last pitch was on this at-bat, but I was ready to punch out Skole.....
I also spent a little bit of time watching Squirrels outfielder Devin Harris. I do not write up many college baseball games, but I saw him play several times while he was playing at East Carolina. He's had two really good years for the Pirates before being drafted by the Giants. Here is one of his at bats......
Outside of the four runs scored by the Squirrels in the second, they tacked on a late run, and cruised to a 5-1 victory. I was impressed with Lujan's control and command during the game, and while he is not the best pitching prospect on the team, I would imagine he'd have a role on the Giants at some point in the future.
Overall, The Diamond leaves a lot to be desired, but the on the field product is pretty good here. The Double A players are a little more advanced than the players I saw in Greensboro and Burlington, but also not far from the level of players I saw all the time watching the International League (AAA). The team seems well supported, so hopefully the city can build a new stadium, maybe get rid of those Angels ice cream batting helmets, and maybe let's lose some of the on field promotions. Flamingos, pigs. Aye Caramba.
