Friday Five: Favorite Delmon Young Cards

I have been writing about the Durham Bulls a lot this past week, so I figured I would break out some Delmon Young cards, scan them, and write them into a post. Delmon was a top 5 prospect for several years in the early 2000s and was the star of the Durham Bulls when I moved to North Carolina.  

His most famous moment as a top prospect for the Durham Bulls was launching his bat at an umpire after striking out in a game against Jon Lester......

Delmon would later go on to disappoint Rays and Twins fans, before developing a reputation as a clutch Postseason player for the Tigers and Orioles. He was out of MLB in his early thirties, but continued to play baseball overseas in the Australian League.  

Sorry, no Australian baseball cards in this post, but these are my Top 5 Delmon Young cards......

5. 2007 Topps 52 Chrome Delmon Young 

Yes, it's a reprint or rehashed design from 1952 Topps, but it's a really good looking card.  This is also when we started getting the "official" rookie cards. This is an official rookie card, unlike the other cards on this list, which are all unofficial.  

4. 2007 Topps Finest Autographs Delmon Young 

Baseball cards do not usually reference too much on-field drama, but here we are with Delmon's 2007 Finest autograph. Notice the "Revenge is Sweet" footnote at the bottom of the card. The back has a short write-up about the "revenge", but they go a little soft. So, here is the story this card is supposed to tell:

The Rays called up Delmon Young at the end of August 2006. His first game is against the White Sox in Chicago. Ozzie Guillen thinks Delmon is an ass and has Freddy Garcia drill him in the back on the first pitch in his first career at-bat. A few innings later, Delmon hit a home run off of Freddy Garcia.  

Here is a snippet of the box score:

Here is a white card with a silver sticker. I cannot roll my eyes hard enough.  

3. 2006 TIAA-CREF Durham Bulls Delmon Young 

Yes, I do work in education and would love to hear about your TIAA-CREF retirement plans, provided I get a baseball card for listening to your sales pitch.......

TIAA-CREF guy: "Save some money or you'll be on food stamps when you retire"  

I enjoyed the sales pitch, but after actually getting the Delmon Young card in my hands and hearing about my future on food stamps, I remembered that there is a financial advisor guy who stops by my school. I am going to teach for 30 years, get a full pension and benefits from the State of North Carolina, and now I also have a TIAA-CREF Delmon Young card. 

You do not see this card very often. 

2. 2004 Bowman Sterling Delmon Young Bat/Autograph 

Delmon could always hit.  

Delmon could never catch the ball.  

This card used to be worth a bazillion dollars and it shows Delmon likely playing a routine fly ball into a double or triple, depending on the speed of the batter. When people who are getting into prospecting ask my strategy as a Minor League for getting good cards of big prospects, I think of this card and tell them to wait a decade. I am certain this card had a three digit value when he was on the Bulls in 2005 and 2006, but it was $10 when I bought it.  

1. 2003 Bowman Chrome Delmon Young Autograph 

One of the great "what could have been" cards from the early 2000s. If only Delmon had stayed on the field a little longer and treated the regular season with the same urgency he treated the Postseason. Maybe not thrown a bat at an umpire, or yelled a bunch of antisemitic stuff at some guy in New York.  

These Are All Devil Rays Cards, But....

I am still working on some Durham Bulls sets.  The last two weeks, I have been working on putting together a group of cards from the 1975 Topps Mini set featuring the players who appeared for the Durham Bulls.  I am going to walk and chew gum at the same time, and work a little bit on another group of Durham Bulls cards from a little bit newer set.  

All the cards in this post come from the 2006 Topps 52 set.  I know, Topps overuses old card designs, but this set has a good group of players from the 2006 Bulls team, which was the first one that I got to watch after moving to Durham.  All of the players in this post are pictured in a Devil Rays uniform, but all of them played the majority of the season with the Bulls.  

I think Delmon Young was in Durham the shortest time in 2006, but that was mainly because he was suspended for a huge chunk of the season.  

Since this is a modern set, there are some different challenges from the 1975 Topps Mini set.  The base cards are easy to find, but several of the cards have a red and black backs, along with one card that has an action shot variation.  Each card also has three Chrome parallels with one numbered to 1952, another numbered to 552, and the final numbered to 52.  

There is also an insert card of Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young, along with an autograph of pitcher Brian Stokes, so I am adding those to my checklist, which I broken into pieces throughout the post.  There are roughly 30 cards here, but I am treating the base cards and parallels like they are smaller sets.  I have not really touched the 2007 Topps 52 product, outside of a few Cardinals autographs, so I am starting from 0.  

Here is my first group of cards, starting with the base cards with red backs.  These are the most common cards in the set.  

There are seven total red backs, so this groups gets me about half way through this checklist. 

Base Set Cards - Red Card Backs

#53 - Shawn Riggans 

#65 - Elijah Dukes 

#70 - Delmon Young 

#80 - Andy Sonnanstine 

#81 - Brian Stokes 

#95 - Elijah Dukes 

#114 - Juan Salas 

The black backs are the most common parallel.  There are a bunch of these that are cheap on COMC, but I am a little reluctant to buy them at the moment.  I love cheap, but I have heard from several people that waiting times on COMC orders are currently several months.  

I will find them somewhere else.  In the meantime, I found Elijah Dukes.  

Only 5 cards in the black back parallels.  

Base Set Cards - Black Card Backs

#53 - Shawn Riggans 

#70 - Delmon Young 

#73 - Andy Sonnanstine 

#81 - Brian Stokes 

#95 - Elijah Dukes 

Last up are the Chrome parallels.  I feel like I actually got off to a good start with these. Of the 30 cards mentioned at the top of the post to finish all of the 2006 Durham Bulls players, half are Chrome parallels.  I picked up a pair of cards serial numbered to 1952 a pair to 552, and one card numbered to 52.  

The 1952 serial numbers first.  

The cards numbered to 552.  

Finally, one last card that is numbered to 52.  

These five cards get me roughly through one-third of the Chrome cards.  I was most worried about finding the Delmon Young serial numbered to 52, but that is one card that I have on the way.  He was high on the prospect list when this set was released, and I was worried they may all have disappeared into people's collections.  

Chrome Parallels 

#47 - Delmon Young - 1952

#47 - Delmon Young - 552 

#47 - Delmon Young - 52

#59 - Shawn Riggans - 1952

#59 - Shawn Riggans - 552 

#59 - Shawn Riggans - 52

#65 - Elijah Dukes - 1952

#65 - Elijah Dukes - 552 

#65 - Elijah Dukes - 52

#80 - Andy Sonnanstine - 1952

#80 - Andy Sonnanstine - 552 

#80 - Andy Sonnanstine - 52

#86 - Brian Stokes - 1952

#86 - Brian Stokes - 552 

#86 - Brian Stokes - 52

I also picked up one of the two insert cards from the set.   The other being an autograph, more on that in a minute.   

Dynamic Duos 

DD5 - Delmon Young/Elijah Dukes 

Base Set Cards - Action Variations

#70 - Delmon Young 

Topps 52 Signatures 

#BS - Brian Stokes 

After one post, I am at 10 out of 30 cards.  I do not think this is going to be very difficult to put together, but I am worried about whether the Brian Stokes autograph exists.  It's why I said there were roughly 30 cards in the set.  The Stokes was an exchange card, but it's not clear that he ever actually signed them.  I cannot find a single copy of the card anywhere on the internet.  However, Stokes was generally a really good signer during the mid 2000s.  He appeared in tons of different baseball card sets.  It's also hard for me to imagine he didn't sign them, since he autographed everything else around this time.  

Project Durham Bulls #20 - Ben Zobrist

2006-2008 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

Zobrist started off his professional career with the Astros after they selected him in the 6th round of the 2004 Amateur Draft out of Dallas Baptist University.  After two years in the Astros organization he was traded to the Rays in exchange for Aubrey Huff.  Zobrist was very much the same type of player offensively in the Minors as he is in the Majors.  He had a little bit of pop in his bat, but his main offensive skill was getting on base.  During his first two go arounds in Durham, 2006 and 2007, he managed to draw more walks than strikeouts over almost 80 games.  His OBP for the Bulls was above .400 during each of the 3 seasons that he played in Durham.  Zobrist is probably best known as a player who can show up anywhere on the field, but that skill did not show up until he reached the Majors for good in 2008.  The Astros played him exclusively at shortstop, while the Rays Minor League teams used him at second, short, and third.  However, the majority of his time with the Rays Minor League teams was still spent at short.  So much that I could say about Zobrist, I will keep it short and simple.  He has appeared at every position in the Majors except pitcher.  He's played more than 100 career games at second, short, and the two corner outfield spots.  Zobrist has now been in the Majors for 12 seasons, made three All-Star games, won two World Series rings, and a World Series MVP.  He has a solid .263/.356/.428 slash line with more than 150 home runs and 300 doubles.  

 Card-

I actually already had a copy of this card that I picked up way back in 2007 from one of my favorite card shops in St. Louis.  I had seen Zobrist on the 2006 Durham Bulls, so I knew of him at the time.  I went home for Thanksgiving with my then girlfriend, now wife, and I took her to the card shop.  She was a great sport about the whole baseball card shop thing.  Anyway, the guy who ran the store always used to open a pack out of the boxes that he was using to sell single packs.  Sitting there in the open pack of the Topps 52 box was a Zobrist autograph.  I asked the guy about the card, he had no idea who Zobrist was, and I ended up getting the card for a few dollars.  Always liked this card a lot, saw a cheap one the other week.  Thought it would look nice is this space.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets From 2006

5. 2006 Bowman Heritage

I miss Bowman Heritage.  I get to talk about this set one more time on one of these Friday Five posts and then it is gone.  Sort of wish there were more cool old Bowman sets that Topps could rehash, but the original Bowman products did not stick around too long.  I will wait patiently until they decide to rehash the 1989 Bowman set, hopefully there is a Royce Clayton autograph in the set.  This set was a 300 card with the majority of the high numbers over 200 being short printed.  I believe that the "official" Prince Fielder rookie card is in this product, but I always give the nod to the Upper Deck Prospect Premiers card in spite of the fact that the 2006 cards, across all brands, had that cheesy rookie card logo.  In fact, the vast majority of the players in this set with the rookie card logo had rookie cards in previous card years.  The most egregious rookie logo cards in this set were players like Justin Verlander and Jared Weaver who not only had rookie cards made in prior years, but they were also Bowman cards.  A cool design helped this set make my list.  

4. 2006 Topps 52

The 1952 Topps set is a classic.  Sometimes Topps goes to that well a few too many times.  At the time this set was released I kind of thought it stunk and I completely ignored the product.  A few years later I found a really cheap box somewhere online, busted open the box, and was hooked.  Sure, there are some not so great names floating around this "rookie card" product, but there are enough cool players in here to make the product worth while.  Let's not forget the fact that the set is also loaded down with all kinds of cool on card autographs.  

Boxes are still floating around and are not too expensive if you want to press your luck looking for a cool autograph.  The singles of most of the autographs can be found pretty on Ebay and are pretty affordable.  The other highlight in this set is the Mickey Mantle card which has different variations based on the background color of the card.  There are half a dozen different versions of the card, which make it a pretty reasonable variation to find, and complete the set.  Definitely a set that has grown on my over the years.  

3. 2006 Topps Heritage

This was a pretty fun set to put together and I really like the simplicity of the 1957 Topps set.  The short-prints in the set were concentrated in the middle of the set, 300s, with a few scattered around the low numbers.  As a Cardinals fan I consider this set a really important set for one reason: It marked the last really high quality Stan Musial autograph.  Stan still signed autographs for a few more years, but his signature really seemed to decline after this product. Do I own a Stan Musial autograph from this set? 

The coolest thing in the world is when you buy a box and get a big hit card from a team or player that you collect.  This is the last Stan autograph I pulled out of a box and it is definitely a really cool one.  I bought this box from a card shop on Duke Street in Durham, it's long gone, and was incredibly happy to land this one.  Unfortunately I was surrounded by a bunch of high school kids playing Pokemon cards.  Probably why the card shop is gone.  This is a must have for any Cardinals fan.  

2. 2006 Upper Deck 

This was most of my summer card collecting in 2006.  The Upper Deck set went giant that year with a 1,250 card base set which was put out in three parts.  There were two 500 card series with a 250 card update that was issued later in the year.  The boxes were not too expensive and there were some above average autographs in here too.  I also like this design with the borderless look and the player name printed across the bottom in the middle.  The foil team logo gives it that Upper Deck feel.  This card also features the dreaded rookie card logo I was talking about above. 

Which leaves the no-brianer......

1.  2006 Allen & Ginter

Easily the best set of 2006.  Incredible first set with an equally awesome autograph checklist.  

2006 Topps 52 Edward Mujica Autograph

A minor addition to my collection was made this past week in the form of this cool 2006 Topps 52 Edward Mujica card.  I picked up this card off of Ebay for less than $2.00.

2006 Topps 52 Edward Mujica Autograph

While this card is not the most exciting or expensive card, I was happy to add this card given the performance of Mujica after his trade to the Cardinals this past summer.  Mujica pitched in 29 games for the Cardinals this summer and had 21 strikeouts to 3 walks, along with an ERA of 1.03 and a WHIP of 0.87.  He frequently pitched the seventh inning in front of Mitchell Boggs in the eighth and Jason Motte in the ninth.  As you can imagine, the market for Mujica cards is extremely limited.  This card is his only certified autograph and since he has now appeared for the Cardinals, a must have for my card collection.  

If you are looking for another sweet Mujica card I would highly recommend the 2012 Topps Update card.  Great job by Topps of getting a Mujica card into the set and an even better job on the photo with the powder blue 80s Cardinals uniform.

2012 Topps Update Sparkle Edward Mujica 

2006 Topps 52 Matt Kemp Autograph

I've been reflecting on some of the cards that are already in my collection this week and have taken a bit of a break from the cards coming into my collection from trades.  So, this weekend it's time to catch up a little bit.  First up for the weekend is this great Matt Kemp autograph from the 2006 Topps 52 set.  This card is a dupe for my collection, but is one of the real underrated Kemp cards out there on the market.

The card is technically a second year year card for Kemp, but it's an on card autograph and is often in high demand.  I actually traded one of these cards earlier this year at the beginning of the baseball season and the card literally doubled in value the next week.  Maybe not doubled, but not far from it.  I have traded a few other nice Kemp cards from my collection throughout the summer, but I have also managed to add a few really nice pieces too often at a very low cost.  

The dynamics of how people value Matt Kemp cards has intrigued me this entire season.  Last year I owned zero Matt Kemp cards.  About half way through the year I added one copy of this card to my collection for around $10 and added a second for just under $20 towards the end of the season.  I was also able to buy and trade for several nice relic cards for little or nothing.  All the trades and purchases were made with dealers or at card shops in the Midwest, which probably added a little to the discount, but given the level of performance when Kemp has stayed healthy it's hard to understand.  

A quick glance at Kemp cards on Ebay offers a similar view.  On the lower end of the spectrum of Kemp autographs selling on the site is his 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars autograph.  It's a fine card, but it's got a high run and is on a sticker.  Copies of the card have ranged from $12 to $25 in the past two weeks.  Did the value of the card double or half during that time?  On the higher end his raw Bowman rookie autograph has had a $60 pendulum over the past two months and the featured card in this post has had a $90 swing.  

So, what are Kemp cards really worth?  Given that Kemp was hitting over .400 at the beginning of May with an OPS over 1.300 and is entering the prime of his career at 27 I would bet it's towards the high end of the spectrum.  Kemp has had an injury plagued season, but the excitement his cards generated earlier in the season when he was healthy should be a sign to collectors to find the bargains available on Kemp cards and hold on for the long haul.