More Australians, Less Profanity

In my time watching the Durham Bulls, the team has had two Australian players. The first appeared in 2008 when the Rays sent newly acquired relief pitcher Grant Balfour down for a little fine tuning. If you are not familiar with Grant Balfour, he is an excellent pitcher, but might be the angriest player who ever stepped foot on a baseball field. 

The confines of a Major League stadiums could not hold his f bombs and Minor League parks were no different. I'd like to think Balfour's most notable angry moment came in the 2013 American League playoffs when he started yelling at Tigers catcher Victor Martinez for who knows what reason......

While Balfour turned many live broadcasts into NSFW territory, nobody could really complain about the results. During his stay in 2008, Balfour had an ERA of 0.38 for the Durham Bulls with an impressive 14.8 strikeouts per 9 innings and 8 saves, all while sharing the closer role.  

The Bulls second Australian joined the team towards the end of the 2021 season with the addition of third baseman Curtis Mead. He's a top 100 prospect, one of the Rays top prospects, and the third baseman of the future in Tampa. The Rays called him up and he made his Major League debut this season. Mead's numbers weren't great, but he also got less than 100 plate appearances. 

Mead also managed to hit his first Major League home run.  

I have posted other Curtis Mead cards on here previously under the heading of "Troppo prices", which means they are crazy in Australian. Luckily, it seems like the prospecting crowd gave up the Bulls third baseman this year, outside of his first Bowman Chrome. Thank you prospectors for quitting a player I enjoy watching. I can now afford some of his cards without taking out a second mortgage on my house.  

For my first round of new Curtis Mead cards, I tried to focus on his Durham Bulls cards. He's had several produced over the past two years. I got all four of the cards featured in this post for around $25. Between a box of cards at Target or a few Curtis Mead cards, I will take a few Curtis Mead cards.  

The first card, out of 2022 Topps Heritage Minor League, is the most expensive and cost me roughly half the $25 I spent on this lot of cards. This card has a nice on-card signature and shows Mead wearing a Durham Bulls jersey. A real Durham Bulls jersey, not one that is photoshopped onto the card, which leads me to the really odd thing about this card. 

The photograph on the front shows Mead in a Bulls home uniform, but the photo is not taken in the Durham Bulls Stadium. Notice the players sitting in the dugout are wearing home white uniforms too. That is typically the visitors dugout in Durham. However, the top of the dugout is not right, nor is the color of the wall at the top of the stands.  

I will figure it out one day, but for the moment I am happy to own my second Curtis Mead autograph.  

These two cards are parallels of his 2022 Topps Pro Debut base card. The top card is the Chrome parallel, which is not serial numbered. Good looking card and I wish Topps had made a Chrome parallel for this set about a decade ago. 

The second card is the pink parallel, which is serial numbered to 199 copies. Another nice looking parallel. Imagine a pink Chrome card. I know, it's too much to ask.  

Last card.....

This is an insert card from the 2022 Heritage Minors set, which borrows its design from the 1973 Topps Pin-Up cards. Not the hardest insert to pull, but nice enough to add to the Curtis Mead collection.  

A few shiny Curtis Mead cards will be posted in the near future.  

Hope You Can Help The Ballclub......

Do you play fantasy baseball?  

I had not played in roughly a decade, but decided to take on a team this year. I figured I was going to be a little rusty, so I just signed up for a team on Yahoo.That's all people do on Yahoo these days, right?  

Anyway, my team is doing well. I am currently in fifth place a few games out of first place in a 12 team league. My team is heavy on offense, I tend to fill in my pitching stats by picking up probable starters. I have always used that approach with my teams and it has generally worked well. 

Anyway, besides playing fantasy baseball for the competition, I learn a lot about some players I might otherwise miss. It also is a great excuse to go find some baseball cards of these new found players. There are several non-Durham Bulls/non-Cardinals who have helped my fantasy baseball team this year and four of them have also joined my baseball card collection. 

Hope these guys can still help my baseball team and my card collection.  

First up, Braves pitcher Bryce Elder.  

He's won a bunch of games and has a low ERA. Not the best strikeout pitcher, but a solid contributor to my baseball team. I worry that his first half performance has been "smoke and mirrors", but I am not really attached to starting pitchers. I will move on to someone else.  

In the meantime, Bryce has some nice on-card autographs. Picked up a 2021 Heritage Minor League card from his time in the Gulf Coast League.  

Next up is Yandy Diaz.  

Yandy has also been a good average and on-base player, but the extra base hits have been a pleasant surprise this year. I originally had him on my roster to balance out some of my power guys who hit for a lower average, but Yandy is actually hitting home runs this year.  

Yandy is on the Rays, so it might be a little surprising that I don't own one of his autographs already. However, Yandy was never actually on the Durham Bulls. He came up with Cleveland, played part of two seasons with the Guardians, and then was traded to the Rays. Yandy never touched Triple-A with the Rays and won't at this point barring an injury-rehab assignment.  

Yandy has only two certified autographs, both stickers, and they are messy. Yandy has a really tall signature and should not be trying to squeeze it onto a sticker autograph.  

Next.  

I kind of dig this card as much as I have enjoyed Mitch Keller's wins and strikeouts during the first half of the baseball season. When did this guy turn into a good player? He's like the one pitcher on my roster, not quite, that I won't release after every start and resign two weeks later.  

The card is a Bowman Tek, which only lasted one year. It was like Topps Tek, but with prospects. I am guessing it was not a very successful set and this card only cost me $2.  

Last one.  

Bryan Reynolds is my glue guy. I have Ronald Acuna, Corbin Carroll, and Wander Franco doing a lot of the heavy lifting for my offense, but Bryan Reynolds helps out everywhere. His average is decent, he hits for power sometimes, and he steals bases. At the end of the week when I look at my totals and see that I won a category by 1 home run/stolen base/run, I can look down and see that Bryan Reynolds is the player that put me over for the week.  

Fist bump.  

Reynolds was good last year and I guess his cards are becoming more popular.  At $12, this is the most money I have spent on a modern Pirates card in at least a decade. 

Wandering When This Would Happen

The Minor League Baseball season ended a month ago.  My local rooting interest, the Durham Bulls, had a successful season.  They had a talented roster full of good prospects.  There was not much in Triple A that they did not win this year.  Here is a quick recap:  

Southeast Division crown 🏆
Triple-A East title 🏆
Triple-A National champs 🏆
Final Stretch winners 🏆@MiLB's Best Team 🏆

The accolades just keep coming as we've been named the Best Team in MiLB for 2021!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) November 9, 2021

While the Bulls were successful on the field, I have felt slightly unsuccessful with collecting the cards of the players on this year's roster. Specifically, Wander Franco. All year long I have wanted just one card of Wander Franco on the Durham Bulls. That's it. One card of Wander Franco. I have sat here waiting patiently.  

After months of waiting, my wish has come true. Not only did Topps make a Wander Franco card, they ended up making a total of 5 different cards of the Rays shortstop for the Topps Heritage Minor League set. They are all really nice cards that I managed to pick up over the past two weeks.  

Let me run through the new cards starting with Wander's base card in this set.  

This is easily one of the best Durham Bulls cards that Topps has produced since they starting making the Pro Debut and Heritage Minor League sets. I love the blue and yellow border on the card along with the picture that they used.  The alternative home jerseys for the Bulls are great, but they have never been pictured on a Topps card. A great added bonus. The Bulls have been wearing them for several years.  THat Bull logo has a real vintage feel and I believe was created based on a logo the team used early in their history.  

Here is a better look at the front of the jersey with Anthony Banda.  

The back of the Wander Franco card does not mention much about the Durham Bulls, but considering this was probably written at the beginning of the baseball season, maybe even before that, I cannot really fault Topps for leaving it out the time he spent with the Bulls.  

I was curious about the 555 foot home run mentioned in the write-up.  Did a little searching around the internet.  I came up with a video, but 555 feet seems like an extraordinarily generous measurement.  Yes, it was a long home run, but 500 plus feet is pushing it.  It doesn't help that the video of slightly better quality than a UFO or Bigfoot video.  

Here are the other 4 cards with less commentary.  

This is from the Pack Cover Inserts.  The original 1972 Topps packs had the same wording at the top of the wax packs, but they had a drawing of a baseball player throwing the ball.  I like the look of this card, clean and simple.  

Next up is the Topps Venezuelan sticker.  This is actually a card that I got out of a pack at the local card shop that is now a few miles from my house.  The card shop needs its own post, but that's for a different day.  The scan is not miniature, but the card is definitely small.  Love the green border with the green scoreboard in the background.  I'd track down the specific home run here, but it's a busy Saturday morning.  

Next up is a Baseball Poster insert.  I like the borderless card with the nice close-in action shot of Wander fielding and throwing the ball.  Not sure about the text box at the bottom, but the picture more than makes up for it.  I guess for a product that is styled after a 1972 baseball card, the stylings of the name box are probably pretty spot on for that time period.  

The last card is actually in the base set.  It's my least favorite Wander Franco card in this set, but I still love the card.  Great action shot of him running while he's looking in towards home.  

Overall, I am happy that Topps finally got around to making a few cards of Wander Franco on the Durham Bulls. As a toolsy player, I also really like that Topps used photos of him hitting, fielding, and running.  I was honestly worried that they were going to skip his time with the team earlier in the year.  

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. 

The Mayor of Kings Mountain Has Relocated

While Will Wilson was playing on the NC State baseball team, one of the school's fan websites dubbed him "The Mayor of King's Mountain", which his small hometown located in the western part of the state.  

The Mayor of Kings Mountain, Will Wilson, singles as the UNC LF misreads the ball. Run scores. Bases loaded with no outs in T5. Pack, 3-0.

— Pack Pride (@PackPride) April 16, 2017

The nickname is still popular with the local college baseball crowd, but has not really caught on with people outside of the area.  Regardless, I am enjoying the fact that Wilson appeared in several different 2020 products.  I recently picked up two of those cards, including one with his new team.  

Old team first.  

This is Wilson's card out of this year's Topps Heritage Minors.  The Orem Owlz (Z is for stupid) are an Angels Minor League team.  The Halos picked him out of NC State in the first round of the 2019 Draft.  For whatever reason, the Angels traded him last off-season to the Giants for Zack Cozart.  

I am sure that this photo would have probably been different if there had been Minor League Baseball this season.  The back of the card gives mention of his time in Raleigh.  

I think he's going to be at minimum a solid Major League Baseball player.  

Now, for a card with his new team.  

I used to really hate Bowman Sterling.  It supposed to be some sort of high end Bowman brand product, but for a long time it had sticker autographs.  This is actually a really nice card, and I love that the signature is signed on the card, not on a sticker.

These were the last two Wilson autographed cards that were on my list to find for this year, so I will give his cards a break until next summer.  

We Don't See Each Other Much Anymore

It is really hard to find a direction with blogging when you do not do it on a regular basis.  I used to have regular posts with themes and everything.  There were Monday posts about 1980s Cardinals players.  I still get to those sometimes.  Those ones with the early 1990s Skybox basketball cards that were made by a tobacco company in Durham.  More recently, I had posts rating baseball card sets, and a bunch of Durham Bulls projects.  

I do not write enough to make those posts anymore.  

My desk is covered, to the annoyance of my wife, with a large stack of baseball cards that I do not have the time or energy to write about at the moment.  I know that I have taken a break from my blog before, but I am not going to do that at the moment.  I still enjoy coming here, but I am going to give up on having the sort of order or established schedule that I have had in the past.  

The pandemic has stressed people in many different ways.  For me, I have gone from being a teacher who relied heavily on low social interaction and building rapport with my students.  There was some screen time, but it was limited.  Now, I am sitting in front of a computer from 9:45 until 4:00 everyday.  That does not include prep time or grading.  After sitting in front of a screen for 8 hours hours at work, I find it hard to get back in front of computer when I get home.  

I know I have touched on this topic several times over the past few months.  Some of you are probably tired of reading about it.  From this point forward, until I feel better about my quantity of screen time, I am just posting cards that catch my eye.  They are going to be random.  

Today, I am posting three new cards and two cards in my collection that I am thinking about selling for a small fortune.  There is also a plug for a podcast.  

First up is a Bob Gibson card that was recently released as part of Topps Living Set, or the set that never ever ends.  This is a great card.  

Might be one of my favorite cards that I have added to my collection this year.  I have a bunch of new Gibson cards this year with him being one of the twenty players in the Project 2020 set.  This is better than every single one of those cards.  I still love them, just not as much as this card.  

Anyone watching the World Series?  

This card has a connection.  Not really a good one for me as a Cardinals fan.  I am not sure how I feel about it's recent arrival after watching the first two rounds of the playoffs and the first four games of the World Series.  This is one of those coin cards from Topps Heritage Minors.  

Love that the nickel is upside down.  

Liberatore is a Top 50 prospect with every publication that puts out a set of rankings.  The Cardinals picked him up from the Rays last year in exchange for two outfielders.  One was Jose Martinez.  Yes, he can hit, but he does not really have a defensive position.  Strictly a DH.  

Here is the back of the card.  

Always like that you can see the back of the coin on these cards.  So, I was telling a story about the Cardinals trading for Matthew Libertore.  I think he's going to be a solid pitcher at a minimum.  Maybe possibly a front line starter.  Pitching is never really the problem for the Cardinals though.  They can't hit.  So, the other player they gave up for Liberatore was Randy Arozarena.  

The Cardinals likely would have found a way to screw up his swing, or they would give him the same role as Lane Thomas and let him pinch hit once a week.  I have never posted any Randy Arozarena cards on here, but there are several floating around in my collection.  He was a really inexpensive Cardinals autograph about two months ago.  

Not anymore.  Here are two that I scanned the other week.  

Love the top Stadium Club card with him sliding into second base in Wrigley Field.  That's a quality baseball card.  These are selling for a small fortune on Ebay at the moment.  Thinking of maybe putting one of these up.  

Last card.  

I have written about Gene Tenace several times on my blog.  

My one sentence summation: 

As a child Gene Tenace was the backup catcher on the Cardinals, so I naturally thought he was a complete bum until I got older and learned more about him.  

This is from the Upper Deck Timeless Teams set that was released in 2005.  Solid product with a lot of good on-card autographs.  This is my second Tenace autograph out of the set.  The other one is a different card from the 1973 A's team.  

Back of the card.  

I was looking at some Tenace cards last month after listening to the Beyond Batting Average Podcast, which had an episode about underrated baseball players from the 1970s.  Some good names on there, even if they left Rusty Staub off the list.  Tenace is one of those players who has really been helped out by some of the advanced statistics.  I am not going to rehash the argument, but there is one to be made for someone who has a .241 career batting average. Both hosts, Mark and Andy, who have a really cool baseball card related accounts if you are on the Twitter.    

Set Appreciation Post #7 - 2017 Topps Heritage Minors

I let my 10 year old son pick out a random set for this post.  I am honestly surprised that he did not come back with the 1996 SPx set.  It is his all-time favorite set.  We both know it's because of the hologram pictures on the front of the cards.  Instead, he chose the 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League set, which is based on the 1968 Topps set.  Yes, the burlap sack set.  

He actually informed me that there are a lot of Durham Bulls card in this set. After taking five minutes to flip through the cards, it appears that he is correct.  There are a lot of Durham Bulls players and cards in this set.  

Basic Design 

I am going to go ahead and show my hand early in the post.  Personally, I find this design a little bit boring.  That's probably a generous assessment.  I also understand some of the attachment to this set.  When I was a kid it was a super cool set.  There were all sorts of cool unaffordable cards in this set.  Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench rookie cards, Bob Clemente, old broken down Mickey Mantle.  

Really, when you get past some of the names on the card, it is really overrated.  Reminds me a lot of Nolan Ryan's actual playing career.  

I actually need to get back on topic.  This is the 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League set.  It's easy to drift off topic with design when Topps just recycles all of the old ones constantly.  Kind of makes the Heritage product line seem a little less special.  

Here's a card.  I will do better on the other side of the scan with focus.  

Is there something nice I can say about the design of the 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League set?  

I have two.  

First, the cards have pictures of Minor League players.  I like Minor League baseball.  This set features some pretty talented baseballers before they reached the Major Leaguers.  

Second, I like this yellow color that Topps used on the back.  Most of my 1968 Topps cards are not of the "pristine" variety, and therefore the color on the back is slightly less yellow.  These look nice with the black ink.  In my opinion, one of the most readable baseball card backs.   

I would rank the burlap sack portion of the 1968 Topps set in the bottom half of all Topps sets.  It might be in the bottom half of the bottom half.  It's at least better than 1996 Topps.  

Nickels.  

The "let me tell you something I like" and "let me tell something I don't like" theme really runs throughout this set.  I really like the coin cards that Topps puts in the Heritage Minors on an almost annual basis.  I am not sure that the early Heritage Minor League sets had these cards, but they have been in all of the recent ones.  

I have a few of these cards in my collection.  I wouldn't say that I collect them, but if I see one I like I will usually end up with it at some point.  There have not been any Durham Bulls, but there have been a few Cardinals, along with some other players I enjoyed watching in the Minors.  

I got this J.P. Crawford card because he is shown as a member of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.  I am generally of the opinion that Minor League Baseball often goes too far with odd and goofy nicknames.  There are a few that I am willing to overlook for various reasons.  Iron Pigs is one of them.  

The front of the card is really good looking.  The back is a disaster.  

What is all this talk about the Cubs on the back of the card?  I get that it is connected to 1968, but they also randomly throw in the fact that J.P. Crawford was born in 1995 at the top.  

Sir, this is a J.P. Crawford card.  

Couldn't we tie the card back to another shortstop who played in 1968?  Maybe a Phillies player who did something newsworthy in 1968?  You could even just make the card back about J.P. Crawford.  That would work too.  

It's like Topps couldn't get out of their own way while making this set.  

Autographs 

There are some really good autographs in this set.  I don't own any of them.  I won't hold it against the final ranking.  Of all the different baseball card products with autographs of Minor Leaguers, the Heritage sets is always the best.  

The players are in their Minor League uniforms, rather than Major League, which makes it better than Bowman in my opinion.  Pro Debut also has the players in their Minor League uniforms, but those sticker autographs look really bad at times.  

These are nice.....

Both pulled from packs of cards during a meeting at work.  Good story, but for another time.  

I usually try to chase down the different Durham Bulls players, future Durham Bulls players, guys I saw play in college or USA Baseball, or players I just enjoyed watching play in the Minors.  This was not a great set for my collection, but let's face it, this product generally has a good track record.  I know a lot of people who love the autographs in the 2017 Heritage set.  

The autographs are a definite positive.  

Bizarro World.  

I am not a fan of all the different variations.  I will just lump them into the category of "weird stuff".  It happens in almost every Heritage product, and there are very few over the years that I have actual considered owning.  

Just weird.  

Bizarro World.  

Grown men with magnifying classes looking at tiny little codes on the back of baseball cards, or hidden sparkles on the front of cards.  I'm over 40 and I do not wear glasses.  Probably because I do not read the little variation codes on the back of Topps cards.  

This is one of the variations from this set.  

The main variation in the actual 1968 set was the yellow and white team names.  

Why not just roll with that? 

Topps did include variations with the yellow and white teams names, I just don't understand the need to invent some ridiculous new variation for the Heritage remakes.  

Similar to the back of the nickel cards, this is something that should be really simple, but Topps overcomplicates things.  Does this card have any actual connection to the 1968 Topps set?  Maybe there is some variation on a card that I have heard of, but I don't think so.  

Best Cardinals Card 

This was a fairly easy choice, because it's the best Cardinals player in the set.  I am also not into all the gimmicky promotional uniforms that some of the Minor League teams wear at times. I've had it with Star Wars uniforms. This one from the Memphis Redbirds is actually pretty creative.  

Have other teams done themed jersey nights from bands?

Probably.  

In fact, I am almost sure the Toledo Mud Hens did a Sgt. Peppers night at some point too.  Maybe it's the fact Minor League teams have not beat this concept into the ground.  

There is also a Dylan Carlson card in this set from his days in the Midwest League with the Peoria Chiefs.  

The Flaherty card is much better though.  

Best Durham Bulls Card

As mentioned at the top of the post, there are a lot of Durham Bulls cards in this set.  No autographs, but lots of players in the base set, and a few others in the relic card set.  I am not going to scan the relics, but I did the base cards.  

The best of this cards is obviously Adames, who is the Rays starting shortstop.  

Casey Gillaspie was traded to the White Sox, but is playing an independent league this season.  Honeywell is still in the Rays organization, but has had arm injuries the past few years.  I think he might still actually be on the Durham Bulls roster.  

These three cards are far inferior to one other Durham Bulls card that appears in the insert remake of the 1968 Topps Game sets.  The original cards featured players, but the 2017 Heritage Minors set has picture of different mascots.  

This is the Wool E. Bull card.  

Not only is Wool E. Bull a great mascot, but the card has a cool shout out to the movie Bull Durham.  

Best Non-Cardinals Card 

There is a group of short-prints at the end of the set that feature some pretty big name prospects.  I believe Ronald Acuna and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are both in there.  One of the big upsides to the Heritage Minor League set is the checklist.  I actually feel like Topps does a pretty good job of getting a good mix of big name prospects, along with some others that have good potential to make it to the Majors.  

It was hard to choose here.  

However, I went with the best current Major League player with a card in this set......

Little Fernando, as I like to call him, was in A Ball when this picture was taken.  First year in the Padres organization after being traded from the White Sox for James Shields.  Not sure that was the best move in retrospect.  Anyway, I am sure this card is now selling for the equivalent of a second mortgage on your house with the way baseball cards are working at the moment.  

Honestly, I know he's not a Cardinal, but I always liked watching his father play.  I have enjoyed cards of Tatis Jr. for a few years now.  I just wish they weren't suddenly really expensive.  

How Does It Compare?  

The list of sets I would consider placing above the 1983 Topps set is very short, and this is not on that list.  I wouldn't even rank the 1968 Topps set that high.  Again, my biggest positive is the checklist.  The on-card autographs are nice.  My negatives are the odd card backs on the coin cards, the imaginary variations, and basic design.  

I acknowledge that the design could not be helped here, but those other factors are going to push it down my list a ways.  

7. 2000 UD Ionix 

6. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League  

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3.1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Minors Matter

I am collecting fewer sets this year, but one I would eventually like to pick up a copy of the Heritage Minor League set.  I did not open any packs or boxes, and I am honestly thinking about just buying the complete set off of Ebay.  It costs less than a box, and while it takes the fun of opening packs out of the equation, it will also allow for some extra funds to go towards autographs or some nice inserts and parallels. 

There are actually a few autographs I have seen that fit well into my collection, they were inexpensive, so I went ahead and picked them up.  Heritage Minors always has on card autographs, so always a nice groups of cards. 

First up. 

I think this is my second Brock Deatherage autograph that I have posted on this blog, but I also think I have skipped over posting one or two others.  He is a former NC State player who was drafted by the Tigers two years ago.  He is still in the lower Minors, but is the type of toolsy player that the Tigers really need to pan out.  He has some pop in his bat, but he's more of a doubles and triple machine than a home run threat.  I believe he also came close to stealing 50 bases last year. 

Fun to watch.  Next. 

Another former NC State player, only Knizner is on the Cardinals.  He's already been up for part of this year, and I have already posted several other Knizner autographs during the summer.  Definitely happy to get this card, and happy people have cooled down with the prices of his autographs. 

Last card.  I am still not sure what to make of Elehuris Montero.  He was injured for the majority of this year, but was a sub .200 hitter when he came back.  Before this year he was a great prospect, tons of extra base hits, high slash line.  Elehuris is still only 20, so I am picking up a few of his cards here and there.  Maybe it will look good in a few years, and if not it's a nice looking card of a Cardinals prospect.  

I'm Just Happy To Be Here, Hope I Can Help The Ball Club

I knew from the first time that I saw Steven Souza play for the Syracuse Chiefs, the Washington Nationals Triple A team, that I needed to go out and find a few of his cards.  He was an older prospect, but absolutely one of those players who is fun to watch.  So, I went out and I found a few of his cards with the Nats.....

Next thing you know, he gets traded to the Rays, and they send him to Durham.  I got to watch a few games with Souza on the Bulls, I also had to go out and find a few cards of him in a Rays uniform.  His first two seasons in Tampa were a little rough, which made finding his cards a little easier, and a little bit easier on the old wallet.....

Then last year, Souza turned into a pretty good player for the Rays.....

which means he got traded this offseason.  It did seem like the Rays traded half of their team from last year away.  The Souza trade was pretty surprising though.  Not sure I focused on who the Rays got back from the Diamondbacks, as much as I tried to figure out who was going to be on the Rays this year.  Also, whether or not the Durham Bulls would finish higher in the American League East than the Rays.  

The Minor League baseball season has started and I got to watch pitcher Anthony Banda throw against the Gwinnett Stripers a few weeks back.   I also got to check out the Bulls new third uniforms.  

Banda is a hard throwing lefty.  Very impressed with him.  A quick look at the new Rays prospect facing Ronald Acuna.  

I have started working on a few Banda cards since seeing him make this start against Gwinnett.  He actually started his career with the Brewers, but was traded to the Diamondbacks in the Gerardo Parra deal.  He has a few Brewers cards, but they are all Panini draft type products.  Hard to really tell that they are Brewers cards.  He has had several Diamondbacks cards over the last few years, including in several of this year's Topps products.  

So far, I have added three different Anthony Banda cards.  First up.....  

The only non-2018 Banda card in this post.  The Bowman's Best cards are always a really nice looking brand.  Last year's product was no different.  On top of a nice design, I also like that this brand uses on-card autographs.  Banda always signs his first name and last name in this same top and bottom style, rather than side to side.  I have seen a few Diamondbacks and Rays collectors complain about this autograph, I do not mind it.

Next up.....

is an autograph from this year's Gypsy Queen set.  This card is really busy.  Not sure that Topps could get much more on the margins of this card.  Team name, player name, playing position, a Topps Certified autograph stamp, an MLB rookie card stamp, and some sort of Gypsy Queen logo.  And you thought people liked cards because they have pictures of baseball players.  That's sort of an after thought on this one.  Still, it has a Banda autograph.  

The goggles and tattoos appear on this card too.  Fairly certain that Topps airbrushed the tattoos off of his right arm on the Bowman's Best card.  

Last.  

A "high end" card of Banda.  This is why I don't spend money to open packs of high end products.  I like Anthony Banda, like his baseball cards, but I cannot imagine spending $300 on a box of cards and landing this autograph.  Thanks to whoever opened this card out of a pack.  This card was printed on nice stock, fairly thick card, and has a nice glossy finish.  

More Banda cards later.