Collecting the Durham Bulls: Hak Ju Lee

I was really excited to see Hak Ju Lee return to the Durham Bulls this year after he got off to a great start last season, but ultimately missed most of the year due to a knee injury.  I had a chance to get my first look at Hak Ju Lee about a week and half ago.  He seemed up to par in the field, but is still working out the kinks on offense.  Lee still ranks as one of the better prospects in the Rays system and many think he is already big league ready in terms of defensive skill.  It's the offense which will be the key to Lee's eventual fate with the Rays. 

Last season Lee posted a .422/.536/.600 line during the first month of the season.  This year Lee is at .167/.302/.194.  Not so good, but there will be plenty of time for Lee to turn his season around.  Steamer actually did a projection for Lee this year, which is available on FanGraphs, and posts Lee as a .230/.300/.319 line.  While the Rays have signed Yunel Escobar to a two year contract, I am still convinced that Lee is the shortstop of the future for the team.  Here's a look at Lee batting:

Hak Ju Lee is also a fun player to collect.  There are plenty of Lee cards floating around on the secondary market.  While Lee's rookie cards were made during his Cubs days (Lee was in the Garza trade) almost all of his autographs have been made during the past two years as a Durham Bull.  He has one non-licensed certified autograph in a Leaf Valiant product.  The rest are in Bowman sets.  My favorites are in the Inception and Platinum sets.  

While many of Lee's autographs are stickers there are one or two on-card autographs floating around too.  Lee is also a fairly inexpensive find too.  The vast majority of his cards can be found for less $10, and with patience, can trend downwards towards $5.  There are plenty of other cool Lee cards too.  As a Cub Lee appeared on the World Team for the Future's Game.  Of course, Bowman made a whole bunch of jersey and patch cards of the slick fielding shortstop.  

The 2011 Bowman card is cool, but I would also recommend checking into his 2011 Topps Pro Debut Jumbo jersey.  Really cool card, with a huge piece of jersey.  There are a few limited patch cards from the Pro Debut set, but I have missed them every time they have come up online.  I'll still get one someday, hopefully.  Rare Lee cards can be a little bit competitive in terms of trading and pricing.  While Japanese players are often very popular with collectors in the US and overseas, Korean players can have some nice followings too.  Topps has given collectors what they wanted at times by making some really cool Lee cards outside of autographs and relics.  My favorites are his Pro Debut Hat Relic cards.  I do not have his card out of the 2012 set, but I do have the 2013 version.  Really cool card.  

Collectors should also be sure to check out the 2013 Topps Heritage Minor League set which features Lee in a Durham Bulls uniform set to the back drop of the 1964 Topps set.  Really nice looking cards.  Overall, Lee's cards are generally low at the moment, but he's going to be a Major Leaguer.  I have been trying to get back into some of his cards the past week or so and will posting a few nice cards of his in the coming weeks. 

Foul Bunt

I have spent a little bit of time the past few weeks to checking out the Topps Bunt app.  The app actually launched back in 2012, but I just checked it out this year.  The basic premise of the app is to allow collectors to have a collection of virtual cards.  Collectors can set up an account on their IPhone or Ipad linked to their Twitter or Facebook page and then start their collection.  The basic cards in Bunt are the same design as the 2014 Topps cards.  They look something like this:

There are variations of the base cards that come in various different colors.  The different colors represent how scarce the cards are to pull out of the virtual packs of cards.  Some of the colored variations can be found in regular Topps packs, while other colors are exclusive to Bunt.  Here's a sampling of the different card colors I have pulled over the past few weeks:

If you've opened up any of the 2014 Topps cards you will also notice that the cards are exactly the same of the cards that you can find in the regular packs of Topps cards.  Which leads me to the best part of the Topps Bunt app:  It's possible to collect cards and pay absolutely nothing to open packs of cards and add to your collection.  Their is a store on the app where collectors can buy coins which buy packs of cards:

While some of the more expensive packs of cards can really only be afforded if you buy coins, I went a long time without being able to spend a dime on Bunt cards and put together a nice collection of cards through my daily reward of coins provided by Topps, trades, and awards which I pulled from reaching collecting goals.  Some of the goals include rewards for completing the different team sets, but some of the other rewards include completing trades or special days during the season. 

Topps has also done a very nice job of throwing in some different inserts into the set.  The inserts vary in degree of difficulty to find and have some pretty good designs.  While some are exclusive to Bunt, a few of the inserts are redesigns of some of the most popular Topps sets.  Here's a Bunt Exclusive set:

Here is a redesign included in the Bunt cards from old Topps Gallery designs from the late 90s and early 2000s.  While the original sets had nice art, the new versions have more modern artwork.  The original versions of the Topps Gallery cards also did not have a tag in the corner that says Sold Out.  Guess it kind of fits with the whole virtual card thing....

Topps has also added in autographed cards to the Bunt app.  I am not quite sure how the whole autograph thing works, but there is a really nice Adam Wainwright card.  It's signed?  I guess....

So, let's get down to business.  The free app part with a chance to open free packs everyday is nice.  I work with nine and ten year olds who think free baseball cards on an Ipod or Ipad is really cool.  The Bunt App can be a great way to grow interest in the hobby while parents can save money.  However, the app has plenty of short comings.  The first of which is that the cards are virtual.  You own the cards, but not really. 

It's hard to believe the amount of time and money that I see some collectors spending on the Bunt App.  It's slightly ridiculous.  Check out the Chris Olds, of Beckett fame, collection of Nick Swisher cards.  The app has some of the same short comings that the regular Topps cards display, namely poor player selection.  Take this card:

 

Why is Jason Bourgeois in the Topps App?  He appeared in only 9 games with the Rays and spent the majority of his time as a Ray last year hanging out in Durham playing for the Bulls.  There are plenty of cards that collectors can find like this no matter what team you collect or follow.  The Cardinals have a Brian Fuentes card.  At least he is not wearing 57 in this card.  

Beyond the player selection, the Bunt App also has a fantasy baseball aspect which is a bit of a joke.  Collectors select cards of players to play and somehow they earn points for their performance.  The points then earn collectors coins.  Inserts and variations somehow earn more fantasy points.  The screen looks something like this:

 

I play fantasy baseball and have a nice team, but the Bunt App fantasy baseball game is a tad bit lame.  Start nine starting pitchers, cool.  Start nine copies of Matt Holliday, cool.  I am not sure how the game has any aspect of being realistic.  Pretty lame.  

Overall, the Topps Bunt App is probably just a time waster for most collectors.  You are not going to get any actual cards and half the collectors on the app are under the age of 16.  Again, cool if you are learning to collect, but not cool otherwise.  Like fantasy baseball, go to a real fantasy baseball site.  This app is not prime time for serious collectors. 

Collecting The Durham Bulls: Vince Belnome

I am a little partial towards Vince Belnome.  He's one of my favorite Bulls players and I was happy to see him back on the Bulls again this year.  Belnome was on the Rays, for a day.  Belnome is not a real prime prospect at this point, but he's one of those older players who can offer a good veteran presence for a minor league team.  Belnome started off in the Padres organization and had a pretty good run in their minor league system.  He posted a .963 OPS in 2009, .832 in 2010, 1.035 in 2011, and .834 in 2012.  After the 2012 season, the Rays picked up Belnome in a minor trade.  In his first season in Durham Belnome posted a .300 average, drove in 67 runs, all while carrying an .854 OPS.  Belnome is struggling a little bit to start off the 2014 season, but he's picking up the pace over the past few weeks. 

Card wise Belnome has one primary baseball card which was released in the 2010 Bowman set.  You can also find Vince Belnome cards in several minor league team issues such as the San Antonio Missions and the Durham Bulls.  All nice cards.  Really his Bowman card is a pretty cool card to track down and is my preferred card of choice with Belnome.  Like all recent Bowman sets, the market for Belnome Bowman cards hinges greatly on the colored parallels.  Most of the time a career minor league player would be an after thought to collectors, but Belnome happens to be a popular fan favorite and that popularity pushes the price of his cards at times. 

For example, I have been able to track down a good chunk of his colored parallels over the past year.  Many of them surface on Ebay, but the bidding is frequently competitive.  Sure, some of the cards are listed by sellers for just a few bucks.  However, short-printed cards with low serial numbers left up to the bidding process can escalate quickly.  I recently picked up the hardest part of a rainbow....

I had saved up my Ebay Bucks, so I was willing to spend a little bit more than I normally would have for a printing plate of a minor league player.  It was a good thing that I had a few extra bucks in the fight because the card drifted north of $20.  While I was a little bit disappointed to see the card go that high, I am excited to finish off my rainbow of this popular Durham Bulls player.  It also goes to show that collecting a player with only a single card can be both fun and challenging. 

Big Blue Yadi

I am extremely happy with the cards I have been able to track down from this year's 2014 Topps Museum set.  I have been able to add several very nice Rays and Cardinals autographs and relics.  I had a pair of cards left on my wish list.  I've been eager to get my hands on a copy of the Yadier Molina Museum Jumbo relic and managed to track one down last week on Ebay.  Strangely, the relic on the copy of this card is pretty unique. 

The Cardinals do not wear blue alternate jersey, nor do they have blue batting practice jerseys.  This swatch is likely from a special event wear Molina was wearing a dark blue jersey.  After a few minutes of research this jersey swatch most likely came from Molina's appearance at the 2010 All-Star game in Anaheim.  Looks like a pretty good fit. 

Snarky Clark

I share my cards in this space and it has come down to this card for this evening.  I was waiting for a night when my dander was up a little bit to talk about Jack Clark: He's an ass. 

This analysis really comes from two different incidents during Clark's career as a baseball player and now as a radio host outside of St. Louis.  Let's starting with him as a player.  The Cardinals traded for Jack Clark before the 1985 season to be the token power hitter in the middle of Whitey Herzog's track team.  Clark played for the Cardinals for three seasons, but turned down the team's generous contract offer after the 1987 season to sign with the Yankees.  St. Louis fans were not happy, but the bumpy road was just beginning for Clark.  After leaving St. Louis he:

-signed with the Yankees, but demanded a trade to avoid playing for Lou Pinella

-was traded to the Padres and picked fights with Tony Gwynn, called out his manager, and basically called Padres fans the dumbest fans in all of baseball

-signed with the Red Sox after calling the American League boring.  In the words of Jack: "I hate that damn League" 

-as his career was winding down he declared bankruptcy in 1992 because he was paying on 18 different cars at once

The there was the radio incident.  Clark was working at a radio station in St. Louis with Kevin Slaten (also a piece of work-Google him) when he decided to talk a little bit about Albert Pujols, who had just signed with the Angels.  Clark said of Pujols "I know for a fact he was using PEDs."  Albert sued the radio station.  Albert sued Jack Clark.  Then Clark walked it back down and retracted his statement to avoid losing whatever money he still has left in life.  

So, after reading the beginning of my blog post, you might wonder why I would buy a Jack Clark autograph?  Let's look at the card first:

It's a 2013 Topps Archives card featuring Clark as a Cardinal, so obviously there is the whole Cardinals autograph thing going on here.  For as big of an idiot as Clark has been over the course of his playing career, and after his playing career, he really did make some great memories for Cardinals fans during his brief three year stay in the Lou.  Probably the best moment was when he was he hit the series clinching home run against the Dodgers in the 1985 National League Championship Series.  

So, while I am not really a fan of Jack Clark the person, Jack Clark the baseball player was a pretty good player.  He just should have put his foot in his mouth a few more times in his life. 

The Snorting Bull Presents.........2014 Bowman

A 1 of 1 Patch

I spent a little time this morning at my favorite local card shop Big D's Sports Cards. I picked up some of the newly released Bowman set and will have a little bit more on that set tomorrow evening.  Until then you will have to settle for my other card pick up at the store this morning.  This lovely Torii Hunter 1/1 Jumbo Patch card was pulled by another customer at Big D's, who flipped it around to the owner of the store Jimmy, who then sent it my way last week.  I love the look of this card, the patch, plus if I am going to get a 1/1, this is a cooler card than a plate.  Just my opinion.  

It's not that I am against plates, but a huge chunk of a number off of a player's jersey is a pretty unique offering.  I have had my eyes open the past few weeks to see if Topps made 25 different 1/1 patches of the different players in the Gyspy Queen set (just throwing out a number with the 25) or if this is truly a 1/1 card.  It appears from early returns that this is a true one of one and completely unique patch.  There are other Torii Hunter jumbo "patches" floating around on EBay, and one in a Facebook group, but they are all just plain pieces of jersey.  No actual patch pieces.  Overall, I am really happy to find this card.  Awesome find.