KK Off the List

I feel like I have crossed a pretty big item off of my Most Wanted List.  Yes, I know I need to throw a few more cards up on the list and plan to do so at some point this week.  More importantly, I feel like I have done a really good job in recent months of moving some of the cards off of my list.  After not publishing a Want List for a long time, I have seen the addition of my list help in two way as a collector:

• I am focused on specific cards that fit into my collection
• Other collectors seeking to make trades have a great starting point

Which brings me to my list card which I picked up in a Facebook group page.  There are so many cards posted in some of the pages it is hard to sift through them all some days, but a copy of a Kevin Kiermaier autograph caught my eye last week.  I had to ask and a few minutes later I was the proud owner of this card:  

I gave up a sharp looking Yoenis Cepedes autograph in exchange for this card, but in my opinion it was well worth it.  Kiermaier, currently the Rays center fielder, spent parts of three seasons as a Durham Bull.  While those three appearances only totaled up to 77 games, it's was a long enough time to make a lasting impression on baseball fans in North Carolina.  Kiermaier hustled, played great defense, and sparked the Bulls offense.  All the same things he is now doing at The Trop.  

I have had my eye on a Kiermaier autograph for awhile now, and while they are not too difficult to find, I could never settle on a copy and find it at a price I was willing to pay.  All of his certified autographs are Panini, which means no logos, but they sell for more than you would think.  When his signature first started to appear in Panini products many of his cards would end between $25-$30 at auction.  Cards with nicer patch pieces would push closer to $50.  I would have loved to have owned some of those, but not at that price.  

The last month, or maybe two, I have seen a few pop up on both Ebay and COMC, but they were rather ordinary.  Given the amount of cards I have seen with big pieces of patch I decided to wait it out.  I think I finally landed a winner with this National Treasures card featuring an on-card signature with a nice big blue patch piece.  All number out of just 10 copies.  

#MyCardMonday

I always try to post my weekly #MyCardMonday on Sunday evening, but sometimes I feel like I do better with the player when I wait the extra time and make my post on Monday evening.  I like the player in the post to be someone who is in the news and sometimes an extra few hours can change my mind on the player and card that I select.  Sunday evening I had a player already to go and post and then I waited.  In the middle of the day I checked Twitter and I found....

I was excited to see the news.  Piscotty has been regarded as one of the Cardinals top hitting prospects.  I was actually surprised the Cardinals have taken this long to try Piscotty out at the big league level given the fact that the team has lost Matt Adams for the rest of the season and they were without Matt Holliday for a good chunk of time.  It's been hard to wait, but I am excited to see what Piscotty will do with the Cardinals.

Since Piscotty is debuting this week in Chicago I am going with one of my favorite Piscotty cards from the first Bowman Inception set.

Minor League Set Week: 2015 Eastern League Top Prospects

This is a hard set to really break down the way I had been with the other minor league sets I have scanned and posted this week.  I also think of Double A as being sort of a cut off point between players who will reach the Majors and players who will not.  Meaning, most of the players who make it to Triple A have a really good shot at making it to the Majors in some capacity.  Some might be good players, some might be solid, and others might only end up being a utility player or someone who gets one cup of coffee.

I think that many of the players in this set will be in the Majors at some point, but it's just a matter of when and what their role will be when they get there.  For example, in my last post I talked about Kyle Crick, Giants prospect, who has spent his minor league career starting, but projects as a shut down relief pitcher by many.  Lots of high draft picks and prospects here, I am eager to revisit this set in a few years to see where everyone is.

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets from 2004

5. 2004 Fleer Showcase- I bought this box for my birthday during spring of 2004.  I remember rolling into 1,000,000 Baseball Cards in Ballwin, Missouri and picking up a box of this product.  It was National Trading Card Day and I was up for some free baseball cards, but while I was there I was not going to walk out empty handed.  This product had a cool looking design, decent autographs, and some cool insert sets like the Hot Gloves.  I got in on this product towards the end of its run, but unfortunately this was the end of line for this product.  Really cool product and my favorite fleer product from their later years (I am not counting the Upper Deck rehash).  

4. 2004 Topps Cracker Jacks- I love this set.  Is it the red backgrounds?  The minis?  Autographs?  Not sure, but I put together this whole set and have a bunch of the autographs and relics out of the product too.  The design is based on the 1914 Cracker Jacks set and has a lot of little quirks that were in the original: Writing on the back of the card upside down, old time players like Nap Lajoie, and Surprise Packs inside the boxes.  Not the most expensive set, and not the nice throwback set that Topps has ever put out, but still a very good product worth checking out.  

3.  2004 Diamond Kings- I like the Diamond Kings sets.  Donruss ran them several years in the early 2000s until the company came to an end in 2005.  The boxes are fun to open and there are a lot of cool serial numbered cards in this product.  Relics, autographs, lots of possibilities for player and teams collectors.  How many parallels made up this set?  It's huge and I am not sure that I have ever seen a collector put them altogether on a player.   The autographs are sticker autographs, which is a bummer, but many are inexpensive and pretty easy to find.  

2.  2004 Topps Heritage- This one is an easy one.  Hard to believe it only came in second on my list.  The Heritage set in 2004 was based on the 1955 Topps set.  One of my favorite old time sets.  Topps threw in a handful of short prints and some old logo variations.  Like all Heritage sets there are the usual autographs, relics, and serial numbered parallels.  Really great looking set.  

1.  2004 Bowman Heritage- 1955 was a great year for baseball cards.  The Bowman Heritage set was a redo of the 1955 Bowman set.  The television framed cards are a classic.  There are also some cool variations with black and white pictures.  Again, there are autographs, but one of my favorite aspects of this set was the fact that Topps added umpire autographs.  There have been a few umpires included in sets here and there, but this set had a really good run of umps.  

Minor League Set Week: 2015 Richmond Flying Squirrels

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

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

Here are my three players:

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

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

Under the radar-

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

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

Minor League Set Week: 2015 Carolina Mudcats

Second Carolina Mudcats set of the day, but this one is the current issue from the team.  The Mudcats switched affiliations this year from the Indians to the Braves, so a totally new set of players and coaches to look at in this product.  The cards do not have as cool of design as the 2014 team set, but this is still a pretty solid design with the black and red design.  Same deal as the previous minor league sets, two players you should add to your collection, and one player who might be flying under the radar.  I promise not to pick a coach the rest of the week.


1.  Lucas Sims- Sims is the top rated pitching prospect in the Braves system.  The Mudcats game that I attended was Sims first start since returning from the DL.  The team was involved in a bus accident earlier in the season and Sims was injured in the wreck.  He gave up a bunch of runs in the start (thanks starting catcher), but he definitely has a lot of giddy up on his pitches.  I am guess that I will get to see Sims in another year or two when he rolls through Gwinnett.  Good arm, should turn out just fine with the Braves.  MLB.com still rates him as a top 100 prospect and Baseball Prospectus has him just outside the top 50 at 54th.

2.  Tyler Brosius- Little known Tyler Brosius fact: He was Russell Wilson's backup at NC State for a season.  His bio is still on their web page and he made a challenge for the starting job after Russell Wilson left to play baseball.  Mike Glennon (Buccaneers) won the starting job, Brosius quit and decided to play baseball full time.

So, I am picking Brosius because he is an NC State, but I am going to back it up with some numbers. Unlike Russell Wilson, Brosius came to NC State to just play football.  Wilson shuttled back and forth between the two teams before leaving the school after being drafted by the Rockies in the fourth round.  After two years of only playing football Brosius left NC State, transferred to Walters State (where's that?), and made himself eligible for the 2013 MLB Draft.  So, basically Brosius played in high school, took two years off, played a year of college baseball, and then went pro.  The Braves have used him as both a starter and relief pitcher, but he has settled into starting for the past year and a half.  This year in 5 starts he is 2-1 with an ERA of 3.33.  Considering he is in his third pro season, after one year of college baseball only, several Braves prospects sites point out the fact that Brosius, still only 23, is basically like a just drafted college senior.  

Under the radar- 

3. Matt Marksberry- Marksberry actually pitched in college about an hour away from my house at Campbell College.  You know the Camels.  Marksberry was drafted by the Braves in the 15th round of the 2013 MLB Draft and until last week was just lingering around in the lower Minors.  Lat year Marksberry was a starting pitcher.  This year he is a relief pitcher.  In 22 games with the Mudcats he was basically striking out a batter per inning and nobody was hitting him in the Carolina League.  The Braves promoted him all the way to Triple A Gwinnett about a week and a half ago.  So far this season Marksberry is holding left handed batters to a .074/.123/.093 slash line on the season.  That's one hit in 54 at-bats against Marksberry.  I watched Marksberry pitch Sunday for the Gwinnett Braves.  Pretty filthy stuff with lots of movement and velocity on his fastball reaching up to 93.  He seemed pretty excited to pitch here too.  

Minor League Set Week: 2014 Carolina Mudcats

Another team set from my Summer Baseball Tour.  This is the Mudcats set from last year when they were an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.  Currently they are a Braves team.  Two quick notes on the set before we get into the players and scans of the cards:


1.  This set is really well designed.  The fronts of the cards have nice clear photography (Minor League sets can be grainy at times) and the backs of the cards have both a color photo of the player and a stat line.  The stat line is not extremely rare, but it's never a given in Minor League sets.  The color picture on the back is a really nice touch.

2.  Looking over the checklist I was initially to disappointed to not see Francisco Lindor in the set.  At some point during my time on social media last week I had discussed this set with a few fellow collectors and mentioned the fact that he was not in the set.  After checking Lindor's record he was not actually with the Mudcats last year, but was there in 2013.  I know I had seen Lindor last year, but he was with Columbus (AAA) for the last part of the season.

So just like the South Atlantic League set from yesterday, I am going to pick out three players from this set who are good players to keep an eye on in the future.  I will pick two obvious players and then go out on a limb for one.

(Scanning is a little crooked and might be slightly disproportionate- I will lay off the water)

1.  Ryan Merritt- He's the only player in this card set that is ever mentioned in anywhere on any Indians top prospects list.  Merritt actually recently threw a no-hitter for the Indians Double A team in Akron.  From the sounds of things, Merritt is not an overpowering pitcher, but does a good job of locating pitches.  Possibility that he is a contributor to a Major League team at some point in his career.

2. Luigi Rodriguez- If you ever get the chance to watch Luigi Rodriguez he looks the part of a really good player.  He's got a nice swing, the ball has a good sound coming off his bat, and he looks good in the field (he's a second baseman).  The only thing missing was the numbers.  His career slash line is .278/.353/.421 with a career high of 11 home runs in a season with Lake County (low A).  I am not sure what exactly has happened to Luigi this year, but he seems to have finally find the results.  His slugging percentage is at .508 and he has already matched his career high in home runs.  Luigi also has 17 doubles, 8 triples, and 19 steals this season.  He might make it to the Majors a little bit later, but still could be another good player for the Indians in the future.

Under the Radar:

3. Steve Karsay- I know, Steve Karsay already made it Majors, but he is trying to make it back as a pitching coach by working his way up through the Indians Minor League system.  This was his third season working with Indians minor leaguers.  This season Karsay is with Lake County in the Midwest League.  Karsay seem to be well regarded as a pitching coach and there are a lot of teams that promote within to find their coaches.  Hopefully Karsay makes it back to the Majors again.