One cannot simply go to a bunch of Minor League games and just walk away with a ticket stub and a program. Each one of my Summer Baseball Tour stops also resulted in a stop by the team store to check out the baseball cards. In some cases I struck out and other places I found some really cool stuff. I decided it would be fun to take a week and share some of the different sets that I found.
Today I am starting with a set I found at the Greensboro Grasshoppers game. I was hoping to find a set from the team, but they have not issued their 2015 cards yet. However, they did have a copy of this 2015 South Atlantic League Top Prospects set. If you have ever dabbled in Minor League sets these can be really cool finds and offers a look at some really good players. For this post I am going to pick out three to watch, but I scanned the whole set for your viewing pleasure:
1. Tyler Kolek- Since Brady Aiken did not sign with the Astros Kolek was basically the top pick in the 2014 MLB Amateur Draft. He's a really big kid, he sat in front of me charting pitches at the Greensboro game, and throws really hard. The Marlins seem to be limiting him to five innings, or so, per start. His walk rate has been a little high, but the guy throws in the high nineties. If you search out some different takes on him you can find a few prospect watchers who love him and a few that do not. I believe SB Nation's outlook on him was number one starter or Jeff Juden. Hmmmm.
2. Yoan Moncada- The Red Sox signed this Cuban defector last off season. I am never sure what to think of foreign players. Sometimes they work out great and other times the do not. Moncada is still only 20, so there is plenty of time for him to develop into an impact player. Currently, playing in the South Atlantic League, Moncada is hitting .263/.354/.388 with 13 extra base hits in 150 at bats. The Sox are playing him as a 2B. Not sure how this one is going to work out, but for 31.5 million dollars I am intrigued.
I will go out on a limb for pick number 3.....
3. Sam Coonrod- The SUI-C alum was drafted in the fifth round by the Giants last year. In 102 innings of pro ball he has struck out 103 batters, allowed less than a hit per inning, and given up exactly one home run during that time. There is not a lot of hype or talk surrounding Coonrod, but all he's done is produced since he was drafted. Hard to ignore results.
I love baseball cards. I mean I really love them. They have their own room in house. I spent time every week writing a blog about them. I love baseball cards. If you ran a baseball card company why would you ever give me, a paying customer, a really good reason to walk away from a box of cards? I have now collected cards for 32 years and can rarely remember walking away from cards. Sure, there are bad trade proposals and badly priced card shops, but rarely does a manufacturer of cards make me turn around and take my time and money elsewhere.
Well, that is until last week when Topps released the Bowman Inception product. I like this product and have picked up cards from the set the last few years. One of the last Inception card I picked up was a really cool green Oscar Taveras autographed card. Really sweet.
I liked this card so much that I actually almost asked my local card dealer about pricing out a box of Inception. When it released I checked out the auctions on Ebay and could not find a single Cardinals card. I check the Rays too, but nothing. I left it for a day or so before I had to go to Cardboard Connections to check out the checklist. That's when I realized that I had been shutout.
I do not go into opening a box thinking I am going to pull a Cardinals or Rays card, but the possibility to do so makes a lot of difference. I think about it this way: If there are few cards that I would be happy pulling from a box of cards why buy the box when I can let others assume the risk and simply buy the singles? I know if you are a hobby shop owner right now I probably pissed you off a little bit with that last sentence, but it has nothing to do with hobby shops and everything to do with companies like Topps.
Beyond selling boxes it also lessens the opportunity that hobby shops have to sell singles back to collectors which is an important revenue stream for many hobby shops. Think about the Taveras autograph above. I don't remember how much I even paid for it at this point, but lets give it the round number of $25. Some percentage of that $25 was profit for my local card shop, but beyond that the card got me in the door. I am sure that I just didn't buy a card while I was in hanging out at the store.
I am going to take care of a couple of writing needs with this post:
I did not write up anything about the All-Star game this year
It's Sunday night headed into Monday Morning which means it's #MyCardMonday time
I wanted to write something nice about Carlos Martinez
I went to another baseball game yesterday, of the Durham Bulls variety and I swore I was not going to write up the game, but was tempted after Boog Powell made an incredible catch.
So much to write about and one post to do it. Here goes my best effort.
It's probably taken you a few seconds to read through that bulleted list of items I had running through my mind while considering what to write about, but let's get rid of the last bullet point first. I really want a Boog Powell, not the Orioles guy, card. However, he only has minor league cards and I have none of them. My son and I stopped by the Bulls shop hopping to find a 2015 set of Bulls cards. None there. Here's the catch, but Boog is not my choice for #MyCardMonday. Maybe next week, watch the video.....
Now that I have Boog checked off the list I have three more bullet points left to check off. I am going to spend them all on Carlos Martinez and his appearance on the All-Star team this year. I fear this is going to sound teachery. It's my day job and I have to write nice things about my students some days. I etched this point out in my mind, adding this paragraph to it, but feel like this sounds like a nice letter home about effort, meeting a goal, or something else positive that could catch my eye during the day. Students do great things all of the time and I try to take time to capture them in words at time. Teachery.
This week's #MyCardMonday is this awesome Carlos Martinez card:
I decided to pick a Carlos Martinez card this week. The Cardinals pitcher is headed to the All-Star game in Cincinnati after winning the Final Vote Contest held between a handful of other players. I felt a kindred spirit with my fellow Cardinals fans a few days ago when I spent part of my day tweeting out #VoteTsunami. Carlos posted out a short video in the morning encouraging fans to #VoteTsunami and had plenty of support from other teammates on the Cardinals who were hoping to push the young starting pitching onto the All-Star team.
I am not sure it really mattered to me if Carlos had made the All-Star game. Sure, it's a nice bonus and a great thing to add to the old piece of cardboard. All-Star game or not, this season has been a smashing success for Tsunami. When the season started there was a lot of doubt surrounding Carlos entering the Cardinals starting rotation. He was a pretty good relief pitcher for the club the past few years, but there was definitely a lot of inconsistency within his appearances. Fans questioned his focus and ability.
The trade of Shelby Miller, and his success with the Braves, certainly did not help the rumblings with Cardinals fans. There was a lot of doubt at the beginning of this season. Certain members of the St. Louis press corp really did not help matters and started calling for the end of the Carlos Martinez as a starting pitcher.
Interestingly after the above tweet, Martinez reeled off three consecutive scoreless starts in May against the Mets, Diamondbacks, and Dodgers. In fact, since May 17th Martinez is 7-1 and has dropped his ERA from 4.08 to 2.52. The Cardinals have only lost on of his starts since since May 17th too. That only loss occurred against the Twins and Martinez still pitched into the sixth inning of the game and only gave up one run.
It's been amazing to sit back and watch Carlos this year. As a Cardinals fan I have watched a 23 year old pitcher go from being an unknown commodity, who seemed to lack confidence, to a player who could potentially be the cornerstone of the Cardinals for some time. It's not an unusual thing to see in baseball, but it's surprising to see in such a short time during the course of a single season.
While there may be a few people who might owe Carlos an apology for the doubt at the beginning of the year, Mr. Strauss has not been able to man up yet, the overwhelming majority of Cardinals fans have been blown away by the growth and maturity shown by Carlos this season. Let's add in one more factor to the success experienced this season by Carlos.
Prior to this season Carlos Martinez changed his number to 18 and dedicated his season to his close personal friend Oscar Taveras. I am not here to offer an editorial on Oscar Taveras, but sometimes these types of motivating factors work for people, other times they do not. In keeping with his promise to dedicate his season to Taveras, Martinez tweeted out a picture of the two in announcing his winning of the Final Vote.
I am proud of everything that Carlos Martinez has accomplished this season. He has made huge leaps forward and I am excited to see what the future holds for Tsunami. I happy that he plays for my favorite team and also that I own several nice baseball cards of the rising star. (Scroll back up and look at baseball card). Have a great week.
I have not done a lot with manu cards this year. I have kept the pair of pin cards that I pulled out of my two jumbo boxes, but I have not gone out of my way to pick up any additional cards. There are some Cardinals out there and I ran into a nice one the other day on a local Facebook trading group. This is a 1st Home Run card and I believe these were in retail blasters at one per box. It's a thick card with the date of Molina's first home run and a nice coin errr....thing...on the front. Of course MLB has not posted a video of the home run to their YouTube Channel yet, so here is another Molina home run for your entertainment.
The back of the card gives a nice blurb about the home run which came against the Brewers. Matt Wise was pitching. Topps can often overlook the little details on cards, so it came as a surprise that the picked a cool early picture of Yadi to place on the card. Note the jersey number of 41 on the picture which was worn by the Cardinals catcher for the 2004 and 2005 season. His current number 4 was worn by Tony Womack during his first season in 2004. He switched to 4 after the 2005 season. The little details are always good. Glad to add this card to the collection.
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.
You know the routine: My favorite five sets from 2003. I spent a lot of time flipping through my boxes of 2003 cards. There was Topps, Playoff, Upper Deck, and Fleer. I am not sure the total number of products released in 2003, but I have more than 20 different sets in my collection from that year. Scary number to sort through and some of them are really not very good. Here's a look at this week's list:
5. EX- You guys know that I love these sets and sadly this was the end of the line for this product. It was a great run while it lasted, but for whatever reason Fleer pulled the plug on this product after 2003. I like that they went back to a card design that was a little reminiscent of the 1998/1999 products. There are autographs and relics in this product, but I am not a huge fan of those. Just the base cards. I assembled this set in 2003 and took on assembling another copy of the set after I found a couple cheap boxes of this product floating around Ebay a few years ago. Fun set to put together and there are still wax boxes out there.
4. Donruss Signature-This was the typical huge autograph product. One autograph per pack with plenty of cool names. There were some base cards in each box too, but the autographs were the main focus here. I opened one box, pulled an Andre Dawson autograph, and then went straight on to picking off single cards on Ebay. The SRP on these was $50, and while I love Andre Dawson, he's not a $50 autograph. Not many players are. Like many of the other mega-autograph sets there are a lot of good players to pick up from this set on the cheap. There are also a few negatives in there too: sticker autographs, fading sticker autographs, and chippy edges (see Eck).
3. Topps Gallery HOF- There were two Gallery products released in 2003: Topps Gallery and Gallery HOF. Topps Gallery has modern players in it, HOF has Hall of Famers. The latter has some great looking art work in the set and features, not only a lot of Hall of Famers you say regularly in Topps products, but also some less common names too. Most Hall of Famers deserve a little cardboard love from time to time. As a Cardinals fan I can find names like Musial and Gibson on cards in the set, but can also find guys like Dizzy Dean and Frankie Frisch. Some cool autographs add to the set and the first coin cards also appear in this product. If you like the Gyspy Queen/Allen & Ginter type of products, and did not collect in 2003, this should be a set you go back and check out.
2. All-Time Fan Favorites- This was essentially the Archives products from the early 2000s, but a little more chaotic. The early Archives products featured players first and last year's cards, but this set just featured a bunch of random designs. Two things I love about this set: Lots of different card designs and autographs. Great autographs. Just like the modern version of Archives, Fan Favorites featured actual team favorites. Sure Topps could have thrown a Stan Musial autograph into the set and Cardinals fans would have gone crazy and bought all of them up, but Willie McGee was there instead. He's not a Hall of Famer (hate to crush you if you believe that-yes there are people that do), but there is no denying he is really popular around St. Louis. Right?
1. Topps Heritage- I swear I won't make Topps Heritage first every week, but this remake of the 1954 Topps set is awesome and incredible. Both. There are a lot of different variations here with colors and logos on the card, but the base set is just a really well done remake of the original. The boxes are still around, but quite pricey. Base sets, with no short prints, are not bad prices and often can be found for less than $50. Lots of short prints lots are floating around too. You cannot go wrong with the early Topps Heritage sets.
This is the finale of my Summer Baseball Tour posts for my blog. I still have a few more weeks of vacation and I am attending more baseball games, but I am not going to write posts for them and they will likely all involve the Durham Bulls. I am taking a short road trip to Richmond for my last stop because it is the first place that I ever watched a professional baseball game back in the early 1980s. My father was in grad school there and we did not live too far from the stadium.
The ballpark has changed over from Parker Field to The Diamond, but they are in the same exact location. Here's a look at the old stadium via Digital Ballparks.....
The tenant has also changed. For years Richmond was home to the Braves Triple A team, but they moved to Gwinnett a few years back after the city failed to build the team a new stadium. In 2009 the Giants relocated their Double A team from Norwich, Connecticut to Richmond. The Flying Squirrels were born.
The Senators are starting Matthew Spann (formerly of the Rays organization) who has been everywhere this year:
He's also really big (6'6) and left-handed.
The Senators also feature: Matthew Skole (6th rated prospect), Brian Goodwin (7), Pedro Severino (11), and Wilmer Difo (18). Difo's rating was pre-2015, but there are a lot of prospect watchers who think his stock is headed way up. He rates as a 70 runner by multiple sources, but has also started to drive the ball to the tune of 14 home runs and 7 triples, and 31 doubles last year. A little less power this year in Double A, but still an intriguing prospect.
The Squirrels are starting Matt Lujan. Meh.
The Squirrels also feature: Kyle Crick (1), Tyler Beede (2), Adelberto Meija (4). They have also had Mac Williamson (Wake Forest) on their roster, but he's been promoted up to Triple A. Devin Harris (East Carolina) is also on their roster. Not a lot of offense, tons of pitching.
