A Prospect and A Hall Of Famer

I recently had a chance to pick up a really nice looking card of Cardinals pitching prospect Alex Reyes.  Two years ago he was one of the better pitching prospects in the game, but had an elbow injury and missed last season.  Reyes is going to miss the first month or two of the 2018 season, but he should be back at some point late in May, or early in June.  

Alex Reyes is one of those prospects that has tons and tons of baseball cards.  There were a lot of cards made of him last year, this year has been a little slower.  Card companies have moved on to other prospects, but their are still some nice cards of Reyes floating around.  I recently was able to pick up a really sharp looking Reyes card from a regular trading partner.  

A look at the card......

  

Five Star is a really high end product with some really nice features, but luckily the prospect cards in the set are really affordable.  This card from the 2017 edition has an excellent design.  I like the dark grey in the background combined with the bright color picture of Reyes, and the signature in silver pen.  I know that this card does not have the lowest serial number of the colored cards that are in Five Star, but in my opinion this is probably the best looking looking of those parallels.  

Nothing like an orange Cardinals card.  

Reyes was a tremendous talent before he injured his elbow.  Hopefully he can bounce back and regain his form from the end of the 2016 season when the Cardinals used him down the stretch.  

I also managed to pick up another Cardinals card while I was trading for the Reyes card.  Not quite who you would think of when I say Hall of Famer and Cardinal in the same sentence.  It was still an attractive, nice looking card, and it was a really affordable card.  

This is from the Postseason version of the Topps Archives Signature product.  I am not quite sure why Topps made a regular season and a Postseason version of this product last year.  Although, if you were going to pick a good moment in Dennis Eckersley's brief career as a Cardinal, the 1996 Postseason is a good place to look.  

Eck pitched in a total of 6 games that year in the NLDS and NLCS for a Cardinals team that came within a game of the World Series.  He totaled 7 innings in those 6 games, did not give up a run, and struck out 6 batters.  Easily his best moment, since the back of the baseball card stats for the regular season with the Cardinals were not up to the standards he set while he was pitching with the A's and others.  

Considering these cards come one to a box, which cost somewhere between $40 and $50, I was more than happy to find a Cardinals card from the set for a fraction of the cost.  The scratches on the scan are all on the case and the card is serial numbered, but the numbering is in a weird spot next to Eck's cleat on the right side of the card.  

Let's All Flip Out

Things happen to players that makes us want to run away.  Sometime in the spring of 2005 I went all in on Mark Mulder cards.  The Cardinals had just been to the World Series and upgraded their starting rotation by trading for one of the A's big three pitchers.  As a Cardinals fan I loved the move.  The team had a very good starting rotation in 2004, I figured Mulder was going to be a big winner with the Cardinals.

I started hitting up the local card shops around St. Louis looking for cool Mulder cards and found plenty of great options.  Plenty of other Cardinals collectors did the same thing.  His cards were pretty reasonable and Mulder had done a fair amount of signing while he was with the A's.  One of the first Mulder cards I picked up was a copy of his 2003 Donruss Signature Series Autograph.

The 2005 season came and went.  The Cardinals reached the NLCS and lost to the Astros.  Mulder did not have his best season, but still won 16 games.  Chris Carpenter had a career year and won the Cy Young, so really being the second starter in the rotation seemed decent.  Then 2006 happened and Mulder's shoulder basically fell off.  

Collectors flipped out and there were tons of cheap Mulder cards everywhere.  I was happy to take some cheap cards off other people's hands and loaded up on his cards.  My favorite cheap Mulder card was a copy of his 1999 Topps Traded autograph.....

The way I saw the whole Mulder injury at the time was that he was going to miss a year, come back, and generally be his former self.  Not what really happened since Mulder's career was basically sunk after 2006.  He pitched a few games in 2007 and 2008, tried a comeback with the Angels a few years back, but basically he was done.  I probably should have known a little bit better, although I still love the Topps Traded autograph.  

Since the days of collecting Mark Mulder cards I have developed a system of sorts for collecting cards of players who are injured.  There is inevitably either some level of panic with a drastic sell off, or just a slow steady decline.  Either way, the price of the players cards are going to go down.  So, here it is.  Shoulders are bad and we do not touch them.  I could see good reason to flip out.  

until the price of their cards levels off.  Scott Rolen had a bum shoulder after he was run over by Hee-Seop Choi in 2005.  He missed time, his power numbers dropped, and he ended up on the Blue Jays and Reds.  For awhile I just avoided his cards, but they are pretty consistent now and much more affordable than when he was with the Cardinals.  

Then there are elbow injuries.  Everyone is always bummed out when a pitcher on their team has Tommy John surgery.  People can flip out about these injuries, but should they?  I remember back in 2011 when the Cardinals lost Adam Wainwright to an elbow injury.  Sure the Cardinals won the World Series that year, but they lost Adam Wainwright right?  So many affordable Wainwright cards......

and then he came back and won 53 games in 2012, 2013, and 2014.  No, Wainwright did not win a Cy Young Award, but everything after the elbow injury worked out pretty well.  Until that whole Achilles Tendon thing, but I haven't really thought that one out yet.  Not a real common occurrence in baseball.  Maybe a reason to flip out, the Achilles thing, not the elbow.  

Currently there is a bit of a meltdown amongst Cardinals fans about Alex Reyes.  I am sad he's out for the season too, but it's an elbow injury.  I am feeling alright about his future still and am still out trying to find his cards.  No need to flip out.    

I just picked up a really nice looking Bowman's Best autograph of the hard throwing pitcher just a few days back......

His card prices aren't sinking like a boulder in a lake, but it sure does seem like a lot of people have really lost interest in this guy.  I am still happy collecting cards of Alex Reyes and I am pretty sure that he's going to be a good pitcher.  Yes, there are pitchers who do not make it back from elbow injuries, there is always that chance, but in that case I can look back at Alex Reyes and think about would could have been....  

A Few Thoughts On 2017 Topps......

The 2017 Topps base set dropped last week and I went out and picked up a jumbo box and a few loose retail packs.  Always a fun day when the Topps set drops and I had a blast opening up my packs.  Here's my quick take on the newest Topps product....

First, when I bought my jumbo box of Topps I also ended up picking up two silver packs of cards.  The silver packs were available at hobby shops and were given to customers buying boxes 2017 Topps.  Each pack contained four cards of 1987 style cards with a chrome finish.

My best card was Dansby Swanson.....

My scanner did not want to make a straight picture, sorry it's crooked.  I also landed Max Scherzer, Orlando Arcia, Madison Bumgarner, Manny Machado, Aaron Nola, Yu Darvish, and Nolan Ryan.  Very nice cards in my opinion.  You cannot really show card stock on a scan, but they are a little thicker than the normal chrome cards.  The back of the card has a little different finish then the front, but again really nice cards.  

On to the base cards.....

My first card of 2017 belonged to Marlins pitcher A.J. Ramos.  I am still a little contemplating the design, but it is definitely different for a Topps base set.  It looks like something from Upper Deck or some other card company.  I will get back to the card backs on another post.  I am a little snarky about it.  

Buybacks....

There seem to be new buybacks every year now with some sort of foil stamp.  The stamps are different colors, blah blah blah.  I saw that there is a pretty diverse group of players included in the buybacks this year, always hopeful a Ray Lankford card will pop up, but apparently not this year.

The relic cards are thicker this year, but I am kind of tired of the whole relic thing.  I know a lot of other people are too.  At least it's Longoria.....

Also a little tired of the manu-patch, relic cards that seem to be in every Topps box now.  I thought all of the All-Star type cards were in the Traded/Update set?  They have spilled over into series 1 now too?  I guess they made the metal relic thing two sided, that's my positive take away here....

and finally my two best pulls from the box.  Parallel first.....

I haven't really done anything with Gary Sanchez before now, I know he's popular with collectors, but I don't think there are many of his cards hanging out around my house.  This seems like a good addition for my first good card of the Yankees catcher.

Last up my autograph...

can't end on a better note than pulling an autograph of a player you have started collecting in the past year.  I am hoping for big things out of Alex this year, would have picked this card up at some point anyway, glad I can save a little time and energy.

Yes, I Am Excited Too Stephen

I bought a few ToppsNow cards during the 2016 season, but I generally avoided the cards.  Topps released a few hundred cards throughout the summer and fall and I am pretty sure that I own less than 5 of them.  It's not that I am totally against the idea of having an on-going set featuring cool events from throughout the season, it's just more about spending $10 every time something cool happened with a player, or team, that I collected.

Not going there.

While some of the cards are low print runs, and carry a premium on sites like Ebay, I have started to find a few cool cards that are a little bit under cost from their original $9.99 cost.  So, like anything I collect I have started to piece together some of the Cardinals cards and a few former Durham Bulls players.

Today, I am going to share a pair of new Cardinals Topps Now cards.  First up is outfielder Stephen Piscotty with a go ahead home run against the Cubs.....

There is so much to love about this card.  I am a fan of seeing players show a little bit of emotion, I am sure that Bob Gibson or Pedro Martinez would have drilled Piscotty on his next at bat for pulling something like this, but I think it's good for drawing younger fans to the game.  You hit a home run 40 feet over the left-center field wall your allowed to be excited.  Especially when it is against a rival team.....

The video cuts away from Piscotty's leap, but you get the idea.  He was pretty jacked up about the home run.  A no doubter too.  Next....

This is actually my second copy of this card, but I got a deal on it from the same collector who flipped me the Piscotty card.  I have said it several times over the last few months, I am excited about the future of Alex Reyes.  Here's a little taste of the 101 MPH heat advertised on the front of the card.

A Shiny Cards Card

I have really enjoyed watching Alex Reyes pitch during his brief stay in the Majors with the Cardinals.  Needless to say I am likely going to spend a fair amount of time in the coming years talking about his cards.  I have already posted a few on here the last year or two, but I am always a little hesitant to go all in on prospects at times.  One of my goals for this winter is to find a few of his autographs that I missed out on, particularly from this past summer.

My first Reyes card of the offseason comes from this year's Bowman Chrome set.  I found this card and liked its appearance and the fact that it has an on-card autograph.  Pretty sharp card and I found it at a pretty reasonable price.

Yeah, brevity.

Trading Card Co-Op Part 3: Babes In Card Land

I was boxing up a few cards late last week, figured I would have some down time during Hurricane Matthew, so I ventured into the Trading Card Co-Op for a few 200 count boxes.  One does not simply walk into a card store however and just buy boxes, we still have to check out the cards.  Right?

I also brought along my newest assistant to help me look through the cards.

A child's first trip into a card store is a big deal right?  I am not sure what kinds of cards my daughter likes yet, what team she is going to cheer for, but it's a monumental occasion nonetheless. She slept on the trip into the card store and the first fifteen to twenty minutes that we were at the store.  Not much hep initially.

Since she doesn't really have any opinions on the baseball card front at the moment, I went ahead and picked out the cards that I thought she'd like best.  Let's take a look.

First up is an older Topps autograph.  I am pretty sure that I have a few Pat Burrell autographs in my collection already, but I was also pretty certain that I did not have this card.  I was right.  Pat was the first overall draft pick back in 1998.  He was sort of the hot rookie card guy back in the late 1990s.  I am not sure that people were crazy for Pat the Bat cards like current collectors fawn over Kris Bryant, but he was definitely popular.  Pat was briefly on the Rays towards the end of his career.   Little girl approves.  

There were two framed Ginter cards in the same box as the Pat Burrell card.  When I am watching baseball with my daughter she really enjoys looking at the black framed pictures in my baseball card room.  Babies like contrast.  I am pretty sure that she would have liked these cards if she had been awake to gander at them.  I like that the Braun card has a gold background on the mini and the Upton is a Buyback from last year's Ginter set.  I have a few of the Cardinals buybacks, keep meaning to post them...another day, another post.  Frames, that is what was important here.   Again, little girl approves of these cards.  

Last two.  

I picked out two cards that would fit my collection a little bit better than the three up top.  I still like those cards, but they do not exactly fit in with the whole Durham Bulls, Cardinals, and Rays thing.  So, the card above was a nice pick up that the store manager Jimmy had set aside for me along with the card below.  The Longo patch is from this year's Museum Collection....

The card above is an Alex Reyes autograph out of Bowman Inception.  This year's autographs are not his first, so they are a little bit more affordable than some of his previous Bowman graphs.  He's going to be a good one.  Since these two cards fit my collection, and are great looking cards, I am sure that the little assistant would be happy that I added these two cards to my collection.

Trade with Michigan and Trumball

There are so many cards sitting on my desk at the moment that I need to catch up on during the next week.  Missing posts the first half of this week did not help, so let's get started.  I picked up these two cards in a trade from fellow blogger Matt over at Michigan and Trumball.  

First up in a new card from my favorite new Cardinals prospect, you might know him as Alex Reyes, I am going to just start call him Big Al.  This newest autograph of the Cardinals pitching prospect comes from the 2015 Bowman set and features a nice on-card signature.  Big Al is having a great summer, so hopefully Topps will throw out some more cards of this great prospect.  

This is a really cool card that I have had my eye on for awhile.   I picked up a whole bunch of the acetate cards last summer and now own about 7 or 8 of these cards with a whole bunch of them coming from the Rays and Cardinals.  Or players with connections to the Rays and Cardinals.  We also always have to look at the backs of these cards......

Love the reverse look on the back with the black and white player image.  Very nicely done by Topps.    Really enjoyed these cards and I am looking forward to a few more trades with Matt.  Be sure to check out his blog in the coming days to see what went back the other way.  

Pro Debut Base Set: 9 Players I Watch

I did a top 10 list with my Bowman box a few weeks back and decided to do something similar with my Pro Debut box.  However, since the two sets share quite a few players I decided to put a little bit of a twist on this list.  For Pro Debut I am going to share nine players who I check in on regularly during the season.  I like checking the scoreboard and readying through box scores, but with the minors there are only so many scores that you can stop and read without spending the whole day on baseball.  That wouldn't be so bad, but I am not sure I would get much done at work.

Everyone ready?  Let's go.

Alex Reyes- Peoria Chiefs - He's only 1-4 on the season, but has 66 strikeouts in just 44 innings.  The tall right hander is widely considered the best prospect in the Cardinals system and rated by many publications in the Top 50 for all of baseball.  While Reyes might not win many of his starts, I always check his box scores for his strikeout/walk ratio and to see if the other team hit him in any way.  He has not given up a home run yet this year.

Carlos Rodon- Chicago White Sox - The former NC State lefty did not last long in the minors this year.  He made his Major League debut in late April out of the bullpen, but was quickly put into the starting rotation by the Sox.  Rodon has now made 4 starts with almost a strikeout per inning.  His WHIP is 1.709, so he needs to keep a few more people off the base paths if he is going to be successful long term.  Still, the rookie has an ERA+ of 113 during his limited time up with the ChiSox.

Willy Adames- Charlotte Stone Crabs - I follow the Rays Minor League team to see who is up on their way to the Durham Bulls.  The scenery around the Rays Minor League changed greatly during the past year with all of the trades.  Adames is one player who has flown under the radar to a degree.  The shortstop was acquired in the David Price trade with the Tigers and has posted a .316/.382/.462 line so far this year with 18 extra base hits (13 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs) in just under 200 at bats this year.  I know there are some Rays fans who have openly, and frequently, complained about the haul the time received for Price, but Adames seems to be a really nice prospect.

Corey Seager- Oklahoma City Dodgers- Seager is a local guy from North Carolina.  He's had a great Minor League career and has now reached Triple A.  His OBP is down slightly, but Seager is still showing good pop at the high level of the Minors.  I obviously watch Seager to see how well he hits, but it also seems that the Dodgers are starting to work the top prospect out as a third baseman.  He has played 5 games so as at third, but many predict that he will land there long term.  

Colin Moran- Corpus Christi Hooks - Moran was one of the better college players I have seen with my own two eyes.  The guy could hit while he was at UNC.  My only hang up with him was always his foot speed.  Still, the Marlins took him with the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft and later moved him onto the Astros.  Moran is almost a .300 career Minor League hitter with an OBP near .350.  However, his slugging percentage is just above .400 and he has only 11 career minor league home runs in almost 800 at bats.  Moran was a great college player, I hope he makes it in some capacity.  

David Dahl- New Britain Rock Cats - Dahl has shown great flashes during his time in the Minors, but has had some trouble staying healthy.  Last season, his only full year in four years in the Minors, Dahl went .299/.355/.492 with 41 doubles, 8 triples, and 14 home runs.  The Rockies outfield prospect also stole 21 bases.  He was off to a bit of a slow start in Double A this year, but is out again after having his spleen removed last weekend after a pretty bad collision.  

Trea Turner- San Antonio Missions - Well, for the moment Turner is a Padres prospect, but he will be a National soon.  He was in the Will Myers/Steven Souza three way trade between the Padres/Nationals/Rays, but he could not actually leave the Padres yet because he has not played a year in their system.  In 47 Double A games the former NC State shortstop is hitting .333/.405/.508 with 5 home runs 2 triples, 12 doubles, and 9 steals.  I think Turner could be up in the Majors within the next year.  

Francisco Lindor- Columbus Clippers - Lindor is a top 5 prospect according to MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.  He played locally the past few summers with the Carolina Mudcats and has worked his way up to Triple A Columbus.  While the Clippers play the Durham Bulls, I still have not seen him play in Triple A.  However, the future shortstop of the Indians has had a slow start in the International League with a .260/.318/.367 line.  There is definitely a strong defensive presence with Lindor, base running is also an important tool also, but even those have been a little shaky this season.  I am still watching Lindor, but if he does not pick up the pace, I am going to have to check in a little less often.  

Henry Owens- Pawtucket Red Sox - I like Henry Owens, but he has fallen into a bit of a rut in Triple A.  It's not anything as bad as Lindor, but his ERA is up, along with his walks, and his strikeouts are down.  Still, I like the chances that Owens will figure out Triple A hitters and continue to progress as a top prospect.  Plus, I am watching the Paw Sox right now for Allen Craig.  Owens is there too, but someone left Allen Craig out of the Pro Debut set.  Hmm.


This is my list of players.  What are some of the players you check on everyday?  

Cross One Off The List....

I started a list off to the side of my blog -----> awhile ago that included ten cards I was looking to add to my collection.  I believe that one is actually a bobblehead.  Anyway, I added one of the cards fairly quickly, but have not been too swift with finding much else on the list.  Some of the cards are out there and I am probably being a little bit picky on what I am willing to trade/buy for.  Others are just going to be tough.  That Beckham and Rugginao seem to not exist, but I know they do.

Well, it's finally time to cross off a card.  My newest card off my Void List (I don't like that name anymore-it's going to change) is this great looking 2014 Bowman Alex Reyes autograph.

Reyes cards have been gaining a bit of momentum through the first half of the season as the tall right handed pitcher is now considered the best prospect in the Cardinals system by many.  In 7 starts this season Reyes has a 1.78 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 35 innings playing for the Cardinals Palm Beach High A team in  the Florida State League.  I am sure that Reyes will stay in A ball a bit long this season, but at some point I think he will graduate to Double A.  Still another two or three years away from St. Louis I would guess (being conservative), but always nice to add these cards to the collection.

Here's a look at Reyes pitching last year against the Burlington Royals if you have never seen this player in action.....

2015 Bowman Inserts, Parallels, and Minis

Third and final Bowman post on the jumbo box of cards I opened up last week.  So far I have covered my autographs and the base, prospects, and prospects chrome sets.  I saved the inserts, parallels, and minis for last.  Let's start with the two basic insert sets..........

The Bowman Scouts Top 100 prospects returns for another year.  There are also autographed versions of these cards which have appeared in the past five or so Bowman products.  I have never assembled this complete insert set in previous years, but mainly just focus on picking up the Cardinals and Rays in the set.  I pulled an Alex Reyes, so that saves me one trade or purchase.....

These flashback cards from 1990 are my favorite thing about this post.  Oh, and there are autographed versions of these cards too.  The set features Moises Alou, as a Pirate, Juan Gonzalez, Marquis Grissom, and Frank Thomas.  I am a little bit disappointed that Tood Zeile was not included.   I am going to pick up the non-autographed versions of these cards at the least.  Marquis Grissom?  Moises Alou?  Might see an autograph of those two before the end of the summer......

On to the parallels.  You remember this weekend when I made a post about tracking down a rainbow of Oscar Taveras?  I said it, but then in the course of working on this post I remembered why I hate the whole idea of rainbows.  I pulled five different colored parallels out of one jumbo box and I am sure there are another two or three that I am missing.  Not to mention things like printing plates.  The Jake Lamb is out of 150, two are out of 250, one is out of 500, and the sparkly one in the top left handed corner is not serial numbered.  Honestly, I like that one the best......

The minis are nice.  I like the minis.  If the parallels were all in miniature version I would probably like them a lot more.  The Rodon in the middle was a welcome pull and shows the base design of the mini set.  I also pulled a Piscotty which is flipped over to show the back.  Each team has five minis, their five best prospects, which are also included in the set.  So, in other words, not necessarily the team's five best prospects, just the five best prospects from that team featured in Bowman.  The Berrios is blue and serial numbered to 250.  There are probably four other colored versions of that card....

You can tell I may not be the biggest fan of the colored/rainbow parallels, but hey those 1990 throwbacks.....Have a great day.  

New Redbird Graph

Every January the good people of Baseball America roll out the brand new prospect reports for each of the Major League franchises with a little bit of help from some local writers.  The Cardinals list was written up by Post-Dispatch writer, and baseball card fan, Derrick Goold.  The list included some of the usual suspects like Marco Gonzales, Stephen Piscotty, and Randal Grichuk.

I have tried to add cards of most of the players on this list at some point over the last few years.  Sometimes, like with Cooney and Grichuk, I have been successful.  Others do not have cards, like Magneuris Sierra.  Finally, there are a few that have just slipped through my fingers like Jack Flaherty and Alex Reyes for whatever reasons.  Usually lack of follow through on auctions or trade partners that want to swap out cards of prospects for something pricey or proven in value.

Well, I got my act together last week and finally picked up a copy of an Alex Reyes autograph.  His cards are not too difficult to find, and given his potential ceiling, seem rather inexpensive.  Here's a look at my first Reyes autograph

While I like the stylings of the Topps Heritage Minor League card, I was a little bit disappointed that the card is a sticker autograph.  The scan hid the sticker a little bit, bit this card would be awesome if Reyes had signed the actual card.  While this is a sticker autograph, it appears that the majority of Reyes autographs are actually on-card signatures.  I will get on that right away and will even put a Reyes autograph on my Void List, coming to a side bar tomorrow.