A Heard of Bulls, A College of Cardinals, And Carter Kieboom

I picked up a bunch of 2020 Topps cards a few weeks back on Twitter.  I do not buy or trade a ton of cards there, but I saw a good deal on a Mike Brosseau Stadium Club autograph and ended up with a few other good cards in the process.  

A Heard of Bulls.  

Here is the Brosseau autograph.  

I'm not sure what to think of this year's Stadium Club.  I usually like this product, but I also usually buy a few packs at some point during the year.  I am convinced that there are zero packs of baseball cards at retail stores in all of the Raleigh area.  For the moment, I have a Mike Brosseau autograph.  That's a good start.  

I am a big fan of combined shipping, so I always ask about Rays who were on the Durham Bulls and Cardinals when I buy an inexpensive card.  Here are my other former Bulls players:  

I already have one of the Lowe autographs, but these are really great cards.  I couldn't pass one of these up for a low price.  Lowe is having a great season too.  

I also received a pair of Brendan McKay 1985 Topps cards.  He's out for the season with an arm injury, but I am hoping that he can make it back at some point in 2021.  McKay is a two way player, not sure that will last long, but it is fun for the moment.  

Last former Durham Bulls card....

Meadows is a pretty good young player.  He's having a bad year, but I am still hopeful.  I really like these sepia parallels.  I know they are not serial numbered or tough pulls, but they always are pretty eye appealing to me.  

A College of Cardinals 

All three of these cards are pretty simple, but I like the looks of each of them.  I got two sepia cards and a base of Miles Mikolas.  I don't really collect these three players, but they might some of the few 2020 Cardinals cards in my collection.  

The last card in the group was Carter Kieboom.  Always love a throw-in card.  

2018 International League All-Star Set Part 2

Part 1 of the set can be found here. 

Back half of the set has a little more star power than the first half. 

Good first pair of cards to start out the second half.  Meadows actually finished the year with the Durham Bulls.  He was traded to the Rays as a part of the Chris Archer deal.  Seems like he's at least a good everyday Major League player.  Not counting on him being in Durham next year, it was fun watching him for the last few weeks of the season.  

Mejia is one of the best catching prospects in the game.  Consensus top 20 prospect, with Baseball Prospectus ranking him in their top 5.  He started the year with the Clippers, but the Indians included him in the Brad Hand trade, so he is now with the Padres.  They have called him up to the Majors to finished out 2018.  

Riley is a top 100 prospect.  He spent the majority of 2018 in Triple A with Gwinnett, but he is just 21.  He is a really good defensive player, had a good year with the bat, but could probably use a little bit more polish.  Riley will be back in Triple A next year, at least to start the year, but he is not far away.  

Rainey had a good year with Louisville.  Definitely deserves a place in this set, not sure where he fits on a Major League roster.  He's probably a middle reliever.  Lots of swings and misses in the Minors, not sure if he can replicate that in the Majors.  

Victor Robles is a top 10 prospect no matter what prospecting website you are reading.  He just turned 21 this year, I know he had been up twice with the Nationals and not done much, but be patient.  He gets a lot of extra base hits, doubles and triples, that are going to find there way over fences in a few years as he continues to work and fill out.  

Stolen bases are good too.  Victor steals bases.  

Romero has been up for awhile with the Twins.  Seems like he is going to be an end of the rotation starter.  Pitches to contact, not a lot of strikeouts, but he seems to keep his team in the game.

Tanner Scott only pitched 10 games with Norfolk this year.  Not sure how he got into this set.  The 10 games were really good, he had an ERA of 0.75.  Tanner Scott is now a reliever on the Orioles.  The Orioles have over 100 loses and there are two weeks left in the season.  Tanner's ERA is almost 6.  It's probably not entirely his fault.  

Which brings us to Nick Senzel.  Early this summer I got to see Nick Senzel.  I sat in front of a Reds fan who told me he's the second coming of Scott Rolen for six or seven innings.  I like Nick Senzel, he is a good player, he's not Scott Rolen.  Senzel gets on base, plays good defense, and has some pop.  Less pop than Scott Rolen, less defense than Scott Rolen too.   

Stephens is a nice pitcher.  He's a college pitcher out of Rice, given the White Sox current slate of pitchers, I am not sure why he isn't up already.  Stephens is not a Top 100 prospect, not even sure the White Sox sites rank him in their Top 10.  He eats up innings, he gets some strikeouts, avoids big innings, and keeps his team in games.  I like him better than 50% of the pitchers currently on the White Sox.  

Sheffield is a pretty big prospect.  He's a top 100 guy, Yankees fans will probably tell you he's better than that.  Could be.  He's got good stuff and he misses bats.  At worst he is probably a solid Major League starter.  Hopefully that is good enough for Yankees fans. 

Two players I saw in college.  

D.J. Stewart has a crazy batting stance. 

One of my student's parents once blamed D.J. Stewart for messing up their batting stance.  I think it's a bad left handed version of Jeff Bagwell.  I have my doubts about D.J..  

Christin Stewart does not have a crazy batting stance.  He was one of the better power hitters in the International League this year and think he will be a good Major League player for the Tigers.  Really good plate discipline for a younger player with power.  He is a starting outfielder for a long time. 

Last pair.  

I like Sam Travis.  He hustles, plays hard, and puts up some decent numbers.  That's all I have got.  

Gleyber Torres is really good.  He will be on the Yankees for a very long time and will be a good player.  All-Star games, the whole nine yards.  

That's the set.  Hopefully you are not reading this five years after I posted it because I was horribly wrong about something I said here. 

Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes It Rains Part 2

Bowman Platinum released recently I opted not to buy a box.  I have had some rough luck with this product over the years, so this year I decided to stay clear.  Well, I tried to stay clear.  You see something that looks flashy, bright, and nice.  Next thing you know you are picking up cards that you told yourself you were not going to pick up.  Next thing you know you are the proud owner of a James Ramsey bat card.  

Ramsey started the year strongly with the Springfield Cardinals posting a .313/.405/.552 line in April with 6 home runs and 17 RBIs.  Ramsey's hot start continued into May where he posted a .291/.371/.636 line with 5 home runs, 4 doubles, and 11 RBIs.  Then came June and July.  Ramsey hit 2 home runs during the two months and drove in 8 runs.  His on-base percentage has stayed strong at .372 and .391, but the Cardinals already have a crowded outfield.  Ramsey is now an Indian.  

The Tribe promoted Ramsey to Triple A Columbus and Ramsey has been unable to hit anything.  Ramsey has 2 hits in 5 International League games for an .095 batting average.  Stellar.  

The good news is that I also picked up an Austin Meadows autograph at the same time that I landed this James Ramsey.  Meadows is a nice prospect.  I am waiting for the power to show up, but he's still young and has hit for a good average and gotten on base.  In the meantime, his card prices have come down dramatically.