A Quick Check In On The 1983 Durham Bulls

I am having a pretty good time assembling the 1983 rehash inserts from this year's base Topps set.  I am working on the regular version of the 1983 cards, not the Chrome versions, nor the autographed versions.  However, I have decided that I am willing to take on a few of the other variants if it is a Cardinals card, or somehow connected to the Durham Bulls.  Just a few cards really fit into those two categories.  I recently found a few of the 1983 cards that have some connections to the Durham Bulls., still working on those Cardinals.  

The actual 1983 Durham Bulls finished almost 20 games below .500 and their star players were corner infielder Inocencio Guerrero and shortstop, and future Brave, Andres Thomas.

So, how do the former Durham Bulls on the 1983 Topps style cards of today compare to the star of the actual 1983 Durham Bulls?  Andres Thomas did have a six year Major League career, which is longer than any of the other players in this post, but he also had a career batting average of just .234.  He also had a negative WAR during that time.  The bar is not very high.....

First up....

This one hurts a little bit since Souza was one of those players that the Rays parted with this past offseason.  I was first introduced to Souza a few years back while he was a member of the Syracuse Chiefs.  He won the International League Player of the Year in 2014 and also made the All-Star team that summer, which took place in Durham.  

The picture is a little blurry, not one of my better efforts, but that is Souza as a Syracuse Chief.  He ended up back in Durham for a few days in 2015 on a rehab assignment.  Very good player, already better than Andres Thomas.  

Faria played for the Bulls in 2016 and 2017.  I actually got to see his Triple A debut back in July of 2016 against the Syracuse.  

Faria spent the second half of the 2017 season in Tampa, won 5 games, and struck out almost a batter an inning.  It's hard to compare a starting pitcher to a light hitting shortstop, but I am going to give Faria the nod over Andres Thomas.  

Last card, the best chance for Andres Thomas to claim superiority over a more recent Durham Bulls player.  I actually collect this player because of one catch he made in a game a few years back.  Lots of other baseball people like him because of his name.....

I went to a game a few years back on a Sunday afternoon.  The Bulls were playing the Gwinnett Braves.  The game went into extra innings and my son was eager for the contest to end since it was a run the bases day.  I am not sure how Boog did not break his hip.....

but it was a great catch.  I am not sure what sort of future Boog has in the Majors, but the A's are giving him playing time this year.  He seems like a fourth outfielder type, reminds me a little bit of Peter Bourjos, but that still probably means he is going to be better than Andres Thomas.  

I will do a little comparing to the 1983 Cardinals soon....

Friday Five: 5 Durham Bulls Highlights from 2015

This week's Friday Five looks back at 5 cool things that happened last year for the Durham Bulls.  While the team did not make the playoffs, I know Bulls fans are spoiled, there were plenty of things to love about the past season.  Here are my five highlights from 2015 from my favorite Minor League baseball team:

Honorable Mention- Corey Brown Hits Bull, Wins Steak
Every loves the Bull in left field of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  Growing up as a Cardinals fan in St. Louis we always had the Stan Musial statue in front of the stadium.  The Bull is slightly larger than Stan and he is in the stadium.  Every once in awhile you can see a player hit a home run off the landmark.  This year outfielder Corey Brown got the job done.  Not sure how many lefties have pulled off this feat......

5. Boog Powell and his Baseball Glove 

The Bulls had Boog Powell for roughly half the season.  He came over in the Ben Zobrist trade with the A's last season and provided a spark at the top of the lineup for the Bulls.  Besides working his OBP magic the speedy spark plug also played one incredible outfield.  Over summer break I took my son to a Sunday game against the Gwinnett Braves for run the bases day.  The Bulls ended up losing the game in extra innings, but we got to enjoy one of the better catches I have ever seen in person....

4. Mahtook's First Hit Home Run 
One of the best parts of watching Minor League baseball is seeing the players you watch end up in the Majors.  It's even better when they get to the Majors and make a positive impact for their team.  Mikie Mahtook spent the 2015 season traveling back and forth between Durham and Tampa.  He struggled to find consistent playing time with the Bulls, but shined off the bench with the Rays putting up a .295/.351/.619 line with 5 homers, 1 triple, and 9 doubles in just over 100 at bats.  Mahtook even picked up his first career hit with a home run against the Blue Jays.

3. Shaffer's Debut Home Run 

Richie Shaffer started the season in Double A Montgomery, spent 70 games in Durham, and then got promoted to the Rays.  Somewhere in there he hit 19 home runs for the Bulls, 7 for Montgomery, and played in the MLB Futures Game.  The highlight of Shaffer's year thought had to be his first Major League hit after being called up for the Bulls.  Self-High-Five.  

2. Motter Everywhere 

The MVP of the 2015 Durham Bulls was a no brainer.  Every night Taylor Motter was in the line-up.  Sometimes he played in the outfield, sometimes he played in the infield, but he was always somewhere.  By the end of the season Motter posted a .292/.366/.471 line with 14 home runs and 43 doubles.  As a fan of the game Motter was a joy to watch and I cannot wait to see him in Tampa.  Remember the name. 

1. Snell Wins Minor League Pitcher of the Year 

Rays prospect Blake Snell spent the end of his 2015 season with the Durham Bulls making 9 starts.  The left handed pitcher had an ERA of 1.83 and struck out 57 batters in just 44.1 innings.  He was pretty special in Double-A too.  All of this great pitching helped Blake Snell pick up Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors from both Baseball America and USA Today.  I am guessing he will start the season in Durham next year.  Go watch him pitch before he's in Tampa.  

#MyCardMonday

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.  

Cause There Aren't Any Boog Powell Cards....

A few weeks ago I was having a fun Saturday out with the little guy and the wife when I took a minute to glance down at my phone and see the following tweet:

It kind of hurt to see another former Durham Bulls player traded away from the Rays, but this one was not a really huge shocker.  A Zobrist trade had been rumored almost all off season, and after trading away half of the other players on last year's team, I felt like this day was almost inevitable.  Still not sure what I am going to do with my Zobrist cards, but in the meantime trades always give me a few new players to add to my collection.

The Rays got three players in the trade from the A's: Daniel Robertson, John Jaso, and Boog Powell.

I already have a pretty good handle on Jaso cards.  He originally came up with the Rays and spent time in Durham where he was a pretty popular member of the team.  Jason does not have a ton of cards, but I have a good chunk of different cool Jaso cards in my collection.

The other two players were a little bit harder to find.  Okay, there are almost no Boog Powell cards.  Not the guy who played for the Orioles and owns a barbecue stand......

Nope, we are talking about Herschel Mack Powell who was selected by the A's in the 20th round of the 2012 draft and spent last year playing with Stockton and Beloit in A Ball.  Basically his cards are limited to a bunch of Minor League All-Star cards.  Not going to chase those down quite yet.  Since there are no Boog Powell cards, that leaves us with Daniel Robertson.

Luckily there is this card.....

I had seen a few copies of the card floating around on Ebay and also a copy in a trade room, but never quite got around to pulling the trigger on any of the cards.  This past weekend I attended, for a few minutes, a card show in Raleigh and managed to find a copy of the card at one of the first booths I visited.  While I failed to find any new Ray Lankford cards, this Robertson autograph was winner for me.  Last year in A ball the shortstop posted a .310/.402/.471 mark while collecting 55 extra base hits.  I would imagine that the Rays will start him out in Double A Montgomery, but I think I will see him in Durham sooner than later.